Final Crisis #6 – Review

By Grant Morrison (writer), JG Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Doug Mahnke, Marco Rudy, Chirstian Alamy, Jesus Merino (artists)

Honestly?  I love Grant Morrison’s work.  I admire his wild imagination and flair for telling chaotic stories that somehow always manage to make a strange kind of sense.  I loved The Invisibles, JLA, We3 and New X-Men, and even picked up his entire run on Seven Soldiers of Victory, a thematic prequel to Final Crisis.  I’m telling you this so you’ll know I’m not coming into this story cold.  I picked up every issue so far and followed the plot.  Sadly, I couldn’t care less for any of it.

And why should I, when DC has had a track record for over twenty years now of hitting the reset button with these massive storylines that promise to dazzle you with the illusion of change, only to be erased a few years later so that everything can be just the way it was before?  While I like the idea of Darkseid and his pantheon of Dark Gods gaining dominion over Earth, allowing the villains to finally win, I know things won’t stay this way long enough to make a difference, and if I know that then why bother reading?  Take this issue for example: do we really think the outcome of Batman’s battle with Darkseid is definitive?  How long before they reverse what they’ve done?

Also, why is it that these DC epics aren’t more friendly to new readers?  Why do they demand you to have a working knowledge of the last seventy years of DC continuity in order to understand them?!  Not only has Final Crisis not been friendly to new readers, it actively works to discourage and drive them away; seeking instead to cater only to those faithful elitists that have been reading DC comics for a long, long time.  The epic bullshit that Bendis writes for Marvel may be slightly shy of moronic, but at least his stories strive to be entertaining and accessible to new readers!

Ultimately, I can’t decide if Morrison is a victim of editorial slavery or an advocate of the bad storytelling DC has been pushing down our throats since Crisis on Infinite Earths. I can say with confidence though that this series was not meant for the casual reader.  It does not like you. In fact, it wants you to go away.

Grade: D-

-Tony Rakittke

Final Crisis #5 (of 7) – Review

By Grant Morrison (writer), JG Jones and Carlos Pacheco (pencils), Marco Rudy and Jesus Merino (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: Darkseid is back and ready to create The Fifth World! Meanwhile, the remaining superheroes duke it out with the villains in an all out attack at Bludhaven. From afar the Green Lanterns amass for a final counterattack on Earth. But are they too late? With the Darkseid’s transformation of the planet nearly complete hope comes from the most unlikeliest of places.

What’s Good? The art. Carlos Pacheco and JG Jones team up to deliver some densely populated scenes that don’t look or feel cluttered. One of the worries I had was the clashing of the two art styles might cause a big distraction. However, that doesn’t happen. Pages and scenes blend together almost seamlessly and a lot of credit has to go to the colors for keeping everything consistent.

The Green Lantern scenes are lots of fun, too.

What’s Not So Good? Too much going on at once and too many characters clogging up the story. It’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed with so much going on. Grant Morrison’s compressed storyline doesn’t help either. This book is marking big changes for the DC Universe yet only die hard readers are the only ones who will ultimately reap the rewards.

Conclusion: If you have the stomach to follow, go right ahead. It’s not easy, but if you dig in, you might be able to hang with the story.

Grade: C

– J. Montes

Final Crisis #4 (of 7) – Review

By Grant Morrison (story), JG Jones & Carlos Pacheco (pencils), Jesus Merino (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: The Anti-Life Equation spirals through all broadcasted networks and within hours anyone in contact with a phone, television, radio, or the Internet is afflicted with the contagion. It honestly feels like evil has finally prevailed. Yet, small pockets of hope exist. The remaining heroes of Earth use what’s left of their secret communications network to plan one final attack.

What’s Good? While Secret Invasion continues to lose steam, Final Crisis builds on its momentum. The revelation involving Darkseid’s legacy is a big deal and the way the climate and characters react is one of doom. In fact, the whole process of how Darkseid slowly reincarnates is perfectly paced as the heroes scramble to reorganize. We get a few heroic moments in the process, but the true shining semblance of hope comes from the endearing reunion between the two Flash characters.

What’s Not So Good? The book is still not completely accessible. I was lost here and there with all the different names being thrown out. And I know little to nothing about the Fourth World or the New Gods/Evil Gods, so yeah, you could count me among those who were lost (part of the time), but no where near as bad as the first two issues.

