Final Crisis Aftermath Aftermath Hits THE SPLASH PAGE: Part 1 of 2

Chad Nevett and I are back with another installment of THE SPLASH PAGE, this time on the finale of the "Final Crisis Aftermath" comics. Our last discussion prompted some heated debate, plenty of comments, a couple of follow-ups from Chad and I, and several responses from angry fans. Will this week's SPLASH PAGE provoke such reactions? Maybe I should interject something about Geoff Johns's awesomeness...

Chad Nevett: Five months ago, Tim and I discussed the first issues of each of the four "Final Crisis Aftermath" mini-series that DC put out, each launching out of an idea or character featured in "Final Crisis," and we said that we'd check back in on the books when they finished. Well, the two that we both stuck with, "Escape" and "Dance" finished, so here we are. When I suggested the topic to you, Tim, you weren't sure there was anything to discuss. Why? What did you eventually think of "Dance" and "Escape"? Also, you buy everything... no "Run!" or "Ink"?

Tim Callahan: I stopped buying "Run" and "Ink" along with a dozen other comics that I no longer had any time to read. I found them just piling up in the "to read" pile, along with stuff like "Amazing Spider-Man," "Mighty Avengers," "Batman: Streets of Gotham," and some other mid-level comics. As my "to read" pile grew, and my time was filled up with more any more work-related and family-related activities, I just had to stop the bleeding somewhere. I did really enjoy the middle couple of issues of "Run" -- it turned into a crazy z-list supervillain romp pretty quickly, and I might finish the series eventually. "Ink" I just don't care about at all.

And, honestly, I ended up not caring about "Escape" by the end, either. I didn't think Marco Rudy was an amazing artist or anything, but I lost interest in the issues he wasn't drawing, and I don't even know what that series was even about in the end. What was it about, really?

"Dance" was the best of the bunch, but it faltered in the middle (because of the change in artists, probably), though it did finish pretty strongly. For me, it followed an inverse pattern compared to Joe Casey's other fall project: "Dark Reign: Zodiac." I liked the first issue of "Zodiac," LOVED the second issue, but thought the final issue was a bit disappointing. With "Dance," it was strong in the beginning, weak in the middle, and good at the end. I don't know if that means anything, but I found the contrast interesting. Though Nathan Fox's art trumps any page of "Dance."

Part of my lack of engagement in these "Final Crisis Aftermath" comics is that all my comics are in storage right now, awaiting our move to the new house (which should have happened by the time this "Splash Page" hits the interwaves), so I can't go back and read either "Dance" or "Escape" from start to finish. Maybe they are better than I remember them being. Maybe worse. What say you?

CN: What was "Escape" about? A lot of promise that doesn't really turn into anything that great. I know what you mean about the lack of Marco Rudy. His replacement, Cliff Richards, is on the same level when it comes to actual drawing skills -- their figures aren't that far apart -- but, man, Rudy was doing some fantastic layouts. Very inventive stuff that worked with whatever the idea/theme of that issue was. I loved the idea of having a page in the shape of a pawn from chess near the beginning of the issue and, then, an upside-down pawn at the end when things had gone south. That willingness to do a little more work made "Escape" a visually interesting series until he left. After, it wasn't as much. Although, Richards did some great work in the final issue.

Storywise, it was weird for the sake of weird it seems. All tests to prepare Nemesis (and everyone else) to be a member of the Global Peace Agency... except we never really learn that the GPA is about. I think Ivan Brandon set himself up to fail with those obtuse, surreal first issues that didn't really lead to anything. It was actually a very mundane story in the end, one that didn't approach the broad themes and ideas of Morrison's work as we thought it would. Maybe it will read better as a whole, I haven't had a chance to reread the whole series yet.

"Dance" also suffered from art changes, as you said, but was the best of the bunch. Joe Casey exploring the tropes and make-up of superhero teams, young superheroes, capitalist superheroes, and whatever else is always going to be worth three bucks each month. The end was stronger than I think most people realise since it was a subtle point about how wanting wealth and fame isn't the opposite of being a hero as many seem to think, that the Super Young Team can have both. Except Casey doesn't hit you over the head with that idea, he just hints at the question: what's the difference between Bruce Wayne/Batman and Tony Stark/Iron Man and the Super Young Team except that the Super Young Team doesn't take off the costumes? Not only that, it was a book that discussed these ideas and concepts while having an interesting 'coming of age' story as the main plot.

