Comic Book Resources

what did they fix?

I still think they should throw in Morrison's Batman: Last Rites issues. Why not publish what the author himself says is the proper experience?

I don't mind it, because the Last Rites issues are already reprinted in the RIP HC, and the additions of the three new comics have already made the HC $30 from $25, and I really don't think DC wants to go any higher than $30.

Just so long as they have something in there to explain where Batman just pops up from in chapter- I want to say 6? - and how Superman got to be in the 30th century after coming back from the whole superman beyond thing, this should actually make it a reasonably coherent reading experience.

...reasonably...

well doesn't Superman say he was plucked from the past and he needs to get back?
And Batman tells Darkseid how he escaped using the Lump.
Or does he, I can't be bothered to check.

Final Crisis #6 explains what happened to Superman.

Last Rites does not even show Batman actually escape, so it's not much better than him just showing up in Final Crisis #6 (in both instances, the actual escape is inferred by the reader and not visually shown).

Normally I'd agree that an imprisoned character showing up on the loose out of nowhere would be shoddy storytelling, but It's Batman. Do we really need to be told the details of how Batman escapes?

If people are into the channel surfing flow Morrison was going for, and they're not interested in reading the RIP hardcover, I wouldn't think Batman showing up is going to throw them out of the story (particularly given that readers are asked to use their imagination to fill in the gaps so many times throughout the series that it's practically a motif).

"Stop the press: DC Comics trade paperback benefits from sensible, reader-friendly decision on the part of publisher!"

True, this kind of thing should be encouraged, but.... eeeeesh. It still seems awfully sad that this kind of thing is so noteworthy.

"I don’t mind it, because the Last Rites issues are already reprinted in the RIP HC"

Indeed. A friend of mine who's an occasional comic reader bought that hardcover, and those last two issues confused the heck out of him.

There is a line obliquely referring to the escape in #5, FWIW. That's enough.

Now, can we get DC to go back and put out the Infinite Crisis hardcover with all the specials mixed in? This is a nice little precedent, actually.

Personally I really enjoyed FC, I thought it was a lot of fun in a scattershot, shit-against-the-wall kind of way, but I found the whole thing with Superman at the beginning of #6 confusing as hell. I hadn't really been aware of Legion Of Three Worlds (well, I knew it existed, but I didn't know how it intersected) up to that point. So, I went from the end of Superman Beyond 2, to suddenly he's in the future. It just seemed really disjointed, even by the standards of the rest of the story. I just think a recap page like the ones I seem to recall in the DC One Million trade would make it flow a little smoother.

Drop Submit, which was appallingly mediocre and completely unessential to the narrative, and add Last Rites. If you're going to show Batman beating Darkseid, you might as well show all of Batman beating Darkseid.

(Is what I'd say to whatever DC exec is in charge of stuff like this, if I were to meet him or her.)