Final Crisis #4
By Hervé St-LouisNov 6, 2008 - 20:19
Returning to life, Barry Allen reunites with his wife, Iris West while the rest of the super heroes, spread around safe grounds across the world, communicate with one another to draw up an action plan to defeat the new threat. Can they stop the mysterious and villainous threat against Earth?
![]() |
Having not read anything about Final Crisis for months, I’m quite confused and still don’t understand what the real threat was. This type of story reminds me of the first Crisis mini-series where a lot of things happened and where a structured plot was less necessary because of the exposition to many subplots. Strangely, this way of storytelling doesn’t work for this reader. I was totally confused about this issue. I can read the action and see that stuff happens, but it feels like watching a play with a thick piece of glass blurring all the sounds and images. I wish DC Comics would make their book easier to read. I’m a long time DC Comics reader and I don’t get it.
Visually, the story is good with a well flowing story reinforcing the plot. It’s just too bad that the artwork is wasted on a story that makes no sense.
Rating: 5/10
Last Updated: Jan 7, 2012 - 7:41
Join the discussion:
Comments
As a reviewer, we can't assume that something will be great or bad until we have read it.
Final Crisis, for me and many readers is a mess. Professing your love for this series won't change that it's not entertaining a lot of people currently.
If it were well written, it's greatness would have assaulted me already.
"Richard, how can you claim that the upcoming issues of Final Crisis will be great when you haven't read them?"
I never said they'd be great, I said they'd be a wild ride.
As a consumer I am asked to base my future purchasing on past issues. Which is what I was intending to convey when I wrote that in my previous comment. I have pre-ordered the final 3 issues based on my enjoyment of the first 4 issues. Which many people have also done.
Professing your dislike for this series won't change that fact that it is entertaining many people currently.
The blade cuts both ways for those that are of the same opinion you there are those that fee as I do.
Remember opinions are like a certain body part, we all have one. I just don't agree with yours on this particular book.
See, from where I stand, as the publisher of the Bin, I never heard of that before you mentioned it. Seems to me DC Comics is not doing a proper job of informing its readers, because if they did, I would have known about this.
Thematically, it never makes sense to expect a reader to pick up other books to read understand one. Jim Shooter said it best all those years ago. Every comic book is someone's first.
And this is where DC Comics through Final Crisis have really let their readers down. You say that none of the other books are necessary to understand that storyline, yet, you also mentioned that you've read everything tied in. Seems to me, it's hard to make a clean cut judgment like that and perhaps you should pay more attention to readers like Chris and I, who have not read any of the tie-ins (well, I've read the one about the Martian Manhunter).
My way of judging a comic book, always assumes that the reader knows nothing about the series but can still be entertained from the get go. When that is not apparent, the comic book gets a meager grade.
We can play tag of words and the relativity card about the absoluteness of opinions and criticisms, but I don't share that view about everything being relative.
First, DC Comics, did not communicate properly in this series with its readers.
Second, DC Comics does not use the good old plot introduction, conflict, climax and resolution components of storytelling in this story. I'm still wondering what the conflict is, let alone understanding what the climax and the resolution will be.
Is the appearance of Barry Allen the conflict? Is it that old villain that they dug out of those 1970s JLA comic books? Is it the death of the Martian Manhunter? Is it the red skies? I still don't know.
How can I be engaged in a comic book, when I don't even know what the stakes are. I am really clueless and it seems to me that many of DC Comics' readers are too.
I've read my share of comic books, particularly from DC Comics in my life. I don't follow them as closely as I did a few years back, but I'm hardly a new comic book reader. I can tell the difference between the Ray and his father. I can also name the artists who created their designs.
Yet, I don't understand a single thing about Final Crisis and I am not alone.
You claim to have read all of the tie-ins and maybe that's why you're enjoying it so much. But my budget doesn't allow me for tie-ins (yes, boys and girls, we do not get review copies from DC nor Marvel Comics).
Based on all of this, I don't think the last issue deserved more than a 5/10. And it could have been worse. I did give Secret Invasion #5 a 0/10 - I know a lot of people like to call us Marvel-sell outs in the comments on the site, when we say we didn't like a DC Comics issue.


