Comic Book Review: Final Crisis #3

The first two issues of Final Crisis have been a hit here with The Revolution. I freely acknowledge that Morrison has wrapped his story in a complex layer of dense DC continuity. However, it does not bother me in the least bit. Morrison has certainly succeeded in giving Final Crisis the proper scope and impact of a truly grand and epic event. Hopefully, Morrison can keep this train rolling with another good read with Final Crisis #3. Let’s do this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: J.G. Jones

Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Frankenstein leading a SHADE team into the Dark Side club. Inside is Renee Montoya in Vic Sage’s costume and she is standing next to Boss Dark Side’s husk of a body. Renee asks Frankenstein what kind of killing would leave a victim mummified. Montoya then asks what happened to Dan Turpin. Montoya then escapes in a puff of smoke. Frankenstein is informed that they will pick up Montoya on the street. We see Montoya outside the Dark Side Club and back in her civilian clothes.

We cut back inside of the Dark Side Club where Frankenstein has found a bizarre message and sends a video feed of it back to Father Time. The letters in the message disappear once written as if it was a book by a ghost or perhaps a prophecy. We see the words “Know evil.”

We shift to Father Time putting Frankenstein on hold to talk to Taleb. Taleb states that Bludhaven has descended into anarchy. Taleb sates that the public cannot be allowed to learn about the situation in Bludhaven. Taleb tells Father Time that he must send in his most expendable agents. Taleb also states that Father Time needs to bring in Renee Montoya and explain to her their plans for her new role in global law enforcement.

We cut to Montoya investigating the scene where a German version of Supergirl from an alternate Earth is lying on the ground. She has been badly beaten. SHADE agents then approach Montoya and inform her that she will be coming with them.

We shift to the exiled Monitor, Nix, getting fired from his job at Big Belly Burger because Nix was creeping out the customers with his talk about if anyone else could feel the graviton impacts increasing and other bizarre and strange questions.

We see Nix walking home and seeing a news report about strange cave art from the Paleolithic era in the New York subway that also perfectly matched crop circle designs in England that appeared last week. We see a costumed woman in the shadows watching Nix.

We slide over to Jay at his house with his wife, Iris, Linda, and Wally’s kids all there. Jay is out of breath. Iris tells Jay to slow down and take a breath. Jay tells everyone that they ran. All three generations of the Flash. We see Jay, Barry and Wally all chasing the god bullet. They are followed by the Black Racer. Barry is about just about to reach the bullet when it hits Orion and kills him.

Jay says that they ran backwards through time and were going so fast that they could not talk. Jay says that Death cannot travel faster than the speed of light. But, Wally can. And so can Barry. Jay says that he ran out of steam and only just made it here tonight before his knee gave out.

Iris asks Jay if he is sure it was not some Barry from an alternate Earth or from the past. Jay answers that it was Barry Allen. That he would know Barry’s aura anywhere. That Jay saw her husband alive.

We cut to the Hall of Doom where Libra tells Mike to put on his new costume. Mike picks up the helmet to his new costume and comments that he hears voices inside the helmet. Libra places the helmet on Mike’s head and yells that what Mike hears is the anti-life equation. Mike faintly protests that he does not want this.

Suddenly, Lex Luthor arrives on the scene. Libra comments that Lex is three hours early for the Society’s meeting. Lex states that Superman has not answered a single emergency call for 18 hours. Lex says that he is still not going to join Libra because Libra is clearly a threat. Lex says he is here to neutralize Libra.

Libra then says that Lex has a decision. That in less than 24 hours, the ability to make decisions will be forcibly removed from the inhabitants of Earth. Libra offers Lex to join him like Mike with a helmet on his empty head and being a slave and zombie to the anti-life equation or Lex can renounce science and swear an oath on the Bible of Crime and pledge his service to the Master of all Evil. Libra says that the day of Apokolips is at hand and that Libra is the only prophet. Libra tells Lex to choose now.

