Embedded Files
FINAL CRISIS #6
How To Murder The Earth
Written by GRANT MORRISON; Art by JG JONES, CARLOS PACHECO & JESUS MERINO; Cover by JG JONES, Variant cover by CARLOS PACHECO & JESUS MERINO
DC Comics, January 2009, FC, 40pgs, $3.99
As the entire world turns against them, the last of Earth's Super Heroes must face the unstoppable power of the Gods of Apokolips for the final time. Supergirl vs. Mary Marvel! Superman vs. Darkseid! The fate of the Flash! And the incredible return of the New Gods! The End of Days has come and the ultimate war between good and evil will at last be decided on the battlefield of a broken world!
And as the skies bleed, as the walls between universes crumble and fall, the ultimate threat to life makes its presence felt as an evil beyond imagining arrives to claim its prize. Mandrakk the Dark Monitor is coming and the DC Multiverse will never be the same again!
Annotations
Page 1 - Lip service to Geoff Johns' Legion of Three Worlds tie-in mini-series, these first four pages are the Legion of Super Heroes' only appearance in the series.2960 would've be after the Legion's formation but before their original Adventure Comics run.
Brainiac 5 is the Legion's resident super-scientist, a 30th century descendant of Superman foe Brainiac.
The name Brainy mentions for the Miracle Machine "geh-jedollah-The Absolute" hasn't been used before this issue. Its probably meant to evoke 'gadget-ullah', "ullah" as a suffix meaning "of god" in Arabic languages. Hence a literal God machine.
Page 3 - The Miracle Machine first appeared in the Legion of Super-Heroes feature in Adventure Comics #367, a deus ex machina device presented to the Legion by the Controllers, a mysterious race from the same planet as the Green Lanterns' Guardians of the Universe. It appeared again in Superboy #213. The machine was only seen from the rear in both issues, as we see from this page the front looks a lot like Metron's circuit design that's featured heavily in this series so far.
The Miracle Machine, like the Green Lantern rings, is a will-to-reality wishing machine. "The ultimate technological artifact".
"Just look": In a nod to Silver/Bronze Age super-intelligent Superman, he can work out how to build a replica of the Miracle Machine just by looking at it for a few seconds.
Page 4 - The Justice League of America's Watchtower satellite. First seen in the Justice League animated series, it made its comics debut in Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes' Justice League of America run.
The Tattooed Man got to the Watchtower from the League's Hall of Justice last issue. He's seen here with Black Canary.
Page 5 - Iris West and her brother Jai rush in to the room, following them ,from left to right, we have their mother, Linda Park-West, wife of Flash Wally West; the Ray; and Joan Garrick, wife of the first Flash Jay Garrick
The Justifiers in TIE Fighters is an interesting shout-out to the idea that George Lucas used Kirby's New Gods as a jumping off point for the original Star Wars. The Darkseid of the Force anyone?
Korll is the home of the villainous Queen Bee, as seen in 1963's Justice League of America #23. The current incarnation of the Queen Bee was created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter in 1998's JLA #36
Page 6-7 - Fighting the Justifiers are, left to right, Hourman; Vixen; Liberty Belle; J.A.K.E. 2 of the Creature Commandos; S.T.R.I.P.E. and Wildcat.
"How you doing, honey?": The second Liberty Belle, Jesse Chambers, was created by Len Strezewski and Mike Parobeck and first appeared in 1992's Justice Society of America #1. The daughter of the Golden Age heroes Liberty Belle and Johnny Quick, she was formerly known as Jesse Quick. Her husband is Hourman, Rick Tyler, created by Roy and Dann Thomas and Todd McFarlane; he first appeared in Infinity Inc. #20. His father was the original Hourman, created by Ken Fitch and Bernard Baily, who first appeared in 1940's Adventure Comics #48.
"What is this, Tyler...": Ted Grant, the original Wildcat, created by Bill Finger and Irwin Hasen, first appeared in 1942's Sensation Comics #1.
Page 13 - Mary Marvel's claim that she can never say her magic word again has been conveniently ignored by subsequent writers who have used the character.
From left to right we have Wildcat, S.T.R.I.P.E., Iman, Red Arrow, Liberty Belle and Hourman
Iman's dialogue translates roughly from Spanish as "Something coming... like the sound of horses...", presumably referring to the Dog Cavalry-riding Female Furies approaching in the background.
Page 14 - Tawky Tawny's acceptance as leader of the Tiger Men foreshadows their good and noble nature when they appear in Kamandi's Great Disaster-hit Earth-51
Page 15 - Mister Terrific and Mister Miracle converse. Behind them are the Super Young Team, Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash, Shiny Happy Aquazon, Sonny Sumo and Big Atomic Lantern Boy
Once again, Mister Miracle is mis-coloured as white.
Page 16-17 - Confirmation that this Sonny Sumo is a parallel Earth version of the original from Kirby's Forever People #7. The Super Young Team as manga-soap-opera.
Page 18 - Justifiers Green Arrow and Black Lightning lead the attack on the Justice League's satellite
Page 20 - Taleb Beni Khalid and the Question's 'Black Gambit' is essentially an attempt to 'abandon universe' in light of Darkseid's victory.
Ray Palmer, the Silver Age Atom, was created by Gardner Fox and Gil Kane and first appeared in 1961's Showcase #34. The last twenty-odd years of DC continuity have not been kind to him. Ryan Choi, the All-New Atom, was another 'characters and concepts' creation by Grant Morrison for the 2006 DCU: Brave New World one-shot, and went on to have an enjoyable, if short-lived series, written primarily by Gail Simone.
