Final Crisis or Secret Invasion

[Colin YNWA]

Over at Comics Should be Good the Curious Cat asked which people thought was better Final Crisis or Secret Invasion.

//http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/10/25/1025-curious-cat-asks-2/

So I thought what the heck I'd ask the same question here to see what 2000ad folk felt.

Have to say for me its Final Crisis by a country mile. I've found Secret Invasion to be waffer thin, a rehash of old fimilar stories dragged out. Its saving grace is that Bendis is great at the character moments meaning that the dragging out has been done very well ([spoiler]ok I was annoyed with the who crashed space ship, who is or isn't a skrull - oh they all are -thing) and I'm going to be gutted if they kill off The Wasp BUT there's nothing new there at all.[/spoiler] On the plus side been loving the art and at least they have got their act together in shipping it on time which is to Marvel's credit.

Final Crisis on the other hand is a fractured work of genius. It will be hard to judge until its all in BUT even half way through its been more original, intriguing and engaging than the 7 issues of Secret Invasion to date. I personally don't understand why people think its so hard to follow. Sure I've had to read each comic twice to try to get it all BUT damn me more comics these days could do with requiring a reread and the minute I've put it down I've actually wanted to reread it, so all good. Ok so if you do have a broad knowledge of DC you get a little more out of it BUT the same can be said of Secret Invasion. I don't think its inpenetrable to a DC newbie? The fact that's a Crisis doesn't make it unorinal in anything other than title.

The shipping and art changes haven't helped it BUT I think Civil War stands testiment to patience being a virtue and its a shame DC weren't bold enough to hold out for Jones but they're decisions that I don't have full info on so I'll settle for what I'm getting.

Anyway that's my take on the big two's big plays this year I'm really intrigued to know what the more decerning comics fan, e.g. 2000ad readers think.

Cheers

[House of Usher]

I didn't touch Secret Invasion because I'm not a Marvellite and haven't been since about 1987. I lasted about 3 issues of Final Crisis before giving up altogether because apart from the time-travelling bullet there was nothing in it I wanted to read about. In terms of creativity I think comics are going through a lean patch right now comparable to the one they went though in the early '90s when Doom Patrol was just about the only comic worth reading.

[Tweak72]

Dude! Spoilers!

[spoiler]Use the Spoiler button to hide your spoilers. Some people may want stuff to be a suprise[/spoiler]

[Colin YNWA]

Sorry tried to make sure there weren't any and I'm still not sure where they are? The only story elements I touch are from at least a month ago and there's a bit of speculation.

That said apologise if people think otherwise.

[TheEdge]

I'm picking up the COUNTDOWN to final crisis GN's at the moment, i do enjoy these large DC escapades






HOWEVER the Multiverse multiple crisis, crisis etc is wearing thin, who's dead, who's good, who's evil who's not, who is who???????????? who is the SPECTRE this week.

End it soon and give us a timeline/arc i can get my head around.


Is Zaureal Dead i thought he was a very underused character and i'd like to see more of him,


( I'm SOOOOOOO happy that Hal jordan and Guy Gardiner are back with the Corps)

[Tweak72]

[spoiler]

(ok I was annoyed with the who crashed space ship, who is or isn't a skrull - oh they all are -thing)

[/spoiler]

Still a spoiler. As i have dipped in to it a bit I knew what you where talking about .  

[Bongo Jack]

Anything remotely spoiler-ish to be tagged:
Final Crisis suffers from being so much inconsequential waffle, for my tastes.
[spoiler]Orion is dead[/spoiler]again, [spoiler]Mary Marvel is a sexpot[/spoiler] again, [spoiler]Darkside takes over the Earth[/spoiler]again, [spoiler]Barry Allen is back[/spoiler] for like the fifth time in five years, 'Evil is the new status quo!' is the hook for the book again just like it was in JLA Earth 2, Infinite Crisis, The Brave and the Bold, and probably more I've missed through not reading every single DC book they've put out in the last decade, [spoiler]Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are sidelined so evil can take over[/spoiler] just like they are in every other book out there like Trinity, most issues of JLA...
Honestly, I could go on for ages about why it's a let-down, but basically it comes down to Grant Morrison believing his own hype and trying to convince us all the concepts are more important than the actual stories.  I don't have All-Star Superman under my writing credits belt, but that's bollocks - the measure of a good story is whether or not it entertains the reader, and Final Crisis is just aimless, fractured ego-masturbation.  Maybe the final issues will be fantastic or something.
Secret Invasion:  Boring, seen it all before, and it apparantly [spoiler]isn't even a complete series, it's just the lead-in to the next Marvel event, Dark Reign, which takes place after the superheroes lose the final battle in Secret Invasion.  They're promoting the next crossover by telling you howe this one ends (or rather how it doesn't).[/spoiler]  That kinda sucks.

[Colin YNWA]

Sorry to harp back to the spoiler thing BUT I've not got an Edit post button available so I've reported the post to the mods and asked them to make the alteration.

Didn't want people thinking I was just ignoring the concern raised.

Cheers

[Wake]

I've just edited the first post to add the spoiler tags.

[Al_Ewing]

Final Crisis is brilliant, just in terms of Morrison's technical skill - compare and contrast with Secret Yawn which is... boring. Yeah yeah yeah liberals R bad terrorists R bad whack thud crunch ow my BCG, all in hem-hem glorious Bendis-o-rama. SNORE.

FINAL CRISIS vs FINANCIAL CRISIS which is the most gripping?

