Final Crisis

This is a post about Final Crisis. I apologize in advance for kind of liking it.

Actually, let's go ahead and stipulate that where Final Crisis is worst is as a pure super-hero story. As just a super-hero story, I'm not sure it's even as good as, say, Secret Wars. What makes Final Crisis good is not the capes-'n-cowls level of the story, but the other four levels, which I take to be, in ascending order of effectiveness, (1) the level of political satire; (2) the Jungian/psychological level, (3) the religious/mythic/mystic level, and (4) the Bloomian/metatextual level.

The first meaning (and each of these meanings is, to a degree, encoded in Kirby's original work) is the political. Nakedly, Darkseid is an embodiment of fascism and the Anti-Life Equation is fascism itself--a principle or ideology that strips away love, learning, and freedom in favor of hatred, ignorance, and slavery. Kirby modelled Darkseid on Richard Nixon, and Morrison models Darkseid's modern tyranny on his view of the Bush Administration and/or the modern-day religious right (depending on what degree the reader chooses to identify the two...I myself find the correlation to be weak). Thus the heavy-handed burning of The Origin of Species in Final Crisis: Submit, and thus the black Superman analogue who is also President of the United States in Final Crisis #7. And what do the anti-life thralls spout? "Judge others,'" "Anti-Life justifies my actions'," "Work! Consume! Die!" Brilliant? No. Just descent.

The good stuff starts on the next level. Darkseid is everyone's individual "dark side," the evil we all experience at the root of our nature which must be overcome to live a healthy life. Thus Orion rightly tells Dan Turpin, in Final Crisis #1, that "he," that is, Darkseid, "is in you all," and thus is Darkseid only ultimately defeated by Superman, who is more or less the cosmic embodiment of hope in the DC universe. This identity with the reader is why the Anti-Life Equation, which in Morrison's mind culminates with self = dark side works and why the villain is so primordially terrifying--he is us.

Ok, the religious/mythic stuff, or my baliwick. Here goes.

1) The story begins with Metron in a Prometheus role, delivering fire (in the shape of the symbol of Mars, no less) to Anthro, representing primordial man. Metron's first lines are "Man. I am Metron. Have no fear. Here is knowledge." Metron simultaneously lays claim to the godhood of the Old Testament ("'I am' Metron;" "'I AM' Metron;" "'YHWH' Metron") and to the lesser status of Biblical angels ("Have no fear" = "Fear not!," the common greeting of Biblical angels). Fire/science/knowledge is delivered to man, and Anthro uses it immediately to defeat Vandal Savage, the first super-villain. Thus is fire/science/knowledge the "weapon" given by the gods to be used against the gods of evil, who show up fairly swiftly in the story.

This theme is reflected in the symbols of the good gods and the bad gods. The good gods are represented by a sunburst, an outward radiance of light, knowledge, and love. The evil gods are an in-turned spiral--yes, the nihilism intrinsic in narcissism of the psychological/Jungian interpretation, but also the ultimate denial of knowledge and love in preference of the self.

2) Boss Dark Side's confrontation with Turpin, also in Final Crisis #1, is religiously loaded. Darkseid was "hurt in a fall," like Satan, but, like Nietzsche, what he endures makes him stronger. He "won" "a war in heaven," and the children who have been exposed to the Anti-Life Equation are "beyond salvation." So immediately we are told what Anti-Life is--it is the damnation of self-interest over care for the other.

3) Yes, yes, the Monitors are "space angels" named after science/learning/magic gods ("Uotan," "Ogama," "Tahoteh") or Shalla-Bal ("Weeja-Del").

4) In Final Crisis #2, Mister Miracle shows up. His first deed is the miraculous healing of Sonny Sumo, performed via Mother Box (recall, dear reader, that Mother Box is a mysterious link to the infinite.) More vague religious coding occurs throughout the issue: Superman "prays for a resurrection" at the funeral for the Martian Manhunter, Kraken, possessed by the loathsome Granny Goodness, crucifies John Stewart, Kamandi, inexplicably appearing, reminds Turpin that "Metron gave" him a "weapon," i.e., knowledge/love/science, and Jay Garrick worries over the "end of the world."

5) Final Crisis #3 is relatively light on the religious symbolism: the Super Young Team are the "answer to all your prayers" and we learn that Barry Allen can run faster than death.

6) Final Crisis #4: Barry Allen was resurrected byh an unknown power, which reverse engineered him from "a blizzard of faster-than-light particles." I don't know what that means, but it sounds cool. Somehow a kiss from Barry can snap Anti-Life's hold over Iris. And of course, the "death" of "freedom's spirit" coincides with Darkseid's triumph over Turpin.

7) The key religious/mythic scee in Final Crisis #5 is in the jail cell, where the depowered, amnesiac Nix Uotan is thrown with WheelChairMetron and someone else (Detective Chimp?). Uotan has lost faith. "There is no God except Darkseid. It says so on the billboards...We're all gonna die and the super-heroes can't save us." Metron then magically solves a maximally-scrambled rubix cube in 17 moves with the help of Mother Box, thus providing the miracle and seemingly activating Uotan's power. As this happens, Darkseid rises, blasphemous proclaiming his divinity: "Now is God Incarnate come among them. ALL IS ONE IN DARKSEID. I. AM. THE. NEW. GOD. All is one in Darkseid. This mighty body is my Church. When I command your surrender, I speak with three billion voices. When I make a fist to crush your resistance, it is with three billion hands. When I stare into your eyes and shatter your dreams. And break your heart. It is with six billion eyes! ...I will take you to a Hell without exit or end. And there I will murder your souls."

But meanwhile, Metron pronounces, as Uotan ascends to near-divinity: "Something new is born. The Fifth World dawns in flame and thunder. Battle is joined. The jude of all evil is here!"

Darkness and light have been set against each other for an apocalyptic struggle...with two whole issues left!

8) Final Crisis #6 begins with Superman being shown the Miracle Machine, a/k/a Geh-Jedollah-the-Absolute. The religious significance of a machine with the name of a god that can perform miracles is, well, transparent. Then a whole bunch of pages are spent on a slugfest, and then the pwnage of evil by good begins--a lengthy sequence stretching from this issue to the next wherein several major DC heroes get to serially save the universe. Let's count down the messiah moments.

a) Batman sacrifices his life to mortally wound Darkseid.
b) Barry Allen and Wally West, outrunning death itself, lead the Black Racer to Darkseid, resulting in his death. "I come to all! Even you!"
c) The Atoms put their lives on the line to make a tunnel from the collapsing universe to another.
d) The Ray makes a Metron/freedom symbol on the surface of the Earth so large it disrupts the power of Anti-Life.
e) The Hawkpeople die saving others from the collapsing tunnel.
f) Mister Miracle and Mother Box summon a boom tube to a new universe, saving all survivors.
g) Lex freaking Luthor and Doctor Sivana backstab Darkseid, turning his supposed "army" to the side of the heroes.
h) Wonder Woman, freed from Anti-Life, uses her lasso to bind the dying Darkseid and release all humans from Anti-Life.
i) Superman destroys Darkseid's soul by singing the music of the universe (although not put in these terms, he effectively sings the life equation, the counter-frequency to Darkseid).
j) Nix Uotan, Captain Marvel, the Green Lantern Corps, and Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew arrive and kill Mandrakk