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Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1
Hh. Spoilers within. This is actually the first thirty pages of a sixty-page script; I imagine Morrison still did a bit of work to modify it, though, since it ends on a pretty satisfying cliffhanger (if that makes any sense). I assume the second issue won’t hit until at least December, either along with or in place of Final Crisis #7.
The 3-D “gimmick” isn’t really used for any particular narrative purpose just yet, it just looks cool (or distracting/annoying, depending on your outlook). Still, it does distinguish the extradimensional elements from the mundane ones.
After these annotations, I’ll include a few observations regarding FC: Rogues’ Revenge #2. In the absence of Granddaddy Wolk I don’t know if anyone will be covering this issue, but I really haven’t read Johns’s Flash run recently enough to do a full annotation. Last Will and Testament is out too, but it pretty much totally fails to match up in any way with Final Crisis and is really just a vehicle for Brad Meltzer to do his Meltzer Thing. Something else regarding that might be in the works, though…
Anyway.
Page 1: 3-D, in what looks to be the ruins of… a city? It’s unclear whether this is our Metropolis or one from a parallel universe. The red skies and clouds part to expose the machinery of the multiverse, which is similar to the patterns we saw on all the Monitor machinery back in FC #1. The pissed-off avenging Monitor dude, with power coursing through him and some kind of yellow power vision, is likely Mandrakk the Dark Monitor, introduced later. Superman’s Cosmic Armor is identical to the idol of him worshipped/built around by the Monitors later on - could that have been its purpose all along?
In the comments, Jeff O’Boyle just blew my goddamn mind. The pose is identical to the cover of Justice League of America #96, the first appearance of Starbreaker, the “cosmic vampire.” Mandracula->Mandrac->Mandrakk. This may just be a clue, and I’m gonna start breaking out the old JLA issues…
Pages 2-3: Superman is clearly still on his adventure when this is occurring, because his leaving New Earth is still only a heartbeat ago. What follows is the scene from FC #3 where Superman left New Earth, making this opening sequence a quick flash-forward.
Pages 4-5: Zillo Valla enters the room. Note the Monitormanchines she leaves in her wake, like some sort of even more advanced Kirby dots, spherical sigils.
Page 7: “Universe Designate Zero” confirms that the “main” DC Universe is not “Earth-1.” Time flows differently as it moves farther away from Earth-0, until the timelessness of Limbo, and the outside-time of the world of the Monitors, makes a degree of sense - the Monitors developed this big civilization in what has been, for the DCU, at most three or four years, mirroring the time differential between the DC Universe and, well, our universe.
Page 8: The name “Ultima Thule“, much like the myth of Jason & the Argonauts that inspires its voyage, is of classical origin:
Ultima Thule in medieval geographies may also denote any distant place located beyond the “borders of the known world.” Some people use Ultima Thule as the Latin name for Greenland when Thule is used for Iceland.
The “Ultramenstruum” seems to confirm the idea that the current DC Multiverse is a sort of cosmic egg (of viviparous origins this time, rather than the oviparous Krona egg from Trinity and JLA/Avengers) and the Bleed is menstrual fluid. Does this mean that a Crisis, with its red skies, marks when the Multiverse is having its period?
Apparently, the Bleed can only be touched by the “Monitors of Nil”, making them… cosmic gynecologists? And the Overvoid is the cosmic vagina? PAGING DAVE SIM!
Page 9: The idea of Superman being able to spontaneously develop powers is reminiscent of Morrison favorite Superman #150 and his own All Star Superman. The three alternate Supermen introduced here are first, the Overman of Earth-10 (his dialogue: “We will have to accept losses! This machine is about explode!”), the Captain Marvel of Earth-5 and the Captain Adam of Earth-4 (the Charlton/Watchmen mash-up world), apparently professing his atheism.
