Well, the moment has arrived.  After 52 weeks of Countdown-hell (barring the ones with Superboyman Prime) Final Crisis #1 hit the stands this week.

As I’ve mentioned before, I was a bit dubious about this series.  Although I love Morrison’s writing (still got Batman RIP and All Star Superman to read - good week to be a Morrison fan), the New Gods don’t really do anything for me.  Secret Invasion got off to such a strong start, that I was really wondering if Final Crisis was going to match up.

And it does.  But in a different way.

Whereas Secret Invasion got a lot of punch from its big shock moments (the old Marvel heroes, Skrull reveals etc), Morrison and Jones deliver just a strong piece of storytelling.  Issue 1 is a setup issue for the rest of the tale.   It doesn’t rely in a lot of huge shocks (bar one, which was guessed some months ago online), and instead you get a feeling that something big is coming.   Metron delivering fire to man in prehistoric times, Darkseid converting human children using the Anti-Life equation, the GL’s investigating Orion’s death.   There’s a lot of plot threads here, and from it all I got a real sense of foreboding.  That something really bad is going to happen (which we know, it does.  The Day Evil Won and all that).

The amusing thing for me though, is how Countdown seems to have been rendered pointless.  Plot details are either very different to the events of Countdown, or there was another mini-series between them that we somehow missed.    Ok, so the New Gods are now reborn.  Hence Darkseid and Metron running around.  That’s been well established as a Final Crisis plot point, so fair enough.   Orion is now dead under mysterious circumstances.   The implication being that this is nothing to do with his fight with Darkseid at the end of Countdown.

We’re also told that Earth-51 is now gone.  It was fine (albeit having had a rough few weeks and now overrun by Furries) when we last saw it.  And its Monitor has gone from “Monitoring the Monitors” to being exiled for his failure.  What’s happened there?   We’ve also got another suspicious Monitor.  Is this meant to be the same Solomon from Countdown, or another of the Monitors?

I will say though, I love the depiction of the Monitors here.  So much better than anything that happened in Countdown.   Here they’re shown as truely living apart from the Multiverse, although they’re becoming increasingly contaminated by their dealings with its residents.  The Multiverse Machine/Orrery is a brilliant visual.

I enjoyed this issue a lot more than I thought I would.   The rebirth of the New Gods is an interesting idea, revamping them and showing them infiltrating Earth culture right from the start.  It’ll be interesting to see where this goes from here, but I’m looking forward to the next issue.

Bit of a mixed bag this week comics-wise.

First up, and possibly the biggest release of the week for DC fans is the Final Crisis sketchbook.

As a tease of what’s upcoming I think it works well.  We get a look at the redesigns instore for some of the New Gods as well as a look at some of the new superhero teams Morrison has lined up.

As I’ve said before, I’m not a big fan of the New Gods, but I liked the look of these redesigns, and the concepts behind them (although I’m still unsure about the Darkseid having trouble moving thing).   We get a really interesting tease in terms of the “Multiverse Machine” (perhaps a sign that there’s a larger plan for the multiverse which will definitely see it sticking around?  I hope so), and a look at some of the new Japanese super teams (I love the Super Young Team a crazy Japanese version of the JLA).

Less successful for me, was Titans #2.   I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool Titans fan, although I enjoyed Geoff’s relaunch of the Teen Titans, and I like the characters well enough.   I thought I’d give this series a couple of issues, but to be honest, its not grabbing me.  Some of the characterisations felt a bit off to me, and I’m not big on the art.   The three crossovers going on that I’m picking up, I’m going to have to get brutal on titles that I don’t love, so I can’t see me picking up the next issue.

The first part of Batman RIP though, I enjoyed.  While it very much felt like a first part, with not a huge amount happening, and more introducing things, I’m definitely intrigued enough to be sticking with this crossover for now.  I have to say though, as someone who’s not been buying Morrison’s Batman, I loved the interaction between Bruce, Tim and Alfred.

From the non-DC side of things, I had Knights of the Old Republic #28.  Although not a series I talk about a lot on the blog, its one I’ve enjoyed immensely, possibly ranking alongside GL in terms of my pull list.

I have to say though, that the much-vaunted Vector crossover has done nothing for me.   I disliked the fact that most of the main cast were missing for the last 4 issues, and I found the art badly off-putting.   I can’t say I’ve been left with any real desire to pick up the rest of the crossover, and I’m really hoping that now its over, the series will get back to telling stories I more enjoy.    I will say though, that I did appreciate the writer trying to fit the crossover around his ongoing story of Zhane being on the run from the Jedi Masters.

From Marvel, I picked up Captain Britain #1.   Now being written by Paul Cornell (of Dr Who fame), and with “Secret Invasion” stamped on the top, I couldn’t resist.

I really enjoyed this book.  It was probably the surprise hit of the week for me, as something I ended up enjoying a lot more than I thought I would.  Its really grabbed me, and its really nice to be reading about a British hero, and set in Britain as well.   In that regard, I think Marvel have probably done a very wise thing in getting a British writer on board.   However, I’m going to stop saying “Britain” now, lest I end up sounding like an episode of League of Gentlemen.

I do love the setup though, with Captain Britain resolving to be more like a proper counterpart to Captain America, and the Skrull disguised as John Lennon who’s working with MI 13 (the agency Cap works for) to help find other Skrull infiltrators.  I’m definitely onboard for the next issue.

DC have provided EW with a 5 page preview of Final Crisis. You can see it here.  The story looks intriguing with Orion turning up after killing Darkseid (and talking about how he’s not dead), and a nice bit of action for John, who receives a mysterious code 1011 from his ring, and is unable to contact Hal.

I’m really loving the art though.  It looks really nice.  And the red skies are back.

There’s a look at Darkseid’s redesign as well.  I’m not a huge fan of the character (or the New Gods stuff in general), but I quite like Darkseid’s head redesign (very Darth Malak).   Not sure about the giant Omega symbol on his outfit although I can see what they’re going for with it.  Also the idea that he has problems walking due to being in constant pain doesn’t particularly sound God-like.   However we’ll see it properly fleshed out in the coming months.