Now that the books have finished, do you think any of them are worthy follow-ups to "Final Crisis"?

TC: Here's an anecdote for you: As I was cleaning up some loose comics and throwing them in boxes, I came across "Dance" #5, flipped though it, and realized I had somehow never even read that issue. So I stopped my packing and read the sucker. It was really good, and it made issue #6 even better now that I know the lead-in. Duh. Amazing how that works! But I just assumed that I'd forgotten the previous installment in the haze of getting ready to move and the general overflow of too many comics in my brain. No. I just hadn't read the penultimate issue.

So to answer your question, I would say YES, "Dance" is a worthy follow-up to "Final Crisis." Is it better than "Final Crisis"? Hell, no, but it's at least about something. And though "Run" might have turned into a fun romp, and it did -- though I don't know how it ended -- and though "Escape" may have begun as something cool and different, only "Dance" actually said anything interesting about the role of the superhero.

Maybe it's just that Super Young Team is the best concept coming out of "Final Crisis." Maybe it was hard to screw it up. (I know it would have been easy to screw it up, though, because I've read comics inspired by Grant Morrison concepts that have been pretty terrible. I won't name any names, but, well, they all have tended to be terrible if Morrison thought them up and someone else wrote them. Except "Dance.") I just love Most Excellent Superbat's mask and partial Superman "S" shapes on his costume that become pure abstraction when removed from the "S" shield context (so much so that the cover artist paints them as triangular shapes instead of parts of the Superman insignia). And I love how the whole team is just an analogue for the original JLA but so they represent the essence of a classic superhero team while being totally wired into the now. I love the exaggerated pathos and the playfulness.

"Dance" was good. Even if the art was annoyingly inconsistent.

What about you, do you think "Dance" or "Escape" were worthy follow-ups? Do you think they even work as follow-ups at all? Because the "Escape" tie-in seems less than essential.

To be continued at GraphiContent!

Final Crisis Aftermath Hits THE SPLASH PAGE

Chad Nevett and I have resurrected "The Splash Page" just in time to look at the first issues of the four "Final Crisis Aftermath" series. The first part of the discussion is posted at Chad's blog, and the second half is presented below for your edification and amusement:

CN: Following up on Grant Morrison ideas and characters has always been a tricky/problematic area. If companies don't follow the path Morrison's laid out, we bitch. When we do, they usually can't match Morrison's skill, so we bitch. There's really no winning with us fans, honestly. Then again, I've been saying for quite a long time that the writer they should be tapping to follow-up Morrison is Joe Casey (usually when discussing Noh-Varr) and, finally, it's happened and I was right. Or, look at what Ivan Brandon is doing on "Escape" by taking the very basic concept of that world peacekeeping organisation group on one of the parallel Earths and putting a spin on it that's both reminiscent of Morrison's work (specifically "The Invisibles" and "The Filth"), but still writing it in different ways. It reminds me of adaptations where the worst ones are often the ones that recreate the plot faithfully while getting the tone and feel wrong, while the best ones are often the ones that have no problem changing the plot while maintaining the feel of the original. That's what "Dance" and "Escape" do very well: they share a feel with Morrison's work while not necessarily reading like one of his comics. If that makes sense. Of course, neither "Run!" nor "Ink" seem to attempt to go for duplication of plot or feel, so maybe that explains them.

Ideally, you want writers who will make their own statement and be unafraid to take these characters in different directions, while, at the same time, maintaining some of the feel of Morrison's depictions of them. It's an incredibly hard thing to do, but I think where too many go wrong is getting caught up in the small details or flat-out stealing from Morrison's writings -- a tactic you'd think would work, but doesn't. In that "Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust?" one-shot, Zeb Wells did a Noh-Varr story that was utterly lifeless despite being filled with elements from "Marvel Boy," and it didn't work because it was filled with elements from "Marvel Boy." It was, on the surface, 100% true to the character, but was devoid of any of the life or energy Morrison gave the character, because it was just a pastiche of pre-existing lines or situations. Christ, I'm just rambling on, aren't I? Help me out here, Tim, and, hopefully, put what I'm saying into words that, you know, make sense.

