FINAL CRISIS #7 (OF 7)

Review by: Templar

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This review contains spoilers, click here to read

It's no surprise, but understanding this takes a lot of work. And once you get to the point of really understanding, you might also understand that this is, as it has been said, a right-brained story. To some extent, you have to feel it rather than think it. the abstract construction of the plot and it repercussions kind of remind me of a good poem. To some extent, we can all take away the same meaning from it, but additionally, there is a wealth of interpretations that can be made about specifics and the meanings behind certain actions. In that, what I may see or you may see might be beyond right and wrong in terms of how, exactly, we arrived at our conclusion. There is only what we know and what we can assume.

After reading this story verrrry slowly, I almost see it as an allegorical duel of preptime between Darkseid and Batman. This story started with the murder of Orion, which we now know allowed Darkseid to "fall", conquering Earth and quashing the multiverse at once, as Earth is the lynchpin of the "52". In order to fire the god-killing bullet at Orion, he needed to do it from a time when Orion was already dead, and thus could not sense the danger. Naturally, the bullet would need to be able to travel through time, and Darkseid exploited the fact that he knew the Flashes would try to stop him, because this is a "Crisis", but only Barry would have come up with the plan to run faster-than-light to reach Darkseid... so Darkseid brought him back so he could fire the god-bullet through the superliminal wake (and therefore, back in time) the Flashes created as they approached, just as planned. The bullet struck Orion and eventually wound up in the hands of Batman, who figured all of this out and what happened next. Ok, maybe not, but he certainly figured enough out.

Batman confronts Darkseid and fires the god-bullet, mortally wounding Darkseid. Looking back, the entry wound seems to be just below the shoulder, close to but not through the heart. I suppose the shot would have been non-lethal to Dan Turpin, but certainly gave Darkseid a nasty case of radion poisoning. The fact that this weakened him was what allowed the Black Racer, the only one who can "truly" kill New Gods, to take not only Darkseid, but his entire essence, which had permeated through three billion people. Darkseid never saw the possibility of what Batman and Barry Allen had set into motion until it was too late.

Of course, Darkseid's "death" allows the hole through which Mandraak appears, and that's a job for Superman. Or rather it was a job for 51 multiversal Supermen. Superman had also done some planning, using the Miracle Machine and everyone's DNA to essentially "reboot" reality after the battle. That part is certainly more confusing, but what we do know is that the Monitors have relenquished quite a bit of control, the result of which is that everybody on Earth now knows about the multiverses, and travel between them is likely possible. This, of course, will have a greater significance down the road. Also, New Genesis and the New Gods are reborn, and fanboys who didn't realize it (for some reason) got proof that Batman is not dead. Excuse me as I alternatively sigh "duh" and roll my eyes.

Obviously, much much more than this happened in the book, but these are the parts I consider to be important. And I don't feel like writing a thesis paper here, anyway. Although the story feels odd at times, and some of it is told from after the fact (though not in a "this was all totally insignifcant" Secret Invasion kind of way), it's very stimulating and, although I don't love the art (there's something plastic about Mahnke's facesd and eyes), the layouts are insane and really give you the impression that reality is falling apart. I'm sure I'll be picking out bits of significance from this book for weeks to come, as Morrison has a tendency to tell a story in the same disjointed manor as a five year old hopped-up on too much sugar, with plot elements flying in from all sides with little pretense. Or at least for those of us who aren't Kirby scholars. And to be sure, this was absolute Kirby porn. And my right brain is buzzing.

Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 3 - Good

Comments

JumpingJupiter says:

January 28, 2009 at 5:53 pm

I’m a little cofused by this review. The first paragraph says things that sound like the reviewer enjoyed the issue while the last sounds negative.

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flapjaxx says:

January 28, 2009 at 6:37 pm

It’s called a mixed review. A well thought-out one too.

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Templar says:

January 28, 2009 at 6:40 pm

Thank you, flapjaxx.

I did mostly likely the story, but had issues with how it was told.

