Final Crisis #5
“You have 24 hours to save the universe, Lantern Jordan.”
Although we’d previous seen it in the preview, it was great to have those scenes on Oa in my hands. Carlos Pacheco’s art really shines (I’m assuming its him drawing book, frankly I’ve lost track), and I must admit I’m taken a bit by surprise as to how much focus the GLs are getting here. Morrison uses the Corps to add a real sense of the cosmic threat, beyond Earth to the proceedings, and the scenes at the close of the issue with the GLs entering the gravity sink around Earth are really dramatic.
Meanwhile on Earth, everything is going from bad to worse. Darkseid has awakened and solidified his direct link to all those who have fallen under the anti-life equation. His influence seems unstoppable, as Earth itself is being skewed through space/time, and to be in Darkseid’s very presence causes his followers to die. Here Darkseid is infused with a level of threat I’ve never felt from him before, and it really seems inconceivable that Earth’s heroes have a chance against him. Their only hope being in the form of the ousted Monitor who starts to remember what he once was.
I’ve made no bones about my love of this series, but I must admit, with each issue I read, the more I think this is a series that’s really going to shine in trade form. I really do think that a lot of the complaints that have been levelled at its pace will vanish when read back-to-back.
The other Final Crisis issue this week, Revelation, again fell victim to the curse of the red band covers. I really, really hate this design DC have been using.
I’ve said before how I think it makes the issues look too similar, and this was again proven when my comic store had accidentally put the Revelation issues in with the Final Crisis issues. At least after the Rogues Revenge carry on, I’d learned my lesson and checked the shelves carefully to see what was there and what wasn’t, so I made sure I got both comics.
Revelation I’m still finding a strange beast. although its a Final Crisis tie-in, like all the others, this really feels to me like a separate story that’s been shoe-horned into Final Crisis. To Rucka’s credit he does his best to try and link Cain’s resurrection with the events of the 5th World over in the main series, but to me, this is very much the next chapter of Rucka’s Crime Bible stuff and very little to do with Final Crisis (in much the same way that Rogue’s Revenge was about tying up some of the Flash plot threads from the last year, or Legion of 3 Worlds is about the Legion, and neither series feeling like a proper tie-in to the main event).
To be honest, I’m still not too fussed about the Crime Bible stuff, which is a shame as I usually like Rucka’s books. However for some reason the Rene as the Question/Batwoman/Crime Bible stories just haven’t grabbed me. Why then am I still buying this at issue 4? Well to be honest, I suspect its the Final Crisis banner at the top. Although in fairness, I did really enjoy the early issues with the Spectre going after the various DCU villains like Dr Light.
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