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When does a crisis become a Crisis?

I’ve heard it said and am starting to agree with the idea that DC should have approached Final Crisis the same way it allowed Morrison to approach Seven Soldiers with a series of mini series bookended by issues that kick everything off and then bring everything back together.  Imagine Final Crisis #1 as the first bookend (probably even renumbered Final Crisis #0) and then all the plotlines and stories as their own three or four issue minis and then a giant sized Final Crisis: The End, full of fire and brimstone as one version of the DCU is sent off to pasture and another one rises Phoenix-like from the ashes?  There would be room in this structure for Legion of 3 Worlds, Rogue’s Revenge and Revelations but you’d also have miniseries that focused on the earth-bound heroes, developed the Flashes’ stories more, showed the trials and tribulations of the Green Lanterns,gave expanded roles to Batman and Superman and generally add some meat to the skeleton that is what we are really getting in Final Crisis.

Final Crisis #6 gives us a glimpse of what could have been; this is the issue that finally makes this feel like a “Crisis” event, living up to the precedent of Crisis on Infinite Earths.  There are red skies, heroic sacrifices and even Barry Allen coming up with a plan to save everyone.  There are shades of Wolfman/Perez in this storytelling even if Grant Morrison and his cadre of artists can’t cram into seven issues what Wolfman and Perez could get into one.  In their ways, the spinoff titles for Final Crisis have been important because, for some reason, Grant Morrison is just incapable of providing any color or personality in his books.  Final Crisis may live up to the Morrison reputation; it’s all about the plot and wacky ideas while it skimps on its humanity and characterization.

At least those plots and wacky ideas are still fun to try and wrap your brains around while Final Crisis continues to play around with ideas that Morrison has explored for years—namely that our biggest enemies are ourselves.  Whether it’s Wonder Woman taking the place of a Female Fury, Mary Marvel getting down and dirty while possessed by Desaad or Dan Turpin becoming Darkseid, Final Crisis walks the fine line of being a war and a rescue mission at the same time.  Yes, there are outside forces at work but those forces attack through our friends and family.  This happens time and time again in Morrison’s work (New X-Men, The Invisibles and Klarion for example) and continues to be one of the repeating themes to Morrison’s larger body of work.

This issue could easily have been a Batman and Superman story, showing how the two allies and friends really work together.  The problem with this issue is that to understand the storyarc of those two characters, you’ve got to be reading a number of other titles; Legion of 3 Worlds, Superman Beyond and Batman RIP.  When we last saw Superman in the pages of Final Crisis #3, he was being whisked away by a Monitor even as his own wife’s life was in jeopardy.  This latest issue opens up with Superman in the future with Brainiac 5.  What?  How did that happen?  Where did Superman’s story happen?  To find out, you’ll have to see other books written by Morrison and Geoff Johns.  Batman?  And I guess this is supposed to be the real end to Batman RIP but this story has little to do with Morrison’s exploration of Batman over in his own title.  When you stop to think about it, isn’t there something just kind of strange in the idea that Superman has been galavanting around time and the multiverse while Batman and Wonder Woman have been at the mercy of Darksied and his minions?  Or while his wife has been at death’s door?

For every head scratching moment this issue, Morrison does find the space to put in enough great scenes and ideas to keep the momentum of this series rushing forward to its climax next issue.  Talky Tawny, who’s been a background character, gets a moment to show a genetically engineered and tiger-like Kalibak what a real talking tiger can do when he’s cornered.  The whole naughty Mary Marvel storyline comes to some kind of conclusion here, even if that conclusion was done years ago with Kid Miracleman by Alan Moore.  We get hints about how the world may be saved in an idea that only Morrison could come up with and that has its origins back in Infinite Crisis.  And we get to see how Batman outsmarts a New God.  Those are the beats that you want to see in a Crisis and those are the ones that Morrison finally delivered this issue.

Final Crisis #6
“How to Murder the Earth”
Written by: Grant Morrison
Art by: JG Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Doug Mahnke, Marco Rudy, Christian Alamy & Jesus Merino
Colored by: Alex Sinclair & Pete Pantazis
Lettered by: Rob Clark Jr.

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