Does anyone here ever go into a book w/o thinking, "this is what I'd do with it"?

That's our little game here: hoping to find a book written as well as we could have written it. Ever wrote a story from beginning to end? It's harder than you might think to conclude something effectively. Many enter stories with an ending in mind. Then find as the story takes a life its own that their preceived (<--ya, i f'n made that up) ending's no longer acceptable.

Comic writers know how their stories are going to end, usually before they begin. Their readers know it too. And yet, for a minute or so, we like to believe anything's possible. Like say, at the beginning of an arc. But always we know that it will end predictably.

WWH's the ideal example of predictablility in an ending. Did anyone really think The Hulk was going to kill off the Illuminati? I liked to believe for a second that he might, but most people had the ending pegged from the start (even more reason to hate The Sentry). If only he had killed off the Illuminustrious (<--made that up too) Four. Where would we be now?!

So what about Salvation Run? Everybody knew the Rogues would make it back to earth (spec. with Final Crisis droppin between the 6th and final issue). So the captivating part is how do they make it and which C-F Lister's gonna bite the bullet before they get there? Apparently that's it.

DC really dropped the ball here. They had a chance to make Salvation Run count. When I read Final Crisis #1 before getting to finish the SR arc I thought surely SR#7 was going to give me some sort of Easter egg. But, alas, it did not. Because, in the end, Luthor concocted a transporter, the parademons attacked for no reason and Martian Manhunter continued to sit in his fiery cage.

They could have delayed the book for a reason. They could have taken a look at what Morrison was doing in FC and said, "lets do this right for a change".

They didn't.

This happens with product manufacturing in big business and it's why Ferrari only builds five cars a day ("don't quote me on that"). If you don't take time to build something right you wind up with poor quality. And it's not to say that this series, as a whole, was bad. Just pointless.

Surely the "Rogues Revenge" book will give a bit more life to it, and Morrison's got something in mind within FC to further it. But, goddamit(!), I know somehow Libra fits into the scheme of things and I don't wanna wait another three months to find out how. If ever.

I don't mean to upset anyone who really enjoyed this, because, for the most part, I did too. It's just that I had high expectations for the bridge from Countdown to Final Crisis and I was let down. It's my own fault for dreaming that things would be different this time.