Final Crisis...Big Headache...
- Thread starter Thespeckledkiwi
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^
I kinda tend to agree with you.
Each one of the big crises so named had something to do with the name. Crisis on Infinite Earths - dealt with the whole parallel universe to explain all those weird powers and kinda do a reboot. Then Identity Crisis - where it's about the identity of the killer but also about the identity of which group is the 'good guy' and whether they have been true to their group philosophy or not - do they really belong with each other... (I liked Identity Crisis the best - simply because it was an incredibly *tight* and coherent story which really "spoke" to me). Then Infinite Crisis - where the infinite number of parallel 'verses coalesced into the 52. I have heard that Zero Hour counts as a Crisis but I have very little idea about it. Don't want to read too much in case of spoilage. And then the Final Crisis should perhaps have been called God Crisis (based on the simplified description above) or even Death Crisis (since (I think) two major characters die if not more) ).
Is there anything in the book that could point to why it's called "Final"?
Also, thanks shivkala and Greg Cox for the information on the Final Crisis trade coverage.
I kinda tend to agree with you.
Each one of the big crises so named had something to do with the name. Crisis on Infinite Earths - dealt with the whole parallel universe to explain all those weird powers and kinda do a reboot. Then Identity Crisis - where it's about the identity of the killer but also about the identity of which group is the 'good guy' and whether they have been true to their group philosophy or not - do they really belong with each other... (I liked Identity Crisis the best - simply because it was an incredibly *tight* and coherent story which really "spoke" to me). Then Infinite Crisis - where the infinite number of parallel 'verses coalesced into the 52. I have heard that Zero Hour counts as a Crisis but I have very little idea about it. Don't want to read too much in case of spoilage. And then the Final Crisis should perhaps have been called God Crisis (based on the simplified description above) or even Death Crisis (since (I think) two major characters die if not more) ).
Is there anything in the book that could point to why it's called "Final"?
Also, thanks shivkala and Greg Cox for the information on the Final Crisis trade coverage.
No problem, coolghoul. I definitely agree that "The God Crisis" might have fit better (but I can see why they didn't go with it).
If I might make a suggestion: skip Zero Hour. Infinite Crisis put the final nail in the coffin of undoing/wiping out all of the changes that resulted from ZH. That, and the fact that it was not a good story, by any stretch of the imagination. If you are a 90's sadist, that is someone who thought the excesses of the 90's is "fun" to read, then by all means, read it for the kitsch factor.
Some good things did come out of ZH, as I for one liked the "Post-Boot" Legion of Super-Heroes, one of the major changes wrought by Zero Hour. Oh and the events of ZH did cause Wally to run fast enough to enter the Speed Force, an event that changed him (but the scene is reprinted in Flash #94.
Perhaps the most lasting effect was the attack on the Justice Society, in which most of the original members were killed or aged. Really only Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, and Ted Grant escaped relatively unscathed (though Alan does give up being GL because of this, which is something that didn't last). With only one exception all of the characters killed from the JSA are still dead. This has an impact on the awesome James Robinson Starman series as the story begins with Ted Knight giving up being Starman due to what had happened with the JSA.
Of course, your mileage may vary, but again, I'd say that unless you are really curious and/or a fan of 90's comics, avoid it and just read the Wikipedia entry.
If I might make a suggestion: skip Zero Hour. Infinite Crisis put the final nail in the coffin of undoing/wiping out all of the changes that resulted from ZH. That, and the fact that it was not a good story, by any stretch of the imagination. If you are a 90's sadist, that is someone who thought the excesses of the 90's is "fun" to read, then by all means, read it for the kitsch factor.
Some good things did come out of ZH, as I for one liked the "Post-Boot" Legion of Super-Heroes, one of the major changes wrought by Zero Hour. Oh and the events of ZH did cause Wally to run fast enough to enter the Speed Force, an event that changed him (but the scene is reprinted in Flash #94.
Perhaps the most lasting effect was the attack on the Justice Society, in which most of the original members were killed or aged. Really only Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, and Ted Grant escaped relatively unscathed (though Alan does give up being GL because of this, which is something that didn't last). With only one exception all of the characters killed from the JSA are still dead. This has an impact on the awesome James Robinson Starman series as the story begins with Ted Knight giving up being Starman due to what had happened with the JSA.
Of course, your mileage may vary, but again, I'd say that unless you are really curious and/or a fan of 90's comics, avoid it and just read the Wikipedia entry.
They called it Final Crisis because it's the last planned "crisis" under Dan Didio's reign. Of course once he's gone, who knows what will happen. The funny thing is Sinestro Corps War was a better "crisis" than FC ever was. It had the return of the Anti-Monitor (gone since '86!) and dealt with the center of the universe and whatnot.
I don't think that I was confused more like disappointed by Final Crisis. It was built up to be this huge war between the DCU heroes against Darkseid but Darksied was not his usual bad ass self, they used Wonder Woman to deliver the anti-life equation and had her galloping around on a horse like a horsemen of the apocoplse fighting her friends, Darkseid traps Batman in a cycle of death and rebirth (as Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader establishes) after being shot with the Omega Sanction. Seeing Apollo with the other Supermen was pretty cool though. I'm eager to read The Crisis of Three Worlds when it comes out in Hardcover later this fall.
Actually, Zero Hour was pretty good at the time it was written. It had a nice build up with some interesting spillover. Then we got to the last issue (#0), where it became abundantly clear that no one involved had really sat down to think out how they were going to resolve this whole thing. While it had its moments, ultimately the Presence's giant hand flicking the bad guy right through the Source Wall for a three point play would have been more compelling.
And then there's also the fact that the primary villain has since had all of his responsibility in the affair retconned away. (If a piece of history is something the writer feels is incredibly dumb, just ignore it. For the love of God, don't try to explain it away with something else that's every bit as dumb or more. And if it's just inconvenient, man-up and deal with the fact that this is "character development".)
And then there's also the fact that the primary villain has since had all of his responsibility in the affair retconned away. (If a piece of history is something the writer feels is incredibly dumb, just ignore it. For the love of God, don't try to explain it away with something else that's every bit as dumb or more. And if it's just inconvenient, man-up and deal with the fact that this is "character development".)
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