Pages 10-11: We all live in a yellow submarine… Superman and his fellow psychonauts cross between Earth-0 and Earth-13, the “magical/pseudo-Vertigo” Earth, which is apparently a bunch of crows and airplanes. The arterial wall of the Bleed seems to be forming antibodies to fight the ‘invasion’ of the Ultima Thule, in the form of our old friends the Qwardian Shadow Demons from Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Page 12: Earth-6 hasn’t really been developed before. The huge, hulking ship, apparently traveling through the Bleed, resembles (likely intentionally, given some of Morrison’s interviews) the Carrier from The Authority (the Bleed itself originated in Warren Ellis’s Wildstorm work). This version of Ultraman was first introduced in Morrison and Frank Quitely’s JLA: Earth-2. He’s the antimatter universe equivalent of Superman, making him the world’s biggest selfish douchebag.
Page 13: Apparently, Earth-6 is having its own version of Marvel’s Civil War (armor dude versus knight with shield; family members fighting; stretchy guy versus dude with afro… Iron Fist and Hawkeye in the lower-left panel…) Captain Marvel refers to the ship and universe as being “out of tune”; the vibrational nature of the Multiverse leads to a musical interpretation of its structure, especially considering Morrison’s interest in string theory.
Page 14: The graveyard universe, Earth-51, is the result of the Morticoccus virus in Countdown, its only surviving lifeforms (at least according to that book, which Morrison has recently stated will be reconciled with Final Crisis).
Page 15: Earth-20 is the home to Doc Fate, a Dr. Fate/Doc Savage hybrid Morrison’s thought a lot about. The second Earth, at night, is unclear, while the third, Earth-17, is the postapocalyptic world of the Atomic Knights previously seen at the end of 52.
Page 16: “I don’t want to know what happened here.” No, Superman, you really, really don’t. The Morticoccus virus was loosed by the Monitor Solomon sending an infected Karate Kid to Earth-51, where he unknowingly spread the virus, which turned everyone into animals and turned the world into the world of Kamandi. So, you know, there should be lifeforms that this crash would kill, but let’s ignore that along with Monarch and Superboy-Prime blowing up Universe-51 the *first* time. It was also formerly Nix Uotan’s world, and its destruction was the reason he was exiled.
Page 17: Ultraman’s speech patterns (”God below”, “Hell above”) are due to the opposite nature of his universe, which was recently revealed to be reactive rather than proactive to the occurrences on Earth-0 in Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, Mark Bagley and others’ Trinity. Captain Adam’s stoic disposition and apparent reliance on drugs is something we’ll get to in a second (our kind of second, not a Monitor second), although note his apparently moving hydrogen-atom design on his forehead and the obvious reference to the seminal Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons work Watchmen. Ultraman makes a good point about an ‘ultimate treasure’ - perhaps it signifies that only one instance of each hero class (computer science nerds rejoice - class Ultraman extends Superman { ... }) can survive after this Crisis. The final panel is Zillo Valla asking Overman to give up his life, tying in to a later revelation and the events of Final Crisis #3.
Page 18: The fact that Captain Marvel from Earth-5 can simultaneously touch Ultraman and Superman shows that the other worlds of the multiverse must be somehow between matter and antimatter, and, perhaps, somehow between good and evil as a result? Overman: “All the universes vibrate at different frequencies.” I assume his guilt-ridden description is due to the loss of Overgirl, shown as a damaging moment later in this issue and shown as dead on Earth-0 back in Final Crisis #3. “Captain Allen Adam,” I can only assume, is a playful? dig on Alan Moore, creator of Dr. Manhattan (the obvious inspiration for this character; see the hydrogen-atom design on the forehead). Manhattan’s monologues in Watchmen were renowned for their cut-up, nonlinear nature, much like Captain Adam’s statements in this book, which additionally (along with the repeated mentions of drug abuse to ‘dampen his quantum senses’ - is that a compliment or insult? I can’t even tell) resemble Alan Moore’s speech patterns - or, at least, Warren Ellis’s rendition thereof.
Page 19: The Yellow SubmarineUltima Thule is stranded in Limbo, the graveyard for forgotten comic book characters first introduced in Grant Morrison’s own Animal Man #25 as a dimension the titular character had to travel through to converse with his creator, Grant Morrison himself.
