FINAL CRISIS REQUIEM #1


Price: $3.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 32.0%

Reviews

UserAddedSpoilers
Unoob07/11/08YesRead Review
g0ofgnewt07/11/08NoRead Review
Terence07/11/08YesRead Review
rayclark07/10/08NoRead Review
Mart07/10/08YesRead Review
Rtousi07/09/08NoRead Review
399
Pulls
Avg Rating: 4.3
 
Users who pulled this comic:

Comments

  1. Tomasi & Mahnke back together again! =D They were a great team on Black Adam, so I have high hopes for this one.

    Does anyone know if this will show how Martian Manhunter bit the dust, or just the reaction after it?

  2. @WadeWIlson – We already saw how J’onn died.

  3. @conor – True, we did. My bad.

    We pretty much saw the last 2 seconds of his life (for now). I meant — will this book show the lead up to all that, the battle, how he got captured & ended up on his knees etc?

  4. @wade I was expecting more of a mourning issue, being that I was given the impression that his capture was in some other comic I wasn’t reading. but I could be (and often am) wrong. Anyway, I’m giving this a shot, just because I’m in an event mood.

  5. @Neal – I think you might be right, mate, judging by that synopsis. The last I saw of MM was the final page of Salvation Run, he was in a cage of fire & it didn’t show how he got there & where exactly it was. I was hoping this issue would fill in some blanks.

  6. I know this won’t be a necessary read to get Final Crisis but I’m still buying it because, well,  I’m OCD

  7. Okay it looks like the cover was just a blank slate at first….Then just poured a ton of orange, brown, and red…and just smeared it all over the slate until it was covered. Seriously, what is going on with this cover? If it wasnt for the plot summary on this page, you could’ve fooled me that it was a MM story.

  8. @TheNextChampion – Looks like a martian funeral pyre to me.

  9. @conor: I get it that its fire….cause with all the red and orange smeared all over. Plus the black adds a nice touch of smoke…But if there’s more to this cover then just smears of colors then you lost me cause I dont see anything…

    But hey I didnt do so well in my art class in college….so what do I know about art?

  10. @TheNextChampion – You’re not the lone ranger, mate. I can’t make out the cover either.

  11. I’m hoping the cover will look different on the comic, or actually be different. Hell, we might not even be seeing all of it.

  12. Kind of ironic that they would burn martians on a funeral pyre if the martions are pyrophobic. Who’s job is it to light it?

  13. @TheNextChampion @WadeWIlson – *Shurg* I clearly see a Martian body with its arms folded across its chest being burned in what I assume is a funeral pyre,

  14. If the cover is too much for some, there’s a pretty straight forward alternate version by Doug Mahnke.  I’ll be getting this one, though.  Much more dynamic.

  15. @conor: Well you get an A for art my student.

  16. Poor J’onn. Peter Tomasi says he’s for realz dead at the end of this series, but hopefully that "resurrection" referencein Final Crisis#2 wasn’t throwaway and we’ll see him again by the end of Final Crisis or soon after. Maybe, I’m just an 80’s kid, but to me he’s the bedrock of the League and any writer who doesn’t include him in their version is kind of lazy.

    For me, this is worth it for Doug Manhke alone.

  17. Maybe it was low expectations, but I actually enjoyed this.  The scene where MM put visions in the villians heads and he fought Libra should quiet anyone who says MM went down without a fight, plus i enjoyed watching the heroes act a little badass.  And when J’onn muttered "It Is you" I am now very curious who libra is and I’m in for the long haul on Final Crisis.  My favorite moment was when Black Canary said "I’m on fire" and Green Arrow said he was too tired.

    I must admit I’ve always been take it or leave it with MM,  but when they laid J’onn to rest with the Mars history book and Batman left an Oreo made kind of sad and made me care about a character I never cared before and for that reason I hope It’s Pick of the Week.

    2 Questions- Who was the girl Batman was kissing and who is the invisible girl

  18. @conor HA! Nice try with that funeral pyre thing, but it looks like I was right and we were only seeing the top fourth of the picture. So I say to you, "Ha!"  Okay, maybe not so much "ha" because I was thinking it was supposed to be a face.

  19. I would also like to know the answers to Kory’s questions if anyone could shed some light. This wasn’t really what I was expecting at all, but turned out pretty good. A nice, touching goodbye to a great character.

