Final Crisis #5 - DC

What a fantastic issue in this series. I couldn't wait to get to this one. Grant Morrison is truly a genius. As we get further and further into this series, we get a better picture of how all of this stuff all fits together. All of the various minis that have come out of this, as well as his work over in Batman, and . . I believe . . the Seven Soldiers of Victory mega-epic that he did a few years ago . . . they're all connected. We just haven't been able do discern the big picture yet. But it's there. We're seeing more and more of it every month. So far, from the Seven Soldiers story, we're beginning to see Frankenstein's involvement, and with the last issue, the arrival of Grant's Mister Miracle, Shiloh Norman. Also there were some Japanese science heroes or something that were introduced in the prelude to all of this? They finally arrived with Shiloh last issue. Now they're all in the Checkmate castle, and with Mr Terrific, they're trying to assist with humanity's last stand. In the beginning of this book, we find out that one of the Alpha-Lanterns, Kraken, has been compromised by Darkseid also. She has been taken over by Granny Goodness and is trying to use subterfuge to approach and obtain the central power battery on OA. She attempts to frame Hal for deicide, but it's really just all a cover to mask her involvement. We also find out that the Lanterns now know of what's happening on Earth and are starting to feels it's ripples across other sectors. So a group of them are attempting to go there to make a difference. Meanwhile, also back at the Checkmate castle, Renee is there and is talking to Amanda and Khalid. They have a plan for, what they call, " . . the day the super-heroes failed to save us . .", and they want Renee to play a specific part in it. They also have, "Generation zero Biomacs", which look like the old OMAC's from the Jack Kirby mini-series. I think that's a great tip of the hat to the man who also created the Fourth World, the New Gods and . . . Darkseid. Man . . 'the King' had some tremendous vision. Anyways, I'm thinking that these 'Biomacs' are going to be their soldiers, and they're looking to Renee to lead their army. But it appears that the final battle is going to occur in the place that is also the rise of Darkseid . . . Bludhaven. Everything seems to be centered around this decimated city. The heroes come there this issue to try to make a stand. Also Darkseid's Furies . . his plague goddess . . Wonder Woman . . is also there. As are Kalibak and his Tiger-Clan. One of the keys, I think, is going to be this collection of humans that Darkseid's gathered in the bowels of the city. They're all people that for some reason are immune to the anti-life equation. One of them appears to be a dreamer . . she can summon things that she dreams and then draws. Also another seems to be able to harness the powers of the gods through his Rubik's cube. " . . there's a magical minimum number of moves you can solve a Rubik Cube with . . they call it the 'Number of God' . . . nobody ever did it in less than 18." But later, when some of Darkseid's minions come to gather them for interrogation and dissection . . . he does it in 17 . . and a wave of energy wipes them out. And, on the final page, we find out that Static is one of these people. So somehow, the Milestone characters that are beginning to become infused into the DC Universe are also going to be involved. We also get a slight hint into the Batman's fate. At the end of the last Batman issue, we saw that they had him hooked up to a machine and were doing something with him and a warehouse full of clones. This issue when Darkseid's minions are on their knees confessing their sins to him, Simyan tells him, " . . Mokkari has failed you, great one! The Batman psycho-merge killed the clone army these fools tried to build!" So, that could be good news or bad. In a way it tells us that Batman is still alive. But, we don't know the specifics of what happened so . . I'd only be guessing at what his ultimate fate is. But obviously he did something to throw a wrench into their plans. This issue JG Jones got some help on the art from Carlos Pacheco, Marco Rudy and Jesus Merino. The whole issue looked terrific. The artists each handled a specific aspect of the story. In the beginning, Carlos does all of the Green Lantern work. Overall, I thought the book came off very well. The thing I really love about this series is the way they're incorporating all of these mini's into the story. It's like this title lays out the main groundwork and story progression, and then the mini's serve to fill in all of the gaps . . the parts of the story that we don't necessarily see here, but is equally important. So far . . I think the plan is working out great. It's a brilliant masterpiece . . not only on Grant's part but by all of those involved in it's production. Kudos to all. And . . thanks!