We shift to the Metropolis Memorial Hospital where Lois is in critical care. Jimmy and Clark are by Lois’ bedside. Jimmy tells Clark that Superman has not been seen since yesterday. Jimmy says he will let Clark have some alone time with Lois while he tries to track down Superman. Clark responds that Superman must have problems of his own. Clark says that he has to say with his wife.

Jimmy leaves and Clark mumbles that his heat vision is the only thing keeping Lois’ heart beating. (Huh, whaaaat? Wouldn’t Clark’s heat vision just either perforate her heart or at best just heat it up to the point where he is boiling her blood?) Clark apologizes to Lois that she is in so much pain and that it is because of him. Clark says that he would do anything to take away her pain.

Suddenly, the mysterious costumed woman from the scene with Nix appears and tells Clark that she knows he is Superman. That she knows everything about him and that she can offer him one ultimate chance to save Lois. But, that he must leave this world now before it is too late.

We slide over to Hal Jordan in custody of the Alpha Lanterns for the murder of Orion and the attack on John Stewart. Hal admits that he cannot remember what he was doing during either event, but that he will talk to the Guardians and will work all of this out.

Black Lightning, Wonder Woman and Alan Scott watch the Alpha Lanterns leave with Hal. They all state that they know that Hal did not do it. Wonder Woman says that this is all the actions of the evil gods.

Alan replies that they have always had the New Gods to help defend them against the evil gods of Apokolips. But, now the New Gods are all gone. Alan says that they are at a disadvantage and need to start training an army now.

Alan states that President Roosevelt used something called Article X, the draft for superheroes, in order to assemble fifty mystery men and woman as the All-Star Squadron back during World War II in a very fast and quick manner.

We cut to Alan talking to Oracle and telling her that with Martian Manhunter dead that Oracle will now have to serve as their communications hub. Oracle has set up shop in the JLA’s Hall of Justice. Oracle then sends out the Article X draft notices. We see the faux Aquaman receiving a draft notice.

We shift to Freddie Freeman talking to Tawny and stating that Billy is gone and Marry has disappeared. Freddie asks what has happened to the Marvel Family. Freddie then says “Shazam.” We cut to Supergirl getting her draft notice and leaving. We slide over to that sexy minx Black Canary getting her draft notice. Ollie complains about his draft notice and goes on his usual left wing rant. Black Canary tells Ollie that she is drafting him and for him to shut up and come on.

We cut to Alan Scott standing before all the superhuman draftees which include pretty much the entire JLA, JSA, Teen Titans, Titans and Outsiders as well as other assorted characters. Alan announces that he is proud of all of them. Alan says “Let’s see any enemy stand against us.”

We slide over to Shilo Norman and Super Sumo about to board Shilo’s private jet. Suddenly, a bunch of armed soldiers blow up Shilo’s plane and attack our two heroes. Out of nowhere, the Super Young Team comes to the rescue and scoops up our two heroes in the Super Young Team’s pimped out flying car. Our heroes then make a quick getaway. Superbat then states that they are going to join Shilo and Super Sumo in their mission.

We shift to Wonder Woman and several of the Atomic Knights assembled outside of Bludhaven. Wonder Woman states that she is going inside Bludhaven to investigate. Atomic Knight Sergeant Gayle states that he and several of his Atomic Knights will accompany Wonder Woman.

During their trek into Bludhaven, one of the Atomic Knights, Marlene Herald, tells Wonder Woman how Wondy has been such an inspiration to her. Grayle tells Wonder Woman that Command-D is a gene test site built at Chemo ground zero. Evidently, a local crime lord is holed up in Command-D and the U.S. government has too much invested in the center to order air strikes. Therefore, super soldiers are being sent in.

Our heroes come across the gory sight of Replika’s multiple bodies all killed and torn inside out. Suddenly, Mary Marvel appears on the scene (looking even smuttier than she did in Countdown.)

Mary states that she killed Replika’s bodies. Wonder Woman barely recognizes Mary. Mary states that she could not stand being wholesome, plain and boring for one moment longer. Mary says that the flesh farm and Command-D can do amazing things.