  20. Although the first half was a bit brutal, the second half was a great farewell for the Martian.  I enjoy Tomasi’s work and was not let down with this issue.  And the art was outstanding!  Definitely worth checking our for the art!

  21. @Kory @headn00b The invisible girl, I believe is Gypsy, a member of the Justice League during the fabulous detroit years (see the podcast Tom vs. The JLA). MM was a big part of Justice Leauge detroit. The woman kissing Batman, I’d guess is Talia al’Ghul.

    I really enjoyed this issue a lot more than I was expecting. Mostly because of Doug Mahnke. I’d heard his name before, but I’d never seen his work, and I have to say, the art was really beautiful in this book. It works well with what JG’s been doing. Plus it was good to see the Martian go out a little more impressively than in Final Crisis. His death in FC worked well as a story point and for shock value, but I felt bad about geting that at the expense of MM fans. At leat you get to see him going out well here. I thought he did some cool things in this issue.

  22. Devestating issue. Powerful ending. I shed a tear, and plan on picking up some Oreos tonight.

  23. @jonnjonz-Today everyone should devour a box of Oreos and take a shot of milk and pour one out for our homie the Martian Manhunter…may he rest in peace.

  24. @jonnjonz @kory Agreed.

  25. I commented on Mart’s review and I’ll say it here.

    Considering MM’s death was only one panel and now we have a 40 page ‘flashback’ story on how he died…is very annoying. It’s just another way to make money when we could’ve seen this in FC alittle more, or have Salvation Run make a lot more sense.

    But I’ve heard nothing but good things about this issue, and it sounds like Tomasi really wanted to make us believe this the 100% end of the character. Of course Superman said ‘let’s hope for a ressurection’; but if this is as good as people stated: then maybe it’s best to see Manhunter die a hero and not a wimpy victim.

  26. @TheNextChampion I disagree with this only being a way to make more money (of course this is also a way to make more money, but not only). The way he goes out in this one wouldn’t have worked in final crisis. It was just so long. The pace of final crisis would not have allowed it. It wouldn’t have worked. I liked Final Crisis, and I think this was a worthy companion to it.

  27. hmm…was this an issue of the "Mighty" Justice League or the "New" Justice League? Seriously though I have no problem with this issue or any of the Secret Invasion Avengers tie-in issues. It’s all part of how it works now and as long as the story is worth it DEAL. It’s no surprise that this is how this stuff has been working for twenty years.

  28. I don’t see the issue with this cover. It looks good to me.

  29. Damn it. I didn’t want to let this issue get to me, because death in comics is rarely permanent, and I feel like a sucker to feel sad about a "death" that usually lasts for about 6 months, but … it got to me, & I guess that shows the skill of Tomasi. It was pretty sad to me, as I’ve always liked the character of MM a lot. Mahnke’s art was off the scale as usual, too. Really beautiful stuff, and the one scene where the JLA came to rescue J’onn was drawn so well … it made me wish that was how it really went down! 

    It’s not really crucial, but it woulda been cool if they showed how he got captured on the prison planet in the first place, and then how they got him back to earth …

    Anyway … this was a great tribute issue to a great character … I just hope we see him back alive soon. =D

    "He was my favourite Martian."

    "Mine too.

  30. @Wade: If you read Salvation Run, you know exactely how he got captured and eventually got in the hands of Libra. But then again the whole series was a mess so it’s confusing no matter what you do.

  31. @TheNextChampion — You’re right, mate! They did show how MM was captured, I just flipped through & found it, in issue #5 of Salvation Run. My memory is awesome!

    It’s unclear how Libra got him though … at the end of issue #7 MM is still trapped on the prison planet in the cage of fire, when everyone else has left. How he got from the prison planet to Earth in Libra’s hands is still a mystery. I was hoping this Requiem book would fill in the blanks. 

    I noticed one other thing I didn’t pay much attention to when I first read it — Catwoman ratted out MM to the villains, she is the reason his cover got blown on the prison planet, which led to being the reason why he was killed! It’s all Catwoman’s fault!! I wonder if this will come up in future issues? Will Batman find out about this? 

  32. I’m an idiot…I did’nt get the "my favorite martian" reference until I read it again.

    One nitpick though…did he have to call the Justice League his "super friends" I geeked out but it felt forced.

