There's a good interview with Grant Morrison over at Newsarama where he addresses some of the continuity/plot discrepancies between the end of Countdown and Death Of The New Gods and the beginning of Final Crisis. Put simply:
"Final Crisis was partly-written and broken down into rough issue-by-issue plots before Countdown was even conceived, let alone written."
That explains a lot. One thing I did like was the way he sums things up with regard to the online debate about where Orion died - was it Death Of The New Gods, Countdown or Final Crisis #1?
"The way I see it readers can choose to spend the rest of the year fixating on the plot quirks of a series which has ended, or they can breathe a sight of relief, settle back and enjoy the shiny new DC universe status quo we’re setting up in the pages of Final Crisis and its satellite books."
An admirable sentiment, I think; I'm sure as hell not going to worry too much about Countdown and the differences between it and Final Crisis. As I've said before, the sooner we forget about the whole "Who monitors the Monitors?" scenario the better.
Then make it an Elseworlds.
ReplyDeleteIt won't matter to the people who just "read it for the story," since the story will be the same. And the obsessive continuity wankers won't have to worry about how it fits in with other comics about the same characters and subjects written last month.
It's win-win!
I'm sorry, but Final Crisis is not being billed (or hyped) as "a 7-issue story." It's supposed to be the culmination of everything that has happened since Identity Crisis (and Grant Morrison has no hesitation about drawing on the events that have taken place since then). And it's supposed to end by presenting the readers with a "cohesive universe" for the future of the DCU, according to the editors.
If the writers and editors can't even be concerned with how the story "coheres" with comics obviously intended to lead into it, and which were published two months ago, then what stock should readers put into the idea that this is some kind of significant milestone in the DC Universe? What DC Universe?
DC has deliberately pitched the appeal of Final Crisis based on how it fits in with and affects the DCU. So I don't feel like apologizing to Grant Morrison for wanting the shared universe he is writing in and making use of to make some sense. (It's not the only thing I want of out of a story, but it's a good start.)
He's probably given the best answer he could, given (a) the order in which the stories were drafted and written, (b) his contempt for a certain kind of reader, and (c) his natural temperment. But giving the best answer he can doesn't really compare to the writers and editors working together to actually get this stuff right.
"...the sooner we forget about the whole "Who monitors the Monitors?" scenario the better.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Morrison himself, in the same interview, said "The Monitors are the elephant in the room of Final Crisis. What they really are is a lot more alien and bizarre than anything we’ve seen so far. My idea for the origin of the Monitors is one of the major plot strands in Final Crisis - if not the major plot strand.".
So, surprise...the one part of Countdown you wanted him to get rid of, he's keeping. Yippee!!
Hey snell!
ReplyDeleteI'm all for keeping the Monitors - it's the idea of Donna Troy, Kyle Rayner, Ray Palmer and Forager watching over them that I didn't want!
Watch Dog - cheers for that! I agree that the editors should have worked a damn sight harder at getting some sort of cohesion. If Morrison had Final Crisis #1 already written before Countdown came along, when it was pitched, the editors should have told Paul Dini et al "Do what you like, but here's where you've got to end up, oh and don't do x, y or z."
Countdown might still have stunk (despite having a few good issues) if that edict had been followed. With the lead in time for writing and artwork on a comic, I guess Morrison's hands were tied; as he says in the interview "There wasn’t really much opportunity, or desire, to modify our content at that stage."
Being the heavyweight he is, I guess he's able to get away with being able to ignore much of Countdown.
But hey - what's a Crisis without continuity cock-ups and ridiculous ret-cons?!
> But hey - what's a
ReplyDelete> Crisis without continuity
> cock-ups and ridiculous
> ret-cons?!
A dream come true?
A job well done?
Worth the cover price?
The Watch Dog is my hero of the day. Thanks for summing up my own feelings more clearly and concisely than I would have managed to.
ReplyDelete