As for the welcoming party. At the front is the established King of Limbo (a worthless title, as explained on the next page), surrounded by:
Left to Right, kind of:
- Longhaired guy with a circle on his chest = Nightblade, from the Bloodlines/Blood Pack crossover (1993)
- Guy in the cap, horizontal striped top and odd jacket = ???
- Guys with the shoulder pads on one shoulder = Members of The Alliance from Haven: Broken City (2001)
- Dog in a mask = Ace the Bathound!
- Man in armor = ???
- Man (doll?) with the popped collar = ??? (looks kind of like disco Raggedy Andy)
- Man peeking out from behind Merryman = Gunfire, also from Bloodlines
- Smiling man with no eyes and triangle-pattern sleeves = Voiceover, from Hero Hotline (1988)
- Masked guy behind Voiceover = Ballistic(?) from Bloodlines
- Giant guy = Golem, the version from Primal Force (1994)
- Blonde guy in full mask + scarf = Geist from Bloodlines
- Big Yellow and Blue Guy = Hardhat of the Demolition Team, from Len Wein and Dave Gibbons’s Green Lantern Corps (1984)
- Guy in black jumpsuit with geometric pattern = Chronos II (Walker Gabriel), from John Francis Moore and Paul Guinan’s Chronos (1994)
- Guy with the suit and the weird glasses = Private Eyes from Hero Hotline
Corrections welcome! These guys are obscure as hell, obviously on purpose. Special thanks to Chris Eckert for compiling this list; most of these guys are way before my time.
Page 20: Captain Adam of Earth-4 increases his size, like Dr. Manhattan in Vietnam. Overman: “What is this? I cannot remember why I came; this technology is for the dogs.” (I could be wrong on this; I’m using Babelfish.)
Page 21: “It was written by a monkey!” The whole infinite-monkeys-on-infinite-typewriters concept is from Morrison’s Animal Man (well, within the concept of the DC Universe); the idea of a library that contains all possible texts is clearly inspired by the inimitable (depending on whether or not you like Mark Z. Danielewski) Jorge Luis Borges and his Library of Babel. Somewhere out there, stoners from the ’60s with glow-in-the-dark Ditko Dr. Strange posters are envying us this comic. As Superman and Captain Marvel try to retrieve the infinite codex, though, apparently God/the Monitor/the Overvoid gets in a huge, black word balloon.
Page 22: Oh hey, now it’s a Grant Morrison comic! Note the similarity between the close-up on the cosmic ovum and the “universes-exploding” picture in Infinite Crisis #6 and Crisis on Infinite Earths itself, with each parallel Earth like a flagellum off of the main organism. The “Monitor”/Overvoid in this case is likely the extradimensional entity represented perhaps by the yellow aliens in Animal Man and the Outer Church/Invisible College in The Invisibles.
Page 23: “A conscious, living VOID!” Damn those women! Truly, the thematic importance of Identity Crisis is now clear. Kidding aside, Merryman has apparently been possessed by Joseph Campbell and is preaching the significance of the hero’s journey while the Overvoid shows how its cornrowed followers came to be. It seems the Overvoid decided to send a probe in, and dressed it up like the native inhabitants - with badass ’80s shoulderpads and a cape, like a superhero. It was the Monitor. It must have pretty enthralled with what it saw, solidly establishing the Monitors as stand-ins for superhero fandom. The final panel is a scene from Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Page 24: This goes back to the sequence in FC #1 about how time has infected the Monitors’ world, giving them individuality and stories. It appears that, outside of the Multiverse, the memory of the encounter with superheroes left a monument to heroism outside of the “flaw”; a monument that greatly resembled Superman’s “cosmic armor” in the beginning flash-forward. The probe is “blinded and split in two”, seemingly leading to the creation of the Monitor and Anti-Monitor at the outset of the original Crisis. The “divine metals” that “scab over” the flaw appear to be the Orrery, and likely appear to the inhabitants of the universes to be the all-shielding Source Walls. Not that the scab works.
