or, Holy Mother of Freakin’ continuity Batman, this is going to be huge!

If you haven’t been keeping track, we’ve been counting down (I don’t mean that as a pun but, damn it!) to DC’s final Crisis event, wittily entitled, Final Crisis. Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns have paired up to write what is one of the most highly anticipated books of the last few years.

And not a word matters until you read the very last page!

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me, to see news of DC’s latest and biggest crossover event making it to the mainstream media. And whether DC paid them off or not, what happened on the very last page is monumental to the DCU. So I’ll deal with it last.

I had to read this one really slowly to be sure I didn’t miss anything. The entire book was nothing more than a foreshadowing of the Final Crisis event coming, and its correlative books. Our narrator takes us on a journey through what the Final Crisis will be.

It starts with a brief history, before sliding right in to the fact that we’ll be seeing a Superman and the Legion of Superheroes storyline. Sadly, this will also involve Superboy Prime; the whining, moping super version of … oh so very many people!

Next is my favorite few panels, a great scene between Batman and Joker. The Joker is playing with Bats, dealing a Dead Man’s Hand as he surreptitiously announces that Batman is going to encounter people who are going to hurt him so bad he’ll “never recover.”

Next is Wonder Woman, filling out the top three spots of the DCU, where we are witness to three different villains collecting soil samples from genocide locations (Auschwitz, Logor Jasenovac, Darfur). I vaguely remember hearing Gail Simmone announcing that a villain will be made, actually made, to fight Diana, so maybe this is it.

We’re also witness to a conversation held between Greek gods Apollo and, presumably, Zeus (the silhouette would suggest as much).

The next set of pages focus on Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart, who are investigating a bomb scene. Apparently someone has been transporting villains with extra-terrestrial ties to a new federal jail, and the latest transport holding Hector Hammond, Shark, Evil Star and Black Hand gets destroyed. However, Black Hand isn’t anywhere to be found, and even Hal’s ring can’t locate him.

Looks like the Specter will also be playing a role again in this the latest of DC’s crises. Seems that there may be a problem with the binding of God’s Vengeance with detective Crispus Allen that will play out over the next few weeks and months.

And of course we’re introduced to a new baddies prophet, Libra, who in a speech that would have made Benny Hinn proud, proclaims to the Rogue’s Gallery that there is a new god who will give you anything you want, just as long as you worship him (Stargate much?).

And now we arrive at the last page. We’ve seen insights in to upcoming titles such as Legion of Three Worlds, Batman R.I.P., Green Lantern Blackest Night, and whatever other titles they’ve given the upcoming Crisis. But it all pales in to nonexistence when you realize just who has been narrating the whole thing.

It probably isn’t a surprise right now, as it’s all across the mainstream media (or so I’m told… what would I know, I’m an Australian who works at night!). Either way…

Barry Allen is back!

I’m going to write a follow up piece in the next day or so (I do need sleep at some point) about Barry’s return, and what is coming up for DC’s Final Crisis, so I’ll save my feelings about Barry’s return for then. All in all, I am really excited about Final Crisis like I haven’t been excited about anything for awhile.

This book gets a 3 for story, as it wasn’t really about story, but more foreshadowing, and 4 for art. This book was never going to be a high scoring book, as it’s a one shot that never stays more than a few pages on one storyline. But you can damn well believe that it’s got us hyped for the next few months!