CBR: REVIEWS: Final Crisis #5

[CBR News]

Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones & Carlos Pacheco's "Final Crisis" #5 is on sale
now, and the response has been decidedly mixed. CBR Reviewers Doug
Zawisza and Benjamin Birdie turn in [b]wholly different[b] takes on the new DC
Comics release.


Full article here.

[johnnyrocket]

where are the actual reviews, please? They are currently not included within the story on the home page. Are they somewhere else?



.Nevermind. Found them on the review page. maybe a link in the headline for everybody?

Thanks

[armandoB]

coooooooooooooool

[TROUBLEZ]

I like that Doug Zawisza noticed the word balloons and lettering in his review. Lettering helps me enjoy the tone and atmosphere of the story. That said, most of the critiques he had for the comic are why I'm staying away from it.

[Robert318]

I have been anxiously reading Final Crisis waiting for the issue to arrive that finally puts all the pieces together for me. Now that 5 issues out of 7 are out, I have accepted that this story may never make sense to me. The only reason I am buying it is because it is supposedly laying the groundwork for a new DC Universe. I am wholly disappointed with this story, as I was with Batman R.I.P., both by Grant Morrison. I understand that when read together, some feel the issues may make more sense, but isn't one of the goals of a good comic writer to write for an issue of a comic and not the graphic novel? Issues come out monthly and need to make sense each and every month. Final Crisis has had many delays and that just makes it worse. DC was once my favorite comics publisher, but that is quickly fading.

[Paul Newell]

I understand that when read together, some feel the issues may make more sense, but isn't one of the goals of a good comic writer to write for an issue of a comic and not the graphic novel? Issues come out monthly and need to make sense each and every month.

Thing about it is, is that this is a train of thought that actually hasn't been true for about 30 years now. No disrespect to you or anyone else that brings this point up, but when you look at it clinically, the whole "every comic is someone's first issue" hasn't been a goal for the comic companies since the Silver Age. Comics haven't made sensee each and every month since then. Multi-part part stories stopped that.

[Flamebird]

Thing about it is, is that this is a train of thought that actually hasn't been true for about 30 years now. No disrespect to you or anyone else that brings this point up, but when you look at it clinically, the whole "every comic is someone's first issue" hasn't been a goal for the comic companies since the Silver Age. Comics haven't made sensee each and every month since then. Multi-part part stories stopped that.

You say that like it's a good thing.

Why not just publish graphic novels and be done with it then?

Why should we wait month after month in the hopes of eventually, maybe getting a more or less coherent story?

[Karl O'Neill]

The good thing about opinions is, we are all entitled to them.

I agree with the good review and disagree with bad review.

I am truely loving final crisis as story, event. it;s great. love all the layers grant put into this epic story,.

and darkseid is badass.

[Sean Walsh]

You say that like it's a good thing.

Why not just publish graphic novels and be done with it then?

Why should we wait month after month in the hopes of eventually, maybe getting a more or less coherent story?

Because I think the comic audience needs that week-to-week reading activity.

If everything just goes the graphic novel-only route, it'll take a lot of time to write and draw these books, it'll be much pricier than single comics which people can drift in and out of, and ultimately a lot of audience will just......go away...

[Meteoro]

This story has been painful so far. I tried to like it. I tried it so bad. Morrison was always one of my favorite writers back in the Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, well, the reviewer summed it up nicely. Still, his stories made a jump from genius to pointless and confusing. I don't know if he's trying to evolve or what, but he's just not connecting with me as a reader anymore. I do like intelligent stories a lot, but Final Crisis is confusing and not even the characters I care about are meaningful anymore. I mean, when the two Flashes met I would have jumped in joy, but they were like robots, even robot tears. That was the sad part of it all.

And well, I keep on reading the story just because. It is meant to be important. That's it. But at the end of the day, it's just a forgetful story full of characters I like on other books.

[Samurai]

It's classic Morrison... some tidbits of very cool ideas here and there, poorly executed and floating in a jumbled mess of pontificating psycho-babble.

[HEROHOUSE]

I just re-read the whole thing. I understand it a lot better now.

start with the DC universe 50cent one shot..

There's a war in heaven the old gods die. Darksied's soul/essence whatever falls from heaven toward the earth. The Sheer mass of a gods soul is so powerful that it dilates time and reality around it as he falls ( could be how we explain away Starlin's Death of the new gods series)...

The bodies the inhabit on earth don't last long and the need to keep finding new hosts. Darkseid is taking advantage of the New Gods absence to finally launch his anti-life equation ( the crux of all his plots).

Meanwhile Clay face disguised as Jimmy Olsen blows up the daily planet nearly killing Lois lane. Superman is at her side keeping her heart beating with an infra red heart a massage using his heat vision. A female monitor freezes time and comes to get superman to help save the universe. She takes him into the bleed and they board her 70 mile long bleed ship traveling between the dimensions in 4d space. There he is joined by all the supermen of the various 51 earths Old school capt marvel, Captain Adam who appears to be a cross between the physician form the authority-Dr Manhattan and Captain Atom, the Nazi Supes, the ultra man Supes etc etc. The monitor is revealed to be a vampire who has drained the life from Nazi Supes. She is concerned that some dark god named Mandrakk is coming back....

