We’re back, with a renewed emphasis on drawing attention to what is and isn’t worth your hard earned dollars in these lean economic times. Comics have never been more expensive, with cover prices that have far outpaced inflation (despite an increasing number of full page ads). The $3.99 price point is here. 

We’re committed to a weekly comic book column highlighting some things we think are worth a look, and some that should be overlooked.

Final Crisis #7 (of 7)  (DC Comics)($3.99)
By Graig Kent

At this writing I have read the final issue of Final Crisis three times over. After the first read I was left scratching my head so profusely I bled. The second time around I was less in awe, but still trying to make sense of it all. The third read came after revisiting the chapters that preceded it, starting with DC Universe #0 and working my way through each issue, ignoring the sidebars like Revelations, Legion of Three Worlds, Submit, etc. which I didn't the first time around.

Now, I've read each issue of Final Crisis numerous times, with each issue I generally read two or three times and then turning back to the previous issues to start piecing the picture together, so I guess you could say I've gotten pretty familiar with everything that's happened up 'til now. But in this latest rereading, having the conclusion before me, all the lights were turned on for the very first time, and I could see what each moment meant in issues 1 - 6, and how they connect and play together. Yes, each issue of Final Crisis did read like a series of disparate, relatively unconnected vignettes, nary a logical storyline to be had, only late in the game did it seem like the masterplan was coming together.

Part of this was the themes writer Grant Morrison was playing with: good vs. evil is a pretty simple staple, but evil triumphing was the wrench in the works. There was the idea of gods, and how they can't really die, as long as they are carried in the hearts and minds of man, and the use string theory to explain the 52 universes, and a series of mysteries unfolding. Morrison was playing with a scope heretofore unheard of, taking years of DC history (much of it his own doing) and weaving it all together, from the Monitors to Bludhaven to the New Gods, touching on Crises past, and putting it all into play. There was so much going on from the get go, and Morrison kept adding more and more kids in the pool, making it so incredibly difficult to breathe, nevermind swim.

The other thing was Morrison was experimenting with storytelling, taking a vastly different approach to "event comics" and superheroes in general than ever before. He was telling a massive story of smaller stories using only fractions of each to do so. To paraphrase him, he's only showing the parts of the story that interest him, the good bits. Normally each of these stories - and there are dozens of them: the battle at the bridge in Bludhaven; the resistance camps at the Hall of Justice, Checkmate and 4 other locations; the supervillain showdown between Luthor and Libra; Batman's duel of wits with Mokkori and Simian; the Marvel family corruption; the Monitors internal conflict; events on the other 51 worlds; the Green Lantern trial, all just for starters - would have played out in crossover after crossover, in specials and ongoing issues, but Morrison has trimmed the fat and shown only what he deems essential to the story (whether the fans agree fully or not is another matter). In this sense it plays out not altogether unlike the other Crises have, but for this instance you're not missing anything by not collecting the crossovers because there really aren't any.

It's when you go back to the beginning, with knowledge of the end, that Morrison's masterstrokes in editing plays out from the first issue to the sixth. Everything has meaning, purpose towards the overall goal at the end.

Final Crisis first appeared in late May, 2008. It was intended as a seven-issue mini-series with a one-month break between issues three and four. If you do the math, though it may not seem like it having waited month to month, its finale is not that far off schedule. But the perception was that of many delays, the rumour mill of many rewrites, the seeming confirmation of that by fill in and replacement artists for J.G. Jones, but does any of the behind the scenes matter anymore now that it's complete? Do we even really remember the drama? Quite frankly, I'm still to busy trying to figure out what it all means.

Touch on the art briefly, early on Jones was setting the tone for the series, epic in scope, lavish in technical execution. If there were big-budget blockbuster comics, that's what this was set up to be. With Carlos Pacheco taking on fill-in assists with issues four through six, the storytelling pace quickens, the scenery isn't as huge, and Pacheco, while an impressive talent in his own right, busies things up a little more, adding plenty of details but lacking the focus and the dynamism Jones had in his layouts. The final issue is rendered in full by Mahnke, and here's a guy who does it solid, but just like Pacheco, loses out on the scope that Jones was rendering. The story is still told and told exceptionally well, but from issue one to issue seven, things just got a little more crowded.

