Embedded Files
FINAL CRISIS #4
Darkseid Says
Written by GRANT MORRISON; Art by JG JONES and CARLOS PACHECO; Cover by JG JONES, Variant cover by JG JONES
DC Comics, November 2008, FC, 40pgs, $3.99
It's one month after the Anti-Life Equation was released worldwide. Millions now toil as slaves of Darkseid, while the Justifier shock troops of Apokolips lay waste to the planet Earth and hunt down its protectors.
The remaining free humans and superheroes are stationed around the world, besieged within the walls of ten very familiar 'Watchtowers', as they fight a desperate, losing battle against the triumphant forces of evil.
While Green Arrow and Black Canary attempt to deliver the secret of humanity's last hope across America's blasted wastelands, the Outsiders brave the horrors of the Bludhaven bunker in search of Batman. The ultimate battle is coming…but which heroes will become villain – and vice versa ? And what part do the Secret Society have to play in the dawning of this new Age of Evil?
Darkness is falling and death rules the day. Is this truly the end of the Age of Super Heroes? Don't miss Final Crisis #4: “How to Murder the Earth!”
Annotations
Page 1 - Carol Ferris, sometime girlfriend of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, was created by John Broome and Gil Kane and first appeared in Showcase #22 in 1959.
Page 2 - The effects of the Anti-Life Equation are felt around the world. The top panel is the London Underground. The taxi cab looks like its from New York. The equation as it appears here was originally 'heard' in Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle.
Page 3 - This version of the Ray first appeared in 1992's The Ray #1, created by Jack C. Harris and Joe Quesada. He's the son of the original Ray, created by Lou Fine, who first appeared in Quality Comics' Smash Comics #14 from 1940.
At the end of Final Crisis: Submit, the Tattooed Man hears a distress call from the JLA's Hall of Justice. The Ray presumably picked him up on the way.
Page 4 - Black Lightning joined the ranks of the Justifiers in Final Crisis: Submit
Page 6-7 - Turpin/Darksied narrates. The bodies on the ground are all Checkmate agents, including Negative Woman, Director (formerly Mister) Bones and Count Vertigo.
Page 10 - Looks like Oracle managed to unplug the internet just in time...
Page 11 - The Ünternet, essentially a secret internet for super-villains, was created by Kurt Busiek and introduced in 2008's Action Comics #853. Morrison added it into the script after Busiek mentioned it at a DC lunch at the San Diego Comics Con that year.
The "highly placed informer in Libra's secret society" is Lex Luthor, and not the Calculator as Libra suspects
Page 12-13 - Hawkgirl is fighting Wonder Woman foe the Silver Swan.
On the monitors we have Ravager from Teen Titans; the Legion of Super Heroes' Starman (by way of the JSA) ; Blue Devil; The Huntress; Ryan Choi, The Atom; Enchantress; Uncle Sam, presumably corrupted by the Anti-Life Equation as most of America has been; Wildcat; Wonder Woman; Superman; Batman; Cyborg; Martian Manhunter; Guy Gardner, Green Lantern; Hawkgirl; Hourman; Hal Jordan, Green Lantern; Dr. Fate from the JSA; Power Girl; Wally West, The Flash; John Stewart, Green Lantern; Sandman from the JSA; Black Canary; Superman from Earth 22, the world of Mark Waid and Alex Ross's Kingdom Come; Robin; Red Tornado; Phantom Lady from the Freedom Fighters; Starfire; Liberty Belle; Green Arrow; Black Lightning; Aquaman; Firestorm and Green Lantern Kyle Rayner.
Castellan is Carl Draper, a somewhat reformed super villain formerly known as the Master Jailer, Kator, and Deathtrap. When Final Crisis was being published, Draper was regularly appearing in Greg Rucka and Eric Trautmann's Checkmate, but first appeared way back in Superman #331 (January 1979) by Martin Pasko and Curt Swan.
Amanda Waller is a master manipulator working for the US government. She's been pulling the strings of DC's super villain community, primarily in various iterations of the Suicide Squad title, since her first appearance in 1986's Legends #3 by John Ostrander, Len Wein and John Byrne.
