FINAL CRISIS #7 (OF 7)

Review by: Fractal514

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Price: 3.99

This review contains spoilers, click here to read

I did not like this book.

If you are going to try and argue against the points I make, I welcome the discussion. Keep in mind however that nothing anyone can say can make me like this book, and I don't want you to waste your time.

I will now tell you why.

Being a director, of theater, I am very much about conflict, story arc, and characterization. I understand that not everyone desires to see a straight narrative that moves the plot from point A to B to C, climaxes, and then denouements, but that's me and that's what I look for.

I do not believe that Grant Morrison gave us a clear and easily identifiable conflict, you may disagree, but please don't. If I didn't identify the conflict, then it wasn't easily identifiable. I'm not saying that I am somehow the arbiter and judge for what is and isn't identifiable, but I have been reading comics for most of my life and I really dig all sorts of confusing things, this was too confusing for me, therefore, not easily identifiable.

I do not believe that Grant Morrison cared much about the story arc. I believe that he cared about the story, and I believe that there is a linear chart somewhere that makes sense of the disjointed scenes presented to us, but this book does not feature an arc that I found conducive to so massive a story. Not everything has to be presented in a linear fashion, that's for sure, but when it seems that pages themselves are just out of place, and that conflicting scenes and images of characters were so disjointed as to make it difficult to follow and make sense of. I don't know where the climax of this story is, I couldn't even try to pick it out for you, and that kind of bothers me.

I do not believe that Grant Morrison cared much about character development. Perhaps it was the massive scale on which he was trying to work, but there was no moment during this story, outside of the death of Batman, that had any emotional impact for me whatsoever. That being said, even the Batman stuff was undone by the fact that he seems to be alive in the past, taking away the awesomeness of that moment. When Martian Manhunter died, I said, holy crap, but I didn't feel it. When Aquaman came back, I said what the hell? But, I didn't care. The universe died, and not once, in the main Final Crisis books, did I give a damn. It was too hard to connect to anyone, given the fact that the story was told with a frenetic cutting back and forth between WAY too many plot points.

I would just like to say that all of those who bashed Secret Invasion for having nothing happen for 5 issues, but who say they love this, are entitled to their opinion, but man do I disagree. The Flash came back, did nothing, then ran fast past Darksied in the last issue. Superman did nothing for 6 issues. Libra is built up and does nothing of consequence in the end.

The sad part, for me, is that I believe there is a really good story in this. I just can't get past the storytelling. I think that Grant Morrison may have been too smart for his own good on this one. Which brings me to my final point. The thing that bugs me more than anything else is the dismissive nature those who like the story have about those who do not like it. When someone, who regularly reads DC books, pays money to purchase a big company wide event, and then can't enjoy it because the manner in which it's told is too confusing, it is a failure of the storyteller, not the audience. I think it is natural for those who enjoy this book and GM's writing style to defend this work and say that on some level his work is good, but I disagree. You like confusing, oddly told stories, we like simple straight forward plots.

Man, I can't wait for Blackest Night.

Story: 2 - Average
Art: 3 - Good

Comments

JumpingJupiter says:

January 28, 2009 at 5:47 pm

One would tend to think a theater director knows a thing or two about story. Haven’t read this yet but your review sounds pretty reasonable. Other than the " You like confusing, oddly told stories, we like simple straight forward plots" comment.

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drakedangerz says:

January 28, 2009 at 6:14 pm

"If you are going to try and argue against the points I make, I welcome the discussion. Keep in mind however that nothing anyone can say can make me like this book, and I don’t want you to waste your time."

haha, well then it would hardly be a productive discussion right? So why bother?

While I understand your dislike with the book, you seem to have as much of a passion for not liking Morrion’s storytelling style as the passion that the people have for defending it.

I did find your comments interesting though

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flapjaxx says:

January 28, 2009 at 6:36 pm

"The thing that bugs me more than anything else is the dismissive nature those who like the story have about those who do not like it."

The thing that’s bugged me is exactly the opposite. I’ve been annoyed by all the dismissive comments of those who don’t like it. But yours was a pretty thoughtful review and I can definitely see your perspectives on things.

"When someone, who regularly reads DC books, pays money to purchase a big company wide event, and then can’t enjoy it because the manner in which it’s told is too confusing, it is a failure of the storyteller, not the audience."

Well I think in that case it’s a failure on both parties, if you want to look at it that way (and I’m not sure I would). Morrison failed to entertain you; you failed to be interested enough in what he was doing. There are bad writers, and there certainly are bad (or unskilled) readers too. You don’t seem all that unskilled of a reader, though, so don’t think I’m trying to put you into that category. But they are out there: the people who just don’t have the reading skills to understand FC. All of the flame wars over FC are complicated by this. But as evidenced by your review, you pretty much DO see what Morrison was going for, and you didn’t go for it. It’s almost refreshing to read negative reviews like yours.

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Fractal514 says:

January 28, 2009 at 6:44 pm

I realize that my final comment about preferences, comes off as snarky, I don’t mean it to be so.

As for my opinion not being changable, that doens’t negate a conversation on the work, just go in knowing that the merit of the work and the style is debatable, my opinion is not.

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Fractal514 says:

January 28, 2009 at 6:52 pm

I think that there is a failure on both parts, but unfortuantely, we are the customer and this is a major company wide event. I think it’s fair to say that if you don’t like this type of book, don’t read it. That argument works really well for books like Fables, Amazing Spider-Man, and other ongoing character or team based titles. The problem here, I feel, is that this Final Crisis was a company wide crossover, touted as the third and final part of an overarcing storyline begun in COIE, continued in IC, and concluded here. With that type of hype and importance, you are not just writing for a niche market, you are writing for virtually the entire DCU reader base. It is with this goal in mind that I suggest GM failed. I believe more people will read this series and be turned off to GM, DCU, and comics in general than will read it and be turned on. That being said, I do believe that there will be some folks who DO get into comics because of this, just not that many.

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JumpingJupiter says:

January 28, 2009 at 8:36 pm

As a designer I totally agree with the above statement about target audience.

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Jesse1125 says:

January 28, 2009 at 9:05 pm

@ Fractal514 I wholeheartedly agree with all your statements. MY biggest problem was that TOO damn much happened off panel. I could deal with every thing not being explained to me but would have liked to see abit more developement of what felt like some major moments.

"Libra is built up and does nothing of consequence in the end." Amen! He was built up as a major player then too easily/quickly dismissed! Overall FC had a better build up than finale in my opinion

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WadeWilson says:

January 28, 2009 at 9:33 pm

Awesome review, Fractal514. I totally agree with your above post, also.

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ultimatehoratio says:

January 29, 2009 at 9:21 am

I loved this review. Fantastic.

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FINAL CRISIS #7 (OF 7)

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