Final Crisis (Comics) | Review

What happens when the ultimate evil doesn't just threaten the world but actually succeeds? Final Crisis, written by Grant Morrison (JLA: New World Order, JLA: Rock of Ages), explores this nightmare scenario through a 2008 crossover event that asks whether stories themselves can truly survive when all hope dies completely.

This isn't another universe-shaking event where heroes save the day at the last second. Here, Darkseid wins, enslaves humanity through the Anti-Life Equation and reality starts collapsing into nothingness. The tagline promised "The Day Evil Won," and Morrison delivers exactly that.

Following the conclusion of Countdown to Final Crisis and directly after DC Universe #0, this seven-issue miniseries functions as the final chapter in DC's Crisis trilogy while simultaneously deconstructing what superhero stories even mean when the good guys lose and evil genuinely triumphs over absolutely everything they fought for.

Morrison pulls from Jack Kirby's New Gods mythology, his own Seven Soldiers work and decades of DC continuity to craft something that divides readers into camps: either you consider it visionary storytelling or incomprehensible chaos dressed up as profundity.

The story opens with the murder of Orion, one of the New Gods, investigated by Detective Dan Turpin. This signals to something truly catastrophic: Darkseid's spirit has fallen through reality after the Fourth World's destruction, possessing human bodies while his malevolent essence systematically corrupts existence itself completely.

Through his agent Libra, Darkseid assembles every major villain into the Secret Society and their first coordinated strike kills Martian Manhunter in a brutal opening statement. Darkseid's ultimate weapon is the Anti-Life Equation, a mathematical proof that destroys free will entirely.

Once he broadcasts it through global communication networks, billions of humans become his slaves, their minds hijacked into serving his conquest. Heroes get transformed into Justifiers, fascist enforcers spreading the Equation's corruption. Wonder Woman ends up becoming one of Darkseid's generals while Superman is pulled away.

Morrison structures the event around the metaphor of fire and what it means for humanity. The Human Flame becomes symbolic of how evil threatens to extinguish human spirit. Fire represents consciousness and resistance throughout, from Metron gifting it to caveman Anthro.

Batman's confrontation with Darkseid provides the event's most shocking moment. Recognizing no other option exists, Batman breaks his cardinal rule and uses a gun loaded with a Radion bullet to shoot Darkseid. But Darkseid fires his Omega Beams simultaneously, seemingly killing Batman through the devastating Omega Sanction.

The Omega Sanction doesn't kill but traps victims in a "death that is life," sending their consciousness through parallel timelines. The final pages reveal Batman alive in prehistoric times, drawing a bat symbol on cave walls, setting up Morrison's Return of Bruce Wayne series.

Even mortally wounded, Darkseid's essence continues dragging all reality into oblivion. Barry Allen and Wally West, working together with Jay Garrick, lead the Black Racer directly to Darkseid while simultaneously creating the temporal loop that allowed Darkseid to send the bullet back through time to kill Orion originally.

The scope expands beyond Earth as Morrison weaves in the Monitors, cosmic beings observing the Multiverse. Mandrakk the Dark Monitor represents a vampiric threat feeding on stories themselves, positioning Final Crisis as a battle for narrative existence itself.

With reality collapsing and time breaking down, Superman remains the last being in existence, desperately constructing a copy of the Miracle Machine from the 31st century. He makes a wish for a happy ending, reality stabilizes and the Monitors cease to exist except for Nix Uotan.

The event restored the DC Multiverse concept while Batman's apparent death launched the Battle for the Cowl storyline. Connections run through DC's publishing history, following from Death of the New Gods and Morrison's Seven Soldiers, while directly setting up Flash: Rebirth, Battle for the Cowl and feeding into Blackest Night.

Morrison references his JLA story "Rock of Ages," which showed Darkseid enslaving humanity using the Anti-Life Equation, making Final Crisis feel like destiny fulfilled. The event functions as the final chapter in DC's Crisis trilogy while deconstructing superhero storytelling.

Artist J.G. Jones (52, Wanted) was originally slated to handle all pencils but production delays forced DC to bring in Carlos Pacheco (Fantastic Four: Resurrection of Galactus, Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns), Marco Rudy and Doug Mahnke (Batman: Under the Red Hood, Black Adam: The Dark Age) for the later issues.

Jones delivers detailed, cinematic layouts, particularly during investigation sequences that ground cosmic stakes in human emotions. Mahnke's contributions provide necessary bombast for apocalyptic battles, though the shift between artists creates jarring tonal inconsistencies.

Morrison's script operates on multiple levels, demanding extensive DC continuity knowledge while functioning as meta-commentary on superhero storytelling. His dialogue captures each character's voice distinctly and the plotting remains Morrison's most ambitious work, juggling characters and concepts while maintaining coherence.

The greatest weakness emerges from compression. Seven issues cannot service this many plot threads. Wonder Woman's arc resolves off-handedly, Superman's return gets crammed into panels and peripheral characters appear without context, potentially alienating newer readers.

Final Crisis succeeds as Morrison's apocalyptic love letter to superhero mythology while interrogating what these stories mean when confronted with nihilism. The event polarized readers because it refuses accessibility, demanding engagement with Morrison's previous work, Kirby's Fourth World mythology and continuity.

The ambitious scope becomes the event's strength and weakness. When focusing on core conflicts like Batman versus Darkseid or Superman's race against reality's collapse, it delivers resonant moments. When servicing the entire DC Universe, it collapses under its weight.

For readers interested in how comics grapple with history and when heroic narratives confront defeat, Final Crisis remains essential. Morrison forces readers to witness heroes struggling against impossible odds while questioning whether superhero stories retain meaning.

Final Crisis is available in physical editions– trade paperback, hardcover and omnibus– from local comic-book shops, online retailers and major bookstores. Digital editions are also offered on platforms like Amazon Kindle, ComiXology and DC Universe Infinite giving readers flexible access to DC's multiverse-shaking crossover.