Final Crisis tie ins?

[tib2d2]

What is required reading for Final Crisis outside of the main series? I saw the omnibus, and wow there's a lot included. What do you recommend?

[Ilan Preskovsky]

The more recent trade includes all the essential stuff, I believe. The Legion tie in has almost nothing to do with the main series and is only a must-read if you're a big Legion fan, in which case it probably is a must-read. The rest are also tangentially tied-in with the series but unless you're a fan of the writers/ artists handling them, you can very safely skip them all. For such a wild and epic story, Final Crisis is actually fairly self-contained.

That said, it's not a bad idea to read the Seven Soldiers of Victory first. It's certainly not essential but they're thematically connected, as far as I remember. It's pretty great stuff, though, so I recommend it regardless.

And one last note, Final Crisis really shouldn't be your first Grant Morrison comic, if that's what it is for you. Being more used to both his style and the themes that run through a lot of his work helps a lot with making your way through a very, very dense and unconventional read. I love it but, yeah, despite technically being entirely standalone, it's not exactly accessible.

[tib2d2]

Thanks Ilan! Yes, I was planning on going through Seven Soldiers first. Glad to hear the recent trade will work.

Yes, very familiar with Morrison's writings, def a love/hate relationship with him. I know to prepare myself for something unique and different whenever I see his name attached to something.

Thanks again

[Flash Gordon]

Superman 3-D
If you have the chance to freshen up on some of Morrison's BATMAN and SEVEN SOLDIERS, respectively- I would say go for it.

[tib2d2]

Superman 3-D
If you have the chance to freshen up on some of Morrison's BATMAN and SEVEN SOLDIERS, respectively- I would say go for it.

What's Superman 3-D?

[Flash Gordon]

SUPERMAN BEYOND 3-D, sorry.

d43.jpg

[Ilan Preskovsky]

SUPERMAN BEYOND 3-D, sorry.

d43.jpg

That's part of the trade, though, so no worries there.

[The_Lurk]

What is required reading for Final Crisis outside of the main series? I saw the omnibus, and wow there's a lot included. What do you recommend?

Oh yeah, it full of stuff and you will still feel like you missed a lot. IMO the Infinite Crisis Omnibus worked ALOT better on its own.

From what I gathered for a better understanding you should read "Seven Soldiers of Victory" and "Countdown to Final Crisis" first. Seven Soldiers is relatively easy to get in a smaller Omnibus collection (or in a four volume TP). Countdown on the other hand is a bit nasty. DC should have started a reprint before dropping the Final Crisis Omnibus on us :/

[tib2d2]

Oh yeah, it full of stuff and you will still feel like you missed a lot. IMO the Infinite Crisis Omnibus worked ALOT better on its own.

From what I gathered for a better understanding you should read "Seven Soldiers of Victory" and "Countdown to Final Crisis" first. Seven Soldiers is relatively easy to get in a smaller Omnibus collection (or in a four volume TP). Countdown on the other hand is a bit nasty. DC should have started a reprint before dropping the Final Crisis Omnibus on us :/

Yeah managed to grab all the Seven Soldiers issues on ebay, so I'm all set to read those before dipping into FC. Although I've heard from more than one person on these boards that Countdown to Final Crisis is a waste of time, and also contradicts several things in FC later.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Yeah, Morrison wasn't bothered at all with Countdown to FInal Crisis so I don't see why the rest of us should be.

[The_Lurk]

Yeah managed to grab all the Seven Soldiers issues on ebay, so I'm all set to read those before dipping into FC. Although I've heard from more than one person on these boards that Countdown to Final Crisis is a waste of time, and also contradicts several things in FC later.

I cannot tell. Their description (even their title) make them sound very mandatory. But I'm not willing to pay 50+ bucks depending of condition for the 4th volume + whatever come together for the other 3 volumes just to find out.

[Slimybug]

What a coincidence I found this thread!

A decade ago I was buying everything that DC was selling when it came to the impending Final Crisis. All 52 issues of Countdown, and those things that crossed over into it in one way or another: Amazons Attack, and with it, the first 10 issues of Wonder Woman, most of The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, Death of the New Gods, Black Adam: The Dark Age. And, of course, I was reading all of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps through the Sinestro Corps War.

Finally, after blowing so much of my college-student dough, I picked up the first issue of Final Crisis. And I could barely understand a word of it. I read somewhere that to truly understand it, what you should REALLY read is Grant Morrison's run on Seven Soldiers. Well, I was disgusted, and I swore off the whole thing. I never read Final Crisis, and I haven't read a new comic book since.

A decade on, I figured it was finally time to give it another chance. So with the help of the Ames, Iowa Public Library (the best comic-book-collection library in the world, BTW [likely due to it being on a major college campus {Iowa State University}]) , I started rereading much of what I read back in the day.