The final issue, even after ploughing through the preceding six, is still a bit of a puzzler. There is indeed so much going on, and Morrison is toying with the multiple universes, and multiple time periods, and non-linear narrative that it's a dizzying whirlwind, a puzzle that's all put together but with pieces leftover. In the end, even with three reads, I'm not sure what the conclusion means, but I have a guess:

The Monitors represent continuity, or continuity cops (fans and editors who need things to make sense in context with what has gone on before). In a metatextual sense, Morrison's trying to state that it's the interference of continuity that keeps the DC Universe from living, growing on its own, and with the Final Crisis, the Monitors, and thus continuity, are rendered obsolete. The walls between the 52 Universes (and beyond?) are broken down and anything is possible (theoretically anyway). The Crises that have come before, from Crisis on Infinite Earths, to Zero Hour, to Infinite Crisis have all been about trying to make sense of the long, storied diversity of DC's past, trying to make it all fit under one context, and it's an impossible task. Those who crave to have it all make sense, the Monitors, are asked to let go. There will be no more continuity Crises, because continuity is no longer watched.

It's a theory anyway.

The final issue leaves a few questions in my head, the purpose of a few story elements questioned, like what was it the two Atoms were doing? Where did Renee Montoya/Question and the survivors wind up after they went through the Motherboxxx's boom tube? How did the Earth get restored (a deux ex machina of Superman's wish for a "happy ending", I guess given Morrison's fondness for metatext and self-aware characters)? But questions aside, left for exploring later (if at all), the final issue brings together Final Crisis as a bedazzling work of epic superhero fiction. With a conclusion as oblique as this, it's certainly not going to please everyone (I was certainly expecting something more tangible out of all of this), but overall any doubts I carried through from the beginning were resolved once I went through it all again, start-to-finish, and took a little time to understand it.


FOUR AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS


Aside: Now, I mentioned there wasn't the usual piles upon piles crossover material, but that's not to say there was none.

Rogues Revenge was a three-issue mini-series which I ignored altogether (but serves distinctively as the only one of Geoff Johns' Final Crisis contributions to be completed).

Revelations, a five-issue series which finished this week alongside FC #7, I started picking up right around issue four's release. While it doesn't have any major impact on Morrison's story, it's a cracker of a tale by Greg Rucka, looking at the religious side of things as they involve the Spectre and the Question versus Vandal Savage/Cain incarnate. I normally don't enjoy stories involving the Spectre but this was top notch (as long as you take the overbearing "Final Crisis" logo with a grain of salt.

Superman Beyond was a two issue mini-series available in regular and 3-D editions. Of any of the crossovers, this would be the only considered mandatory reading, but even then Morrison weaves another deep does of obtuseness in the second half. Yet it does overcome its failings, with Doug Mahnke providing great art throughout, and overall it's a wildly bizarre, entertaining book.

Resist - another Rucka book, this time a one-shot that finds teleporter/JLA mascot Snapper Carr running errands for Checkmate during the Crisis. It's a really good, non-essential aside tale, especially for fans of Rucka's Checkmate.

Submit - Morrison's companion book to "Resist" features some ugly art from Matthew Clark, but a pretty simple and compelling story about the Tattooed Man as he finds inspiration to turn away from the darkness.

Legion of Three Worlds - A five issue mini-series by Geoff Johns and George Perez, LO3W has only seen two issues in print so far. I was always a little suspect about how the series fit with Final Crisis, and given that FC has finished without losing any impact from the series, it may eventually be very cool for Legion fans, but it's completely unessential.

