final crisis & tie-ins versus secret invasion - universe designate zero versus earth-616

[potboiler]

the big two's big two crossover events are at a place now where i think i can begin to analyze and critique them, i think. both started at around the same time, spring of 2008. secret invasion, marvel's entry, shipped mostly on schedule, and has been "resolved," leading directly into a new branded status quo ("dark reign,") which is essentially a

Comments

[potboiler]

i don't think dave's been into final crisis the way i've been.

j.g. jones was probably at his best on marvel boy, which was a grant morrison miniseries about a highly evolved kree (alien race) teenage warrior coming to our planet and fucking shit up. pretty amazing. grant morrison also wrote that one. oh, and j.g. jones' gorgeous covers of 52! sick stuff, dawg.

[batmanonfire]

After Infinite Crisis, 52, and the 51-issue 'Countdown to Final Crisis' I don't think I even considered reading Final Crisis. If the core series is actually an example of Morrison at the top of his game (ie. Earth-2, New X-Men) rather than an overly-convoluted story based on the assumption that the reader cares about the structure of the DC-multiverse with a bunch of his drug-induced 'big ideas about the universe' thrown in I'll give it a read.
Also, I have to re-read Marvel Boy, I barely remember it at all at this point.
What did you think about the last arc of criminal? Also are you reading DMZ?

[potboiler]

i think that criminal's really picked up steam. bad night and the dead and the dying were both fantastic. i bought the first trade of DMZ and never read it. totally behind. i'm trying to catch up on a few titles right now.

this story basically upends the whole idea of the DC crisis and has a sort of cyclic feel to it, 'cause a lot of its elements have been touched upon in old morrison stuff (animal man, jla, seven soldiers, 52, batman).. and because it is kind of anti-continuity in a certain way (certainly against people like geoff johns in his golden/silver age fetishism, dan didio's event-building) it doesn't read like your typical event story. it has nothing to do with countdown to final crisis -- morrison was writing final crisis before countdown was even conceived of, and he had to maneuver around contradictory plotlines they had in that series. countdown and its tie-ins were completely a scam -- more akin to what's going on in kurt busiek/mark bagley's 'trinity' this year.

you may find it convoluted. i just read it as frenetic and bizarre. modern-era morrison is really good at balancing earnest with cool, big ideas with human moments, imho.