52 actually made me a fan of Booster. Prior to 52, I couldn't stand him...he just never clicked with me. I don't know why, but after reading his story in 52 I just suddenly enjoyed his other stories. Like seeing them with new eyes, I guess.
For anyone who doesn't know, graphicaudio.net has some AMAZING DC audiobooks...they are based on the novelizations of DC stories, and their tagline is: "A Movie In Your Mind." And they are right. Voice actors, sound effects, music, and narration all come together wonderfully. I own many of them, but their audiobooks of Infinite Crisis and 52 are simply fantastic. I've lost count of how many times I've listened to them.
"Darkseid...always hated music..."
Every post I make, it should be assumed by the reader that the following statement is attached: "It's all subjective. What works for me doesn't necessarily work for you, and vice versa, and that's ok. You may have a different opinion on it, but this is mine. That's the wonderful thing about being a comics fan, it's all subjective."
This is one of the things I love about comics (well, art and entertainment in general), the subjectivity of it all. I have the opposite opinion, and I would even go so far as to say Final Crisis is my favorite DC story of all time. I hated it as it came out in single issues, but reading it all together just clicked for me. The themes, the desperation of the heroes, Darkseid wins! (for a while, anyway), Superman Freaking Beyond...I love it.
"Darkseid...always hated music..."
Every post I make, it should be assumed by the reader that the following statement is attached: "It's all subjective. What works for me doesn't necessarily work for you, and vice versa, and that's ok. You may have a different opinion on it, but this is mine. That's the wonderful thing about being a comics fan, it's all subjective."
Final Crisis is a textbook example of a story that was bungled in its original release thanks to Didio's editorial mismanagement and Morrison's own hubris, but was redeemed by subsequent collected editions that revised and re-edited the story into what it was meant to be in the first place.
Unlike big budget movies, the big comics events don't get any test screenings to help them fix any problems before it gets released to the general audience. I will give Didio credit for letting Morrison go back and tinker ever so slightly to make his story work better. It also helps immensely that the newest collected edition gets to stand on its own without the entirely unrelated and terrible Countdown to Final Crisis and Death of the New Gods confusing readers and distracting them from Morrison's story, which was very much a direct sequel to his Seven Soldiers event.
What people like about Morrison is that he takes big swings. He's not interested in giving readers straight-forward easily-digestible comics that any big-creator is capable of delivering. He wants to push the mainstream of the comics medium into new and unfamiliar areas, because otherwise it will wither and die regurgitating the same stories and ideas in the same ways over and over again.
While I wasn't as into it as most at the time, I remember it positively. It was well-written, for sure, and it brought back the multiverse for which I'll always approve. I just drifted in and out at times when it focused on characters I wasn't really into (fully understanding though that was the point, to focus on the lesser knowns).
Last edited by Sacred Knight; 08-28-2018 at 03:13 PM.
"They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son." - Jor-El
The collection that Morrison re-edited is called Final Crisis (New Edition). https://www.amazon.com/Final-Crisis-.../dp/140124517X
It eliminates all the extraneous nonsense that Didio tried to throw into the event that had little, if anything, to do with the main story, while adding in essential material from the tie-ins that Morrison did that got lost in the shuffle thanks to the confusion of all those unnecessary comics. While DC Editorial is certainly to blame for a lot of this, Morrison also should have been more clear with them about how the story should have presented. Thankfully, it's all been sorted out in the end and the story, as it is presented now, is much easier to follow and understand.
That said, Final Crisis is still incredibly dense and ambitious. It is a challenging story that challenges its audience by throwing a lot of information and ideas at the reader and not wasting any time letting you absorb it all before leaping into the next crazy notion. Another thing you should know going in is that a lot of the groundwork for Final Crisis was laid by Morrison's similarly dense and complex Seven Soldiers event, which is now rightfully marketed in many cases as part of Final Crisis itself.
https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Soldier...grant+morrison
https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Soldier...rrison+omnibus
https://www.amazon.com/Final-Crisis-.../dp/140124517X
"It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does? - Gaff Blade Runner
"In a short time, this will be a long time ago." - Werner Slow West
"One of the biggest problems in the industry is apathy right now." - Dan Didio Co-Publisher of I Wonder Why That Is Comics