I'll Have a Serving of the Pretentious Crap
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/010928-Grant-Final-Crisis.html
Final Crisis was, by far, one of the most baffling, impenetrable messes I've ever read. If anyone can tell me what happened in this book without reading a review with a detailed description first, I'll be deeply impressed.
This interview Morrison gave Newsarama is interesting in that it goes into a bit of what the hell he was thinking when he wrote it. Basically, Grant Morrison is completely insane.
Now, this can work sometimes. Marvel Boy, We3, and to a lesser extent, Animal Man and parts of his JLA run, had plenty of off-the-wall ideas. The difference is that, in those stories, these crazy notions were wrapped around something resembling a plot. Final Crisis didn't have any central plot that I could figure out - "The day evil won!" is a tagline, not a plot.
Morrison's ego is on full display here. Take, for instance, this passage:
"Surely part of the fun of comics includes following stories across titles? If you like comics, what’s so awful about buying another one to see what happens next? And if you don’t want to buy it, don’t bother. Do something else. Buy cigarettes or booze or bananas. I don’t know!
Every time I read about the agonizing pains of ‘event fatigue’ or how ‘3-D hurts my head...’ or how something’s ‘incomprehensible’ when most people are ‘comprehending’ it just fine, it’s like visiting a nursing home. ‘Events’ in superhero comic books FATIGUE you? I’m speechless. Admittedly they do tend to be a little more exciting than the instruction leaflets that come with angina pills but... ‘fatigue’?"
For starters, no, most people are NOT comprehending it just fine. And yes, event fatigue is a perfectly natural phenomenon. Sorry, but when you run a marathon, you don't sprint the entire length of the race. Some people LIKE to take a breather now and then.
His earlier point about how we should WANT to buy a bunch of tie-ins that aren't part of the mini reflects an assinine 90s-ish view that I really wouldn't have expected from a creator in this day and age. With comics costing $4 each, he can't seriously expect people not to have a problem when they start reading what's supposed to be a seven-issue mini and end up having to buy a ton of other issues. These are the books Morrison says are essential:
"To get the full Final Crisis experience as the author intended it, the reading order is as follows:
FINAL CRISIS # 1- 3
SUPERMAN BEYOND # 1- 2
SUBMIT
FINAL CRISIS # 4 - 5
BATMAN #682 - 683
FINAL CRISIS # 6 - 7"
So to understand a seven-issue mini-series, you have to buy 70% more books on TOP of it. Normally, that's not a huge problem, nor is it even unusual. Civil War had something like a hundred assorted tie-ins, but the key there was that you could read just Civil War and it made SENSE. There were minor plot points that you might have missed, but you got a complete story. Ditto Secret Invasion and even DC's last few events (for the most part...you were missing major pieces from Infinite Crisis if you didn't read the lead-in mini-series, but you could at least tell what was happening).
I defy anyone to understand much of anything that's happening in the second half of Final Crisis #7 without having read Superman Beyond. There was no indication ANYWHERE that I could tell that Superman Beyond was anymore important than Legion of Three Worlds or any of the other seemingly-unimportant tie-ins. And yet, here's Morrison, acting like we're assholes for not immediately picking it up.
As an aside, I hate the "it's just a small minority of whiners" attitude we frequently get from comics creators. When you buy any other product and you're not satisfied, you complain about it. Why should comics be any different? That's not to say that creators should be beholden to every complaint they get from a basement-dwelling geek at a convention, but sometimes it's NOT a bunch of whiners - sometimes, the problem IS with the work itself. Implying that people who didn't get the story are retards doesn't help either.
I usually do like Grant Morrison as a writer, and sometimes his style works, but when it doesn't...brother, look out, because your head's going to implode if you try to figure anything out. This story was a disaster. The only thing that makes me feel better about it is that the story is so confusing that no one will ever follow up on any of its plot points. With the possible exception of what happened to Batman (which was the only part that WAS easy to understand), it'll all be dutifully ignored. And thank God for that...
(PS - I know I'm an idiot for continuing to buy these books, so you don't need to point it out.)
Edit: I forgot to mention Hypercrisis. He says he didn't do it because it was TOO COMPLICATED? And then he wrote Final Crisis? Good lord, can you imagine what a mess THAT thing would've been?