Page 25: Evidently, the Overvoid has built a civilization out of the children of Monitor (how did that happen if the ‘probe’ was stuck in the germinating multiverse?). I love the bizarre reversal of the whole The Gods Must Be Crazy thing here, where the higher life forms receive this message of heroism and legend from the lower ones and are utterly confused by it, trying desperately to discover its meaning. The belief that it must be a weapon is prescient, tying into mankind’s discovery of fire back in FC #1; perhaps the higher life forms are making the same mistake as man did.
Page 26: Dax Novu, like all of the new Monitors, is a new character, as is the apparently-locked-up Mandrakk. Mandrakk, I assume, does not simply seek an end to the age of superheroes or the age of good; he seeks an end to the age of stories and the legacy of the heroic tale itself. Morrison’s shooting for the belt here.
Page 27: Our psychedelic trip through the history of, uh, us comes to an end due to mysterious feedback. Merryman refers to the world outside as “the void, the blank, the zip, the zilch,” equating it with the Overvoid (which Zillo Valla alluded was called Nil to the Monitors). The memory loss incurred by staying in Limbo seems to have caused Billy Batson to forget the word Shazam, although not the wisdom of Solomon (is the fact that the evil monitor of Countdown was named Solomon a coincidence or a clue?), which warns that “the ultimate good is the ultimate evil,” echoing the anti-Gnostic sentiments put forth by the finale of The Invisibles. (A lot of this ties into my article about a year ago that predicted the broad strokes of the story being told here.) The idea of a human forgetting the word to make him superhuman also previously appeared not only in Morrison’s Flex Mentallo, but is the current predicament of Monitor 51, Nix Uotan, in the main book.
Page 28: Superman appears to be bailing out the entire residency of Limbo, through a “door” that resembles those used by, again, the Authority. Captain Adam’s drugs wearing off starts him on a time-compressing rant echoing Dr. Manhattan’s famous omniscient issue of Watchmen.
Page 29: Zillo Valla has used some sort of Monitor Vampire Powers to kill Overman and regenerate both herself and the Ultima Thule, while warning that she “tried to make a good end” (presumably to his story) but she failed, for Mandrakk is coming. The cousin that Overman was looking for was Overgirl, who we saw die in Manhattan in Final Crisis #3. She refers to “Carriers, destroyers, tankers and explorers,” again suggesting that the Authority’s Carrier is linked to Mandrakk’s place and army in the Bleed.
Page 30: Ultraman apparently has the page of the infinite codex proclaiming the ultimate victory of evil, which suits him just fine - remember, due to the basic metaphysical properties of their worlds, good always wins on Earth-0 and evil always wins on the antimatter Earth, so this is a major victory for his entire philosophy and homeuniverse. It’s unclear what Earth this actually occurs on, or if it’s the same one from the beginning.
Whew. That was a lot to take in and discuss. At this point, I’m fairly glad it wasn’t a sixty page double-sized one-shot, because I’d be up all night annotating this. This one-shot seems to set up Final Crisis as a fairly explicit commentary on the station of superhero fandom and humanity’s relationship with the archetypal heroic story in modern times, with Mandrakk representing the forces of cynicism and apathy come to undermine and discredit the very concept of the heroic ideal and the inspirational entertainment value brought from it. It’s a lofty concept, and I’m incredibly excited to see where it goes.
On a quicker note, Rogues’ Revenge gives us a few interesting clues about the overall picture of Final Crisis. (The rest of the book is typical Johns work: well-thought-out, straightforward, highly entertaining DC Universe trivia that’s suitably explained or set up.) First of all, it continues the trend of Libra’s shifting eye colors; he seems to go from red to blue within the scene’s final issue, and has orange eyes on the cover. Similarly, his eyes changed from blue to green (his skin went green too) when he received the Rogues’ message in the first issue. This is likely a clue rather than an ongoing mistake by veteran colorist Dave McCaig, so does anyone know DC villains or heroes with rapidly shifting eye colors? Could he be Rainbow Raider, feeding off the emotional spectrum? A number of characters shifting under the suit at once? I have no idea, but I’m more than open to suggestions.
See you in October for Final Crisis #4 and Submit. Stay frosty.
We saw overgirl severely injured and found by Renee but nothing to assume she is dead. She’s most likely been taken by SHADE.