TC: Well, I think you make a good point, but it's the same point that's made about almost every comic that sucks: "100% true to the character, but...devoid of any of the life or energy." See everyone who followed Jack Kirby for more examples.

So here we are talking too much about Morrison again, but what does he do that stays true to the character but injects energy? And why is it so difficult for others to do the same thing? Why is Morrison's "Animal Man" vibrant, but Peter Milligan's is flat. Why is Morrison's "X-Men" new, while Chuck Austen's is unreadable melodrama? Why wasn't Mark Waid able to pull off "JLA," even though he had the same tools and some of the same concepts as Morrison?

And do you really think Casey and Brandon can pull it off? I like to hope they can, by doing what you're saying: taking the tone and spinning it out in new plot directions, while putting their own personalities into it. I mean, Joe Casey of "The Intimates" and "Godland" was BORN to write the Super Young Team.

Speaking of that -- and to go off on a tangent -- I've seen readers complain about the use of Twitter in "Dance." What's that about? Do you think it's cheesy and too of-the-moment for Casey to have Most Excellent Superbat tweeting throughout the issue?

CN: I honestly think that Morrison's approach lends itself to a certain feeling that's hard to replicate -- Joe Casey and Matt Fraction have a similar feeling at times. Part fun, part "who gives a crap," part "this is the greatest moment of all time," part... I don't know what. The only way to describe it is in contradictory terms, because it's both insanely fun and light, while also being heavy and serious.

I don't understand the Twitter complaint. The only Twitter-related complaint I've thought made sense was a guy who lives in Japan arguing that Japanese teens don't use Twitter, so it's not true to the characters. Other than that, how is it any different from regular narrative captions or excerpts from journals? I think it's very clever, not because it relates to contemporary times, but because Twitter allows him to narrate and comment in a manner that is immediate and, contextually, fits into the book. Sometimes, narrative captions seem out of place and you wonder why a character would be thinking that, but people are more conscious about what's going on when posting on Twitter, so it makes sense for Most Excellent Superbat to say some of the things he says. Twitter is immediate and, at times, random, which fits here. It really comes off as a combination of traditional narrative captions and the infoscroll Casey used in "The Intimates." I never understand people who complain that references that place a work within a specific time is somehow bad. Those people obviously haven't read... well, any book worth reading since they all are products of their time. Is there any way to depict young people well other than placing them firmly within the cultural context from which they've sprung? What else do they even care about?

"Escape" draws me back it for some reason, but, as you said earlier, there isn't a lot there. It's mostly a jumble of images that don't really lead anywhere, so do you think future issues may begin to suffer once the plot becomes clearer? I think that this odd way of doing an issue is what makes it so good, so I'm a little concerned that Brandon won't be able to keep it going once things become clearer.

TC: I know what you mean about "Escape." If its greatness lies in its mystery, and then things start to become clearer and we uncover more and more about what's really going on, then it loses the very thing that attracted us to it. Maybe that's why "The Prisoner" isn't such a strong narrative model, unless the comic book series ends on issue #4 and we never find out the secrets, which would be even more annoying in its own way. BUT, I think that Brandon can use the strangeness and mystery as the hook and then still tell an interesting story as Tom Tresser (and the reader) start piecing things together, as long as the ultimate truth is at least different than "oh, he's in a prison somewhere and he's drugged." If there's an actual story with twists and turns beneath the mysterious exterior, then "Escape" could very well end up being the best of the bunch.

I only have one last question: will you drop "Ink" and "Run" now that you've seen the first issue and just stick with "Dance" and "Escape"? Or will you keep buying all four to see how it all plays out in the end? (I think I know the answer to this already.)

CN: I won't be buying "Run!" or "Ink" again, sticking just with "Dance" and "Escape." Unless I'm buying it for review purposes, I just can't support a comic I know to be bad. I just can't. I assume you'll keep buying all four titles, because you buy everything, right?

TC: I might drop the two I didn't like, but my comic book habit pays for itself these days, so I think I might stick with all four and I'll let you know how they all turn out. Or you could keep buying them too, and then we could come back when it's all over and see if our opinions have changed. Somehow, I suspect they won't.