Page 14 - In the Fortress of Solitude we can see the Metal Men, Mister Tawky Tawny, Hourman, Liberty Belle, Damage, the Blue Beetle and Supergirl
Warmaker One is a member of the International Ultramarine Corps. Created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter, he first appeared in DC One Million #2. Superbia is their floating city headquarters.
At Gorilla City, a city of super-intelligent gorillas that first appeared in 1959's The Flash v1 #106, we also see Freedom Beast from Morrison's Animal Man run alongside Kid Impala and Bushmaster, both new iterations of deceased former members of the Global Guardians
Page 15 - Black Adam, created by Otto Binder and C.C. Beck, is an evil version of Captain Marvel who first appeared in Marvel Family #1 in 1945.
August General-in-Iron and the Great Ten, state-sponsored heroes of the People's Republic of China, were created by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones and first appeared in 52 #6
Page 16 - The Tattooed Man activates Metron's God circuit
Page 17 - Wonder Woman/Bernadeth is "Wunda," Giganta/Stompa is "Gigantrix." "Flash fact," was a phrase from Silver Age Flash comics that explained some scientific (or occasionally pseudoscientific) principle. After Mark Waid made it a recurring motif in his Flash run, both Morrison and Geoff Johns have used it as a kind of defining characteristic of Barry Allen's Flash.
Wally's costume until just prior to this arc had been a sleeker, shinier nineties update of Barry's, introduced by Mark Millar and Grant Morrison in their brief Flash run. He's returned to using the old costume here, as noted by Barry Allen.
Page 20 - The JLA in a bottle doesn't seem to refer to any particular issue of the original series, but is archetypal of the sort of predicament the Justice League often found themselves in during comics' Silver Age. We can also see trophies from encounters with the Royal Flush Gang, a chunk of Kryptonite and some of Hawkman's weapons.
(Update: Only took me 15 years to spot it, but most of the trophies in the background here are as they appeared in the "Secrets of the JLA Trophy Room" 5-pager by Mark Millar and Christopher Jones, from JLA Secret Files and Origins #2 (cover dated August 1998). The miniature (robot) JLA in a bottle are said to be from a (presumably unpublished) adventure pitting the JLA against Abra Kadabra and the Toyman. The axe belonged to Wandjina from the Champions of Angorr, not Hawkman. The floating cards are supposed to be the actual Royal Flush Gang, trapped in 2-D prison by the Flash, again from what I'm assuming is an unpublished adventure. There are also a couple of Blue Beetle's tracking bugs visible on display in the cabinet next to the axe. Finally, the pointed thing in the foreground on the left is the jaw-piece of Prometheus' helmet.
All of these trophies also appeared in Chris Weston's 'JLA Trophy Room Challenge' pinup from the 1998 Wizard JLA Special.
Better late than never, eh?)
(Update to the update: Props to the Crisis on Earth Prime blog for pointing out that the bottle full of miniature JLA'ers also pops up on page 24 of JLA: Earth 2, when the anti-matter universe Luthor visits the Watchtower for the first time)
Page 26 - Echoes here of Morrison's previous Darksied-subjagates-the-Earth story, "Rock of Ages" from 1998's JLA #10-15
Page 27 - Barry seems to use the Speed Force on Iris here as a kind of antidote to the Anti-Life Equation. The Speed Force was introduced by Mark Waid in 1997's Speed Force #1 one-shot. In short, its kind of a higher dimensional plane that the Flashes draw their energy from. Barry Allen was often said to be reunited with the Speed Force and residing there after his death.
"Sorry I was late", Barry Allen, in an effort to deflect any ideas that he may be the Flash, was always late for everything.
Page 29 - Mister Miracle is mis-coloured here. He should be black. It's a distressingly common occurrence in this series.
The circuit Metron gave to Anthro at the beginning of issue one seems to be counter-acting the Anti-Life Equation
Page 30 - Turpin is now the Earthly vessel for Darksied's spirit. His 'thumbs down’ here is a reference to ancient Rome, where it was used by emperors to signal the decision about the final fate of defeated fighters in the arena.
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