question for DC fans (re: Final Crisis)

I’m a big Marvel fan and I know very little of the DC Universe. Sure, I know some about Batman & Superman but that about does it. I’ll be following Secret Invasion closely and I’m planning on picking up many of the tie ins and I don’t want to spend a whole lot on any Final Crisis although I admit it does look cool.

Here’s the question: do you think someone like me would get any enjoyment out of simply reading the Final Crisis mini series?

Thanks in advance.

FM

I’m a big DC fan and I’m not sure I’‘m going to like Final Crisis. I’m sure they are going to do things that will irritate some DC fans.

I recommend you do what I’m planning on doing: check out the first issue, and if you don’t like it, no harm done. The art is going to be great and people are going to be talking about it, so you will get at least your $2.39 worth. Definitely get DC Universe #0, since it’s only 50 cents, so extremely low risk. The potential upside of Final Crisis is that it is going to explore all the corners of the DC Universe, so there’s potential there to get a crash course. They are promising that you don’t need to buy anything outside of the miniseries, so hopefully you’ll be ok reading it on its own.

Cool stuff man, I guess I’ll definitely pick up DC Universe 0, isn’t it being done by Greg Rucka or Geoff Johns? I’m still on the fence about Final Crisis, I picked up his Rhaz Al Ghul crossover a while back and really hated it, so I haven’t read batman since. Another thing is I’ve only read Checkmate and Suicide Squad in the dcu, so I wonder how “lost” im going to be getting into this.

Even though it may be self contained, I heard mentioned that final crisis is going to have alot to do with Batman RIP and the death of the new gods mini, is this true?

Hmm. For some reason, this thread gets cut off on the right hand side for me. Not sure if it’s due to my using Firefox 3 Beta 5 or not. Anyone else have this issue? (Note: other threads appear fine.)

-b.

thanks for the hint Classic Beetle. I’ll do that.

Brian, not the first time I’ve seen that happen here. Seems it does that when someone uses a “CODE” instead of “BLOCKQUOTE” to do a quote.

You can read there text by selecting it and copy/pasting it into notepad…

FM

You can read there text by selecting it and copy/pasting it into notepad

Aha! :) Thanks FM. Worked like a charm.

Personally, I read Countdown to about issue #28, then stopped.

Not sure if I’ll go back and read the rest to get ready for Final Crisis.

-b.

I just read through the following web page, getting a decent background to Countdown in preparation of Final Crisis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countdown_to_Final…

It’s a lot to take in, but if you didn’t read Countdown, but want to know what happened, it’s a good place to go.

-b.

If you want my suggestion … stay away from any over arching continuity stuff because it is not only costly but will ultimately drive you nuts. Marvel and DC are great at drawing people into these things but ultimately they end out being only mediocre in overall entertainment value. It also sets up many people for eventual failure because there is just no way to write for long time or small characters when one is bricked in by rigid or convoluted continuities.

I think of how nicely DC dealt with their previous multiverse only to have John Byrne fork it all up within months of its completion and now DC is back at a point where a carefully maintained multiverse just makes sense.

Anyway, though I delve into these big continuity stories sometimes I have to admit I get far more enjoyment out of the books that don’t really have to pay too much concern to it. It saves me money and allows me to investigate other comic interests (since I am not being forced into buying those tie-ins that I don’t want but may ultimately have to read to make all the parts fit).

Frogman: Depends on whether you like Grant Morrison or not. From my understanding, DC Universe #1 is the bridge that lets new readers in on the series. Even if you’re not into the DC Universe, but are a fan of the Big Three (Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman), I highly recommend TRINITY (http://heavyink.com/search?q=trinity#preview) which is a weekly series drawn by former Ultimate Spider-Man/THunderbolts/Mighty Avengers artist Mark Bagley.

Oxbladder: I have to agree with you. I never had much of a problem with them, but then Civil War killed me.
There were over 100 issues to read in that one, if you go by Marvel’s Gallery.

But when it comes to DC events, I feel obligated to read them because I don’t want to miss out on anything going on with Bats.

-b.

Eric: Thanks for that. I forgot that Trinity was coming. I’m definitely going to read that one.

-b.

Does anyone have a link to DC Universe 1 or 0 (whatever is supposed to help new readers get into Final Crisis) on Heavy Ink? Thanks!

there ya go:
http://heavyink.com/comic/3794-Dc-Universe-Zero

I’ll say this re: DC and event comics…Final Crisis does sincerely seem to be DC at least TRYING not to create a billion tie-ins to a big event book; there’s the main miniseries and some supporting miniseries, but the supporting stuff doesn’t seem essential at this point, and at least it’s all written by some of the best DC has to offer (Geoff Johns (paired with Perez on art!) and Greg Rucka).

