FINAL CRISIS #7 (OF 7)
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Size: pages
Price: 3.99
As far as I can tell, event comics are supposed to be like rock albums.
They’re big, flashy, noisy, and they pack a lot of punch. They are designed to
top the charts, play well on the radio, and bring in a lot of money.
And then Grant Morrison came and made a jazz record.
Final Crisis is maddening in its use of detail, its frantic jumping between
scenes, and the way it draws on every possible character in DC’s arsenal (I
mean, Captain Carrot shows up in the middle of the climax, for heavens sake!).
It’s no surprise that some people don’t like it, or even hate it.
But I loved it.
Reading Final Crisis is like listening to a John Coltrane album. It is so
far out there that it takes every amount of concentration to understand what he
is trying to do. But with every successive listen I find I love Coltrane more
and more. After awhile, you start to realize the notes he doesn’t use, the
space he doesn’t fill, is just as important as everything else.
And like Coltrane, Morrison is an acquired taste. I don’t blame you if you
didn’t like it (or even hated it). Final Crisis takes some work to get through
and Morrison requires a lot of his readers. He chose to push the boundaries of
the medium in the mainstream arena. It’s like a big radio station started
playing Thelonius Monk between Nickleback and the Foo Fighters. One of the
things I like most about the series is that it has people talking (and
shouting, and screaming, and cursing…). Grant Morrison, like Miles Davis, may
at times be arrogant and self-indulgent. But like Davis, I think Morrison is
making something unique and beautiful that will have an impact for decades to
come.
I for one can’t wait to see where things go next.
Art: 4 - Very Good
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Great review and analogies.
I do think this event will change the way events or even comics itself will be written. Maybe not so much in today’s world; but for future generations I think he has influenced an entire generation of readers to do new stories and ideas.
@TNC- Do you have an altar dedicated to G-Mo that you pray to every night? Seems like you think everything he does is the greatest thing ever. 😉
Kik – I wrote my own review on this issue, which totally disfavored it, but I think you’ve really got something here. I don’t like Morrison’s more "free form" works. I tried to read Seven Soldiers and just never felt it. HOWEVER, I did read All-Star Superman, and did like it, did understand it, and am happy to have purchased it. FC was supposed to be the culmination of two previous crises – the end cap, if you will, and I just wish Morrison would have approached this with a ‘mass appeal’ intention…
Because honestly, if you’re a real DC fan, you’re not going to blow off a Crisis.
@Kory: Why that’s just crazy talk. heh heh
*darts eyes to closet and closes it quietly*
Titanesque-I think that’s a very legitimate critique. Its up for debate whether or not a crisis event was the appropriate place to do this sort of experimentation. One of the downsides of the format of FC is that I can’t really hand these issues off to a casual reader.
hmmm, I’d compare G-Mo with Pat Metheny instead of Coltrane, Monk or Davis. Both can do fairly straight up but innovative jazz "Question and Answer"/"Arkham Asylum" but can also do "Zero Tolerance for Silence"/"Final Crisis". And for some odd reason I liked "Zero Tolerance" but not "Final Crisis".
JumpingJupiter, overusing quotation marks since 2008.
Pat Metheny’s too new agey, more Gaiman. Morrison is Roland Kirk or Mingus, organized sonic chaos.
I originally was going to use an Ornette Coleman reference. Free jazz is as chaotic as it gets.
It’s very heartening to read more considered, thoughtful reviews of this issue. For one I think you can’t really judge a Morrison issue like this very well on the first day.
I rated this a 4 overall as well, but that’s rounded up from a generous (imo) 3.5. There are just too many shortcomings in the writing for me to give it a 4, and too many noticeable shortcuts in the art to give that a 4, either.
I’d go with a Mingus comparison. But I’m not a jazz expert.
Metheny is new agey only when he’s new agey. Check out "Question and Answer" and "Zero Tolerance for Silence" for some of the most non-new agey stuff ever. Also, see his quadruple album recorded at the Knitting Factory.
‘I just wish Morrison would have approached this with a ‘mass appeal’ intention…
Because honestly, if you’re a real DC fan, you’re not going to blow off a Crisis."
This is what I’ve been saying! If this is a good or bad comic is up to personal taste, but I think we can all agree this isn’t for everyone … so, why was this "story" in a comic that should be for everyone (who reads DC comics)?