Final Crisis was, by far, one of the most baffling, impenetrable messes I've ever read. If anyone can tell me what happened in this book without reading a review with a detailed description first, I'll be deeply impressed.
This interview Morrison gave Newsarama is interesting in that it goes into a bit of what the hell he was thinking when he wrote it. Basically, Grant Morrison is completely insane.
Now, this can work sometimes. Marvel Boy, We3, and to a lesser extent, Animal Man and parts of his JLA run, had plenty of off-the-wall ideas. The difference is that, in those stories, these crazy notions were wrapped around something resembling a plot. Final Crisis didn't have any central plot that I could figure out - "The day evil won!" is a tagline, not a plot.
Morrison's ego is on full display here. Take, for instance, this passage:
"Surely part of the fun of comics includes following stories across titles? If you like comics, what’s so awful about buying another one to see what happens next? And if you don’t want to buy it, don’t bother. Do something else. Buy cigarettes or booze or bananas. I don’t know!
Every time I read about the agonizing pains of ‘event fatigue’ or how ‘3-D hurts my head...’ or how something’s ‘incomprehensible’ when most people are ‘comprehending’ it just fine, it’s like visiting a nursing home. ‘Events’ in superhero comic books FATIGUE you? I’m speechless. Admittedly they do tend to be a little more exciting than the instruction leaflets that come with angina pills but... ‘fatigue’?"
For starters, no, most people are NOT comprehending it just fine. And yes, event fatigue is a perfectly natural phenomenon. Sorry, but when you run a marathon, you don't sprint the entire length of the race. Some people LIKE to take a breather now and then.
His earlier point about how we should WANT to buy a bunch of tie-ins that aren't part of the mini reflects an assinine 90s-ish view that I really wouldn't have expected from a creator in this day and age. With comics costing $4 each, he can't seriously expect people not to have a problem when they start reading what's supposed to be a seven-issue mini and end up having to buy a ton of other issues. These are the books Morrison says are essential:
"To get the full Final Crisis experience as the author intended it, the reading order is as follows:
FINAL CRISIS # 1- 3
SUPERMAN BEYOND # 1- 2
SUBMIT
FINAL CRISIS # 4 - 5
BATMAN #682 - 683
FINAL CRISIS # 6 - 7"
So to understand a seven-issue mini-series, you have to buy 70% more books on TOP of it. Normally, that's not a huge problem, nor is it even unusual. Civil War had something like a hundred assorted tie-ins, but the key there was that you could read just Civil War and it made SENSE. There were minor plot points that you might have missed, but you got a complete story. Ditto Secret Invasion and even DC's last few events (for the most part...you were missing major pieces from Infinite Crisis if you didn't read the lead-in mini-series, but you could at least tell what was happening).
I defy anyone to understand much of anything that's happening in the second half of Final Crisis #7 without having read Superman Beyond. There was no indication ANYWHERE that I could tell that Superman Beyond was anymore important than Legion of Three Worlds or any of the other seemingly-unimportant tie-ins. And yet, here's Morrison, acting like we're assholes for not immediately picking it up.
As an aside, I hate the "it's just a small minority of whiners" attitude we frequently get from comics creators. When you buy any other product and you're not satisfied, you complain about it. Why should comics be any different? That's not to say that creators should be beholden to every complaint they get from a basement-dwelling geek at a convention, but sometimes it's NOT a bunch of whiners - sometimes, the problem IS with the work itself. Implying that people who didn't get the story are retards doesn't help either.
I usually do like Grant Morrison as a writer, and sometimes his style works, but when it doesn't...brother, look out, because your head's going to implode if you try to figure anything out. This story was a disaster. The only thing that makes me feel better about it is that the story is so confusing that no one will ever follow up on any of its plot points. With the possible exception of what happened to Batman (which was the only part that WAS easy to understand), it'll all be dutifully ignored. And thank God for that...
(PS - I know I'm an idiot for continuing to buy these books, so you don't need to point it out.)
Edit: I forgot to mention Hypercrisis. He says he didn't do it because it was TOO COMPLICATED? And then he wrote Final Crisis? Good lord, can you imagine what a mess THAT thing would've been?