Comic book review
Written by Grant Morrison
Artwork by JG Jones
DC Comics Seven issue maxi-series
Release date Monthly (Issue 2 out now)

The final chapter in the Crisis trilogy, written by a Scotsman who claims he was once abducted by aliens…

Trying to sum up Grant Morrison’s writing in a sentence would be a pointless exercise. His almost unlimited enthusiasm for DC characters has resulted in the re-emergence of the obscure and reinvention of the iconic, with groundbreaking storytelling approaches (Seven Soldiers) and smash-hits (All Star Superman) under his belt. Now Morrison attempts to tie up storytelling threads from the past four years of the DC Universe in the ‘final’ (are they ever?) part of the Crisis trilogy.

Unfortunately, without a PhD in Silver Age Comics Continuity, Final Crisis is likely to prove a tough read. Trailing a path through time from the first superhero (Anthro) to the very last (Kamandi), with a whole lot of capes and murdered New Gods in between, it’s a rather taxing experience. You’ll probably need a laptop with Wiki open to make sense of most of the concepts, and the almost obligatory death of a famous hero is too quickly dismissed on the page. There’s a lot of cramming going on here and not enough pace and explanation.

JG Jones (Wanted) provides some great artwork, though reports are already across the net of missed schedules and fill-in artists on the horizon. How Final Crisis will ultimately play out and affect DC’s other titles remains to be seen, but there is little here to excite a casual reader while fanboys are likely to end up with a massive headache. JG Rutter

VERDICT: 5/10
Approach with caution.