Raided: Star Wars: Legacy #32 (Dark Horse Comics)($2.99)
by Sean Fahey

I think what I love most about this comic is that I never know where it’s going to take me, and I never know who I’m going to be introduced to when I get there, but it’s always fascinating. More than any other Star Wars film, show or book before it, Legacy (which is set about 140 years after the original trilogy and follows the adventures of Skywalker’s morally ambiguous great-great-grandson) truly conveys the expansiveness of the Star Wars universe and the enormous scope of the struggles therein. Series writer John Ostrander has a real knack for exploring every nook and cranny and breathing full life into every character gracing the comic’s pages (down to every foot soldier, mechanic, pilot, you name it). This issue, the beginning of a new story-arc, features a group of Mon Calamari rangers engaging in underwater hit and run tactics against their Sith-led Imperial oppressors. That’s right, Mon Calamari rangers. As in commandos. Mon Calamari.  And it’s pretty kick ass. (Truth told, these periodic “side-stories” are just as exciting as the series’ main story line.) There’s a hammy chance encounter right in the middle of the battle that feels very out of place, but it does set up an interesting discussion about duty, loyalty and the role of an insurgency. Minor hiccup aside, this is still a very good issue of a great series. (You can check out some preview pages HERE)


FOUR OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



Raided: Ultimate Spider-Man #130 (Marvel- $2.99)
By Jeb D.
 
Regular readers of this column may recall that I recently had some less than positive words for the ham-fisted Ultimatum event series that is reshaping the Ultimate Marvel Universe… likely into something pointless, but that’s show biz. This week, though, writer Brian Bendis and artist Stuart Immonen demonstrate that in superhero comics, it’s rarely the concept that’s at fault; it’s all in how you handle it. While the Ultimatum event is going on (and in case you’ve spared yourself up to this point, there’s tidal waves wiping out whole cities, thanks to that rascally Magneto), Spider-Man faces his usual set of distractions: friends are in danger, family’s in trouble, innocents need rescuing… and a few punches have to be thrown. The book opens with Aunt May being arrested for harboring a wanted fugitive (i.e., Peter, who is strongly suspected of being exactly who he is), and we get one of those great police interrogation scenes that Bendis does so well. Pretty soon, though, that becomes the least of Peter’s worries, as Xavier calls on him to join up with the X-Men who survived the first installment of Ultimatum and take the fight to Magneto. Oh, and there’s the small matter of The Hulk being on the loose.  Stuart Immonen continues to make this book very much his own, bringing a bit more visual variety than Mark Bagley had (and his scenes of the Ultimatum destruction feel even more devastating than the ones Finch drew in the main series—though I do give Finch the edge on drawing water). I have no idea what the endgame for Ultimatum is supposed to be, and how it’s going to affect Spider-Man and company. But as long as Bendis and Immonen stay on the book, not even big, wet crossover events will keep this from being one of the most entertaining superhero books out there.


THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



Raided: Battlefields: Dear Billy #1 (of 3) (Dynamite Entertainment)($3.50)
by Sean Fahey

I’m a bit of a World War Two history fanatic.  When I was in middle school my favorite book to check out of the library was a volume in the Time-Life World War Two series titled, “War on the Outposts,” which truly impressed upon me the scope of the conflict. Spy rings in Istanbul. Coast Guard led raids on Nazi weather stations and listening posts in Greenland. Japanese marines occupying several of Alaska’s Aleutian islands. German U-Boats off the coast of South America. Total war.  Every country, every man, woman and child was impacted in one way or another. My point being, I guess, is that it’s the untold stories that interest me the most, which is one of the reasons why I absolutely love Garth Ennis’ World War Two anthology series, Battlefields. Having just wrapped up his first arc, about Soviet female bomber pilots (or “Night Witches”), Ennis turns his attention to a British nurse caught up in the chaotic Japanese advance across the South Seas and the hopes and horrors she encounters on a road that will led her to either reconciliation or self-destruction.  There are some elements to this story that play out a bit like a South Seas version of The English Patient, especially with respect to the nurses’ moral dilemma regarding the fate of one of her patients, but on the whole this story stands on its own and is a moving piece about the collateral victims of the war.  If you’re looking for bullets and bombs, this isn’t for you.  But if you’re looking for great storytelling and rich characters, you’ll appreciate this book. (You can check out some preview pages HERE)


