While there have certainly already been plenty of reviews written here for final crisis, most quite well written and thoughtful on both sides of the Morrison love/hate fence, I thought a more middle of the road review could add to the discussion. 

After finishing this issue, I was left with a feeling like finding out the Chicago style hot dog you just ate was actually made out of tofu.  It was still good and fairly filling, but leaves you with a weird aftertaste and a sense of disappointment, because it makes you think about how good an actual Chicago style hot dog could have been. 

At the beginning of Final Crisis Morrison was giving us a great straightforward comic about Darkseid tricking the universe into thinking he’d died, only to secretly insinuate himself into the Earth and begin corrupting the DCU.  And I was hooked.  It was a great idea, taking these old Kirby ideas and bringing them back and playing with them in a new way.  A lot of high concept ideas were getting tossed around, and a ton of things were happening all at once, but it was grounded in a straightforward, well paced story. 

Then things started to taste a little funny.  More and more characters and ideas started to pile in, and what was going on with elements laid in previous issues was going unanswered and causing side plots to lose some of thier impact and relevence.  But we still had great moments, like the Flashes with their families and Tawky Tawny gutting Kalibak(which was totally awsome, btw). 

Then this last issue shows up and I find out that Morrison has been tricking me into eating something sans pork when I was really jonesing for a good hot dog.  Even more ideas pile in and not only the plot, but the structure of the story challenges one to think about comics and continuity and myth all in one of the Big 2’s books.  Is it artistic and interesting?  Yes.  Is it brillant and one of the greatest stories ever told in comics? No, not in my opinion.  Too many ideas and plots continue to hop in, and for me it becomes muddled and a bit too artsy.  Because, I think you can write a comic full of similar challenges to the reader and the same big ideas, and still retain the straitforward and fun.  Morrison started this series doing just that too, and if he had continued, I really would have like to have seen what that final issue would have looked like.

P.S. Speaking of pork products, didn’t Pig Iron sacrifice himself at the end of Captain Carrot and the Lost Ark to help all the other animals escape their Earth?