Solicitation : Humanity enslaved! Time shattered and bleeding! Anti-Life triumphant! Can Earth's demoralized, beaten heroes rally their scattered forces for the ultimate super-battle against the nightmare armies of Apokolips when the forces of good meet the forces of evil on the bridge to Blüdhaven? As Darkseid's presence causes reality itself to sicken and the lights to go out across the universe, as even the Guardians fall, the true power of the evil gods finally reveals itself, and a major character returns for a shocking conclusion.
Written by Grant Morrison Art by J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Marco Rudy & Jesus Merino
Synopsis : Finally we get back to what has been happening with Hal Jordan and The Green Lantern Corps. Hal Jordan has been taken to Oa for trial for the murder of Orion and the attempted murder of John Stewart (Hal , you racist ! Kidding). He is accused by Alpha Lantern Kraken (Granny Goodness has possessed her). Hal says that there is nothing called infallibility in the Universe, when told about The Infallibility of the Alpha Lanterns. Kraken claims that the scar of Hal's face is where Orion struck him before death. She also says that Hal was easily possessed by Parallax, so he could easily be taken over by The Evil Gods Of Apokolips.
The Guardians say that all must be examined as Hal is a valued officer, Honor Lanterns Kyle and Guy pop out of nowhere and say that it is Kraken who plays host to The Evil Gods. The Scar on Hal's face has a suppressor field chip inserted and hence its hiding her from detection. Guardians are shocked that an Alpha is compromised. Granny says its folly to underestimate The Darkseid. She attacks Guy while the other Green Lanterns attack her and smack her against the Central Power Battery. Granny wants to be Darkseid's favorite again and picks the Power battery wondering this was the Ultimate Technology that Metron had pointed them towards. The Guardians cut power from her ring and internal battery. Hal does his usual 1-2 Punch and takes her down ! Pure Hal. Grant, I Bow down to Thee. An Immortal is injured by Granny. The Guardians initiate the Krona Protocol which hides the Central Battery until the all-clear. Kraken is sent to a Sciencell, Kyle explains to Hal that Spacetime around The Earth has crumbled with weeks squashed into days and they couldn't get close to the gravity sink without being sucked in. The impact of Darkseid's fall and emanations have caused problems in space time across all the sectors of The Universe and Earth is the center of The Doomsday Singularity. John is still on earth and Hal asks all the Green Lantern who want to, to journey to Earth to stop the Crisis. The Guardians say that Hal has 24 hours to save the Universe. Go Jordan !
We get back to Earth, Checkmate Castle, where Montoya, Khalid and Renee discuss and try and explain the Multiverse and its aspects to Renee, she is going to have a major role there it seems. The Generation-Zero Biomacs which will act when the Superheroes fail bear an obvious similarity in Tribute to Jack Kirby's "OMAC".
At Bludhaven, we see dead warriors lying around.Wonder Woman's back seems to have faced a lot of lashes ? Self-punishment ? Something else? I guess its upto your interpretation. Wonder Woman's shield has the Omega on it. Simyan, Mokkari and Godfrey beg Darkseid to keep them alive and not let them die. Lots of kissup here. The Furies are getting ready for the battle, we finally get a shot of Darkseid, wow he looks amazing ! The Hour of Apokolips is here. He asks the Furied to end it all, Note that Wonder Woman's Dog has the The Symbol Of Evil as its Tag (The Inverse Of The Symbol Of Good, look at The FC Sketchbook.)
Big Battle outside Checkmate Castle. Tempest tries to save Hawkgirl, who is told to save Alan, who is being Made a Justifier by Donna Troy, who is smacked to Hell by Hawkman, who tells Bulleteer, Condor and Starman to cover him. (I did the who thing on purpose , It Feels like Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang)
Inside The Castle again, The Super Young Team is pissed at Mister Terrific and the rest for thoughtlessly gunning down International Megastar- Shilo Norman aka Mister Miracle. Emotions are running high. Terrific asks everyone to calm down saying a doctor is on his way and how he can be traced as he is invisible to machines. Shilo says that Motherboxxx is more than a machine and is way beyond than what would happen if The Gods made I-Pods that were alive! Miracle is stirring and talking about how the Motherboxxx set up a Boom Tube which brought them to the castle. Miracle was wearing a Impact-proof vest, obviously and he seems fine. The time of change is here and everyone has o take sides before The Darkseid takes them all down. Terrific decides to take his help as they have stayed clear of The Anti Life Equation. Castle falls in 15 minutes, they are taking fire so that the heroes can attack Darkseid at the root. The War has broken time and space.he tells Mister Terrific and the others to paint the pattern The Team has on their faces.
Kalibak has formed his Tiger-Legion and is moving around waiting for the heroes so that they can slaughter whatever is left of them. Kalibak promises that this will be the slaughterhouse of man and they see the last of the heroes arrive in force:
The Last Of The Heroes ? Don't Like Their Chances.
Epic Battle ensues ! Someone is screaming something in Spanish. Frankenstein is quoting Milton's "Paradise Lost" (which seems right for some reason). John Stewart is proceeding towards Command-D bunker , that is where Darkseid's base is.Kalinak tells his Tiger-men to wait for the lightning to strike. Maru Marvel arrives and is reading to sneak attack Supergirl but she is taken by suprprise by Black Adam who starts to beat her to a pulp. Freddie Freeman (Captain Marvel) asks him to stop. Adam sees an old man in her eyes.She's possessed. Freddie pleads with her but is beaten up by Mary Marvel who taunts him.She does the infamous crotch rub on him (Yech !). Tawky Tawny appears and tries to stop her but is taken by surprise by Kalibak who is about to kill him. Tiger vs Tiger. Sweet.