Also, the month long break that came between issues #3 and #4 does disrupt some of the series momentum, luckily it’s not too hard to get back into the story.

Conclusion: A solid issue with a story that almost seems to offer no sense of hope to its heroes. Is this as bad as it’ll get? There’s still three issues left, so we’ll see!

It’ll be interesting to see if and how the heroes of the DC Universe overcome this mess. Earth is really in the crapper right now.

Grade: B

– J. Montes

Wanted – Movie Review

During the production of this movie I heard the script would be only faithful to the comic “in spirit”. Usually when movie studios follow this creed, the source material’s completely lost. It didn’t help that Mark Millar was uncharacteristically quiet too, only mentioning that he used the money he got from the studio to remodel his kitchen. Then there were the delays by Universal and talks of reshoots. Things didn’t seem to be boding well for Wanted. But lo and behold, the movie has finally seen release. And you know what? It’s actually not that bad! James McAvoy does a very good job of going from lovable loser to hardcore assassin, and the transformation he goes through is pretty convincing.

For fans of the book, I’d say the first quarter of the movie is faithful to comic. From there, it spirals into unknown territory. We don’t know if Wesley is going to run into his dead father again and there are certainly no signs of super villains. As a summer blockbuster, however, this movie is loaded with action. Some of it works, like a harrowing train scene where Wesley and Fox confront their elusive target, while other sequences (like just about anytime there’s an on-foot chase scene or a car chase) fail due to horrible editing and so much shaking camera antics that it may make you throw up. The story? It’s nothing special. For those who haven’t read the comic, there’s a nice twist in the latter half of the movie that’ll be a nice treat. Having read the book, I was hoping to see it, and was actually caught off guard when it happened.

There’s a lot of dark humor, violence, and language to merit Wanted a strong “R” rating. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a movie like this, and I applaud Universale for taking a chance and “growing a pair”, as Wesley would say. It’s a fun, unapologetic, entertaining movie. And yes, Wesley’s little jab at the audience is in there too (though not as controversial and degrading). See it with a big crowd if you can and your enjoyment will be exponentially better. (Grade: B)

– J. Montes

A Second Opinion

Part of me is curious as to why Universal even bothered to use the Wanted name, as it could have easily had a new action franchise on its hands. That said, I had a blast watching the flick regardless.  The actors clearly had a great time making the movie and it shows throughout.  Angelina Jolie rocks as sexy assassin, Fox, James McAvoy proves he is leading man material, and Morgan Freeman nearly steals the entire movie with some well placed F-Bomb.

The action is fast, intense, and brutal in all the right ways.  The dialogue is sharp and, while it has some unnecessary moments, the story was told well.  This is really THE adult action blockbuster of the summer (actually, I think it’s the only one) and I recommend it to anyone looking for a superhero style flick for the more mature crowd. Wanted is one hell of an entertaining ride.  (Grade B+)

-Kyle Posluszny

Final Crisis #2 (of 7) – Review

By Grant Morrison (writer), J.G. Jones (art), and Alex Sinclair (colors)

Listen: Just because Grant Morrison wrote it, it doesn’t mean it’s automatically good.

Don’t believe any of the pretentious reviews out there that praise this book. They’re mostly written by Grant Morrison fanboys who will love anything he writes – even if it’s crap. Believe me, I enjoy most of Morrison’s work, but Final Crisis is just an incoherent mess. Make no mistake, the man makes it abundantly clear time and again that he knows lots about DC lore, and because of this, the reader is constantly challenged (and/or frustrated). I’m not saying I don’t enjoy being challenged or I’m a lazy reader, but this story will prove to be just too much for most readers. Final Crisis is basically porn for the DC historians.

As a casual DC reader, I’ll freely admit that I was lost for 80% of the story. Now, imagine someone who’s read about the hype surrounding this book in say, The New York Post or Entertainment Weekly, do you think they’d understand what’s going on? Me neither. Final Crisis shouldn’t be a summer mini-series. Heck, if it can’t be told in a coherent fashion in which casual comic readers can understand it, it shouldn’t be a series at all – big continuity shake-ups or not. Any comic that forces me to go to other websites for annotations just so I can get a grasp on what’s going on is crap. And I’m sorry to say this, but Final Crisis is crap.

