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.
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