Is Final Crisis Aftermath: Run any good?

[Predator]

I saw the issues on sale at the comic shop last week, and I like Sturges' work on Jack of Fables and House of Mystery. Was this series worth picking up?

[Sean Walsh]

Yes. It's a lot of fun, is a great spotlight of Freddie Williams II's artwork, opens up the possibilities of an incredibly depraved villain in the Human Flame, plays with a bunch of crazy Z-list villains and gives John Stewart a HELLUVA great moment in the final issue.

It had me onboard with the 2nd page, when Flame punches a nurse right in the face because he's just a terrible bastard, and I officially fell in love with it when, for whatever reason, we were introduced to the "52 dimensional hyper griffin."

The trade is coming out in January, but if you can't wait that long.....by all mean, grab the 6 issues. :smile:

[mofo]

No

Generic story

[IvCNuB4]

"Run" was one the better, if not the best, of the FC: Aftermath minis. DC promised at least 1 or 2 "WTF" moments every issue, and they delivered ! Here are a couple other threads on this:
http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=289451

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=281276

[mofo]

"Run" was one the better, if not the best, of the FC: Aftermath minis.

You didn't like FC: Escape?

[CYOTI]

Escape, the only mini that I'd use as toilet paper.

[Sean Walsh]

You didn't like FC: Escape?

One would have to understand and decipher Escape in order to enjoy it. And even then, enjoying it is a mere assumption.

I read 3 issues, and promptly put them in an assorted box of comics I was sending to an eBay buyer.

[Thok]

Escape is fairly understandable at the end (the GPA is considering recruiting Nemesis and others as potential agents, and is using Electric City as a testing field), but it's not until issue 5 that you know what's happening. It will likely read better in trade, where you can get the plot in one go, and then go back and try to make sense of things in a second reading.

It also helps to have seen the Prisoner TV series (which worked a little bit better by having an episodic structure; all of Escape would roughly be 1-2 episodes of the Prisoner.)

Run is much easier to understand, and also has more cool moments.

The thing with the FC Aftermath titles is that they are fairly high concept, and that concept is enough to get a feel for if you like it. Run is a "Villain on the Run from everybody" piece. Escape is "Nemesis and GPA does Prisoner". Dance is "group of teen superheroes try to find their place in the world", or possibly "SYT as a boy band". Ink is "The Tattooed Man is learning what it means to be a hero" (roughly: Ink has more going on in it, and of the four Aftermath titles, it's the one that I think is least sure of what it wants to be.)

Basically, if you like the high concept of an FC Aftermath, you'll like the series for the most part. (None of the series do their high concept particularly badly, but I knew the moment I saw these series solicited that I'd like Run more than Dance.)

[Gavin G.]

I bought the first two issues and thought it was fun, but ultimately ended up dropping it due to funds. The flood of incoming Blackest Night titles quickly became apparent to me, and like all the Final Crisis Aftermath books, Run struck me as being more or less an ancillary title.

[titanfan]

I really hated it and dropped it after 2. It was hard for me to read any story with such an unlikeable/unrelatable protagonist. I'd say just pick up the first one and you'll be able to tell whether or not it's for you.

[Static-Pulse]

Basically, if you like the high concept of an FC Aftermath, you'll like the series for the most part. (None of the series do their high concept particularly badly, but I knew the moment I saw these series solicited that I'd like Run more than Dance.)

In defense of Dance, the Super Young Team is a fucking awful concept. Did I say "in defense," I meant "in reference to."

I would, and have (The Intimates), pay good money to read about snot-nosed (I'm 30, I can say "snot-nosed" now) team of teens forging together as a team. However, having Joe Casey limited by Grant Morrison's one-dimensional characters has just been sad.

[Thok]

I would, and have (The Intimates), pay good money to read about snot-nosed (I'm 30, I can say "snot-nosed" now) team of teens forging together as a team. However, having Joe Casey limited by Grant Morrison's one-dimensional characters has just been sad.

Hey, be fair. Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash would need a personality or lines of dialogue to be even one-dimensional.

[Desaad]

I agree that Run was fun but not really a must buy.

I enjoyed it, but it was pretty shallow on the character work (which was the point). There was, as I saw it, a JLI vibe to a lot of it. If you enjoyed that title (which I didn't, save for a few of the serious arcs) then I think you'd enjoy Run.

[Static-Pulse]

Hey, be fair. Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash would need a personality or lines of dialogue to be even one-dimensional.

I've said this before when talking about Dance, but issue #2 really is the best issue of the series. It's the one issue...so far, I haven't seen #6 yet...where the team does something. It's the one issue, when the team (minus Aquazon) sits down for tea with the villain, where they actually make an attempt at personal growth, and it shows by the end when they actually stop the bad guys.

That issue is, in my opinion, the only Joe Casey script that slipped by the editor. Everything else is like someone said, "This isn't Morrison enough. Remove the likable characterization, obfuscate the plot, and for goodness sake make more references a comic printed twenty years ago." I've seen Casey do more under similar circumstances (The Last Defenders), and the art has been gorgeous throughout, so I have a hard time blaming anything but editorial's mouth being glued to Grant Morrison's member for it being such a clusterf--k.

[Anxy]

I don't understand why we're supposed to care about any of these series, or how they're terribly important to Final Crisis as an event. Then again, I didn't understand why we were supposed to care about Final Crisis, and after reading the whole stinkin' thing, I still don't understand.