Ron RoweFinal Crisis Requiem Summary
July 12th 2008 22:41
Summary: Martian Manhunter is dead. Everybody is sad. Green Lantern is mad. J'onn's death wasn't as clean and easy (easy for the bad guys, not for him) as it appeared in Final Crisis #1. That's it. Really. Oh, he also telepathically reached out to 5 heroes (Superman, Batman, Black Canary, Gypsy, and Green Lantern to mentally force them to write the history of Mars. Why he never bothered to do it on his own, I'm not sure.
Full disclaimer, J'onn is not my favorite hero. He's not in the top 10. But I felt very little empathy based on this book. The emotion just wasn't there. It isn't that Superman's euology wasn't well worded. It was. The whole book just didn't resonate with me. Meybe it is because I've never been emotionally vested in J'onn. Maybe it's because I don't for a second think that he'll stay dead for very long. I don't know. Maybe comics have just cheapened death to the point that nobody cares anymore. How many times has second stringer Metamorpho died now?
I think the real root of my dispassion is that Grant Morrison specifically wrote J'onn's death as un-gloriious. He didn't die boldly saving the universe, he just died. Requiem, written by Peter Tomasi, lets J'onn go out with guns blazing, nearly escaping his tormentors, defiant in the face of his captor. It undoes the intent of the Final Crisis death scene.
On a positive note, Batman's final guesture was nicely done and the art is beautiful throughout. I wish I had more good things to say about this story for my $3.99.
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