Review: Final Crisis #7

(Note: That is not the cover of Final Crisis #7)

In lieu of a review of Final Crisis #7, I'm just going to share a few thoughts I had while reading it (spoilerz of course!):

Huh?

What the fuck?

Man, I don't think I get any of this.

*Yawn*

Who cares?

Oh wait, I think it's making sense.

Nope. It's not

Ohhhh....it's a Final Crisis...but for the Monitors!

Huh? (in reference to the last page of the epilogue)

Look- bottom line is I feel like people either loved Final Crisis or they didn't. I'm not sure which category I'm in. I'm not as quick to judge something like this on first reading as I feel like it at least deserves a second look as a whole (instead of waiting a month or sometimes more in between chapters). The only problem with that is there are way too many great comics out there that are going on right now that I get and understand right away, so it's really hard to say when I will have the time to revisit Final Crisis. I think for someone like me this might be it's biggest letdown. The fact that I really want to "get" the grand scheme of what happened here but I just don't feel like I have the time right now.

CBR columnist Timothy Callahan actually wrote a nice concise article that helped me to somewhat understand the overall themes of what Final Crisis is all about. You can read the article here. Full disclosure: Mr. Callahan does have a book out called Grant Morrison: The Early Years. He's what the haters call a 'GM Fanboy', so keep that in mind.

- TFM

Final Crisis: 7 of 7 releases tomorrow, 5 page preview now

DC Comics has released a five page preview of the final installment of Final Crisis, in stores tomorrow. Will this end up being the great, amazing event many were anticipating when it first started? For me personally, it could easily go either way. Looking forward to seeing how this wraps up and where the DC Universe stands in the aftermath.

Click on each page to enlarge.






- TFM

how are we spending our wednesdays?

or else #5

final crisis #4

final crisis submit

superman: new krypton

secret invasion #7

criminal #6

invincible #54

new avengers 46

trinity #21

unknown soldier #1

captain america #43

daredevil #112

ultimate spider-man 127

runaways #3

x-factor #36

hellblazer #248

x-men legacy#217

thunderbolts #125

Aetheric Mechanics

northlanders vol. 1

i live here

I had assumed Kevin Huizenga would be spending all his creativity on his Ignatz series "Ganges," so seeing Or Else #5 on the shelf was a pleasant surprise. This issue includes stories on spiders, turtles, sentence diagraming, wasting time, tuesdays and, of course, Glen Ganges. Instead of the usual scenario of Ganges and his wife analyzing some aspect of life, this issue gives him the lead role in an adaptation of a story in Giorgio Manganelli story about political oppression . I enjoyed "The Spiders around the House: A Special Report" the most and "Which Sentences are we Diagraming?" the least. They are both about exactly what you think they are.

In Final Crisis #4, the world is being overrun by the Anti-life equation. Kalibak returns as a tiger, the Tattooed man starts looking like Metron, and, in my favorite moment of the issue, Terrible Turrpin becomes Darkseid. In the midst of this were a couple of scenes of Wally West looking useless next to Barry Allen, which saddens me. Mark Waid's run with Wally really changed the way I look at super hero comics and I'm very unhappy this character is being swept to the side. I've been enjoying Final Crisis, though the first 3 issues really felt like an a long prelude. I hope we are finally on the cusp of something REALLY HAPPENING here.

Take a look at I Live Here if your comic store carries it. At first glance I thought it was a large hardcover, but it is actually four volumes in one case that folds out like a dvd box set. The four books include journals, comics paintings and fabric art telling the tragic stories of people living in four overlooked regions of the world: Ingushetia, Burma, Ciudad Juarez and Malawi. A full review will follow later this week.


-NM

News You Probably Read Elsewhere (10/21/08)

FirstShowing.net has a user submitted review of a Brian K. Vaughn script for a movie called Roundtable. A quick Google search shows articles from as far back as June talking about this, but I didn't know about it so it's news to me. Here's what they had to say about it:

"The script begins with a medieval battle; peasants are running through the countryside yelling and screaming, but as the camera zooms in closer, we see worms crawling in and out of the bodies and discover that these are actually zombie peasants. Then enters a proud knight wielding a broadsword, gallantly mowing down zombies on horseback. But he is swiftly atomized by a magical blast from behind as we are introduced to the story's curvaceous antagonist, Morgana. She is levitating over her army of zombies, magic electricity sparkling from her hands, black hair blowing in the wind. Three other knights enter and stand with their swords at the ready in defense against the witch and her army. Morgana gets in a few cocky lines touting her own inevitable victory, when the knights reveal they have a magician on their side as well. A falcon swoops in from the sky as the legendary wizard Merlin materializes, the bird landing gracefully on his arm. He is described quite differently than a typical storybook Merlin. While he still has his swirling black robes and his white beard, he is portrayed by an American comical actor (the script suggests Jack Black or Seth Rogen). Merlin uses his superior magic and restrains Morgana as the remaining three knights plunge their swords into her. Morgana's body swirls and transforms into a looming tree and the zombie army disintegrates, leaving our heroes and Merlin alone on the top of this English hill. One knight asks what will happen if Morgana ever escapes, Merlin replies that new knights of England will be needed and at that time be called the defend the empire. And so the stage is set for our modern day 'knights.'

Kind of lost me at the "Merlin is played by American comical actor" part, but hey I'll always give BKV the benefit of the doubt. On second thought though, Hollywood usually screws the pooch on stuff like this so I don't have the highest of hopes.


J.G. Jones is running late on his art for Final Crisis. Fuck dude, seriously? Doug Mahnke will handle pencils on the last issue.[Source: Comic Book Resources]


And finally, an open letter to whomever is in charge of these things on a topic I've remained silent on until now:

Dear whomever is in charge of these things-

If you decide to go forth with a Green Lantern movie, please do not let this guy play Hal Jordan:



Nothing against him in the slightest, but if you cast him the shit is going to suck. Thank you. - The Floronic Man

Sleep tight.

- TFM