Embedded Files
FINAL CRISIS #7
New Heaven, New Earth
Written by GRANT MORRISON; Art by DOUG MAHNKE & CHRISTIAN ALAMY; Cover by JG JONES; Variant cover by DOUG MAHNKE
DC Comics, March 2009, FC, 40pgs, $3.99
The dramatic finale to the epic, seven-part saga of the DC multiverse concludes with an apocalyptic battle for the soul of humanity that must be seen to be believed! Can the heroes of 52 Earths save the multiverse? And is the only way to save it, to change it forever?
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Page 1 - Morrison's last minute tribute to Barack Obama (he was voted into office the same month that #3 hit the stands) recalls both Marv Wolfman's Earth-D from Legends of the DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths #1, and Morrison's own Sunshine Superman from Animal Man #23-24
"Vathlo" is a reference to the Silver Age Vathlo Island, an island nation of Krypton and home to a "highly developed black race". It was first referenced in E. Nelson Bridewell's map of Krypton from 1971's Superman #239, but Morrison is probably using it here in a call back to Alan Moore's classic Superman Annual #11, "For The Man Who Has Everything". Brainiac as the White House secuity system also harks back to Moore's story.
Page 2-3 - Nubia (or Nu’Bia) is Morrison's Beyonce-as-Wonder Woman, to complement Obama-as-Superman. She's based on Wonder Woman's dark-skinned sister, also made from clay, who was captured by Mars and turned against her fellow Amazons. Created by Robert Kanigher and Don Heck, she first appeared in 1973's Wonder Woman #204. There's an interesting piece on her somewhat chequered history here.
The Wonder Horn she uses hasn't been seen anywhere before as far as I can tell, but it ties in nicely to the grand mythological themes of the issue. It also plays into the 'music as a power for good' idea explored in depth later in the issue as they use it to call the Zillo Valla's ship, the Ultima Thule, straight from Superman Beyond.
Page 4 - The Question continues her development into a strange Kirby/Ditko hybrid; Randian moral absolutism meets free-wheeling Biblical science fiction.
A multiversal army of Supermen leading the charge against Darksied. We have Marvel Comics' Hyperion at the back and counter-clockwise from him we have Malibu Comics' Prime (probably); Rob Liefield's Supreme; Samaritan from Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson's Astro City; Marvel Comics' Sentry; someone who might be a mis-coloured Majestic from the Wildstorm Universe and, most bizarrely of all, Marvel's Omega the Unknown
Page 5 - This, the final outpost of free humanity appears to be made of components from the Watchtowers, as featured earlier in the series. It seems to be comprised of parts from the JLA's satellite, the Hall of Justice, Titans Tower, not seen in the series thus far, Checkmate's castle HQ and Superman's Arctic Fortress of Solitude.
In the middle panel we have Iman, Power Girl, Frankenstein and Starman.
Earth-44 appears to be a world of robotic analogues to the DC heroes. Doc Tornado is a human version of the android Red Tornado by way of the Metal Men's Doc Magnus. Morrison also used a robotic JLA in his JLA Classified arc.
Page 6-7 - Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Supergirl stand at the Daily Planet printing press.
The Batcave's Giant Penny, one of the defining artifacts of the fictional DC universe. Also here we have Batman's cowl, Doctor Fate's helmet, Hawkman's mask and the mask that Wonder Woman wore whilst a Justifier.
The primal icons of DC's Earth, along with the last issue of the Daily Planet, are rocketed into space/time in a craft similar to the one that brought Superman to Earth from Krypton. The self-referential nature of this act reflects one of the archetypical scenes of DC Comics lore; see also the opening pages of All Star Superman.
Fighting the robotic JLA we have Supergirl, Blue Devil, Starman and Atom Smasher, with the assistance of Sivana and Luthor.
Page 8 - The metatext notches up a gear as we read Lois' version of the story's conclusion, splintered through time due to the collapsing singularity
Page 10 - "The roar of a gunshot yet to be": referencing the God-bullet that Darksied fired back in time to kill Orion.
