Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. If this is what there is to be expected of Final Crisis for the following issues then Marvel will have victory, again, just like last time, and the time before that, and the time before that time. Ridiculous.
I cannot believe that two issues in this is to be expected from DC's Mega Event. It's supposed to be special. Grant Morrison himself said it was The Lord of the Rings of the DCU, Lord of the Rings wasn't half assed. There's a reason that it's considered the greatest novel ever written. This had so much hype and excitement coming in, the story is called FINAL CRISIS, which is the most epic fucking sounding thing ever, and it has been pathetic so far. How do you have an event called FINAL CRISIS about the end of the world of superheroes, see that. SUPERHEROES. The end of their age. How do you do that and make it so pedestrian.
It's so badly paced and structured, things just happen out of nowhere, too quick, it's as if it's jump cutting through scenes and there is a lot we are missing. Some bad storytelling. I'll give you an example. I couldn't work out what was supposed to happen when John Stewart gets attacked by a Green Lantern, the way the sequence was told, was confusing due to the other Lantern being there, I didn't know if it was him or not. Probably the most confusing part of the issue.
It never concerned me like other people complaining about issue 1 about it not being accessible, editorial fuckups were what concerned me. Sure Morrison said "so what, forget the other stuff and enjoy the comic" easy for him to say, he wasn't the one out of pocket 70 bucks. You don't need to know everyone to get the story at the start, like some idiot people said that they couldn't get into it because they didn't know the people. Did you know who Indiana Jones was when Raiders came out? No, you fuck. Either way those people are idiots and yes in issue 2 it will still confuse them but that wasn't a problem then or now. What i'm trying to say is that the biggest issues are other things. The editorial fuck ups aren't really here though, so thank goodness for that.
I'm gonna say it. Hiring J.G Jones to do the art was a big fucking mistake. Huge mistake. I heard that he spent most of his time working on designs, almost a year. That's fine. But he should have done just that. The designs. Not the art. It's very mediocre art, it looks like one of the hacks from Countdown drew it. You know those weird pages in issue 1 that looked like they were done by a fill in artist? The entirity of issue 2 barring two pages, looks like that. Absolutely pathetic. I cannot believe J.G Jones had a year of lead time, and this is what he comes up with and then a fucking fill in artist comes in on issue 4, how the fuck does he hold a pencil? With his eyes, is that why it takes so long? What the fuck has he been doing all this time? I just can't believe the guy who drew those gorgeous 52 covers did this stuff or even the first few pages of Issue 1 which were very very nice. But a year of leadtime and the best he comes up with are the opening pages of Issue 1 and then this rushed art. Some people complain about Leinel Yu's art because it's different, but it's stylish, it looks nice, you can't open up Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk and tell me it isn't nice. I don't know if you can really blame DC Editorial on this one since Jones hasn't ever been a regular artist and I doubt they would know that he wouldn't be able to turn in quality work on such a deadline.
Like I have said to other people. J.H Williams III should have done the art, he is consistent, he is the best artist hands down on both major companies and he would have done something amazing with this, with the storytelling with the actual art. This just reads like another comic, any random mediocre comic you'd pick up with a real fucking nice cover. I expected alot more and alot of other people will too. I can't believe they allowed this art to go through on such a big event. We all know Marvel has the best art and artists, their worst looking books, look like DC's best, but this is just ridiculous. There's nothing special about the art, it's just another comic. Which makes it all the more hilarious that a fill in artist is being brought in, how do you bring a fill in artist to help a guy producing sub par work? Remember Ultimates, how that had brilliant art but was incredibly delayed because of the art, it would make sense if they needed a deadline to bring in a fill in artist to help out, but not if the art looks like ass. This might just become the lauging stock of fanboys and I don't blame them.
It should be something specific and stylized. David Aja(Immortal Iron Fist), Bryan Hitch(Ultimates), Alex Maleev(Daredevil), Steve McNiven(Civil War), Leinel Yu(Secret Invasion). They all have their own styles that when a non comic reader sees them, they go 'woaahhh' but this stuff gets a reaction more like 'ok'. I'm not saying it should be like any one of those guys, but they have art that is different and nice to look at. Any one of the countdown boys for hire could have drawn this. And that is very dissapointing. Can you imagine Children of Men photographed by some random cinematographer? That's what it feels like. So that's basically what it is. Aja, Hitch, Maleev, McNiven, Yu. They are your Lubezki's, Deakins', Elswits', Lesnie's, Doyle's but this was done by the guy who photographed Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor.
And all this talk of Turpin beating the Mad Hatter with a toilet seat. And you don't even see him actually beat him with the toilet seat. Pathetic.
All of this and I haven't even talked about the actual story. Well basically, very slowly and I repeat VERY SLOWLY are the bad guys plodding and doing their supervillain thing in destroying the good guys. The big guns being taken out bit by bit is a great idea, I loved the idea of Hal Jordan being taken offline so to speak because he's motherfucking Hal Jordan, so taking him out of the equation is important, because he's a Green Lantern and because he's Hal Jordan. Taken out physically and via Green Lanterns is a great idea. Taking out John Stewart. Taking out the brains of the superheroes, Batman. An attempt to take out Superman, or what Superman holds dear. All interesting ideas that hopefully will get better.
The biggest issue about the issue(ha) apart from the art, is the way the story unfolds, moreso in the way the panels are constructed, it's too quick, it's as if we see a 2 minute snippet and it's all crammed together and then boom go to the next scene, dialogue doesn't flow well so you have to read it twice. Read the second last page with the flashes and tell me it doesn't read weirdly.
The last page, whilst pretty predictable, is interesting in what is happening. But again, the art. What the fuck man?
The Morrison aspect of the story isn't bad truth be told, the Japanese super heroes, the time travelling God bullet are all interesting ideas and very Morrison, I just had a big issue with the art. Also i doubt this will make people scratch their heads as much as last time, well those not versed in the ways of Grant Morrison. A bit more accessible I guess.
I have to say that if issue 3 doesn't do something good and I don't mean take off like they have said, but if they don't present a presentable comic then this spells doom for DC, another One Year Later. Wow, that event was pretty stupid eh?
- Edit: Ok, so I read it again. It reads better the second time but the art is still shitty. And I never said J.G Jones is a hack artist, but this work looks like it was done by one of the hack artists from countdown, far from the covers of 52, Wanted or the first issue of Final Crisis.
