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3.17 AVERAGE
3.17 AVERAGE
I appreciate that Morrison likes to tell these huge time travel, String Theory type stories, but I always miss the one thing that draws me to reading and stories in the first place - the human element. He gets so large in scope that we never or rarely get the focus on the individual. I always wonder if he leaves plot holes without realizing it or if I am just to dumb to understand all of it. As for art, the Alex Ross covers are swell.
This rating is less a reflection of the merits of the book and more a comment that DC superhero mythology is too far evolved for me to jump in at such a late stage. I grew up with Marvel characters and my knowledge of DC heroes who aren't Superman or Batman is limited, to say the least. I appreciated the artwork and the scope seemed impressive, but I couldn't really invest as I felt constantly on the back foot. For now, I'll stick to Marvel and the indies, Vertigo especially.
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Full disclosure, I’m am not a seasoned comics reader, and one really should be to read this story. My husband loves it and walked me through every meta moment that I never would have known on my own. Therefore my high rating is for the artistic effort put to work here, but you’d better be a DC scholar or have one on call
Purely magical storytelling, Jack Kirby DMT for the 21st century and beyond, compressed metafiction for the age of twitter and youtube. Superheroes as grand narrative, pure love for the DC Universe.
It's a story, like Morrison's Seven Soldiers, to which other writers will be playing catch-up for decades. He's simply too good for comics, and with the sheer amount of fanboy wtf-responses on the internet, the nerds don't deserve him.
That aside, this story is borderline unreadable if you don't have at least a passing knowledge of DC Universe cosmology; I'd consider Jack Kirby's New Gods/Fourth World stories, the origial Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, Morrison's Seven Soldiers, and a passing knowledge of all major DC players to be a base prerequisite for getting the most out of this book.
It's a story, like Morrison's Seven Soldiers, to which other writers will be playing catch-up for decades. He's simply too good for comics, and with the sheer amount of fanboy wtf-responses on the internet, the nerds don't deserve him.
That aside, this story is borderline unreadable if you don't have at least a passing knowledge of DC Universe cosmology; I'd consider Jack Kirby's New Gods/Fourth World stories, the origial Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, Morrison's Seven Soldiers, and a passing knowledge of all major DC players to be a base prerequisite for getting the most out of this book.
Update October 2018....so I’ve been going through all the big events of the DC universe starting with Crisis on Infinite Earths. Turns out, what I said in my old review happened to be completely true—being better versed in the DC Universe gave me a much higher appreciation for this book. Heck, I LOVED it this time around, but could barely stand it the first time.
So yeah. Recommended for well-versed fans. Not recommended for people like me who read this as their first big DC event.
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2.5/5, and that's a little generous.
Read this as part of my reading of Morrison's Batman run, as I had heard it contains some important stuff, but turns out all the information you needed is readily known in a sentence or two. Ah, well, I'd been meaning to read this book for a while anyways, no harm in it being right now.
I'm willing to admit this may be a much better book if read by someone more well-versed in the DC canon, but I do think it's a perfectly valid critique that the book is not very accessible. Take DC's recent Rebirth #1 one-shot by Geoff Johns--there's a -lot- going on in that book, and a lot of ground that's covered. Yet, it's fully accessible even to people that know barely anything about DC. Rebirth #1 shows the right way of creating a layered story, because the story is still completely understandable by someone not well-versed in the history, yet has layers for those who are well-versed to enjoy.
So ultimately this can be summed up as "disappointing", at least for me. Maybe once I immerse myself more in DC's world I'll enjoy this more.
So yeah. Recommended for well-versed fans. Not recommended for people like me who read this as their first big DC event.
——
2.5/5, and that's a little generous.
Read this as part of my reading of Morrison's Batman run, as I had heard it contains some important stuff, but turns out all the information you needed is readily known in a sentence or two. Ah, well, I'd been meaning to read this book for a while anyways, no harm in it being right now.
I'm willing to admit this may be a much better book if read by someone more well-versed in the DC canon, but I do think it's a perfectly valid critique that the book is not very accessible. Take DC's recent Rebirth #1 one-shot by Geoff Johns--there's a -lot- going on in that book, and a lot of ground that's covered. Yet, it's fully accessible even to people that know barely anything about DC. Rebirth #1 shows the right way of creating a layered story, because the story is still completely understandable by someone not well-versed in the history, yet has layers for those who are well-versed to enjoy.
So ultimately this can be summed up as "disappointing", at least for me. Maybe once I immerse myself more in DC's world I'll enjoy this more.
This is actually the second time that I have read the whole series (this time including all the tie-ins), and I can say that this is still the best among the Crisis trilogy. This tied up every loose end that "52" left, and this made it far far better than Infinite Crisis.
The basic premise here is Darkseid has caused a problem in the multiverse, destroying the Earth that holds the rest away from Hell. He has also murdered Orion, part of the New Gods. In doing so, he is attempting to brainwash all of existence so that he can rule, with significant members of his Apocalypse taking over different people. This leads to many of the iconic superheroes and villains becoming brainwashed soldiers of evil.
I wanted to love this. I really did. Especially given that I am a life-long DC fan, and my faves Black Canary and Green Arrow have prominent roles, but the story had holes in it big enough for Giganta to walk through. I assume this is because Final Crisis was one of these title spanning series that comics have become so enamoured with. This volume, by focusing on the main story, doesn't gather all of the individual issues which means we are probably missing details. And this left the story a bit of a mess.
I wanted to love this. I really did. Especially given that I am a life-long DC fan, and my faves Black Canary and Green Arrow have prominent roles, but the story had holes in it big enough for Giganta to walk through. I assume this is because Final Crisis was one of these title spanning series that comics have become so enamoured with. This volume, by focusing on the main story, doesn't gather all of the individual issues which means we are probably missing details. And this left the story a bit of a mess.
Having not read a lot of the previous story lines this was hard to understand.
Still great writing, art, and story just didnt fully get the background
Still great writing, art, and story just didnt fully get the background
Without having enough knowledge of what happened before or after this story and without even having knowledge of DC’s full pantheon of heroes and villains, I began reading this. This in hindsight was a huge mistake for I could barely make sense of what was going on. Grant Morrison mixes a lot of stories, characters and scenarios in a huge cauldron and without warning he upended the whole thing over my head. There was so much happening all around me that I could barely make any sense.
In the fight of good v/s evil, the final victory was with evil and Darkseid rises to crush earth under his boot heel. Heroes all over the world fall and are enslaved by him. The only one who stands in his way is Superman and while Kal-El and his multiverse versions battle for surivival across the realms, Diana turns evil and Batman is incarcerated. What follows is the last stand of the heroes against Darkseid. While he does not get much by way of presence in the overall story structure, the hardiness of Batman really stands out in Morrison’s storytelling. Superman however is unleashed in all his might and glory all through the story and his final victory is one of the most dazzling instances of it all.
I can confidently say that I read it but I haven’t understood it.
In the fight of good v/s evil, the final victory was with evil and Darkseid rises to crush earth under his boot heel. Heroes all over the world fall and are enslaved by him. The only one who stands in his way is Superman and while Kal-El and his multiverse versions battle for surivival across the realms, Diana turns evil and Batman is incarcerated. What follows is the last stand of the heroes against Darkseid. While he does not get much by way of presence in the overall story structure, the hardiness of Batman really stands out in Morrison’s storytelling. Superman however is unleashed in all his might and glory all through the story and his final victory is one of the most dazzling instances of it all.
I can confidently say that I read it but I haven’t understood it.