Well, first I read Seven Soldiers. And I'm not sure I'm any better off now than when I hadn't read it, because I barely understood a word. That's Grant Morrison for you. I didn't understand his run on X-Men either. I don't understand how anyone can understand his writing.

I have now reread most of Countdown, and it's actually that series that is, itself, making very little sense to me.

Let's take the plotline of the Monitors for example. I really don't know what the plan of Solomon the Monitor was all along. something about uniting all the Monitors as one, although I fail to see how what he's doing could accomplish that. And somehow he has to kill Ray Palmer to accomplish it, because the Source Wall randomly told Bob that Ray could stop this coming "great disaster." Well, when they find Ray, it turns out he's been trying to stop a "great disaster." Except he hasn't. All he's really been doing is working on creating some sort of vaccine against a virus that could, possibly, hypothetically, hit various universes because it did so on Earth-51. So he's working on spreading this vaccine throughout the multiverse. Not sure what that has to do with the monitor's plan.

And I have no idea who this Monarch guy is. Again, his plan makes now sense. He wants to collapse the multiverse into one universe and rule over it, but all I see him doing is attacking the monitors and ravaging Earth-51. Karate Kid's storyline is confusing too. Apparently Darkseid is behind the machinations making all these events happen, but I have the sneaking feeling that we'll never really get a proper reveal about how they all tie together. Or if we do, I won't understand it.

I wasn't expecting Countdown to be this confusing because it's Paul Dini writing it, not Grant Morrison. So...Will any of this have anything to do with Final Crisis when I read it? And can anyone fill me in on anything I'm missing when it comes to these storylines?

[tib2d2]

What a coincidence I found this thread!

A decade ago I was buying everything that DC was selling when it came to the impending Final Crisis. All 52 issues of Countdown, and those things that crossed over into it in one way or another: Amazons Attack, and with it, the first 10 issues of Wonder Woman, most of The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, Death of the New Gods, Black Adam: The Dark Age. And, of course, I was reading all of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps through the Sinestro Corps War.

Finally, after blowing so much of my college-student dough, I picked up the first issue of Final Crisis. And I could barely understand a word of it. I read somewhere that to truly understand it, what you should REALLY read is Grant Morrison's run on Seven Soldiers. Well, I was disgusted, and I swore off the whole thing. I never read Final Crisis, and I haven't read a new comic book since.

A decade on, I figured it was finally time to give it another chance. So with the help of the Ames, Iowa Public Library (the best comic-book-collection library in the world, BTW [likely due to it being on a major college campus {Iowa State University}]) , I started rereading much of what I read back in the day.

Well, first I read Seven Soldiers. And I'm not sure I'm any better off now than when I hadn't read it, because I barely understood a word. That's Grant Morrison for you. I didn't understand his run on X-Men either. I don't understand how anyone can understand his writing.

I have now reread most of Countdown, and it's actually that series that is, itself, making very little sense to me.

Let's take the plotline of the Monitors for example. I really don't know what the plan of Solomon the Monitor was all along. something about uniting all the Monitors as one, although I fail to see how what he's doing could accomplish that. And somehow he has to kill Ray Palmer to accomplish it, because the Source Wall randomly told Bob that Ray could stop this coming "great disaster." Well, when they find Ray, it turns out he's been trying to stop a "great disaster." Except he hasn't. All he's really been doing is working on creating some sort of vaccine against a virus that could, possibly, hypothetically, hit various universes because it did so on Earth-51. So he's working on spreading this vaccine throughout the multiverse. Not sure what that has to do with the monitor's plan.

And I have no idea who this Monarch guy is. Again, his plan makes now sense. He wants to collapse the multiverse into one universe and rule over it, but all I see him doing is attacking the monitors and ravaging Earth-51. Karate Kid's storyline is confusing too. Apparently Darkseid is behind the machinations making all these events happen, but I have the sneaking feeling that we'll never really get a proper reveal about how they all tie together. Or if we do, I won't understand it.

I wasn't expecting Countdown to be this confusing because it's Paul Dini writing it, not Grant Morrison. So...Will any of this have anything to do with Final Crisis when I read it? And can anyone fill me in on anything I'm missing when it comes to these storylines?

Thanks for your input! Yes when I see Morrison's name I definitely prepare myself for something unique, good or bad. I'm not afraid to admit that I don't enjoy some of his stuff.

I had a friend that told me that Countdown to Final Crisis was a total waste of time, and in fact contradicted a lot that was in Final Crisis.

The good news is that I found all the Seven Soldiers issues on ebay for a good deal, so I'll give those a look first.