Mary quickly attacks and rips Marlene in half and kills her. Wonder Woman and Mary engage in a titanic battle. Wonder Woman gets the upper hand on Mary. Grayle is enraged that Mary killed his sister and pulls out his gun and is about to shoot Mary. Wonder Woman tells Grayle to back off. That his weapon cannot hurt Mary and that Mary is not a killer. (Um, oookay, I guess we all just hallucinated her killing Marlene.)

Mary rants that she does what Darkseid tells her to do. Mary yells that the gods of Apokolips have been hiding in human bodies. Mary states that in five minutes the anti-life equation goes global. Mary then says that Wonder Woman will also be working for Darkseid.

Mary quickly stabs Wonder Woman with a ant-life equation shot. Wonder Woman collapses to the ground as Mary states that Wondy will be the disease carrier.

We cut to Mokkari pushing a button stating that in Darkseid’s name he is ending the world right now. We shift to Mr. Terrific contacting Oracle. Oracle exclaims that some inside of Bludhaven just sent an e-mail to every single e-mail account across the globe. We see Oracle getting the e-mail herself. Suddenly, the e-mail opens by itself and begins to upload a virus. Oracle frantically works to kill the net in order to shut down the virus. Suddenly, everything goes black.

We shift to Barry and Wally coming out of the time stream and coming to a stop. Wally asks if Barry really is his Uncle Barry back from the dead. Barry looks lost and says that they could not save Orion. That Orion’s murder had already happened. Barry says that he was dead. Barry asks why did he have to come back. Barry looks around and asks “Wally…what have they done to the world?”

Suddenly, we see a gruesome Wonder Woman under the control of Darkseid leading a group of metahumans including Giganta and Catwoman. Wonder Woman says “Superheroes. Kill.” End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Final Crisis #3 was another enjoyable read. Morrison serves up a rich and meaty story that the reader can really sink their teeth into. Morrison is weaving multiple complex plotlines that are thick with DC continuity. If the reader has a strong knowledge of the DCU and pays close attention to every scene then Morrison rewards them with plenty of enjoyable little Easter eggs throughout this issue.

Final Crisis #3 was well paced as Morrison continues to move the story along at a measured pace. I appreciate the fact that Morrison is not rushing his way through this story. Final Crisis #3 was also well plotted as Morrison moves the story forward in a logical fashion and with a point and purpose. Now, the reader may not always know where Morrison is going, but we know he is working his way toward a goal that he has in mind.

Morrison is also doing a fine job juggling numerous highly detailed and complex plotlines at the same time. There is certainly not a shortage of plotlines in this story. If anything, at times the reader might feel a bit overwhelmed by all of it. But, it works for me as Morrison has been able to get me to buy into the fact that Final Crisis truly is an epic event.

Morrison continues to perform a fine job with the character work as all the various characters have nicely developed voices and well fleshed out personalities.

I dig that Morrison added SHADE into the mix with this issue as we turned our focus to Bludhaven. I am glad to see Morrison giving Bludhaven some attention in this story. DC has left Bludhaven as an unresolved dangling plotline that spun out of the conclusion of Infinite Crisis. I appreciate that Morrison appears to be ready to finally tie up this loose end.

Also, the vital role that Bludhaven is playing in Final Crisis helps create a seamless transition between Infinite Crisis, 52 and Final Crisis while conveniently skipping over stories like Death of the New Gods and Countdown.

I thought it was an interesting move to have SHADE recruit Renee Montoya to work for them. The high mortality rate of SHADE metahuman agents gives me hope that maybe Montoya will get killed off at some point. Unfortunately, we know that is not going to happen.

Morrison does a good job filling in some of the blanks between Final Crisis #1 and #2 as we see that Darkseid has moved on from his Boss Dark Side “pimp” body and is now inside of Dan Turpin. I dig that Morrison is not wasting anytime exposing the fact that the gods of Apokolips have been on Earth posing as normal humans. I am glad that Morrison is not going to belabor this point and bore us to death with scenes based on heroes being paranoid about who might be a god of Apokolips or not.

