The Monitor Tapes for Monday, February 2nd, 2009
FINAL CRISIS #7 (OF 7)
Grant Morrison (W) Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy (A)
Evil won, but good triumphs in the end.
We open with red skies over the White House, red skies being a staple of “Crisis-centric” happenings reworked as part of the (Wildstorm) bleed, the stuff between universes. We see the president of this earth is African American and a Superman, Wonder Woman is African American in appearance as well, both resembling the Earth-D from Legends of the DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 one-shot.
As Wonder Woman uses—– they end up finding a shiftship sailing out of the bleed (the same ship from Superman Beyond) manned by Rene Montoya AKA the question (now a Global Peace Agent) and eight Supermen, one being the Captain Marvel also previously seen in Superman Beyond. They are recruiting the Supermen of the Multiverse to stop the tide of evil engulfing the multiverse.
Meanwhile, upon the makeshift “Watchtower” (made of parts of bases such as Superman’s fortress of solitude and the Teen Titans tower) remaining heroes stand watch as the multiverse crumbles around them. They are attempting to regroup while they lose their world and it’s treasures, including Batman of which they use a Superman rocket filled with mementos of his life. They send the ship off into the bleed as if giving Batman a Viking funeral, for their fallen warrior and friend.
Superman, still cradling the body of the fallen friend Batman, sizes up Darksied as he tries to control his rage. Darksied monologues to Superman about how he won while Superman had his back turned (Superman has been through the multiverse and limbo in Superman Beyond, and in the future with the Legion in Legion of Three Worlds). As Superman grabs Darksied, he exclaims to Superman that he can not beat him since he’s made of “People” (his body belonging to Dan Turpin and the Anti-Life slaves). Superman realizes it’s Dan’s body and begins to ask why he didn’t chose Batman (Darksied had to break a strong will to put a hold on the body) where Darksied cuts him off explaining he didn’t have enough time to break Batman.
When it looks like even Superman can not defeat Darksied, speeding out of nowhere comes the Flashes (Barry Allen and Wally West) with “Death” (the Black Racer/ Black Flash) close on their heels. As Darksied fires his “God Gun” to kill Orion in the past (see Final Crisis #1), the Flashes speed through Darksied leaving the Black Racer to collect Darksied as they continue running past. As the narration of the story begins, we learn that this is happening in the past now, how this was the time of the last superheroes.
Intercut is a snapshot of the return of Arthur of Atlantis, AKA Aquaman looking better than he has in the recent past wearing a slightly modified version of his original orange and green costume. With Darksied now gone, Superman and his surviving friends get to work on the Miracle Machine (seen previously in the future by Superman) to use it to fix the broken multiverse by calculating the Life Equation. Everyone chips in either experience or equipment, even Luthor and Sivana use their science for good as they work with the heroes.
While Darkside succumbs to the attacks on him, the Justifiers still fight with the helmets broadcasting Anti-Life directly into their minds. The OMACs (from the looks of it OMACs with human “pilots” and OMAC android “build a persons” from kits) continue fighting them to protect the remaining uninfected. Everything goes completely mad as the remaining heroes try to fight off Darksied’s influence, and the story it’s self looses a direct narrative and begins bouncing forward, backward and sometimes stopping on the present.
As I had worried previously, elements from Superman Beyond do in fact come into play and those who haven’t read it will no doubt be lost. Mandrakk the Dark Monitor appears with his herald, the now vampiric Ultraman from the Quardian mirror universe. Mandrakk has drained both the Specter and Mercy (the spirit of Mercy/ both key characters in FC- Revalations) and now plans on feeding off Superman and the remaining “Germs” of the universe. Superman activates the Miracle Machiene using the solor energy stored in his cells as the Superman army strikes, lead by Captain Marvel (of Earth-5, resembling the original Cap. Marvel and Co.). The Monitor Nix Uotan (revealed to be the son of Mandrakk) summons the DCU and frees Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew to stop Mandrakk as he refers to them as the Forever People of the 5th World.
Needles to say, the good guys win and the multiverse is corrected. The most overshadowing part of the ending is that of the last moments of Anthro the first boy. As he lays down for his final rest, we see the ship that was Batman’s funeral barge. As Anthro makes his last mark on a cave wall (the symbol of Metron, later to be found/ previously found in Final Crisis by Cave explorers) as Batman arrives and begins etching symbols into the walls, as seen on the alternate cover of Final Crisis #1. The series from the beginning was circular in nature and the end becomes the beginning, as many stories possibilities and plots remain to be mined by the work in the series. We’ll see how they unfold as DCU continues into the future.
DC comics available on February 4th, 2009
ADVENTURE COMICS #0
BLACK LIGHTNING: YEAR ONE #3 (OF 6)
EL DIABLO #6 (OF 6)
FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #3 (OF 5)
JONAH HEX #40
LOONEY TUNES #171
THE MIGHTY #1
SECRET SIX #6
SIMON DARK VOL. 2: ASHES
SUPERGIRL: COSMIC ADVENTURES IN THE EIGHTH GRADE #3
TANGENT: SUPERMAN’S REIGN VOL. 1
TERROR TITANS #5 (OF 6)
TINY TITANS VOL. 1: WELCOME TO THE TREEHOUSE
TRINITY #36
Light week, check dccomics.com for previews and additional information. As usual, thanks for reading!