Final Crisis

DC




Writer/Scripts    Grant Morrison
Artist    J. G. Jones , Marco Rudy
Penciller    Carlos Pacheco, Doug Mahnke
Inker    Jesus Merino , Christian Alamy ,Tom Nguyen ,Drew Gerasi ,Norm Rapmund ,Rodney Ramos
Walden Wong , Doug Mahnke
Letterer    Rob Leigh , Travis Lanham , Rob Clark
Colorist    Alex Sinclair, Pete Pantazis , Tony Aviña



I started this book 3 times before finally using a bookmark and tracking where I was. We start the book with Metron giving Cro-Mangon man fire before vaulting forwards to today. In the present a hero collapses in a smoking pile. Orion has been murdered and Green Lantern has to find out who the killer is.

After this start I was expecting a detailed murder investigation type book but I should have probably read Crisis on Infinite Earths story first to get an idea of what to expect in one of these multi-verse type stories. Basically as each sub-plot unfolds we are led into a series of realities, time-lines, Universes and alternate takes on the DC characters. 

Lots of plots and lots of focus points made this a hard story to follow for me. Plus I always had the sense that the multi-verse story line meant that who ever was killed would simply be resurrected at the end of the story.

There are some high points and the art is always beautiful but overall I never really connected with this story.

Fantastic Four volume 1 - 1981

Issues 233, 234, 235, 237, 238, 239

Marvel

John Byrne - Pencils and Writing

I first started reading FF back around issue 300. After this time I started to find a whole batch of back issues from 230ish up which were written by John Byrne. At the time he was my favoured artist and I noticed he also wrote the books. Since then I have endevoured to collect a lot of his FF run. There are still a few gaps as the above issues listings testify too.

Issue 233 - We start with a man on Death Row who gives a letter to the priest. This gets handed to the Human Torch, aka: Johnny Storm. This is after a brief interlude where the Torch and the Thing are fighting. In the letter the now executed criminal asks Johnny to clear his name of things he didn't do, while confessing he has had some 'poor life choices'. The rest of the issue sees Johnny in full Private Detective mode. He follows the trail to Hammerhead, a long time Spider-Man foe. They scrap and Hammy escapes by leaping from a building. Obviously not to his death. The Torch informs the mother of her sons innocence af the crime he was executed for but she says he deserved to die anyway. Harsh!

Issue 234 - The cover at the top of the page. An odd story about a man who seemingly has the perfect life because he can alter reality but he doesn't realise it. Because of his powers when he takes a business trip to New York he gets to see the FF in action. 'Gravity Waves' are wrecking cities around earth. Reed tracks them down to space where the FF find Ego, the living planet.

Issue # 237 - There is a robot Doctor Doom inactiv3e on the roof of the Baxter Building so I assume they defeated it in the previous issue. After this the Torch is late for a date. Sue and Reed run off to do the family thing with Franklin and The Thing has a workout while his girl friend watches. These are all good human elements. Reed and Sue go horse riding in Central Park. Johnnies GF strips off... A very tall lady called spinnerette helps a batch of crooks rob a bank and get past Reed and Sue. It turns out she is an alien and is trying to obtain some silver to 're-power' her ship and leave Earth again.

Issue # 238 - Frankie Raye was not naked in front of Johnny but was in fact in a costume. Frankie is a female human torch with almost the exact same power set as Johnny. She tells the story of her father who created the original human torch during World War 2. Frankie dropped a drum of chemicals on herself, hence the powers. The second half of the issue has Reed trying to reverse Ben's powers and stop him being the Thing. He almost succeeds but ends up regressing his rock like form to his lumpy form and this time the condition is 'permanent'.

