Jared Matthews > Recent Status Updates

The Comedian’s assault is the climax of this. Because of the smaller coverups that they all participated in, they gave up the ability to hold him accountable.

It was a genius move to display the panels of the cheesy Minutemen comics within it, illustrating the dissonance between how they wanted to portray themselves, and who they really were.

The theme of issue #3 is the dissonance between the Minutemen’s public image and who they truly were. Mason’s tell-all book represents the truth that will torpedo the “spotless” image that the members of the Minutemen spent decades cultivating with cover ups and hidden truths.

As we already know what happens to the Minutemen, it is a daunting task to attempt to write a case that we genuinely feel in suspense about. The end of issue 2 does this well.

It creates a subgroup of the Minutemen that is actually concerned with saving children from a sex trafficking ring, a crime not flashy enough for the publicity focused members.

This crime is is interwoven with learning about the characters.

Interesting how, although Minutemen of course cared about doing good, their primary responsibility tended to be publicity. This led to the downfalls of their individual integrities as soon as they joined forces, since they had to cover for the worst of them when they did true evil.

The Before Watchmen format is perfect for Minutemen. Many of the other characters that had their own BW series were already fleshed out in Watchmen, so the prequel series was really just redoing what Watchmen had already done, but in a far less original way.

However, Minutemen’s story has not yet been told. This gives Cook the opportunity to be original, creative, without intruding on what Watchmen created.

The brief backstories told by Nite Owl I do a good job of giving depth to the characters without treading already charted territory.

The Moth is particularly fascinating. Cook makes you really feel to fear that a man would feel using a flying machine that could easily falter. His descent into substance abuse was already mentioned in Watchmen, but the rationale for it here is especially creative.

The choice to make this opening monologue be a “failed attempt” at a first draft for his book actually works so well. It allows Cook to be less than perfect or subtle in his writing, while it also puts it at a foundational observation that will drive the rest of the story.

Off the jump we have an attempt at making a statement on humanity and how small we are, and powerless compared to beings like Dr. Manhattan.

I like the attempt at having intellectual depth and not just the dark grittiness of Watchmen. However, it is quite less subtle than Watchmen. They are dealing with issue constraints, as they don’t have near as much space to develop ideas as watchmen does, so it makes sense.

Lex Luther and other so-called Supervillains rebel against Darkseid. Throughout their arc, they observe that this war is not about bad guys vs good guys or heroes vs villains. It is about free will vs control, autonomy vs singularity, and Life vs Anti-Life.

In this war, even heroes and villains are on the same side. Even after Darkseid is defeated, they collaborate to pick up the pieces, displaying their humanity.

Incorporating the lore of the black racer/black flash into the way that Darkseid is defeated is clever, satisfactory, yet will probably alienate some readers who haven’t read Jack Kirby’s New Gods.

Any other way of killing Darkseid would have likely come off as convenient and too easy considering how powerful he is at this moment.

Incorporating flash lore and resurrecting BA is a plus for creativity too.

It’s difficult to kill off such a beloved superhero in a way that is actually significant. I critiqued Final Crisis for this in the first issue when J’onn’s death is barely even addressed or given any emotional weight. The death of the main hero in #6, however, was done well. Reading BM #682-3 helps to add more emotional weight to his death too, seeing him break out of a mind prison.

This crisis is not about stopping evil from taking ive the world, but about addressing what do heroes do when evil has already taken over the world and already one. This is one constant theme that makes it so unique.

Morrison does a great job showing humanity fighting until the bitter end, even after Darkseid has won the battle, never losing hope.

I read Batman 682 & 683 in the Batman R.I.P paperback that I had, although it makes so much more sense as part of Final Crisis.

Not sure why it was included in Batman RIP, since it’s completely out of context without Final Crisis. It’s actually really good in Final crisis, showing Batman’s psychological fight against anti-life and how powerful he is mentally.

I guess that why they included it in Batman RIP.

Transforming Turpin into a host for Darkseid is a really good twist. Corrupting a “proud, noble spirit” into authoritarianism incarnate is pretty interesting.

Final Crisis Submit tie-in was a great issue. I’m unsure of whether it will have any lasting significance for the story, but it was a great subplot.

Morrison consistently demonstrates that Superman does what should be impossible. Feels nice to see all-star Superman level optimism come out in a crisis story.

Morrison incorporated Ultraman into the heroes side pretty convincingly considering his is clearly evil. Making him become a vampire Superman after what he did is a pretty creative and well-done story.

Okay, the idea of Superman and Ultraman being combined as symmetries rather than dualities is actually pretty cool. One of the few bright ideas in what has been a tough comic to get through so far. I’m hoping this pays off.

I feel like I need to read each page 2 or 3 times before I really understand what’s going on. Not sure if it’ll pay off in the end. I know this is how Grant Morrison writes a lot of his stuff, but it really is difficult to follow.

One major flaw to Final Crisis is the sheer amount of prior reading you have to do to even understand it.

Even if it involves characters from a lot of different stories, it doesn’t do a good job of getting the reader up to speed. It kind of just expects the reader to know what’s going on, making the on-ramp more difficult for casual readers, not great for a crisis.

I didn’t really appreciate the way they killed Martian Manhunter so easily. I get it that Libra is proving his skills and worth, but for one of the most powerful beings in the universe, J’onn went pretty easily.

Not only that, but it only takes one panel. There was no emotional buildup to make it feel like devastating blow that it really is.

Classic trope of an unknown villain pitching his case to a familiar rogues gallery that he can give them what they want if they go with his plan.

I don’t mind it, it’s just comical how often this shows up at the beginning of a lot of stories involving the justice league.

Grant Morrison, especially in his Batman run, has a somewhat psychedelic style. You’re confused reading it, but you’re supposed to be.

Despite this being his intention, it doesn’t make the reading experience any easier. I’m rereading the first two issues to try to grasp what I’ve been reading before I move on.

After the first issue or two, the story slows down a lot. The adventures on earth are really typical and boring. The issues that give backstory on Apokolips/New Genesis are a bright light, and really make this worth reading.

Great worldbuilding. Nothing revolutionary in terms of the plot, but maybe it was at the time. I really like Orion, Darkseid, Metron, and the other characters created here.

I've seen all of them in various crises and comics over the years, so it's cool to see where they started and understand the whole Apokolips/New Genesis thing.

This is my first time reading something from Jack Kirby. It has a way of being somewhat simple in form, yet having characters and locations that are more like concepts and symbols than mere people or places.

Maybe it's because I just finished All-Star Superman, which can't help but make you want to read a Silver Age story, but I'm really enjoying this.

Many characters in this story are intentionally static. It works, because the world they inhabit is not static.

The world is changing around them, and we fear that it is for worse. It is this that makes their unflinching and unchanging goodness so aspirational.

While static characters are often boring and simplistic, here they represent a static ideal, an unchanging goodness that we want to be steady and static.

Concerned for what humanity might do once he’s gone, Superman constructs an artificial world without him. The answer for what this world does without him? When it needs him most, Jerry Siegel draws and creates Superman.

You see, just the idea of Superman is powerful enough to affect change. I can’t help but see in this a metaphor to something deeper and more religiously significant. Happy Easter.

Superman’s concern for others, even his enemies, is admirable. Morrison does a great job at making it seem honorable, not naive. Superman feels no need to protect himself, only to protect others.

Its touching to hear his concern for what humanity might do to themselves after he is gone. This is the crux of Morrison’s point. Comics are aspirational, but they don’t have to be naive or immature to be that way.