Page 11 - Superman's super-vision immediately recognises Barry as the Flash. Note also the radion bullet flying past in the opposite direction.
Page 12 - The mysterious new Aquaman, a plot thread with no resolution.
"In us... in all of us..." referencing Orion's last words in issue one, "He is in you all! Fight!"
Page 13 - Superman, sitting in Metron's Mobius Chair, is drawing up plans for a Miracle Machine.
In the second panel, we have the straggling remains of the super-humans. From the top there's Starman; an unknown gorilla; Frankenstein; the Question; Red Devil; Wonder Girl; an unknown with a green top by the OMACs; Supergirl; Iman; and Wonder Woman.
Cassie Sandsmark, the second Wonder Girl, was created by John Byrne in 1996's Wonder Woman #105.
Red Devil, formerly the kid sidekick of Blue Devil, first appeared in 1985's Blue Devil #14 and was created by Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn and Alan Kupperberg.
Iman’s dialogue translates from Spanish as “He’s going to (kick) start time, that's what they told me. To live in the world with a man like this.”
The final panel is all the greatest minds of the DC Universe that are still around; Sivana; Luthor; Niles Caulder from the Doom Patrol and Will 'Doc' Magnus, leader of the Metal Men.
Page 14 - As with last issue's token tie to Legion of Three Worlds, the big reveal from the final pages of Final Crisis: Resist, the Biomac army, appear for all of one panel.
Page 15 - Most Excellent Super Bat. To his right is Sonny Sumo and Big Atomic Lantern Boy with Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash and Shy Crazy Lolita Canary at the far right. Behind them, herding others through the escape tunnel, is the Question.
Page 16 - More metatextuality as Lois' tale intersects with the story Supergirl is telling the children. Lip service to comic book's age-old purpose; as children's entertainment.
The Black Gambit is in effect as Checkmate, the Hawks and the two Atoms attempt to abandon Universe.
Apparently Hawkman and Hawkgirl were supposed to be killed here, explaining the feathers at the end of the story, though they were fine by Geoff Johns' Blackest Night, which followed Final Crisis as DC's next 'big event'. Despite inexplicably escaping death here, they were both killed in the first issue of Blackest Night...
Page 17 - More storytelling as Renee relates the tale of the Black Gambit to the multiversal Superman army. They end up in the 'graveyard' Universe 51 seen to be a stand-in for Kamandi's post-Great Disaster future. The sunken Statue of Liberty references the cover of Kamandi #1. This appears to be the world that the Sonny Sumo from this story, as opposed to the character that appeared in Kirby's original Forever People series, hails from.
Seems Overman managed to free Overgirl from Checkmate's castle before they left. Again, its a visual callback to the death of the original Supergirl in Crisis On Infinite Earths #7
Page 18 - Darkseid fires the bullet backwards through time that kills Orion in issue one.
Luthor and Sivana have hacked the Justifier helmets.
Page 19 - "Time for bed," More allusions to bedtime/children's stories.
Page 20 - Lois and the others are miniaturized and stored in a refrigerator until Superman can sort this out.
'Women in refrigerators' is an umbrella term bandied around over the past fifteen years to highlight the often derogatory and misogynist way in which women are treated and depicted in comic-books. The phrase was coined after 1994's Green Lantern v3 #54 by Ron Marz and Darryl Banks showed Kyle Rayner's then-girlfriend dismembered and shoved in a refrigerator.
Page 21 - The page composition makes it seem as though Wonder Woman's smashing her Justifier mask and then dealing with Darkseid when we've already seen the mask intact after Darksied's defeat earlier in the issue. The mask-smashing is probably happening alongside the story running through the top and bottom of the previous pages.
Page 22 - "Darkseid always hated music" Foreshadowing Superman's use of music to defeat the ultimate evil of Mandrakk
Page 23 - "Element X" was the elemental power source of the New Gods' Mother Box, as seen in Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle #9
"Fire of the gods" references the Prometheus scene between Metron and Anthro way back in the first three pages of issue one.
