Final Crisis

There was this small comic that came out a couple of weeks ago, that furiously divided people into two warring camps. On the one side there were people who flat out loved it, and on the other those who flat out loathed it. Then there were other camps who commented on and on about how impenetrable it was for the new reader, or those who bemoaned how much this comic didn't fit with Countdown or Death of the New Gods. And now we get an interview from Grant Morrison.

There are a number of points to note in the interview, not least among them being the clarifications that Grant provides for the various discrepancies.

1. It seems that Grant seems to regard Countdown and Death of the New Gods on two different levels. While he consciously tries to be inclusive of Jim Starlin's series, his attitude towards Countdown is more "I don't care". And quite rightly. But even Starlin's series required no consideration. Maybe Grant has a lot of respect for Starlin. The way I see it, both series have DC Editorial written all over it, and frankly I don't care for either. And unlike his interview with The Comic Foundry, he sounds more resigned to the fact that DC Editorial was going to mess with all of his plans and they did.

2. Morrison mentions that JG Jones was on #3 atleast 2 months ago, which heavily discounts Rich Johnston's theory. I am now pretty sure that all of Final Crisis will come out on time.

3. Morrison cites online commentators in general terms. I didn't think he actually read what online commentators ever said, because most of the time, online commentators have no idea what is going on in a Morrison comic unless its spoon fed to them, but not only does he cite what they are trying to say, but he even tries to annotate some things, and confirm plot points, like the last page.

4. Even though he originally said Final Crisis would be self contained, I begin to get the feeling that to get the full impact of the story, I'll have to read Revelations and Superman Beyond. Not that I wasn't going to, but it just seems a departure from his previous stance.

5. Furthermore, Grant announced the relaunch of his site with new content. His site has been defunct now for probably 4-5 years now, and it seems like a welcome move.

All in all, interesting interview. He didn't sound his typical enthused self, and was obviously more than pissed at what DC has done to his plans. But knowing Morrison, I know that I am in for an epic ride. Personally, for Countdown, I blame Mike Carlin. Maybe someday I'll make an exhaustive post about what projects Mike Carlin has been on, and how I can make a direct relationship between the degree of suckitude of a project and Mike Carlin.