Secret Invasion is totally out of control. I have added a few titles to help follow it but they’re good books that I’ve heard great things about so I’m not complaining too much (Avengers: The Initiative, Incredible Hercules). I’m reading the Avengers books anyway. Beyond that, I am trying VERY hard not to buy too much more.

DC Universe Zero also seems like an ideal jumping on point.

The Independent Comics Site has a nice article regarding Final Crisis title “State of the Art: Final Crisis and its Tie-Ins”. You can find it at the following link:
http://independentcomicssite.net/index.php?opti…

Spoilers warning applies though…

FM

and Matt, yeah, after reading that article I linked to, it does seem like DC is keeping it a bit contained. As for Secret Invasion, I don’t mind it much. Yeah, will probably make for a ton of issues to get, but I like the Marvel Universe so I’ll probably end up reading stuff I might never read after that…

FM

I think HI might have been shorted on DC Universe 0 Then again its probably just late.

I think HI might have been shorted on DC Universe 0 Then again its probably just late.

Looks like we got half a shipment last week, and the rest this week. I wish that wouldn’t happen, but at least they got here!

Thanks for letting us know! I picked it up on FCBD, for those of you that read it, what did you guys think of it? I havent really read too much in either “universes,” but DC 0 was interesting; im sure i didnt getr alot of it, but it explained, in short, what the “crisis” were about. I think ill pick up final crisis, but it might just go right over my head.

I’m not really a big fan of DC, I’ve only been keeping up with Checkmate, Suicide Squad, and more recently Green Lantern. I thought the DC 0 was ok, I was surprised that I actually really like the writing in the Wonder Woman event preview, really great writing there, though the whole 300 spartans thing looked retarded.

Anyway Chris, EW.com has a 5 page preview of Final Crisis #1, looks like it will involve certain characters, though I won’t spoil it for people who don’t wanna check out the preview. I must say the writing, in my opinion, is definitely a step up what we saw in DC 0, I’m pretty optimistic and I think that this will be a pretty tight and well done story.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20198161,00.html theres the link

Thanks for the link, looks good! Heres a question for people familiar with DC: whats the deal with Morrisons run on Batman? The sites I go to are either so pro-morrison batman that it hurts their credibility, and the others say that its mediocre by Morrisons standards; Im more inclined to agree with the latter, as they did say Morrison is one of the best out there, just that this run hasnt lived up to his body of work.

The thing with Morrison’s runs on books sometimes is that the whole picture doesn’t make sense until it’s all over. To me, this is both a strength and a weakness; I like the scope and vision he brings to his projects, but it means the individual issues are sometimes not as strong as they could be if he took a more short-sighted view.

I’m a Batman nut and a growing Morrison disciple, so I’ve liked…most of it. I think when the entirety is revealed it will stand as a real landmark moment in the history of the character. However, there have been moments where I’ve been confused and disappointed.

His first chunk is out in hardcover; if you’re up for the risk, you might want to check it out. The first arc is really good, and the “Club of Heroes” arc with JH Williams III is FANTASTIC.

I gotta say DC Universe Zero left me almost more confused than not. Brian Cronin summarized my feeling entirely on his Comics Should Be Good blog post: it “flowed about as well as a given issue of Marvel Previews”.

I went into it thinking it could bring me up to speed a bit for Final Crisis and as the three pages stories came along, I kept seeing different titles and that almost scared me. I saw the Batman RIP moniker that I recognized there. That one made me want to read it. Seeing some Superman and Wonder Woman, two titles I have never ever read anything about almost made me want to follow Trinity, even though they never hint to it in DCU Zero. Got sort of a feeling it might be more new reader friendly than Final Crisis, although it’ll be a weekly.

The Final Crisis preview did allay my fear and I will try the first issue out. We’ll see how that one will go…

FM

The only Batman issues I checked out written by Grant Morrison were the issues of the Resurrection of Rhaz al Ghul crossover and batman 655, which was so disappointing that I haven’t checked out his work since.

That being said, I did really dig Morrison’s writing in the in the DC 0 preview, but looking at another preview for the first issue of Batman RIP, I really don’t like the way Grant Morrison is doing his dialogue here. One thing that is absolutely AMAZING about the preview though is the art, holy crap its really nice!

I’m on the fence about the whole Batman RIP, if its great I’ll pick this up in trade, but from what I’ve read I’m not a fan of Morrison’s Batman.

Final Crisis on the other hand I thought looked great, and DC 0 was so misleading about what the issue was about. This really was an issue about everything but the actual Final Crisis main event itself, and really just lists what else is happening during Final Crisis.