The scene with Nix Uotan was short but neat as we see mysterious cave drawings like what we saw Anthro drawing in Final Crisis #1 appearing in the New York subway and in crop circles in England. This is a good mystery and it has certainly piqued my interest. This scene re-enforces the massive scope of this story as Morrison is making Final Crisis an event that ripples from the very beginning of time all the way to the far future of the DCU.

The scene at the Hall of Doom was nicely done as Morrison finally reveals Libra’s true motivation behind his plans to band together all the various super villains. I like that Libra’s true face is shown as it become obvious that Libra has been playing the Human Flame for a fool. Despite what Libra has been promising to the Society of Super Villains, it becomes clear that the villains are all mere pawns for Libra to convert into mindless disciples of Darkseid.

Watching the Human Flame becoming a mindless slave due to his exposure to the anti-life equation serves as proper notice for what the rest of the heroes and villains have in store for them if they do not willingly join Libra.

I liked Lex’s natural instinct to neutralize Libra rather than join him due to how Libra handled Superman. Clearly, Lex does not appreciate anyone who is more effective than he is. And the fact that Libra hurt Superman in a manner that Lex has not immediately and appropriately makes Lex view Libra as a rival and a threat.

Morrison did a nice job creating a logical reason for Lex deciding to subordinate himself to Libra. The choice between becoming a mindless slave like Human Flame or willingly supporting Libra was an easy one for Lex to make. Lex, if nothing else, is a survivalist and he will do whatever he has to in order to bide his time so that he may live to fight another day.

Morrison does a great job with the three Flashes in this issue. I liked the scene with Jay at his home surrounded by all of the family members of the three Flashes. This scene re-enforced the fact that the Flash fraternity is a close knit family. That the Flash legacy is steeped in tradition and that they are always there for each other.

I enjoyed Jay’s revelation that Barry was officially back and that it is not just Barry from the past or from an alternate Earth. This was Morrison being very clear that the return of Barry Allen in Final Crisis is absolutely nothing like all of the other times that he has popped up in the DCU after his death.

The scene with Clark by Lois’ bedside was nicely done. Morrison forcing Superman to stay by his wife since his heat vision is the only thing keeping her heart beating was a brilliant way to remove Superman from the battlefield. Due to his immense power, Superman is always tough to handle during a big event like Final Crisis. This was an intelligent manner in which to hurt Superman and prevent him from being as effective as he could be.

Morrison introduces a mysterious new character in this issue with the appearance of the shadowy costumed woman. We first see her in the shadows watching Nix and then we see her again in the scene with Clark Kent.

I am rather curious to learn more about this character and exactly what she is plotting. I would imagine that it has something to do with the mini-series involving Superman and the three versions of the Legion of Super Heroes.

I liked Morrison’s use of Article X in order to enact the superhero draft. This was a nice touch that serves as an appropriate nod to the All Star Squadron. This move by Morrison is a fine example of how conscious he is of DC’s rich history and how intent he is on fully integrating Final Crisis into DC’s continuity. Morrison certainly has succeeded in giving the DCU a wonderful sense of depth and history that has been lacking ever since the end of the original Crisis.

I loved the scene with all the various heroes assembled in front of Alan Scott. I dig that Morrison purposely places Alan as the de facto leader of this band of heroes. I know that Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are the “Trinity” of the DCU.

However, I have always viewed Alan Scott as the dean of all of the super heroes in the DCU. That Alan Scott is considered the super hero’s super hero. I like that Morrison is making sure the reader understands the proper position of respect that Alan Scott commands from the other characters in the DCU.

Morrison did a fine job removing all of the iconic big guns from the battlefield over last issue and into this issue. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Hal Jordan have all been removed in some form or fashion from the battlefield.

Add to that the death of Martian Manhunter who was the heart and soul of the JLA and the communications center for our heroes and you have a devastating opening strike on our heroes before the anti-life equation was ever unleashed on the globe. It should be interesting to see how our heroes deal with this tough battle without their iconic big guns to lead them.