Page 24 - Mandrakk, the vampire Monitor from Superman Beyond, reappears just in time for the big climax. His name is probably derived from Man/Dracula, as well as the mandrake root, a plant traditionally seen as 'evil'. Alongside him is the vampire Ultraman, also from Superman Beyond. The "servants of God" at their feet are the Spectre and Radiant, both fresh from Final Crisis: Revelations, a non-Morrison tie-in receiving its by-now token one panel shout out in the main series.
Page 26-27 - The multiversal Superman army, featuring Superman analogues not just from DC Comics and its imprints but thinly veiled homages to Marvel Comics' Supermen and various independent publishers' too. Morrison has already acknowledged that there may be more than one parallel Superman on each of the 52 Earths in Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, where alternate Earth versions of Captain Marvel and Captain Atom both feature as Superman analogues
Page 28 - ...And the cavalry continues to arrive.
Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew, created by Scott Shaw! and Roy Thomas, first appeared in Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew #1. Morrison's use of them here is a defiant redemption of the "Second Crisis" storyline that concluded his Animal Man run. Then, the Zoo Crew and their fellow DC creations out on the fringes of continuity were mourned as 'too ridiculous' to be featured in 1987's DC comic books. Now they can show up at the end of a death-metal, universal Armageddon story like Final Crisis and it seems absolutely appropriate.
The Pax Dei and Zauriel first appeared in Morrison and Howard Porter's JLA #5 from 1998.
Page 29 - "Taaru" was the word used by the Forever People to summon the Infinite Man in their original Kirby series. It seems that Nix Uotan is fulfilling the Infinite Man role to the Super Young Team's Forever People.
Page 30 - Back to Lois' story, the aftermath of the Final Crisis.
The inset panels show the big players who were killed in the series; Batman's cowl, the Martian Manhunter's pyramid tomb on Mars, and the two feathers for Hawkman and Hawkgirl (though DC subsequently decided they hadn't actually died).
Page 31 - This is really the first continuation of the Monitor's story we've had in the main series since issue one (apart from Nix Uotan of course).
Zillo Valla, Monitor of the vampire Universe 43 (as seen in Doug Moench and Kelley Jones' Batman: Red Rain) and Rox Ogama, the Monitor of Universe 31, the world of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.
Moving the Earth with chains mirrors the similarly mythological moving of the moon (in that case with Superman's short-lived electromagnetic powers) at the conclusion of the "Rock of Ages" arc from JLA.
Page 32 - The first flower growing in a dead world. Another Final Crisis scene appropriated by Countdown, appearing there in #13.
The old New-Gods, back in their Kirby bodies, survey their new home, Universe 51. Metron, minus chair, is hovering in the first panel, in the second we have Mister Miracle, Highfather, Lightray, Barda, and probably the original Forever People.
Earth-51 is now effectively Earth-Kirby, with the New Gods, Kamandi and OMAC all ending up here. The map in Nix Uotan's hand is the map of the post Great-Disaster Earth from the back pages of Kamandi #1.
Kamandi, the Last Boy, appears, though not quite on the last page of the story, as promised...
Page 33-34 - The Monitors are re-absorbed into Monitor and lose their individuality. Amongst many, many other things, is this a meta-textual plea for an end to editorial interference?
How could Superman's wish be for anything but a happy ending?
Page 35 - Nix Uotan is still on Earth, the last of his kind. His story? As per the last page of Superman Beyond, 'To be continued'...
Page 36 - The rocket has landed near Anthro, now an old man after spending his life spreading Metron's circuit across the globe.
"The shining one and the burning bush" is an allusion to the Biblical story of Moses.
Page 37 - The page that Morrison added at DC's insistence, supposedly the only editorial change to Final Crisis that they asked for. Batman isn't dead, just cast into the distant past by the Omega Sanction, ala Sonny Sumo. The cave painting he's executing here later crops up in Christopher Yost's Red Robin, and leads directly into The Return of Bruce Wayne.
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