Final Crisis # 7 (of 7) – Review

By Grant Morrison (writer) Doug Mahnke (pencils), Tom Nguyen and Cristian Alamy (inks)

The Story: DC’s Final Crisis concludes with Superman saving all of reality by defeating a resurrected Darkseid and an insidious Mandrakk, the Dark Monitor. All the various plot threads coalesce as time and space are restored through Superman utilizing miracle technology from the future. In addition, the status of Batman, who is perhaps the biggest conversation topic of Final Crisis, is visited and his future narrative is formulated.

What’s Good: The way Grant Morrison wrote this installment reads like a flip book whose pages are out of order. Whether or not this is effective is a subjective assessment. Nevertheless, I find it to be enjoyable and rewarding. Don’t get me wrong: this is highly nontraditional story telling, but I am intrigued with the multi-narrative approach that reflected the “real” representation of the broken time line.

Like a great dessert can retroactively make an average meal good, so too the end of this issue’s ability to sweetened the beginning. The dramatic conclusion of the Monitor saga worked really well, as did the final pages, which will no doubt be the most controversial.

What’s Not So Good: There are way too many sub-plots at play here. I would have liked to see more time allotted to the main thrust of the story, rather than peripheral stories involving marginal characters. There’s so much time spent catching the reader up with what has happened previously in the story, a reader could pick up this issue and get all the information needed for the whole series without reading the ones before it. If you’re confused by this issue, then the previous installments won’t clear anything up for you. And if you get all the heavy DC continuity and meta-narrative stuff, than this issue is all you need.

Additionally, changing art teams for this final issue might have been necessary for practical and editorial reasons, but it is nevertheless jarring. It changes the tone and feeling of this series, and for-better-or-for-worse, wrecks whatever momentum was working for FC. Don’t get me wrong, Doug Mahnke draws very well and tells the story clearly. I just would have liked him to be on from the beginning or not at all.

Conclusion: It is hard to sum up this comic because I don’t really know what it was supposed to do. If this issue is meant to be an exercise in experimental comic book creating, using mainstream superheros as a pallet, than this issue is a success. But if this series is meant to impact the modern DC universe and satiate a reader’s appetite for DC superhero stories, than this issue is slightly above being a failure.

I think the biggest setback of this issue (and this series, for that matter) comes when Morrison focuses to much on cool ideas by sacrificing solid story telling. Perhaps the most damming conclusion I’m forced to say about this comic is that it is un-recommendable.

Final Grade: C+

-Rob G

Faces of Evil: Prometheus One Shot – Review

By Sterling Gates (writer), Federico Dallocchio (art and color)

The Story: Prometheus fans rejoice!  Following Martian Manhunter’s death at the hands of Libra, the mental blocks trapping Prometheus within his mind are shattered, and he awakens to find himself imprisoned in Blackgate Penitentiary.  If Prometheus has been catatonic for the last two years though, then who’s been running around committing petty crimes in his name?  Prometheus wants answers, and he doesn’t care who he has to kill to get them.

The Good: This is a perfect example of a great “Faces of Evil” issue.  This is a story about the villain, told from the villain’s point of view, and it isn’t afraid to pull any punches.  I was an immediate fan of this character ever since Grant Morrison introduced him in JLA, and I am so happy to see DC bring him back into the spotlight.  Gates does an outstanding job recapping the history and motivation of Prometheus while at the same time advancing the plot; and if DC were to ever consider an ongoing Prometheus series, I hope they tap him to do the job.

The Not So Good: While I admire him for handling the art and colors on this issue, I wasn’t quite impressed with Dallocchio’s art here.  It’s not crap by any means, mind you.  I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I was looking at the art of a poor man’s Jae Lee.

Conclusion: With Final Crisis coming to its cataclysmic conclusion and “Faces of Evil” in full swing, this was absolutely the right time for Prometheus to make his return to the DCU, and I for one couldn’t be happier.  Welcome back, you sick bastard.

Grade: B+

-Tony Rakittke