    Any ideas who Libra is because judging by the close up on page 24 he has blue eyes and Barry Allen has blue eyes so could he be Libra?

  33. @Wade Check JLA 21. Martian Manhunter goes through what looks like a boom tube, after Human Flame requests that he be killed.

    @Kory, I don’ think Libra is supposed to be anyone familiar behind that mask. He’s just an old willain seemed to make a big cosmic exit. Check him on wikipedia. I think the question is supposed to be not so much who is Libra, but what the hell happened to him.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libra_(DC_Comics)

  34. @NealAppeal-  I just got the vibe from page 18 where J’onn muttered to Libra "It Is You.." that one of the shock moments of this series will be the reveal of who Libra is.  And if you look at the close up of Libra of page 24 it seemed they were trying to tell us something.  Matching mystery person’s eye color with another characters eyes (check cover of Final Crisis #2) like Barry Allen is a common red herring in storytelling.  For example watch the movie "Bone Collector" in the beginning we get a glimpse of the killer’s eyes behind a mask and throughout the movie there are close ups of other character eyes leading you to believe that person is the killer and by the end it’s the character you least expect.  So overall I have a feeling Libra will be someone we already know and not the character who appeared before.

  35. @kory I didn’t think MM was saying "it is you" as in, I know you from somewhere. He was sayiing (with a spear stuck through his body) "it is you who will fail". I see what you’re saying about the eyes, but there’s not really much more to libra’s face than his eyes, so what else is the artist suppose to work with? I think there may be a reveal of what’s going on beneath that mask, but I doubt it will be an identity reveal. Just my thinking so far. Could be wrong.

    also, I am really glad that this art team will also be doing superman: beyond. I think this art style would be pretty awesome to see in 3D.

  36. Great book. Still wish he wasn’t dead, but quite a heartfelt send off. It has an emotional depth that FC appears to be lacking a little up till this point.

  37. @Neal — Thanks, mate!

    At the top of this thread I asked three questions that I thought were unsolved … all three have been answered to me here by you guys, and all three things happened in issues I had read, lol. So, I guess reading all this stuff out of order made me forget it all … or else, I’m not the sharpest knife in the draw.

    Probably both. But, thanks for the help, people. 🙂

  38. A few questions from a non MM/JLA reader:

    a) Does Nightwing find MM’s body or is that a hallucination also? If the former, how is the body suspended like that? If the latter, well the that’s sort of weird because the body is being discussed in the next scene…

    b) Who is Cynthia?

    c) Why does WW play a microscopic role in this story?

    d) What’s with the pyramid?

    I get the impression that this was an incredibly intense and fulfilling reading experience for a fan. For me, it was good but I felt I was missing out. But that’s ok. The point of the book is to be a tribute, not to school people on MM lore.

    Gorgeous art and an intriguing read!

  39. @NealAppeal- I read it again and I see what you’re saying about the "It Is You" comment. I was just looking a little too hard for clues.

  40. @JumpingJupiter — If you read this thread, I’m maybe not the best qualified to answer your questions, lol, but, I’ll give it a shot. I’m sure people will correct my mistakes!

    a) Yes, Nightwing found him, it was real. The way I saw that image, MM was hung up on a planet model, with something stabbed through his chest to hold him there.

    b) Cynthia is Gypsy. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy_%28comics%29

    c) You would have to ask Mr Tomasi this one!

    d) The pyramid is J’onn’s original home from Mars, that was brought to Earth by The Spectre (it says this on the second last page).

  41. Hmm, if that was just a planet model, it was not properly introduced or explained. Unless tomasi is pulling a G-Mo here…?

  42. @JumpingJupiter Nightwing is responding to a Level One Omega call from the Rose Center of Earth and Space something or other. Could have been clearer, but the information was there and not in some comic from the fifties. So not G-Mo status.

  43. Oh I see, yes you’re right. Thank you for the clarification. I  missed that little tidbit.

  44. Wow! I bought this after listening to the guy rave about it in the podcast. The art was lush and the story was okay until the last page. Ooof! That emotional punch of Batman leaving the chocolate biscuit on J’onn. Took me by surprise

  45. Far and away the best book in the lineup of Final Crisis stories thus far. (yes I’m a bit behind on my reading) The art is absolutely amazing as well.

Leave a Comment