VogonPoet30

December 4, 2008 11:58 pm Until Bruce's memories start becoming distorted toward the end, this issue fits perfectly within the context of Morrison's run.  It lays out his Unified Theory of Batman, in a way, accepting all the changes in tone that have occurred over 70 years of stories, etc..  When the reviewer starts by saying he hasn't understood a single thing since the run started, I think it's fair, Final Crisis tie-in or not, to point out that they might not want to pick it up anymore.  As for directly dealing with the events  of 681, I'm sure answers will come.  Some might not like said answers, but it's not like the Batman line of books can really move forward without spelling out what happened eventually.

December 4, 2008 11:48 pm I'm going to laugh really hard if Bruce is take out of the picture because of Final Crisis instead of RIP, because that's where I'm starting to think it's going.  That said, Batman was put under similar torture in Morrison's old Rock of Ages story in JLA. It took him years, but he ended up cracking Desaad (Darkseid's go-to torture guy, fyi) rather than the other way around.

December 4, 2008 11:33 pm

You're absolutely right about some people using alien cultures to subtextually talk about humanity.  There has been a lot of great stuff written with that approach in mind. 

Part of my beef with this whole plot element is purely subjective.  Skrulls show up and start blowing shit up saying "He love you," and my first question is "Who is this 'He?"  Obviously it's either their god, or some kind of religious figure, but does their god have a name?  Is it a crazy cosmic being that could actually show up later in the story to seriously even the odds if it came down to a face to face confrontation with earth's heroes?  You have to admit that there were a lot of ways that "He" COULD have been a major plot point.  So when the Skrull queen simply says that "He" is god, all I can think is "Duh."  When people like Reed Richards and Tony Stark can't make the same leaps in logic that I can....anyway...I'm probably flogging a dead horse or covering ground that other people in other threads have done more thoroughly.

December 4, 2008 11:19 pm Yeah, they did.  It's not that we don't know who "he" is, so much as a lot of people finding the explanation to be too simplistic and/or lame.

December 4, 2008 11:04 pm

The words FINAL CRISIS were clearly visible on the cover.  Maybe don't read it if you don't know what's happening in the event?

Morrison is ultra-polarizing around here, but I don't think it can be successfully argued that he is "bad" writer.  His storytelling is different than what a lot of people look for in their mainstream fair, but it is possible to understand if you're willing to try.

December 4, 2008 10:50 pm I don't know how they are going to get rid of Gog without losing some of the team's sizable roster in the process...

December 4, 2008 10:48 pm Gog's undoing of his gifts doesn't change what's at stake so much as it's going to emotionally affect the the characters for issues and issues to come.  I don't think it was ever in question that some of these "miracles" would be undone when it inevitably came to blows with Gog, anyway.  

December 4, 2008 10:43 pm

Mmm.  Good stuff, this.

I would love nothing more than for Alan and Jay to remain in their Kingdom Come versions.  Integrating exciting elements of possible futures into the main DC timeline is a good thing in my mind.  It makes the Elseworlds stuff more potent if you feel that they sometimes come within a hair's breadth of actually happening.  

December 4, 2008 10:01 pm

I really enjoy when alien cultures are fleshed out, and personally think it's too simplistic to just make the Skrulls fanatacism manifest in exactly the same way it does on Earth.  A culture of galaxy-spanning shape shifters would have a pretty interesting take on religion if someone bothered to spell out what it would be like.

Really, I'm not even totally disagreeing with you.  I just think, for me, the story would have worked better either by exploring this area more, or getting rid of it entirely.

December 4, 2008 9:53 pm And I agreed with that point...