[...] But it’s not just about the books. The magazine also includes clear-eyed handling of business topics, such as whether or not agents are necessary in comics, plus goofy short bits of fun. Also featured in this issue are interviews with Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim) and Grant Morrison (Final Crisis). [...]

[...] Final Crisis [...]

[...] memorial to the Martian Manhunter, who was so brutally done away with in a couple of panels of Final Crisis #1. Writer Peter Tomasi and artists Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, and Rodney Ramos do an admirable job [...]

Thanks for the information! I did enjoy the latest mini-series, although it was a very different take on the character.

As for the reasons for his demise, since many Ditko characters have recently been killed or dramatically altered (Question, Blue Beetle, ALL BB’s villains, Captain Atom becoming Monarch, Speedball becoming Penance) I had assumed there was some sort of legal reason behind it all.

I’ve no evidence of this, but the pattern is striking . . .

Jim

Jim P. – yes, Vic Sage (only Tot called him “Charlie”) is dead, from lung cancer. Perhaps this was an anti-smoking message as well as a convenient way of disposing of an interesting character. Since no one but Dennis O’Neil could write him properly, perhaps it was time to say goodbye to Mr. Szasz.

Morrison wrote at least some of it a year ago, and in his interviews, he seems to be backpedalling what may come of it, at least as it fits in the current DCU.
So no, I’m not very confident in the story mapping.

I guess I read his interview differently. It sounded to me like he was saying “I’m telling the story I want to tell, and not worrying about how it ties in.”

And I still remember what a mess (and ultimately nothing) came of his last big great idea, hypertime.

Now this is another kind of criticism entirely, and one I’m inclined to agreed with. Strategically, I think it is very backward looking for DC to revisit the past the way the have been. (Multiple earths,Supergirl, Bary Allen, etc . . .) And there is a good chance, I won’t like the status quo once things are finished. I almost didn’t pick up Final Crisis because of this. In fact, when someone told me the title of the series, I laughed and thought it was a joke.

Without having read any of the lead ins, I ended up enjoying the first issue. Maybe that was easier because I did not have to worry about how it fit. Also, I did enjoy Grant’s take on the New Gods, something KC did not.

I think KC is almost the ideal target audience for this, and if he’s left feeling lost and confused, I think that speaks to the work’s failure in reaching what it attempted.

I didn’t get the impression from his review that he was lost and confused, but that he felt it was “new reader unfriendly.” I do agree with him that footnotes would be of great benefit, as there were things that I was confused by. The one that springs to mind is what happened to the Question? I presume he died in 52. Did he really die from lung cancer as was implied? Or was that a joke?

So I do think KC has a point, but I don’t think the story is as big of a mess has he said.

Cheers,

Jim

[...] K.C. Carlson on the first issues of the DC superhero series Final Crisis and [...]

[...] Carlson, on the otherhand, was not as complimentary: I had to learn elsewhere (Newsarama) that the caveman wearing the preppy sweater in the opening [...]

Reading that run I loved it, and it wasn’t until later when I went back and read the past versions of the series. That I realized how much was “wrong” about those stories.

As a kid, I loved Zero Hour, so thanks KC. And Thanks for saving Sandman, because then I got to see him in James Robinson’s “Sand and Stars” a couple years ago, and that got me to read “Sandman Mystery Theatre”. So, you did good work there. It may have been rough work, but I appreciate that you did it, and I, who knew NOTHING about DC continuity at the time, was able to follow it pretty well. Thanks again.

Secondly, as far as Final Crisis goes..eh, I’ll take a “wait and see attitude”. I find it to be pretty similar to Morrison’s JLA arcs, just a bit slower.

And as far as knowing and enjoying…I get that feeling when I read a lot of Alan Moore’s work, so when that happens, I go online for annotations (Jess Nevins, or Wikipedia, or whatever), and that can be a fun diversion at times.

But I also enjoyed the Busiek Avengers stuff, and I didn’t know much about that continuity either. So, maybe I’m weird.

“Explaining Final Crisis – Because Morrison won’t”

Oh, don’t tease us! ;)

We’ll all be waiting to here THAT story.

I guess we disagree on whether everyone’s been properly introduced. I think KC is almost the ideal target audience for this, and if he’s left feeling lost and confused, I think that speaks to the work’s failure in reaching what it attempted.

You may be able to comprehend the basic story (although we’ve been debating whether there even is one)

You seriously don’t think that Morrison has the whole story mapped out? One of the things I liked about Final Crisis #1 is that there seemed to be a definite story he wants to tell. ( Unlike Infinite Crisis, which was a big mess).

but they were used precisely because of their history and connections. So if you know that, but you don’t know what those references are, then how much will you enjoy the comic?

To some degree, that’s a matter of personal preference. To me, if I don’t know the characters, it depends on how well they are introduced. I think Grant did a good job of introducing the major players and how they interrelate. I think anyone who was not familiar with Turpin, got a really good sense of who he is and how he relates.

To again bring up the “Secret Invasion” comparison, I really did feel out of the club on that. Mainly because I didn’t read the stories leading into it, which is quite different than using obscure characters that haven’t been seen in decades.

I think it is good form for a crossover series like this to have connections to long standing continuity. As long as all the main players are properly introduced, it will be perfectly enjoyable even if they are not familiar.

Jim

You don’t need to know who Anthro is, just that he’s a caveman.
You don’t need to know that the evil caveman is Vandal Savage.
You don’t need to know who the Human Flame is, or when he last appeared, beyond the fact that he’s a disgruntled Z-list villain who hates the Martian Manhunter.

And so on.

Another review talked about how they had to look up who Dan Turpin was. You know what? I didn’t know who Dan Turpin was, and I followed his part of the story fine. For all I knew he could have been a new character.

And really, Libra and the Human Flame might as well be new characters. No background knowledge on them is needed. It’s sort of like when this Max Mercury guy showed up in the pages of the Flash. Was it necessary to know the history of the original Quicksilver (or, for that matter, Johnny Quick) to understand “The Return of Barry Allen?”

I didn’t read either Countdown or “Death of the New Gods” so any inconsistencies would have went right past me.

My 2 cents,

Jim

I did manage to “save” The Sandman from the ZH purge by arguing that since he was (at that time) the oldest and most infirm, wouldn’t it be ironic if he ended up being the last surviving member of the team. After the PTB rolled their eyes at that, I suggested that we probably shouldn’t kill off the lead character of “Sandman Mystery Theatre” even if it was set in another era. That did the trick.

I hated being involved in killing the JSA characters. Even though I had read comics before, the early JLA/JSA team-ups were what made me want to save and collect comics. I loved those characters.

Although ZH was a pretty big success for DC, all I remember about it were the bad things that happened. At one point, discussions about what to do with Hawkman continuity became really convoluted and Hawkman editor Archie Goodwin got REALLY angry with me. And Archie almost never got angry. He was the sweetest guy in the world. And I made him really angry over a stupid comic book.

ZH was also directly responsible for leading me to my next big editing project, which, in turn, caused me to leave the company, and pretty much comics, for a very long time. And THAT I’m not ready to talk about, in public, yet.