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JumpingJupiter says:

January 28, 2009 at 8:29 pm

I guess it’s that with 4 rating that threw me off.

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Jesse1125 says:

January 28, 2009 at 8:48 pm

@templar. I really like your insight and I’ve enjoyed all your reviews and much needed explanations.A few questions though, what was that about the last survivors being frozen(again off panel?) and How was Wonder Woman freed?(the god bacterium? explanation please?)

Finally, I take it one must read that Superman Beyond (2 ish series) to grasp the whole monitor angle better huh?(kicking myself for not picking those up)

Apreciate your feedback, I rate the finale somewhat a letdown but the build up was better in my view .

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Templar says:

January 28, 2009 at 9:20 pm

I assume WW got freed because Black Racer was killin’ on Darkseid, as well as his essence. He WAS everyone, so if the Racer was taking him, he was taking him out of everyone else. That’s about the only thing of your questions I can explain.

But another thing I just realized? Batman is back at the "beginning" of the world? INFINITE PREPTIME.

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JumpingJupiter says:

January 28, 2009 at 9:32 pm

Wait wait wait. Are we saying that the fact hat it CAN be understood then it’s a good story?

Just asking.

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rwpos says:

January 28, 2009 at 9:47 pm

@Templar: That can’t be how Wonder Woman was freed because Darkseid was still around and in control after the Dark Racer incident. When Wonder Woman is freed we see her amongst a crowd of Darkseid people, so he was still generally in control. I think Wonder Woman was freed by Grant Morrison because that fit how he wanted to say that she had bound Darkseid with her lasso. I don’t think anything within the story actually relates to her being freed.

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Templar says:

January 28, 2009 at 9:59 pm

@JumpingJupiter – I’m not sure what you’re asking.

I didn’t think what I said was confusing. It’s a good story, but I have some issues about how it was told. That doesn’t have much to do with if I understood it or not. I KNOW I missed some things, but I’m ok with that.

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Templar says:

January 28, 2009 at 10:00 pm

@rwpos – You’re probably right. After all, we’re supposed to "feel, not think", right?

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ultimatehoratio says:

January 29, 2009 at 9:07 am

Hmm, I thought the problem with the whole thing is that there was too much thinking and not enough feeling. And that dialogue. Howlers abound.

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JumpingJupiter says:

January 29, 2009 at 6:28 pm

@Templar what I’m saying is that from what I can tell you seem to be positive about the book because you were able to understand it. If so that seems to be a stretch "I understand this book, therefore it is awesome!" But I’m not that is what you are saying, so I’m asking.

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Templar says:

January 29, 2009 at 8:36 pm

How about I understood the important parts of this book, and it was pretty good, though if I hadn’t understood I would probably think it was pretty good, but might be better if I could understand it?

I don’t know. Can you enjoy something if you don’t get it at all? But anyway, I never said anything about it being awesome. Elements of it lent itself to the 4-star rating because even though I had issue with the disjointed nature of the writing, I really thought there was a lot of food for thought in the ideas. And comics that keep me thinking about them after reading always get a pretty good rating from me.

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Timmy Wood (@TimmyWood) says:

February 1, 2009 at 4:24 pm

Templar has the best reviews of Final Crisis on this site in my opinion.

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Templar says:

February 2, 2009 at 2:18 am

@TimmyWood – Thank you, that’s really saying a lot.

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ActualButt says:

February 2, 2009 at 11:36 am

Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this review. It really helped me grasp things that I didn’t pick up on myself during any of my multiple readings of this issue. I even read it once on the crapper so I could reeeally focus, to no avail.

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Templar says:

February 5, 2009 at 12:07 am

You’re welcome.

If you want a really in-depth synopsis of each episode, check out the Comic Geek Speak podcast. One fella on the show, Murd, is an encyclopedia for this stuff. The have whole episodes devoted to him explaining each issue. The most recent one, featuring this issue and Superman Beyond 2 was an hour and a half. (!)

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FINAL CRISIS #7 (OF 7)

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