Final Crisis #1

SPOILERS

I felt very little about this comic. I read it and thought, "I'm not sure what that was about." Then i waited a while, read it a second time, and i still didn't know what it was about.

Anthro (who isn't identified, and neither is his setting) is met by Metron. (It's neat that Morrison combines the image of the burning bush from the Old Testament with the Prometheus story from Greek mythology, but it doesn't add to the story.)

Dan Turpin (who isn't identified, and neither is his history with the New Gods) finds the expiring Orion. We get the hint that the New Gods have been reincarnated somehow (as we've seen in Seven Soldiers and Birds of Prey).

John Stewart investigates. The Black Racer is floating in the background. I guess that's the new Black Racer. The New Gods reconstituted themselves really quickly. They're already online before the last of their old forms has completely croaked.

I like Mirror Master's accent.

Why would those supervillains stage a protest march? Aren't they all wanted for multiple felonies? Shouldn't they be hiding out instead of marching down the street in costume? And why is that lone panel in the middle of the "League of Titans" bit?

It's good to see that Luthor, etc. aren't simply accepting Libra as the new boss. And Libra's dig at Vandal Savage was funny.

The cell phone bit confused me. I thought that maybe the Human Flame was watching something he'd recorded earlier. So i thought maybe he was watching the execution of Martian Manhunter on his phone. Something about that scene didn't flow well for me. That might just be me.

I kind of like the New Gods being in human forms. Of course it will depend on what sort of role they play, but it could be cool. I suspect that Darkseid's machinations have somehow fused the New Gods' essence with humanity, which is fitting since all of his plans seemed to involve Earth anyway, and "New Earth" is the "foundation stone of all existence."

Is it me, or are the Leaguers talking about the New Gods as if they don't know them? As if Orion, Lightray, Big Barda and Mister Miracle weren't members of the League? Has that bit of history been changed, or has the reincarnation of the New Gods somehow caused amnesia?

I don't know what the Monitors are here for. Thematically, they're another level of cosmic power and mythology; they're like another pantheon of gods who may be higher than or in competition with the New Gods. How does their story relate to the others? The other stuff all ties to Darkseid's plans, but i don't see how this one does.

Then Anthro meets Kamandi. Apparently Anthro is either transported to another Earth (if this is the Countdown version of Kamandi) or the distant future (if this is the old school Kamandi). Kamandi is not identified, and neither is his setting. But we do learn that Metron set his own plan into motion before he croaked, and this is the good guys' Last Best Hope.

The monitor who was "exiled" wakes up in his new, human form (more gods becoming men, soon to strive towards godhood again; Morrison's working his literary themes) for i guess the first time.

This issue was set up, as you'd presume a #1 to be, but while it put the pieces into place, it didn't give us any indication of what kind of game is about to be played. Any thread between these various plots has to be deduced by the reader. That's not necessarily bad, but it's not Summer Event Series storytelling. The stakes are unclear.

It was odd.

Readers not already familiar with DC's superhero universe will have a lot of questions. Characters and concepts are not introduced in several instances, as i noted. If you haven't read Seven Soldiers, you might scratch your head about the Dark Side Club. This is a big minus for an Event comic, which is intended (or so i always thought) to sell to a lot of people, not just faithful DC fans who follow their "universe" as a whole. Something as simple as caption boxes, or a couple editorial pages, would have helped.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #9

"No Future For You" part four
By Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Georges Jeanty (pencils), Andy Owens (inks), Dave Stewart (colors), Richard Starkings (letters), and Joss Whedon (executive producer). Published by Dark Horse Comics.

Here concludes the arc concerned primarily with our favorite troubled slayer, Faith.

Her cover blown in the previous issue, Faith now confronts Genevieve, the rogue slayer whom Giles tasked her to kill.

Before we get to the action, however, we have a flashback, narrated by Faith, that helps to set up this issue's theme of mentorship and growth. The gist of this flashback is the conflicted feelings Faith has for her former mentor/father figure, the Mayor.* She felt loved by the Mayor, despite his evil nature.

This past relationship mirrors the current relationship between Genevieve and her mentor, Roden, a warlock who's a sort of anti-watcher. Roden has filled Genevieve's head with the notion that the slayer powers are her exclusive birthright, and that it is her destiny to slay all the pretenders.