I haven’t read the book yet, but I skimmed this to whet my appetite. Looks like I’m going to love it.
Even without seeing it, though, I know that the “disco Raggedy Andy” in Limbo has to be Brother Power, the Geek.
On page 13, the Civil War page, notice that some of the heroes resemble pinkish red Durlans. So it’s a bit of a jab at Secret Invasion as well.
the Ultramenstruum is in fact alluding to a belief that the universe and all that dimensions it contains in fact reside with in the body of god. it talks about the universes being inside a sentient void (god)and that god tried to remove the flaw (medicine or surgery) and the monitors act as antibodies. i also think that several of the characters in “limbo” are in fact characters that psycho pirate was spitting out in the animal man series.
Also, in the first panel: Ant-Man and Wasp in the lower-left, Spider-Woman and Spider-Man in the upper-right, Goliath in the background, Sentry vs Mar-Vell/Captain Universe up top. No idea about upper-left.
It’s not Brother Power the Geek, unless there’s a pretty radically different interpretation of his appearance from his initial/Vertigo appearances somewhere I haven’t seen.
I would guess Capt. “Allen” Adam gets his name from Alan Moore. A nice little tribute. I can help but read it as if it says “Alan’s Captain Atom”.
Earth-6 might get it’s name from Earth-616? Another Alan Moore reference perhaps. Nice Durlan/Skrulls.
“In place of” Final Crisis 7?
Rainbow Raider out of fucking nowhere wouldn’t be a very satisfying resolution for the mystery of Libra. Also, I don’t know that J’Onn J’Onzz ever met the Raider.
Would the nameless being the multiverse resides in be the Source? Or above the Source?
And if the Antimatter Earth reacts to stuff that happens on New Earth, are the villains facing a day when Good wins?
monstermike, Superman Beyond #2 in December would be a decent way to patch up if Final Crisis #7 won’t hit until January. It wouldn’t surprise me to see another skip month.
And Rainbow Raider was just an example guess; the major question for now is, is Libra a dude who switches eye colors and skin pallor, or is Libra a bunch of dudes who can instantaneously flip in and out of the costume? He switches midscene…
I definitely need to go back and read this comic again, there sure is a lot packed in there.
“Ultramenstruum” was also mentioned in Invisibles v2 #22.
Well, shit! I thought that sounded familiar. Looks like Mason Lang got visited by some Monitors.
Any theories on WHY Zillo Valla drained the blood from Overman? I understand that it was to regenerate the ship and herself, but does right and wrong not apply to her? Does she just not think in the same way that we do?
Or is she just evil?
The idea of a human forgetting the word to make him superhuman also previously appeared not only in Morrison’s Flex Mentallo, but is the current predicament of Monitor 51, Nix Uotan, in the main book.
Don’t forget Miracleman, especially given the Alan Moore connections elsewhere…
Another thought- does the Ultima Thule remind anyone of the spider-ship that the Hand used in The Filth to plunge into comic books? The vast differences in scale in Superman Beyond (the Monitors’ giant nanomachines, the multiverse as body, etc) seem a bit reminiscent of The Filth as well.
Thanks for the clarification, David - I wondered if you meant that Final Crisis 7 would be replaced by Superman Beyond 2 altogether. Which I didn’t understand.
Also - the “divine metals” that scabbed the “flaw” - do you think that might be the Cosmic Armor encasing the idea of Superman?
I thought the divine metals would be the Orrery - I’m willing to bet that, from our relatively nanoscopic perspective, we’d see that as a Source Wall.
Overman’s inclusion here makes me wonder about the anti-matter earth. Morrison used the anti-matter earth as a way to use the CSA while there was only one earth and no multiverse. Now that we have multiple earths again, does this mean that the anti-matter earth is part of the orrery?
A weird question, but on page nine, on the last panel, does Superman flash-fry those people with his heat vision? That bit was a little confusing to me.
Those are Shadow Demons, not people. They’re just antibodies created by the Bleed.
It’s more like class Ultraman implements Superman {}, with Superman as more of an ill-specified template/interface.