FOUR AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



Hero Squared: Love and Death #1 (of 3) (Boom Studios) ($3.99)
By Graig Kent

When it was unceremoniously announced that the ongoing Hero Squared title would be ending, I was more than a little disappointed.  The reunion of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis - creators of perhaps my favorite comic of all-time, the late-80's "bwa-ha-ha" era of the Justice League - on Hero Squared was like having not just a damn fine dose of comics, but also an experience that was comfortable, familiarity, that kinda felt like home without being regurgitative, pensive or saccharine. That the series would come to an end, yes, I was sad. That it happened so abruptly, with issue #6, without any sense of closure, well, that was annoying, frustrating and, frankly, kind of rude.

Don't think those feelings escaped Misters Giffen and DeMatteis, as they have returned, one final time, to give those of us they left hanging what we deserve, a little "Love and Death".

If you're not familiar with the series, I hate to say it but there's not much point in leaping in now. Thankfully, there's collected editions out there that I'd highly encourage purveryors of superhero comics, sitcom watchers and relationship drama buffs to get their hands on (or you can even get started on-line here for free. The basic gist of Hero Squared is Milo Stone, everyday shlub, wakes up one day to find that he's also a superhero named Captain Valor... only he's not the superhero, a version of himself from another dimension is. Valor has escaped his own dimension where a villain named Caliginous has decimated the entire planet and all life on it, but in coming to Milo's "normal" Earth has jeopardized its existence as well as Milo's relationship with his longtime suffering girlfriend Stephie. Now, here's the tricky part, Stephie's other-dimensional self is Caliginous, and it was her relationship with Captain Valor that turned her vindictive and evil.  Where we left off, Milo's Stephie had once again dumped him, where Caliginous was there to pick up the pieces. This drove Stephie into Captain Valor's arms and now there's a decidedly unhealthy love square happening, two participants of which are capable of decimating the planet. You can see where the drama, comedy and action comes in right?

As far as superhero comics go, there's nothing like Hero Squared out there. It's so far removed from the norm, from the usual cheap thrills and excitement that spandex tights brings (cheap laughs though are a complete other matter) that it can't help but endear itself to the reader. The fact that Giffen and DeMatteis bring their best to the scripts each time means there's always a stimulating mix of emotions and entertainment to derive. While their longtime collaborator Joe Abraham wasn't able to complete the series, pitch-illustrator Nathan Watson steps in, emulating Abraham's aesthetic if not his same flair for physical comedy.

It's bittersweet, the return of the end of Hero Squared, but it would be even worse were there no end at all.


FOUR OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS


[Raided] Faces of Evil: Kobra One-Shot (DC Comics) ($2.99)
By Graig Kent

I don't think Kobra has ever properly found himself/themselves in the super-villain limelight, despite having a (short-lived) series in the 1970's. Since then, the guy and the organization has been relegated to third-tier status, yet another cult amongst Brother Blood, HIVE and others in the DCU, acting as foil to whomever requires one at the moment. As an international terror organization, much like its G.I. Joe counterparts, Kobra has been kind of a joke, and its leader the Aquaman of bad guys. But with one quick issue in DC's ill-conceived "Faces of Evil" month, from a writer few have ever heard of in the comics scene, Kobra has just poised itself as a very convincing threat to even the mightiest of superheroes. Writer Ivan Brandon has, in 22 pages, manufactured the cult of Kali-Yuga into a damn scary terrorist organization, bent on little more than religious zealotry and anarchy, with perhaps global domination in mind.  With an unassuming, even dismissible arrival on the stands, this is a phenomenal book and, of the meager few I've read, the first truly suitable book for the "Faces of Evil" tag.  By the end of it's brief story, with some chilling visuals from Julian Lopez, I felt remorse that there was no longer a Checkmate book in place for this creative team to explore what Brandon introduced (a logical successor for Greg Rucka were there one), but at the same time, I'm curious to see where he winds up at DC and if he gets to continue this story.


FOUR OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS