FINAL CRISIS and BLACKEST NIGHT

FINAL CRISIS*, written by Grant Morrison, was DC Comics’ 2008/2009 crossover “event.” 

BLACKEST NIGHT, written by Geoff Johns, was DC Comics’ 2009/2010 crossover “event.”

As stories go, BLACKEST NIGHT and FINAL CRISIS aren't even really comparable.  They are as different in tone, style and actual storyline as comic book stories can get.

I thoroughly enjoyed both stories. 

I found FINAL CRISIS to be a masterpiece from the beginning.  Even though I didn’t fully understand (and still have not identified or discovered all of the subtleties) FINAL CRISIS (particularly SUPERMAN BEYOND, which went clear over my head the first and second time I read #1) the first time I read it, I still saw in the story that it was a true masterpiece of the comic book medium.

While at first I thought that BLACKEST NIGHT ended on an anti-climactic note, re-reading it one sitting made the ending stand out differently for me.  The ending works.  It’s a quiet, subdued ending, but the ending works for the story, which was almost eight full issues of unrelenting, brilliant action.

Both Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison are masterful writers, but they are not the same kind of writers. 

Geoff Johns is the James Cameron of the comic book medium.

Grant Morrison is the Stanley Kubrick of the comic book medium.

Geoff Johns gives me strong characters and strong characterization in stories loaded with action and killer set pieces, just like James Cameron. I love ALIENS (in my top ten of all time) and TITANIC and

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY and many others, but those films, like BLACKEST NIGHT and GREEN LANTERN (REBIRTH and the ongoing) and JSA, do not get much deeper than being fun movies with a great cast, great dialogue, great plots and mind-blowing special effects. 

That is what BLACKEST NIGHT was: a fun, compressed, easy story with great characterization and awesome set pieces, but it did not go any deeper. Even with all the death and raised dead and reorganizing of universal origins, it was still a fun story. BLACKEST NIGHT had one, quite polished style to its issues. There was really no variation in tone or art or "cinematography." Even with all the compression, BN did not really stay with me when I finished an issue.  I thought about it from time to time, but it did not stay on my mind and linger.

Grant Morrison gives me strong characters and strong characterization in stories not loaded with action and killer set pieces, but in stories that burrow deep into my psyche and stay there, gestating and lying in wait for me to read the book again; and when I do read it again, the things that I did not consciously catch the first time or the second time or the third or fourth of fifth time, leap out of my subconscious and into the front of my mind, the way Kubrick films do. 

I have watched DR. STRANGELOVE, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, THE SHINING and FULL METAL JACKET dozens of times and there are still things that just hit me each time like it was the first time I watched them. 

FINAL CRISIS was not a fun story; it was not an easy read; it was a difficult story to read and it was a difficult story to wrap my mind around and it forced me to use not only my reading skills, but my comprehension and reasoning skills. The tone of the story changes throughout and so does the art, which left me with a feeling of unease as I read through it. The story started out slow and somewhat ponderous, with scenes that seemed to just be thrown together, but as it progressed, it picked up speed and became heavier and heavier (almost oppressive) as it moved along until it felt like I was at the bottom of the pit as #7 started and then it was turned up to 11 as the story just bombarded me with image after image and scene after scene until it settled down after the evil was vanquished. Then in that calmness, I realized that everything I had read in the seven FC issues and the two SB issues all lead to this point and it all synced up and came together and then I was able to relax, but I was still left thinking about what I just read and it stayed in my system for a while as I digested the story. 

There, I said it!!! 

*When I mention FINAL CRISIS in the text above, it includes SUPERMAN BEYOND, but excludes the stories not written by Grant Morrison.   In spite of the way the various FINAL CRISIS mini-series were promoted, SUPERMAN BEYOND is integral to the story told in the 7 issues of FINAL CRISIS.