Your review helped me understand this better, although, in my defense, I did read it late last night and planned to go over it again in the coming days.

I'm wondering how all of this ongoing stuff with this ultimate evil Monitor is going to tie in to the New Gods/Darkseid storyline in the main, Final Crisis book.

To be honest, I've been pretty frustrated with all the complaints that Final Crisis is confusing. But at the same time Superman Beyond really does add a new, quite ... challenging ... wrinkle to the whole event. I can't imagine this book is going to help sell the series to non-converts and current skeptics.
And it is also funny how much of a mish-mosh Final Crisis is in terms of writing styles - In one week we have Meltzer doing his thing, Morrison presenting us with Superman Beyond, and Geoff Johns doing the second issue of Rogues Revenge. I'm not complaining, but it is a pretty ballsy thing editorial wise because those three books have such distinct "voices" and are all parts of a greater whole.

I give DC credit for allowing Morrison to do all of this as the main event of the year - seriously. It's far, far, far, far more challenging than the original Crisis and Infinite Crisis.

I. cannot. stand. people giving more consideration to fictional dimensions than to ours.

I understand being put off by his work, for instance this issue used a LOT of alchemic concepts, both in the physical and spiritual sense, and was completely off the rails with all the ideas it presented.

But people saying this is a bad comic are just people who aren't into that insanity, or need it to be less far reaching. Some of us want different things, but Morrison definitely has an audience here.

Just because i was so blown away, i handed my buddy Will the book after i read it. He's into anime and the like and hadn't read a single comic book in seven years.

He loved it, and wanted more.

Some of us like this absurdity and the metafictional stories, and for me seeing Limbo revisited was great as Animal Man is easily one of my all time favorite titles ever, even beyond the Morrison penned issues.

Bravo to DC for letting him do this, boo to them for not just plugging it into the main title. I honestly would've preferred a Final Crisis #4 or even 3.5 as opposed to putting some of the most important story beats thus far in a title that disguises itself as a tie in.

This book was not a tie in at all, but in fact more relevant and captivating than the previous 3 issues all together.

I once had to make my own using coloured plastic and cardboard... All to enjoy the Star Wars 3D comic by Blackthorne Publishing and the 3D issue of DNAgents...

Kept hold of them for years, just in case...

Lesson? 3-D comics never work. I wish they had a sans 3-D issue like that one issue of Action Comics.

The book of all stories and infinite pages existing in the same space was a pretty cool idea too.

Is that something opposite the crime bible perhaps?

If I have a complaint, it’s that you have to be into this “MONITORS AND MULTIVERSES” mythology that DC has turned into a Worm Ourobourous

I think the monitor stuff was part of why I found it to be less clear than his other work, as to get this comic, you pretty much DID have to know about the Monitor stuff.

But yeah, otherwise, I'm right there with you, especially about Mahnke. He's a star.

I’m not sure what’s going on in this mini yet (multiple readings required), but it’s not as simple as continuity = bad.

'Course not, there's plenty going on.

In fact, Morrison says "The flaw is sealed, scabbed over. With divine metals! Made safe. Until all that remains of that ill-fated first contact is a vast, uncanny form!" The form in the story is Superman, or at least, Superman-as-archetype-for-all-superheroes.

I'm not sure what's going on in this mini yet (multiple readings required), but it's not as simple as continuity = bad.

Wow, SOME people’s comments got deleted, huh?

One fellow got past the spam blockers that had been doing well catching him in the past (the comments that I get to delete that you all never see have been delightful), so I got rid of him.

I did. I thought it was fun, and I actually really liked the "4D" bits.

If I have a complaint, it's that you have to be into this "MONITORS AND MULTIVERSES" mythology that DC has turned into a Worm Ourobourous... but instead of a serpent eating it's tail, it's narrative winding up it's own ass.

Ultimately, you have to be down with all the inane groundwork laid by COIE, and I could care less about all this DC Book of Genesis stuff.

That being said, I thought the thing was incredibly well-executed, pretty clear, as far as dimension hopping mind-benders go, and smart as a whip.

I'm a big Doug Mahnke fan, too, and he didn't disappoint.

It seemed pretty straightforward to me…

I dunno, the way Morrison designed the comic seemed geared toward it being difficult to follow, due to the extremely fast speed the comic was delivered.

Did I have trouble following it?

No, but when I see complaints about Final Crisis being hard to follow, which seems exceedingly clear to me, I figure that a book that seems less clear than Final Crisis has got to be unclear to average readers, and I at least TRY to take a "general" reader into account when I write these things.

Did you like the comic, Alex?

We live in a four dimensional world already... Anything beyind that is the fifth dimension or higher...
Three dimensions of space, plus the fourth dimension of time.