It would be oh so very easy to pan FINAL CRISIS. We could
start with the mere book's existence - what is the point of
a novelization of a comic book? It's like a text-only
version of Playboy. It misses most - if not all -
of the point. Or we could turn to the title, "Final
Crisis." For those of you that aren't particularly aware of
comic books, let's just say that this title is just a little
bit misleading. See, there are's already been
"Crisis on Infinite Earths," "Infinite Crisis," and
now FINAL CRISIS. Of course, there have been some other
crises in between, but with non-crisis
names, such as "52." And there's already been
another crisis since this was written. A more accurate
title would be "Another Crisis in an Ongoing
Series of Crises." Or we could just make fun of the
general silliness involved in comic books, with people
running so fast they go back in time (huh?), people
reincarnated by the "Flash Force" (uh?), Monitors, Supermen,
and (I'm not making this up) a "Miracle Machine".
Yes, it would be so very easy to pan this book. The story
is the kind of melange of fan-boy trivia that DC can sling
together: Darkseid has finally obtained the anti-life
equation, gets himself reincarnated on Planet Earth
(well, one of them), and begins taking over the world.
Chaos ensues.
Batman, Superman and every "-man" and "-woman" shows up and
eventually saves the day using, amongst other things, the
power of love, the Miracle Machine and whole bunch of
glowing green things. The writing is competent, I
suppose, but there are only so many ways to describe men and
women running around in tights punching things. The
problems with the book have nothing to do with the author,
who is writing to someone else's story, using someone
else's characters.
Nonetheless, this book is too easy to pan to not actually
pan it. The book isn't bad per se, it's just pointless. If
you aren't a comic book fan, it won't make any sense at all.
If you are a comic book fan, it will make
comic book sense to you... but why the hell are you reading
this when you could be reading the comic? Unless, God help
us, the book makes more sense.
The novelization of the superhero event starring Batman,
Superman, Wonder Woman, and the heroes and villains of the
DC Comics Universe Victorious at long last against his
enemies on the world of New Genesis, Darkseid has unleashed
the forces of Apokolips on Earth.
With the secret of the
Anti-Life Equation at his command, Darkseid now possesses
the ability to eradicate all free will from humanity-and
usher in an end to the age of super heroes.
Facing an ever
growing army of mindless slaves and corrupted heroes,
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the remnants of the
Justice League of America find themselves consumed by the
ever spreading darkness. They remain humanity's only
hope-the only light that will not be extinguished in the
world's darkest hour.