Morrison ended Final Crisis #3 with a great hook ending. We get a dramatic scene with Oracle as she realizes that the evil gods have sent a virus to every e-mail account in the world and that this e-mail opens by itself. I thought this was a pretty neat way to distribute the virus to the entire world. I am curious to learn what happened after everything went black.

The final two pages were well done as we see Barry lamenting that they could not save Orion from being killed. Barry then asks the question that most comic book readers are also thinking: Why was he brought back to life? Obviously, since I am a huge Barry fan, I cannot wait to learn more about how Barry came back to life.

The final one page splash shot of Wonder Woman under the control of Darkseid and on a mission to kill all superheroes was pretty cool. You know that we have to be in store for some kick-ass action with the next issue.

I am a fan of J.G. Jones’ artwork, so obviously I enjoyed the artwork in this issue. I found Final Crisis #3 to be a great looking issue. Jones is able to create plenty of emotion in each character. Jones’ art is also a nice match to the mood of Morrison’s story. And while I have problems with how Mary Marvel has been raped beyond recognition, I totally liked her bondage bad-girl costume.

The Bad: Final Crisis #3 has several defects. Obviously, if you do not appreciate Morrison’s style of writing then you probably are going to hate Final Crisis. And I know this next point has been mentioned over and over again, but it bears repeating. The fact is that Morrison demands a lot from the reader with Final Crisis. Morrison challenges the reader and requires the reader to put forth some energy and effort when reading this story. This will not appeal to many comic book readers.

Also, Morrison is making Final Crisis as continuity heavy as possible. This will intrigue some fans while others will be put off by the fact that they have to do research in order to fully understand and enjoy this story.

I have to admit that I have no idea what in the world is going on with this German version of Supergirl. This scene felt random and a bit forced. Hopefully, Morrison can blend this plotline into the rest of the story in an interesting manner.

At this point, the Shilo Norman and Super Sumo plotline is just not working for me. It simply does not mesh well with all of the other plotlines going on in Final Crisis. Morrison needs to find a way to integrate this odd plotline into the larger context of Final Crisis in short order. At this point, this plotline seems too random and clutters up the story a bit.

Morrison totally lost me with his theory that Clark could keep Lois’ heart beating with his heat vision. Now, I am not a doctor, but that just made no sense at all. I know that Morrison had to come up for a reason to keep Clark shackled to Lois’ bedside, but I think he could have done better than this half-baked theory.

Now we arrive at by far and away my biggest complaint with Final Crisis #3. I absolutely and completely hated the way that Mary Marvel was handled in this issue. Poor Mary has been raped and butchered beyond recognition.

Now, I love a good heel turn as anyone, but this one has been poorly done. In order to write a compelling and believable heel turn, the writer must take a hero that has the propensity and potential to be a villain. Wolverine and Punisher would be two examples of this type of character. I would say that even Supergirl would have been a better choice for this role than Mary given that Supergirl has a history of being a pawn of Darkseid.

At any rate, the fact remains that DC has completely failed to provide the reader with any foundation or motivation for Marry suddenly turning heel. And I am not just talking about Mary becoming a villain. Mary has become a bloodthirsty monstrous villain on par with Superboy-Prime.

This entire heel turn by Mary feels terribly artificial and forced. Clearly, this heel turn was done out of a matter of convenience for the story that Morrison wanted to tell. After all, the little red S needed somebody for her to engage in a “titanic” battle during this big event.

Overall: Final Crisis #3 was another dense and satisfying read that was thick with DC continuity. I love a story like this that I can really sink my teeth into. Morrison is crafting such a delightfully complex story that I can easily read this issue two or three times and still walk away with a new wrinkle or detail that I did not notice the time before.

Still, I cannot recommend Final Crisis to everyone. You absolutely must enjoy Morrison’s style of writing to enjoy this story. And you have to either have a nice command of DC continuity or be open to the challenge of doing a little research in order to uncover all the little details and clues in this story. Final Crisis is definitely not a title that I would recommend to a casual reader or someone who was new to the DCU.