Nix Uaton is captured by the Justifiers and thrown into a cell. Everyone unaffected by the Ani-Life Equation is kept there. Nix has lost hope saying that there are no Gods but Darkseid, A Man in the wheelchair starts talking about the minimum moves in which a Rubix Cube can be solved saying no one has done it in less than 18, which is The Number Of God. He starts solving the Cube. The Time Of The Gods is over, he gives him a piece of paper which has Meton's sumbol to Anthro on it.
A Man with hairy hands, who I Think is Himon hands him pieces of paper of his sketches and tells him to think of things that can help, and says that it has to be a word, a face, a voice a magical word, a name. Nix realizes that and finally gains memory ........ WEEJA DELL ?
Clones of Mokkari along with Justifiers come in to take them to burn in The Forever Pit. They realize something is different, The man in the wheelchair says "17." and a blast of energy destroys the Justifiers. Metron is Back. Look at his eyes. Yeah !
Libra is doing his French Revolution/ Russian Revolution style hanging and killing and hangs Calculator for betraying them to the Heroes so that they could attack the birthplace of Darkseid. Libra tells Luthor he wants him to lead the charge against the heroes at Bludhaven Bridge. Libra hits a joke about letting him be first in line with Supergirl.........
Supergirl and John Stewart are teaming up and cant find a weak spot, John wonder where Superman is. Where is he indeed. Simyan, Mokkari and Godfrey try and save themselves. Godfrey tells Darkseid about Simyan & Mokkari's failure about The Batman-Psycho Merge. Darkseid says that nothing living can resist him now. All Flesh is part of Darkseid's body. He absorbs their energies as they die. Humanity has only faced an idea of a God before, Now God has come incarnate among them! All Is One In Darkseid !
Supergirl tells John that she can see a massive energy source inside like a brain sending signals to a gigantic nervous system, however he can't hear as he does not have super-hearing. Light and energy crashes into Darkseid's bunker. He is becoming reality. Frankenstein's quote is great "Dropp'd from the Zenith like a falling star.....beware". Supergirl is attacked by Mary Marvel, she begs Marvel to stop and that there is still time. John demands for backup saying that everything is becoming a hell which is Darkseid. Guardians say that help is on the way, another one says that he cant hear them (Whats with the John cant hear Grant ? Very funny though). Hal, Kyle, Guy and the rest of The Green Lanterns are losing their energies and stop flying and plunge straight into the singularity Of the Darkseid, get ready for time distortions.
Father time is with The President Of The US,he tells him the country is no longer his, the Earth is no longer ours. The Justifiers have found the bunker (Anyone guessed what this is the reversal of ? The Soviets finding Hitlers bunked in World War 2, notice the President has a gun in his hand, which he will probably use on himself). Power Levels On John's ring in down to 2%. Libra celebrates as The Fifth World Of Darkseid has begun. The Night Of Anguish that lasts forever.
Darkseid makes his presence known to The Earth. You have to read this to believe it. Its mind-blowing.. I.Am.The.New.God. Check out the rest below.
Darkseid's Brightest (Or should I say Darkest) Moment ?
Review : This has to be the longest review I have done to date and that is because so much happened in this issue, its great to see multiple storylines tying into one another, I wish that they would have mentioned Batman's whereabouts a little clearly in this issue for those who did not read the Two-Part crossover in The Batman Monthly. The Green Lantern characterization was very well done by Grant. Johns-esque or greater in my view. He has a strong hold on Checkmate and All Kirby characters. I was impressed by Supergirl in this issue. He seems to really enjoy writing all the Super-characters. Darkseid's speech to close the Issue was probably the most Powerful I have ever seen the villain. Nix's return was very well done. The whole issue was well structured. I wish I could see more of Wonder Woman though.
The art has greatly improved in this issue, the artists are gelling together well now and I was very impressed by The Opening sequence Of The Guardians On Oa, The Splashes were beautiful. I'm glad that it looks better after the last issue which greatly disappointed.
The Judge Of All Evil is here indeed
Art : 9.2
Last Thoughts : The Battle has begun ! Most Of the stories are tying into one, clarity arrives. Characters have never looked or felt better. This Story is The Ultimate Compression story unlike some other overly decompressed stories. Each issue has felt better than the previous and they all read very well at one sitting.
Next In Final Crisis : Darkseid has made his presence to Earth, who has the power to even stand before him, yet alone defeat him? Don't Miss The Fate Of Batman as he prowls around Command-D. Watch the congregation of Earth's heroes on the fields of a broken and dying world. Do Not Miss It !
BTW, don't forget to include Marco Rudy as one of the artists for Issues 5 & 6. He drew the Nix scene at the end of Issue 5, and much of the Supergirl/Dark Mary Marvel battle in Bludhaven.
ReplyDeleteI know Grant had only so much room, but it would have been nice to explain a bit more about why it was so important to enthrall Diana with the ALE. Her powers could have freed so many of the heroes-turned-Justifiers. That's probably why Donna Troy was taken as a Justifier, since her sister was under Darkseid's power.
Also, it's been nice to see some FINAL CRISIS fallout, with flashbacks to Starfire and Tim Drake succumbing to the ALE and becoming Justifiers themselves. It adds to the importance of FINAL CRISIS to the DCU.
Well I'll correct and add Marco Rudy. He was really good. I loved the art of Supergirl vs Mary Marvel. It should be very obvious why Wonder Woman was chosen. Superman was missing, Batman was with them , Flashes missing, Green Lanterns offworld so wonder woman is an obvious choice. Right ?
ReplyDeleteRight, and her truth powers and her lasso could have negated the ALE if she hadn't been infected first.
ReplyDelete