Faith and Genevieve have this much in common, that mentors who supposedly care for them have led them down very bad paths.

While the slayers battle, Giles, with the help of a diminutive fellow named Trafalgar, tries to break the mystical barrier that Roden has erected around Genevieve's estate. They can't do it.

The fight continues. Faith wins, albeit more decisively than she intended. At this point Roden appears, and he's not upset at the loss of his charge. Instead, he asks Faith to take her place and help him get rid of Buffy.

Now, here Faith has brief reaction that implies she'd like to get rid of Buffy. Roden plays on this in his evil-villain-tempts-with-promises-of-power speech. Admittedly i haven't given the final television season of BtVS as much attention as the rest**, but i seem to remember that Faith and Buffy at least made peace with one another. It's been implied earlier in this arc that Faith would still like to kill Buffy, but that doesn't scan. It's a retrofit in her characterization. That said, it isn't dwelt upon, and the character moves past it, so it's not something that really mars the story.

Herein we get a tantalizing bit about the overarching threat for this season. Roden presents Faith with a big black book emblazoned with the "twilight" symbol that's been strewn about since issue one. He calls it "the guidebook" and claims it will show them how to get rid of Buffy. More, he says that, in exchange for helping his superiors achieve this goal, he will be granted "clemency from the coming purge."

Faith cracks the book across Roden's face. Roden starts in with the violent hoodoo. Just when it looks like he's got Faith on the ropes, Giles enters and stabs Roden. He's not down, however. Faith hurls the twilight guidebook to Giles. Somehow, Giles flips immediately to a page with a useful spell. He didn't have to check the index or anything! I won't tell you what happens, except to say that the Ripper aspect of Giles comes to the fore, and Roden is done for.

I need to backtrack a bit here. How did Giles get through the mystical barrier? Willow did it. Also, Buffy is really pissy about the fact that Giles is working with "her" without even telling her. Again, when did Faith and Buffy start hating each other again? Of course Buffy's reaction is over the top. When she storms off, Xander says that maybe she just needs some alone time, to which Buffy responds "what other kind is there?" Yes, Buffy, nobody loves you. Your friends risk their lives for you over and over, they always forgive you when you do something really stupid, and hundreds of slayers idolize you. You're SO ALONE. Why don't you go cry about it to one of the TWO vampires who worship you. And, apparently in all the years she's spent with Giles she hasn't learned to trust him. Even though this part bothers me, it's still very true to the show. This is just one of those moments when i really don't like Buffy.

Epilogue one: Faith and Giles decide to continue to work together. At first it sounds like Faith wants to focus on helping new Slayers who are headed down the wrong path. But then it sounds like she and Giles will also be doing more "black ops" that are too dirty for Buffy and the other Scoobies. It would seem that either goal could be very time-consuming, but hey, this is a world with talking slugs, so it would be silly of me to get nitpicky about time management. The important thing is that these two characters go together very well. More importantly, Faith now has a good mentor at last.

Epilogue two: Tease the season-plot! A woman in military garb exits a helicopter and requests an audience with someone who's floating. She displays the "twilight" symbol on her palm. Here we see the Big Bad directly for the first time. His name is Twilight. His face is covered with a mask, and he has that symbol on his chest. Here's the cool stuff that has got me speculating, trying to figure out where this season is going***. Twilight says that he's trying to end the "age of magic." He doesn't regret losing Genevieve and Roden, because that's two magical elements removed from the world. Since he floats, or flys, it would seem that he uses magic, but it could be advanced technology. Or...maybe he's a supervillain? It would make metafictional sense that the first comic book -based season of Buffy would have a bone fide supervillain as the big bad. He does have a mask and a symbol on his chest. Hrmm. Also, in the Fray comic from a few years back, the future was shown to have been free of most if not all magical elements. Could Twilight be successful in his quest? We should learn more about all this quite soon, since Faith and Giles now have a copy of the "guidebook".

Verdict: Thumbs up!


*Best villain in the history of BtVS, bar none.

**I watched S7 once only, S6 twice (plus a couple more times for the musical episodes), S1-5 i've watched many, many times.

***Which really takes me back to the heyday of the tv show. It's awesome! B5 was that way, too. I just realized that the HBO shows i like are also like that, but since i watch them on DVD, the answers come quicker.