Amongst the generic psychics in Room 90 are Miss Martian and Mind Grabber Man, a grown up Mind Grabber Kid from Denny O'Neil and Dick Dillin's Justice League of America v1 #70. The Kid was seen previously in Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer. More psychic nosebleeds (see also Jean Grey in Morrison's New X-Men run).
The mystics are attempting to contact the Spectre, who usually grows to giant size and sorts out these multiverse-threatening bad sorts (see Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, etc.). We can see Zatanna in the middle, Houngan from Teen Titans foes the Brotherhood of Evil behind her, and possibly Traci 13 to the right. The guy in the top hat could be Zachary Zatara, Zatanna's nephew. This scene echoes the seance climax of Alan Moore's "American Gothic" storyline from Swamp Thing, a Crisis on Infinite Earths tie-in and also heavily referenced in Seven Soldiers: Zatanna
A nod to the classic alien autopsy as Checkmate prepare to cut open Überfraulein. Note the damaged tools hanging over her.
Page 21 - 'Lord Eye' is a mash-up of Kirby's Brother Eye, the benevolent satellite brain behind OMAC and Maxwell Lord, originally a Funky Flashman-esque huckster in Giffen and DeMatteis' Justice League International and lately insane hero murderer and would-be world conqueror, as of 2005's Infinite Crisis. Lord was formerly the Black King of Checkmate before Wonder Woman broke his neck in Wonder Woman v2 #219.
More Question-Global Peace Agency shenanigans.
Page 22 - Luthor, in the Super Powers armour that Morrison loves so much, and Captain Marvel's arch-nemesis Doctor Sivana confront Libra.
Page 23 - Libra exits stage left. Considering the attention payed to his return in the build up to Final Crisis' publication, and Morrison mentioning again and again he is not what he seems, his role seems curiously unrealized on reflection. The Secret Files one-shot did little to add much to the character or resolve any of the 'mystery' surrounding him.
Luthor's not all bad, just mostly. It seems he's cut down the Calculator from his perpetual hanging.
Page 24 - Morrison's use of 'superluminal barrier' appears to mean the same thing as Mark Waid's Speed Force. 'Superluminal' means faster than light. Don't know about you, but I like Morrison's name better...
The Black Flash was created by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Pop Mahn and first appeared in Millar and Mahn's Flash v2 #139 from 1998. Despite not being credited with writing the issues the Black Flash appeared in, I think Morrison mentioned him enough in interviews beforehand to deserve some credit for his creation. The Black Flash serves as a death avatar for super-speedsters, in much the same way that the Black Racer does for the New Gods.
Page 26 - A visual callback to Seven Soldiers #1.
Page 27 - Of course Batman palmed the Radion bullet when they performed Orion's autopsy...
Batman's climactic confrontation with Darkseid echoes the climax of Morrison's The Invisibles.
"The Omega Sanction... the death that is life": as seen in Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle, the Sanction is an endless series of lives lived with no redemption at the end, a nod to the Hindu Karmic Wheel which Morrison also addressed in his Kid Eternity mini-series.
Batman, always the hero, shoots to wound, not kill.
"Hh." What a way to go! Batman R.I.P...
The consequences of this scene for Batman and his subsequent ascent into 'myth' are detailed more thoroughly in Morrison and Tony Daniel's 'missing chapter' of R.I.P. in Batman #701-702.
Page 30-31 - The images around Nix's head echo the final page of last issue. Morrison is setting up for next issues' conclusion with a teaser of his 'channel-zapping' intent. From a contemporary Wizard interview:
"Final Crisis #7 is almost inventing a new style. We had widescreen comics and decompression and super-compression. This is channel-zapping comics."
Lois is rejuvenated thanks to the Bleed she received from Superman over in Superman Beyond. She's holding Supergirl's cat, Streaky, while Jimmy Olsen tries to contact Superman with his signal watch.
Hawkman and Hawkgirl, created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville, first appeared in 1940's Flash Comics #1. After a significantly weaker conceptual Silver Age revamp than his contemporaries. the character has been plagued with endless reboots and continuity transplants since the early eighties. The current incarnations of the Hawks are Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders; both made their debut in Geoff Johns' JSA series.
Green Lantern Alan Scott, Blue Beetle and Stargirl. The Bulleteer, as ever, makes a one-panel cameo chatting to Starman. At least she's not flying though...
A token appearance for the Green Lanterns, whose plot gets no play this issue with Batman's demise. We can see Guy Gardner; Hal Jordan; Kyle Rayner; Kilowog; Arisia; and John Stewart.
Metron, holding his Rubik's cube mentions a "greater menace than Darksied", foreshadowing Mandrakk's re-appearance next issue.
This Doctor Mid-Nite was created by Matt Wagner and John K. Snyder and first appeared in 1999's Doctor Mid-Nite #1; he's a modern update of the Golden Age version created by Charles Reizenstein and Stanley Josephs Aschmeier, who first appeared in 1941's All-American Comics #25. Also in this panel we have the two Wildcats, Dr Light, Atom-Smasher and Man-of-Bats from the Club of Heroes.
"Billy" was the first Captain Marvel, Billy Batson, who also appears in Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, albeit in parallel Earth form.
Page 33 - "Dad?" Tom Bronson, the third Wildcat, is Ted Grant's son; he first appeared in 2007's Justice Society of America #2
Page 34 - A visual nod to George Perez's Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 cover, itself a homage to John Byrne's cover to X-Men #136, the Death of Pheonix issue (and both of them in turn referencing the famous scuplture Pieta by Michaelangelo). It has been referenced many, many times in DC Comics over the last twenty five years, as can be seen here. . .
The (excellent) title, "How To Murder The Earth", was originally solicited as the title of issue four.
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