or, Holy Mother of Freakin’ continuity Batman! This is going to be huge!
If you haven’t been keeping track, we’ve been counting down (I don’t mean that as a pun but, damn it!) to DC’s final crisis event, wittily entitled, Final Crisis. Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns have paired up to write what is one of the most highly anticipated books of the last few years.
And not a word matters until you read the very last page!
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me to see news of DC’s latest and biggest crossover event making it to the mainstream media. Whether DC paid them off or not, This may be a serendipitous event, but what happened on the very last page is monumental to the DCU, so I’ll deal with it last.
I had to read this one really slowly to be sure I didn’t miss anything. The entire book was nothing more than a foreshadowing of the Final Crisis event coming, and its correlative books. The “unknown” narrator takes the reader on a journey through what the Final Crisis will be.
It starts with a brief history, before sliding right in to the fact that we’ll be seeing a Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes storyline. Sadly, this will also involve Superboy Prime; the whining, moping super version of … oh so very many people!
Following that build up are my favorite panels of this teaser issue – a great scene between Batman and Joker. The Joker is playing with Bats, dealing a Dead Man’s Hand (aces and eights for the uninitiated) as he surreptitiously announces that Batman is going to encounter people who are going to hurt him so bad he’ll “never recover.â€
Considering this is a big Trinity year for DC, it’s apropos that we check in with Wonder Woman next. Here, we are witness to three different villains collecting soil samples from genocide locations (Auschwitz, Logor Jasenovac, Darfur). I vaguely remember hearing Gail Simone announcing that a villain will be made – actually made – to fight Diana, perhaps this is the beginning of that build up.
We’re also witness to a conversation held between Greek gods Apollo and, presumably, Zeus (the silhouette would suggest as much).
What would a major DC event be without an appearance by some Green Lanterns? Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart make that appearance while investigating a bomb scene. Apparently, someone has been transporting villains with extra-terrestrial ties to a new federal jail, and the latest transport holding Hector Hammond, Shark, Evil Star and Black Hand gets destroyed. However, Black Hand isn’t anywhere to be found, and even Hal’s ring can’t locate him.
Looks like the Specter will also be playing a role in this the latest of DC’s crises. Seems that there may be a problem with the binding of God’s Vengeance with detective Crispus Allen that will play out over the next few weeks and months.
And of course we’re introduced to a new baddies prophet, Libra, who, in a speech that would have made Benny Hinn proud, proclaims to the Rogue’s Gallery that there is a new god who will give you anything you want, just as long as you worship him (Stargate much?).
The most exciting moment of DC Universe #0 comes with the concluding page of the issue. Everything seen up to this point gives the reader insights into upcoming titles such as Legion of Three Worlds, Batman R.I.P., Green Lantern Blackest Night, and whatever other titles that tie into the upcoming company wide event. Regardless of how excited you are by the previous pages, it all pales into nonexistence when you realize just who has been narrating the whole thing.
It probably isn’t a surprise right now, as it’s all across the mainstream media (or so I’m told… what would I know, I’m an Australian who works at night!). Either way…
Barry Allen is back!
All in all, I am really excited about Final Crisis like I haven’t been excited about anything for awhile.
This book gets a 3 for story, as it wasn’t really about story, but more foreshadowing, and 4 for art. This book was never going to be a high scoring book, as it’s a one shot that never stays more than a few pages on one storyline. But you can damn well believe that it’s got us hyped for the next few months!
9 Comments
I guess I have to read this again – but why is it Barry and not possibly Bart? Is this a swerve?
Go back to where he narrates the scene with Hal. No way in the world anyone outside of Ollie, Carol or Barry hears Hal make that admission.
Y’know, I haven’t read the issue, but…
I’m bugged by the assertion that nothing matters but the big last page.
i think that it is implied that it is barry when he says “he always told me to call him clark” and other lines like that
and i get that it is a flash with all of the race references; but in the comic when it says this is me and it shows the universe i assumed that libra was the narrator because libra supposedly became one with the universe when he died. and when i saw the burning body i thought it was libra being remade, hence his costume covering full body and face. also with the black box turning red, going from death to life, i still thought libra
so here is a question, would it be crazy to think that barry is back, but as libra??
also, another question… the red volcano we see with ivo. is it possible this is the red inferno mentioned in 52?
A) I think Red Volcano is one of the failed versions of robots that were come up with before Red Tornado that we saw in the eighty-five part opening arc of Meltzer’s Justice LEague (I know, I know, but it felt like eighty-five issues).
2) I thought the one with the universe sounded like Libra while teh personal knowledge suggested Barry.
III) Why hasn’t anyone commented at all that Morrison is ripping off Underworld Unleashed? Secret Invasion is getting knocked as a Battlestar Galactica rip off where I post so why does Morrison get a free pass when in this case he basically just paraphrases dialog from a bad crossover event?
This book was awful. Intended to set the stage for new readers, it set nothing except a huge ad for “Final Crisis.” And you say “it’s all across the mainstream media”? Ummmm… sorry, but no. It’s exactly NO WHERE in the mainstream media. As if they give a rat’s ass about Barry Allen! You seem to have drunk the Kool-Aid on this one. I look forward to your drooling praise of each issue of Final Crisis, and your ultimate declaration that Morrison is “brilliant” and “a god.”
That’s because no one actually read Underworld Unleashed…at least Marvel is ripping something off that people watch…
I’ve already proposed the theory that as the narration goes ‘This Is Me’ in front of Libra’s BLUE eyes, and the lightning bolt appears above his location, Barry Allen and Libra merged as part of the fabric of the universe, and they are now one person, literally fulfilling Libra’s duties – a bad person balanced out with a good person. It would also explain Zoom’s comment that he felt someone somehow move past him – Barry/Libra is that fast now.