For the 10% of comic book reading populace who “gets” every reference and can follow the story without “help” gets my admiration and applause. I honestly wish I could comprehend this story and I wish I could enjoy it. I’m a fan of the creative team, and J.G. Jones handles the monumental task of drawing a billion superheroes (and villains) almost effortlessly. Alex Sinclair also deserves kudos for his coloring work here. Unlike the boring, moody palettes he brings to Jim Lee’s artwork, the colors he uses here brings the world to life. It’s just a shame I couldn’t enjoy the story as much as the artwork, because the art is, quite frankly, the only criteria that prevents this book from getting an “F”. (Grade: D+)

– J. Montes

Final Crisis #1 (of 7) – Review

By Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, and Alex Sinclair

As someone who’s not well versed in the DC Universe, I gotta say, this issue will do nothing but confuse and detract new readers to the DC line. The problem is so much of this story is entrenched in DC lore that it’s impossible for new (or maybe even casual) readers to grasp what’s going on. Grant Morrison does his best to provide a semblance of expository dialogue, but issue servers as a rare case where there isn’t enough exposition. And because of this, new readers will suffer. If DC wants to attract new readers, they need to make their summer blockbuster event *much* more accessible.

My familiarity of the “Crisis” events is vague; I know what happened with “Inifinite Earths” and 52, and I read Identity Crisis. And yet, due to my lack of experience, the only thing I can really draw from this story is the (once again) banding of super villains to deliver a killing blow to the super heroes. I did recognize Doctor Light – and he’s still creepy.

There’s definitely a lot going on here and I was able to understand the overall gist of the story and the subplots, but many characters were unrecognizable to me. This lack of familiarity has forced me to just “go along for the ride”. Other than the death of a major character – which I felt was almost forced just to make a statement that “no one is safe” – I can’t honestly formulate an opinion on whether what’s going on is stunning or not

One thing that had me interested, the return of Barry Allen in DC Universe #0, isn’t even touched upon in this issue. Instead, the story races around, establishing the players and what’s at stake (which seems like a lot given the cosmic level of what’s shown). Despite the convolution, Morrison’s dialogue rolls of the tongue of the book’s characters and J.G. Jones’ art is wonderfully detailed and easy to follow.

I’m going to stick around and see if I can make sense of everything. Hell, maybe I’ll learn some stuff about the DC Universe. But judging from the tone of this first issue, I’m going to have to do a lot of homework to make sense of it all. Readers who’ve followed DC’s line of books for years will most likely enjoy this first issue, but for the rest of us, it’s unfriendly nature to neophytes may evoke a hostile response. (Grade: C)

– J. Montes

DC Universe Zero – Review

By Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns (writer) George Pérez, Tony Daniel, J.G. Jones, Aaron Lopresti, Ivan Reis, Philip Tan and Carlos Pacheco (art)

Other than Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, and the occasional Superman book, I’m not exactly in touch with the DC Universe these day. Well, if you’re in the same boat as me, DC Universe Zero serves as a good jumping on point. The book serves loosely as a primer to all of the major DC storylines going on this year. I say loosely because each segment of this 22 page story is around 3-5 pages in length – hardly enough to give us the full lowdown on what’s going on, but just enough to tease us and grab a new reader on board for the events.

All the tales for this issue have been carefully crafted to lure you in, and I’ll tell you right now, they do their job !  Final Crisis and its mini-series, Green Lantern, Batman, and Wonder Woman all look like fantastic reads. Batman’s RIP story, which has been kept extremely guarded by DC has become much more interesting with the revealing of Joker’s involvement. Final Crisis’ plot has been simplified to a mere few sentences for the many readers who’ve never read a Crisis book. And Wonder Woman’s upcoming book explores the possible extinction of the Amazonian race! Of course, what will get people most excited, especially the DC faithful, is the big reveal of a certain someone’s return in Final Crisis, which was cunningly saved for the last page.

If you read Marvel’s Secret Invasion Saga comic and are expecting a similar book packed to the gills with tons of history – don’t. This book is hardly here to educate, but more so titillate. With art by DC’s top talent and a mere price of only 50 cents, there’s hardly anything to complain about. I wasn’t too keen on DC’s big summer events, but after reading this, I’m pretty pumped. Bring it on! (Grade: B)

– J. Montes