At what time was it introduced that if Superman and Ultraman touched, they’d explode? That wasn’t in Earth-2 or in Ultraman’s appearance in Superman’s book a while back (with the Ultra-Brainiac Baby).
Going further with the Yellow Submarine theme: there are four “fabulous” occupants who explore Limbo, which leads me to ask who out of Superman, Ultraman, Captain Marvel and Captain Adam are John, Paul, George and Ringo?
My money’s definitely on Captain Marvel being Ringo…
And does this make Final Crisis’ villains the Blue Meanies?
Finally, if good is evil on Ultraman’s Earth2, yet the good on New Earth has been twisted so that evil wins, will this affect Earth2, and will the solution to the Final Crisis be found there because of this?
On Page 1, the pose and attack mode of Mandrakk over Superman (if indeed it is Mandrakk)
http://i.newsarama.com/images/fcsmb_1_page_1-cv.jpg
are reminiscent of the pose and attack mode of Starbreaker, the Cosmic Vampire, over Superman and other Justice Leaguers on the cover of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (first series) # 96.
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1449/400/1449_4_096.jpg
Mere coincidence, or something more?
I’m not saying The Cosmic Vampire will come up in the story of Mandracula, oops, I mean Mandrakk, but I knew I had seen that pose somewhere before.
Thank you.
Starbreaker
http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/pages/45019795106.96.P1.GIF
Mr. O’Boyle, you just blew my fucking mind. I’m editing that in soon.
I think your annotations should point out that Merryman, who was clearly created in the 60s as a take-off of Woody Allen, says this line: “”I could hitch a ride back with you. I have a real talent for gritty drama no one’s ever thought to exploit.”
While I do think this is mainly a joke about the “darkening” of characters in the 90s (as said by Timothy Callahan in his review), I can’t help but think this has to do, in part, with Woody Allen’s constant insistence throughout his career that he wanted to be taken seriously as an artist and not just as a comedian.
Of course, Allen has a pretty solid rep for dramatic films these days, but it was a different story in the 60s to the late 70s.
Morrison’s intention? Not sure, but he certainly does love to work on different levels!
Squashua, getting really nerdy for a second, I’d argue that Superman in his original appearance is a base class all on his own rather than an interface - the Monitors’ idol has the S insignia, for instance, which places him at that level of definition if not greater considering the logo’s evolution.
“Novu, whose brilliant, rebel intellect first probed the flaw and mapped its horrors”
Is the Monitor of COIE Novu, first son of Monitor? The probe sent into the flaw?
If so, I’d say that Mandrakk is what split off from him. The primal superhero, and the primal perversion of the superhero. The Anti-Monitor was created after the fact when Krona messed up the DCU and created the antimatter universe.
Oh, and Ultraman only has one page of the book that contains all possible stories. He’s a pretty selective reader!
>> Mr. O’Boyle, you just blew my ******* mind. I’m editing >> that in soon.
Glad to help, Mr. Uzumeri!
Thanks for adding it to the Annotations. I’ll be reading through more of your helpful posts, too! (Thanks to spidervenom at CBR for giving out the link to this specific entry of yours.)
I should mention that on the first page of the story from JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (first series) # 96 — which I also linked to above — it says, “THIS IS A DAY OF HOLOCAUST!”
On Page 26 of SUPERMAN BEYOND # 1, it says, “NOVU….WHO KNEW THE DAY OF HOLOCAUST WOULD COME AGAIN!”
Jum, the entire book coexists in one page, though for all we know he could be reading the wrong part.
“ALL BLEED ART MUST EXTEND TO SOLID LINE”
Not significant, it’s just that the parallel between the arteries between the universes and limits placed on bleeding art (story) into what happens in the “space” between the comic panels just struck me.
It that Mother Dirt from The Filth on the page that shows them entering the bleed? David says this is the “magical/pseudo-Vertigo†Earth so it would make sense. Also I think Ultraman is reading about Final Crisis in that infinite book when he says he has proof that evil wins in the end.
