Final Crisis Review – “Final Crisis: Requiem”

This is the funeral for a major character. No, I don’t directly reveal the identity of this individual.

General Information

Title: Final Crisis: Requiem

Author: Peter J. Tomasi

Illustrator(s): Doug Mahnke (pencils), Rodney Ramos and Christian Alamy (inks), Nei Ruffino (colors)

Cover Date: September, 2008

Cover Price: $3.99 US/Can

Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca

Premise

This is a more detailed account of the death and funeral we’ve seen pieces of in the first two issues of “Final Crisis.”

High Point

We finally see the details we should have seen in the main series.

Low Point

This is very much a look at the fallen hero’s life, but it’s missing a lot of the impact this loss has on his comrades. Yes, we see them mourn, but there’s really only one scene that feels like the kind of thing I’ve seen at a real funeral. That scene, too, feels almost as though it’s here purely to set up the second Justice League title that will spin out of this event.

The Scores

This is original, as we rarely see full on funerals in comics. Still, this one feels more like a “Who’s Who” entry than a funeral. The same content could have been covered anecdotally, and not chronologically. I give it 5 out of 6 for originality.

The artwork is generally good, but sometimes a little stiff. I give it 4 out of 6.

The story starts out well, filling in the details that should have been in “Final Crisis #1.” Once those are in place, though, it turns into the summative biography. The problem I have with that is that the mourners do not choose the stories themselves. That’s what a funeral is like. This is not a decision of the mourners, or a part of the grieving process, but instead is like a few people passing around his autobiography. The really irritating thing is that the bulk of the ceremony, which would have served this purpose, took place off panel. Compare this issue to “Avengers Finale” and I think you’ll get what I mean. I give it 3 out of 6.

The characterization of the two mourners who have an actual conversation is well done. We get something of the victim, but that’s it. This should have jelled the surviving Leaguers together and revealed what he meant to each of them. This just feels like the easy way out for the writer. If we look at the mourners, the five “main” mourners are completely interchangible, which simply shouldn’t be the case. I give it 3 out of 6.

The emotional response I felt was weaker than it should have been. The murder victim is probably the most significant character in the DC Universe that my mother couldn’t name, and he deserves a proper funeral service. This skips the bulk of the funeral and almost all of the wake. The early portion, expanding on the scene in “Final Crisis #1,” is well done and quite rewarding, but then I felt it deteriorated. I give it 4 out of 6.

The flow is smooth. One thing about the homogenized nature of the project is that it’s a single voice from multiple individuals, which makes it shift from one narrator to another quite seamlessly. I give it 6 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a nice complement to the main title, but I found it unsatisfying in its primary goal. I give it 4 out of 6.

In total, Final Crisis: Requiem receives 29 out of 42.