Issue # 239 - The FF get a visit from Ben's Aunt Petunia, who is in fact quite young (she's married to Ben's older Uncle) - 'By my sweet Aunt Petunia' is a phrase Ben uses a lot in the comics. She  then tells them about a town where the residents are being 'scared' to death.
There a is a quick excerpt into Attilan, the home of the Inhumans, where Crystal and Quicksilver are having a baby. They are worried because Crystal is an Inhuman and Quicksilver a mutant.
The town is built next to a burial site and is housed by some 'spirits' who are driving people away. half the town decides to leave. Wendy, the girl who seems to have made friends with the spirits, is happy and hangs out with them as the story ends.

These books are good, where the art and story mesh. Well, they are the same person in this case. Byrne does an excellent job of highlighting the human qualities in the FF. Each story is a 'small' one. What he does is build up the team for the larger story arcs that follow, while always re-enforcing the characters traits, humanity and their nobility, even if the story is slightly kooky. I don't know who came up with 'Ego the Living Planet' as a villain for heroes to combat or stop but I remember it was the Sixties when he was created...

A certain recommend. Find these in original format (the issues are still relatively cheap compared to Claremont/Byrne X-men books) or in the collected Essential format, although I think the art deserves colour. Byrnes run is issues 232 - 295.

Freak Force

Issues 1 - 5 (1993)

Image

Writer - Erik Larsen, Keith Giffen

Pencils - Victor Bridges

I collected these around the time they came out and my collection started at issue 12. Recently I got given a stack of books and 1 - 11 were there. Complete run! Please don't start me on that path.

Freak Force are a team of heroes, based in Chicago and they consist of Dart (the leader), Rapture, Richochet, Barbaric, Mighty Man (labled as the most powerful man in the world), Superpatriot and Horridious. Already there is a bit of a gap as only two of the team appear as 'Freaks'. The rest of the team seem like normal humans.

The team is set up and established as something of a 'heroes for Hire'. They start by being paid to take down an Eco-terrorist called Major Disaster. Dart bemoans their lack of co-ordination and they start to look for a headquarters building.

The second issue has a cover of a man with the head of a shark. Dart is having trouble hiring help to run their outfit. The villains in this issue are 'The Coven' and they hire a team of goons (which includes a very close match to my own nemesis 'Doom Squid') to kill Superpatriot. Another stoush ensues which Freak Force wins quite easily.

Onto the third which is yet another fight, which the Freak Force easily wins again. The villain in this one is in the background, developing her set-up to take down the team. She is making replicas of Freak Force. Superpatriot and Mighty Man have a chat and Mighty Man has a secret he can't divulge. The villain creates her replicas and sets themto destruct downtown Chicago. She is using Mighty Man, Richochet and 2 Barbarics. There is mass destruction as a gas main bursts and the fake Richochet is blown up along with a lot of innocent civilians. The ladies of the team confront fake Mighty Man, who holds the real Richochet hostage.

The ladies fight the fakes, with help from another Image hero who was record shopping. They finally take the powerful bad guys down as they turn into protoplasmic jelly when they take too much damage. At the end of the issue the villain behind the plot turns up and takes the receptionist/Office job at Freak Force headquarters.

The fifth issue has the team explaining that they are not evil and the city was attacked by clones. There is a random attack in the office by a villain with matter control. Mighty Man finds 'his' car stolen, arrest the perp, but then drops the car.
Superpatriot is randomly attacked by another goon squad, this time the Fantastic Force. Again, easily defeating them. It was all a set-up for Absorbing Junior who touches Mighty Man and sucks out his power. He beats Superpatriot to a pulp before Mighty Man revelas his big secret - which is in the next issue.

These issues are nicely drawn and coloured. The stories are great for leading into each other, with threads starting and finishing. Keith Giffen had a long run I liked on Justice League. With lesser heroes with no history the going is a little tougher. Although it's called Freak Force, three of the ladies are human with two being typically tall, lithe beauties, even if one is Afro-American. They both wear very hugging costumes. The big reveal is that Mighty Man is a woman with the hero powers and this adds to the narrative. There was lots of potential on this one and although enjoyable it lacks that real killer punch.