This is my interpretation of this flaw. The flaw is stories/ideas. “With no precedent for the concept story! No understanding of the damage story might do to an awareness without limits or definition! Monitor has no defenses!” In order to scab over this flaw they give it form. That form is Superman. Superman = ideas/stories. Over time they forgot what Superman represents and that is why their civilization is in decline. It’s not until recently in Final Crisis that they start to feel emotions and once again start to be involved in “story.” Remember that girl monitor that is in love with Nix Uaton she said that this is the first time that she felt emotion and she didn’t understand it.
Just wanted to point out that the ultramenstruum, IIRC, was another signifier of the supercontext in The Invisibles. And the one-page where all stories exist definitely mirrors the supercontext, where all time and space are one.
I haven’t been this excited for a comic book event in a loooooong time. I love Grant Morrison.
I think Josh just explained the subtext of Final Crisis as a whole. Remember the first teaser: Heroes Die; Legends Live Forever? Remember the fact that everyone was focusing on the Die part? They all were wrong. It’s the Legends Live Forever we need to be aware of.
I think the guy in the odd jacket might be Odd Man, who Grant and the gang showed in 52 briefly.
[...] else is possessed of the substance I call excite? David Uzumeri, for one I’d guess, given his annotatin’; two-steppin’ Tim Callahan and Chad [...]
Just a thought, but I had a friend glance at my copy just to check out the 3-d, and he pointed out a Batman-like outline around the villain on the last page. It could be coincidental but does anyone else see what I’m talking about?
[...] for its je ne sais quoi: Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1 by Grant Morrison & Doug Mahnke (annotated here!) DC Universe: Last Will & Testament by Brad Meltzer & Adam [...]
Just a thought on Limbo…
When Morrison introduced the concept in Animal Man #25, most of the characters depicted in that issue had little chance of escaping.
However, since that issue, almost all of them have managed to escape in ways not entirely insignificant:
Max Mercury was fairly prominent in the Flash for a while, Ace showed up in the Krypto cartoon series (along with the SCPA), Red Bee has been “revamped,” Prez starred in a great issue of Sandman by Neil Gaiman, and Mr. Freeze has become one of Batman’s best villains. Even Hoppy managed to show up in a memorable issue of ‘Power of Shazam.’
I’m still waiting for that genre-busting ‘Inferior 5′ series, but I have hope.
Now I wonder, since no one has used the Brotherhood of Dada since Morrison did Doom Patrol, it could be said they’re inhabiting Limbo themselves (and then of course, the painting they entered might have been a doorway to said destination).
Obscure references over. (though I leave you all to wonder if Mr. Nobody might return as a Black Lantern).
jedidotflow just figured out the end of FC. From the moment this project was announced, I’ve been trying to figure out how they are going to destroy the DCU (”no BS”), and still soldier on afterwards publishing their comics. My half-baked theory up until now involved the as-yet-unseen Earth-1 (well it has been seen, mistakenly I think, in the Tangent thing).
But with this introduction of “stories” in this new hyper-cosmology of the DCU, I thinking heroes will really die but their stories will continue.
I just realized something we all missed here (after answering some questions regarding Captain Atom on the AICN review: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/38171
From the above article:
“Captain Allen Adam, I can only assume, is a playful? dig on Alan Moore”
It might be, but probably not, as “Allen Adam” is the name of the original Charleton Captain Atom. He was a scientist, so I’m not 100% where the Captain comes from, but that might be a military designation or an integration with DC mythos, making his originating Earth a combined Charleton / Watchmen / DCU incarnation.
Dave, I’m sure we can measure the size of our programming dongers elsewhere, but that Monitor statue also has the weird gauntlet/gloves. It’s not the base. I do believe it’s not a statue, but the armor that Superman (or “a” Superman) is wearing in the first couple pages.
Regarding the Inferior Five, Dumb Bunny is on the cover of Ambush Bug : Year None #3.
Squashua,
But Superman IS wearing something like that in the flash-foward/first page.
Oh wait, I totally misread your comment. Nevermind.
[...] Anotaciones para Superman Beyond en Funnybook Babylon. [...]
[...] Indeed, even though I picked up the majority of the references in Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1 covered by David Uzumeri’s annotations, his willingness to analyze Morrison’s intentions on the fly (particularly during that five [...]