Final Crisis Headache

For those of you keeping track of the most recent DC solicitations, it has been revealed that series artist JG Jones is officially off the title. As opposed to the help from Carlos Pacheco he received for issues 4, 5 and 6, issue 7 will be drawn entirely by Doug Mahnke. This, as usual, got my juices boiling a bit. When Civil War was delayed due to art problems by Steve McNiven, the comic world was torn between loving the idea of waiting for great art and wanting the story right away. Marvel chose art over inconsistency and the issues following the delay sold as well as previous ones. In Infinite Crisis, DC chose a different route when art delays came around; they decided to get artists to help finish the book and keep it on schedule, no matter what. Then, come hardcover time, they REDREW this art to make it consistent with the quality of earlier issues. Now here comes Final Crisis, the…well, final crisis. We do know thanks to this CBR article that no art will be redrawn and that what we see will be what we get, which makes me at least a little happy. A little. Still, I am left with doubts and questions that I will get into right here and now.

What do we know about Final Crisis? We know that Morrison’s scripts had to be changed to have the story better correspond with what happened in Countdown and Death of the New Gods. We know that DC tried to salvage this by giving Jones help in the artwork and that the skip month did what it was designed to do, but in a different way than originally intended. The skip month was originally to keep us antsy, let the story synch in and to let the art get finished for issue 7. Instead, it let Jones redraw issues 4, 5 and 6 with Pacheco’s help and delays have made Final Cris somewhat inconsequential in the current DCU. Flash is off doing his own thing, the JLA are uninvolved in their own book, so is Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, the Green Lanterns and Ambush Bug.

Final Crisis was said to be the be all, end all of the DCU that will change everything. So are we to only see change until it is over in the miniseries itself and subsequent one shots? The reason I am so involved in Secret Invasion over at Marvel is because I read about it in every book I pick up in one way or another. Even if the story itself does not revolve around Skrulls, there are still mentions of what is going on. It is acknowledged. We’ve seen RIP referenced, but no Final Crisis in DC. Is it because the scripts were not finished due to re-writes? I believe so. Morrison was given free reign to make a story. So here he is, making a story, but no one else is privy to it! We know the dropped the ball on Countdown, but now DC suffers all the more for it by trying to “fix things.”

I understand that JG Jones might have more to say than he is saying. Whether it is personal reasons or if he is simply not talking inside baseball with the press, there is more story than just what is on the page.

There is a reason why Marvel is the #1 company right now. It’s not just the movies, video games, TV commercials and cartoons. Hell, it’s not even just the comics. It’s the enthusiasm. Writers and artists alike seem thrilled to be there. What have we gotten form DC of late? Dixon thrown off Bat books because they wanted to do RIP. Manhunter canceled without any advertising to remind people it exists. An entire Titans issue completely scrapped because “it wasn’t good enough.” Take away the Superman books which have been amazing and there is no fun in the DCU right now. None.

Now I know that I might just be talking through emotions at the moment and I’m sorry if I am. But I’m coming to a point in my life when I need to start cutting down on comics to pay the rent, eat, and still have a life outside of the shop every week. I think where I am going to start is DC right now.

Please, DC. Give me a reason to care. Give me a sign that your books will start mattering, that there’s a universe going on and not just random stories that might interconnect when you feel like it. Don’t be like the X-Books or The Avengers of the 90’s where everything was cut off even when characters existed.

Just…don’t.

Substance is all I’m asking for here. Is that really too much to ask?

If you read all of that, I applaud you. I think I’m done now.