[Emperor]

I'm picking up the COUNTDOWN to final crisis GN's at the moment

It might be a bit late but I'd suggest skipping it. The general opinion is that not only was it ropey old pony at the time it came it, but it emerged that it wasn't actually Counting Down to anything. Turns out Final Crisis was well under way before Countdown (which makes you wonder how they could drop the ball on the artistic front) and so the ending of Countdown doesn't match the beginning of Final Crisis and Morrison has stated his series is more a continuation of Seven Soldiers and 52. I will have to read Final Crisis in collected form as it is clear from the reviews that it is fairly mystifying when read as single issues, although I expect it'll all come together in the end and make more sense (he'll probably drop in something he introduced a decade ago in some obscure story - I'm putting money on JLA/Wildcats, for no good reason other than most other series have been shown to foreshadow other story elements elsewhere). Morrison's Batman R.I.P. sounds more interesting and it is starting to draw together all sorts of threads from his run on Batman (which I suspect means I'll have to try and play catch-up by scooping up all the collections at some point). I'm especially interested to see Lee Garbett gets his first mainstream DC work with the two-issue concluding story at the end of Morrison's run, before Gaiman gets a crack of the Batwhip (which is intriguing).

Secret Invasion is leaving me cold but I am interested in some of the tie-ins which really just use the event as a springboard to relaunch themselves. Captain Britain & MI13 is shaping up nicely and I'll be interested to see where it goes,  I'm also hearing only good things about the new Deadpool series. I was also intrigued to see the return of [spoiler]the Skrull Kill Krew[/spoiler] in the Initiative tie-ins (although I'm not sure I'll bother actually reading it - so many comics, so little time).

The only "event" that has got me interest is War of Kings which builds on Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's Annihilation/Nova/GotG work. As I'm still playing catch-up with their impressive output (they have clearly drafted in extra clones since going exclusive at Marvel) I don't know when I'll actually get around to reading the series though.

[Bongo Jack]

Turns out Final Crisis was well under way before Countdown (which makes you wonder how they could drop the ball on the artistic front)

If rumours on the web are to be believed, it was a mix of redrawing some of FC's earlier issues and 'personal reasons' that forced JG Jones to withdraw from Final Crisis.
Pity, really, as the clear and consistent art of the first few issues was quite a departure from the bombast-heavy cast of thousands approach of past mega-crossovers.

[Colin YNWA]

Some people have also suggested that Jones will soon be signing a Marvel exclusive and thus DC pulled him. All specualtion and it'll be a while, if ever, before the true story comes out. Been a bit surprised that Rich Johnson over at Laying in the Gutters hasn't had anything to say on the matter? Or has he and I've just missed it?

While I'd much prefer one artist on any series its the story that keeps me coming back for more. Secret Invasion I feel kinda done with and I just want over so it can move into whatever the next big thing Marvel are doing will be. Its interesting that DC get accused of putting out stories that require years of back knowledge but since 'House of M' I feel Marvel have been bouncing from one cross over to the next all inter-linked and as someone said further up Secret Invasion will [spoiler]simply led into the next thing which will be Dark Reign and whatever that involves[/spoiler]. At least Final Crisis has been contained and all the crossovers have been keep out of the regular titles.

To that end how what the Adnett and Lanning cosmic stuff been like. I'm not too keen on Marvel's cosmic stuff but if they continue they way they have I'll only have Daredevil in trade, Captain Britain and possibly Mighty Avengers left on my list and don't entirely like the idea of leaving the Marvel Universe behind. Anyway yeah has it been good?

[Emperor]

Some people have also suggested that Jones will soon be signing a Marvel exclusive and thus DC pulled him. All specualtion and it'll be a while, if ever, before the true story comes out. Been a bit surprised that Rich Johnson over at Laying in the Gutters hasn't had anything to say on the matter? Or has he and I've just missed it?

I'm pretty sure he has discussed problems with final but it was before it came out and it was wicked whispers about scripts not finished until the last minute and an urgent flight to Scotland. That is just working from memory so it'd be worth checking. Like this from March:

FINAL CRISIS TALKS

[Yellow Light]So, what of Brian Bendis' comments on "Final Crisis" last week, "in 2012 when final crisis is done, we'll see what's what" interpreted by many as stating that the book is very late.

This seemed to be confirmed from a number of sources. But one had more details.

I'm told Grant Morrison turned in the issue one script back in November. However, it was not exactly what has been previously discussed and didn't bounce off from the end of "Countdown" as intended. It also goes off on what can only be described as Morrisonian tangents. You know, what readers call "the good bits."

So Dan DiDio flew to Scotland after Thanksgiving to discuss possibilities further. I understand the script is unchanged, but it was from those discussions that the 50 cent "DC Universe" #0, shipping the week after Free Comic Book Day, emerged. Co-written with Geoff Johns, it will keep any "Countdown" continuity issues out of the "Final Crisis" series and prepare the way... very much the John The Baptist of comic books.

Geoff Johns is also writing a Final Crisis-spinoff "Legion" mini series drawn by George Perez that will slot into all of this very nicely.

Artist JG Jones is currently working on issue two. I've been told that if there are production delays, rather than throw in "Countdown"/"Infinite Crisis" style fill-in artists, or cause "Civil War" style sales-harming delays on the book, expect the pages by JG Jones to reduce for subsequent issues with back up stories with the DCU #0 artists Sciver, Pacheco and Daniel (though Ethan Van Sciver calls bullshit on this) to replace them. Which means the book may extend a couple of issues to fit in all of Morrison's story, the retailers get their fill, and everyone wins...

Apart from Brian Bendis.

www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=15790

Make of that what you will as some of it never came to pass.