Metron travels back in time and gives Anthro knowledge of fire and and knowledge in general. Anthro draws the sigil on Metron's chest on a cave wall.

Dan Turpin is a PI searching for six missing kids. they had the anti life equation hidden in their brains and Darkseid ruling a criminal empire of or the dark side club has captured them and extracted it.

Libra whose true ID we don't know is working as Darkseid's herald. Gathering all the villains on the planet and cutting them deals to help them. he kills Jonn Jonnz as proof of his power.

The green lanterns cordon off the earth as a crime scene ( murder of a god) when Orion body is discovered.

We also see a monitor banished to earth zero named Nix Uaton. They blame him for the death of earth 51. He is contaminated by his contact with lower life forms ( us humans) and now has a NAME and emotions. He is in love with a female monitor named weeja dell. the banish him to a human body and erase his memory and he cannot remember the keyword that will re awaken his powers and memories.

The exiled monitor is in a non celestial body just like the ousted /reincarnated new gods.

the alpha lanterns show up and claim that Hal Jordan is behind the murder of Orion. Carting him off to Oa for trial.

Apocalyptic new god Glori us Godfrey is a black televangelist spreading the gospel of anti-life or at least softening up the masses for Darkseid when the time comes.

Mokarri and Simian are trying to use genetic experimentation in the EVIL FACTORY to build a superhuman clone army for Darksied. Imprisoned in the evil factory are several people that are somehow resistant to anti-life.

the prisoner in the wheel chair playing with a Rubics cube is ( I believe ) Metron

Alpha lantern Kraken is Granny Goodness who only took Hal to Oa as a ploy to get close to the central power battery. The green lantern rings work off of will power and the Battery on oa is able to broadcast the power to all of them. Anti life equation is all about negating free will so if she got control of the power battery she could conceivably spread anti-life across the galaxy....

It is revealed that Orion was killed by a bullet that was shot back through time.

Barry allen returns and chases the bullet but Orion still dies.

Darksied uses the internet to broadcast anti-life worldwide instantly.

Anti-life being a mathematical proof that proves Darkseid's will is everything and everything else =zero.

Once he does this about half the world population become mindless thralls. Many of them start killing and or converting the rest. All electronic forms of communication are moot.

Much of the batman stuff is still a mystery due to the Time dilation caused by the celestial fall ( and missed deadlines) things have happened out of order and unfolded non-linearly.

It is looking likely that Dr Hurt will be revealed to be deesad and darkeiad has been behind RIP. In Last rites we see that a captured Bats is being experimented on by Mokkari and Simeyan to build that clone army and curry Darseids favor.

By this time Dan Turpin having found darkseid while searching for the kids is captured and becomes darkseids new host body.

Mr Miracle meanwhile is the possessor of what is thought to be the last working mother box. this is not the original Mr Miracle who was a new god but his apprentice Shiloh Norman a human. He goes to Tokyo's Harajuku district ( known on our earth for cos play) on earth zero it appears to be cos play at a new level having actual powers and creating characters that are homages to the heroes the worship. he is there to search for Sonny Sumo but ends up recruiting them as well as a team of upstart wanna be heroes called the SUPER YOUNG TEAM with names like The Most Magnificent Super-Bat and some green lantern analogue guy. They escape Tokyo in the SYT wonder wagon and head to USA. Miracle Gets shot in the chest but He's okay ( super escape artist and all that stuff y'know)

Several heroes and villains have formed a resistance and are held up in places like the hall of justice and Supes fortress of solitude. They are still publishing the daily planet and it is the only way of communicating with survivors without the anti-life hitching a ride on the communications medium (phone,tv,radio,net etc etc).

Mr terrific and checkmate have a mole in Darkseid's organization ( the calculator) and he gives them access to a secret internet that villains use called the UNTERNET and uses that to access brother eye and activate all the dormant people carrying OMAC nanotechnology....

Finally Wheelchair Metron solves a Rubics cube in an impossible number of moves unlocking his god hood. the Cube begins to PING PING meaning it is now a mother box. At the same time Nix Uotan remembers the name of his love Weeja Dell and unlocking his godlike monitor powers: HE IS NIX UATON: surveillance age superhero, in a snazzy new costume and a halo of floating all-seeing monitor screens surrounding his head....

[Robert318]

Thank you HeroHouse! Although I'm still not enthralled with the story, I at least feel like I've been brought up to speed without going back and rereading the whole story.

[Tobias March]

Wow - Mr Miracle is the 9th Doctor. His motherboxx the last survivor of a cosmic war.

[TROUBLEZ]

Thing about it is, is that this is a train of thought that actually hasn't been true for about 30 years now. No disrespect to you or anyone else that brings this point up, but when you look at it clinically, the whole "every comic is someone's first issue" hasn't been a goal for the comic companies since the Silver Age. .

Really? Because I remember reading an interview where Jim Shooter, who was in charge of Marvel in the early to mid 80s, stressed the point that every new issue was a "first issue" for someone.
Some things used to help new readers might be exposition in the narration or dialogue, the introduction box that would tell the reader a brief explanation of the main characters origin, etc.

Also, multi-part issues have been increasingly difficult to follow.
Were 21-part storylines that concluded in another 21-part storyline really that common in the 70s and 80s?