My Thoughts On Final Crisis #1

Some of my comic book ‘big deals’ are Secret Wars, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Legends, and Contest of Champions, just to name a few. And for the most part, when I read those stories I could ‘hear’ the character – he or she had a distinct voice. When Spider-Man overheard the X-Men in Secret Wars #3, written by Jim Shooter, he ’sounded’ like Spider-Man when the mutants took action against him. Even Xavier, after ‘helping’ Spidey forget what just happened, ’sounded’ like the Charles I was used to in Chris Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men.

Marv Wolfman did an amazing job putting the words into the mouths of hundreds of heroes and villains in Criss on Infinite Earths. The Flash, Batman, Superman, a bunch of Green Lanterns, the Teen Titans, Joker, Lex Luthor, Psimon, Blue Beetle, Sgt. Rock, Killer Frost all ’sound’ like they did in the comics they appeared in before (and during and after) the miniseries.

And that seems to be my biggest issue with Final Crisis #1, written by Grant Morrison. Hal Jordan didn’t ’sound’ like Hal. The scene with the Justice League of America? No, that didn’t ’sound’ like Superman or Batman to me. And wasn’t Orion a teammate of theirs during Morrison’s JLA run? Also, the forced, over-emphasized brogue that Mirror Master used seemed completely out of character. Again, to me.

This read like Morrison playing in the DC sandbox. Which is cool for a special story (JLA: Earth-2 is one of my favorite Grant Morrison stories), but not an event that’s shaping your universe.

The art by J.G. Jones was good, even strong, in parts and others not so much. Again, a personal preference, I’m not a fan of his version of Lantern Jordan. When we first see Superman I was very underwhelmed. And I’ll leave the appearance of the Question alone. For now.

Aside from that, it felt disjointed in spots. Here we are with Dr. Light (looking to score something to prevent E.D. all while doing some dirty work) and Mirror Master, now here’s Superman at the Hall of Justice, and we’ll throw in Libra and Lex Luthor and Vandal Savage in there somewhere. I feel like I’m watching it and not experiencing it.

And for those that read New Avengers, the scene with Libra rang familiar to me. It might have had more of an impact to me if I didn’t read a similar scene a few months ago. But that’s no fault to this creative team.

As for what I liked, I really enjoyed seeing Turpin. And so much of him. That’s good. I also like the Dark Side Club. And I thought the opening and closing pages were well done.

So far, it hasn’t shown me anything deserving of the CRISIS title. But it is only the first issue, and nevertheless, I’m along for the ride.

Tags: Events, Final Crisis, Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, Miniseries