Final Crisis FAQ

Like it says in the title, this is an FAQ for Final Crisis, using the collected edition, with all its revisions and alterations (and inclusion of Superman Beyond) as the primary resource. All answers are subject to revisions, all questions are added as they come in. If you have a better answer than one given, please email it in; if you have a question that does not appear here, please email that.

travishedgecoke@yahoo.com

New Gods
Is there a New God reincarnated in a superhero?
Who is Libra?
What does Darkseid’s fall do/cause?
What does Metron do with the Rubik’s Cube?
How do we know what the Monitors are/do?
What is the Fourth World? What is the Fifth?
When did Darkseid start falling?
How do vibrations/music help defeat Darkseid?
How do New God tools work?
How does the bullet that kills Orion kill Darkseid?

Monitors
Are the Monitors narrativising themselves? Are their canonical history and present changed by their story of it?
What happened to the original monitor?
Who or what was Mandrakk and what was his purpose/goal?
What was Nix Uotan failure?
What is this thing about Uotan "judge" of all evil?
Is the scab to cover the wound of discontinuity, Superman?

Earth
If the Guardians have cordoned off the Earth, how do the heroes hold a funeral for J’onn on Mars?
Why does the German Supergirl say the sky is menstruating? Does she mean bleeding?
How is Flash’s wife at home if she’s with the JLA?
Why is Mary Marvel evil and perverted?
Why the Mad Hatter-tech helmets if everyone is under Darkseid’s influence?
Is Element X the Worlogog? (Calabi–Yau manifold)
Is Barry Allen also Libra?
Are Hawkman and Hawkgirl dead?
Why is The Question with the army of Supermen?
Is Turpin dead in the end?
Why does Turpin not remember meeting Boss Darkseid and seeing the kidnapped children by issue two?
Is Ultraman dead?
Does Batman die?
Why is Sonny Sumo in here instead of living it up in ancient Japan?
Why is Superbia always falling?

Meta
What is the Channel Zapping technique?
Why aren’t characters introduced by name?
Are there sigils in Final Crisis?
Is Final Crisis patterned on the qabalistic Tree of Life and the sephirot?
What similarities in pattern are there between Final Crisis and other DC crossovers?
Is Final Crisis patterned onto Spiral Dynamics?
How do the Five Stages of Grieving play into Final Crisis?
Is Final Crisis patterned onto chakras?

Thanks to Paul McEnery, James Baker, Ben Rawluk, Richard Hunt, Tim Callahan, and from the CBR Forums: Flash Gordon, Alejandro, The4thPip, Dave Hackett, RockinRobin182, Sean Walsh, Choppa, Rorschach 42, Matt001, Theozilla, Buried Alien, jgiannantoni05, Desaad, Retro315, Paul Newell, OzBat!, レベッカ, carabas, Munkiman, BohemiaDrinker, Stu.

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New Gods

Is there a New God reincarnated in a superhero?

This was an early rumor that Grant Morrison confirmed as being an early thought, that the JLA would be possessed by the New Gods. The idea was dismissed before production, but was it wholly dismissed? Or, is it that the JLA, simply, are not all possessed?

Mister Miracle, Shilo Norman, seems obviously and easily to be ridden by Scott Free, the classic Mr. Miracle and New God of Escape Artistry. Walks, talks, quacks and escapes just like him.

Further, there is a good case that Batman, in Final Crisis and beyond, is a better version of the murdered Orion. He essentially completes Orion’s role in the story and in the prophecied/anticipated final showdown of Orion with his father, Darkseid, God of All Evil. This is reinforced by the allusions to Orion in Return of Bruce Wayne, which follows up directly on Final Crisis and The Missing Chapter which takes place chronologically before Final Crisis. No longer the New God of War, Orion in the Batman context is The Hunter.

Who is Libra?

As seen in the Secret Files and in one old issue of Justice League of America, Libra was once a normal human lab technician who traversed the veil of existence, and came back with power and an evil agenda.

In terms of Final Crisis, though, he is a sock puppet for Darkseid, much as any other of the evil New Gods. He’s called a “glove puppet” and when he is torn apart, his suit is hollow.

What does Darkseid’s fall do/cause?

Paranoia and guilt, mostly. Also, the inclusion of the Milestone shared universe and an alternate Aquaman into the DCU’s main Earth, Earth-0. It causes gravitons to increase, time to come out of sync, and other relativistic effects, as well.

What does Metron do with the Rubik’s Cube?

He causes that simple machine to operate in a way it, by conventional knowledge, cannot. And, in the process, he divides, functionally, by zero. He changed the rules of the game, the rules of how things work in doing this.

What is the Fourth World? What is the Fifth?

The Fourth World, in this context, is the Age, essentially, of the New Gods. The Fifth World, which is ushered in during Final Crisis, is the Age of what comes after the New Gods, just as the New Gods supplanted the earlier Gods.

When did Darkseid start falling?

When he killed all the other New Gods.

When he was killed.

Darkseid is always be falling.

Depending on how metaphysical you want to get.

How do vibrations/music help defeat Darkseid?

Actuality, especially in the DCU, is vibrations and has been defined by vibrations since the first encounter between two universes, in Flash of Two Worlds. Sound is vibration.

How do New God tools work?

Just as the New Gods themselves are ideas given primal form, their tools and devices are idea-things. The New God bullet is Bullet, it is “essence of bullet” as Batman will call it in Return of Bruce Wayne. The Megarod is the ultimate in clubs. The Motherboxxx, the primal personal computer.

How does the bullet that kills Orion kill Darkseid?

If you mean, physically, it was theotoxic, meaning it was poisonous to Gods.

In terms of the causal trajectory of events: A, B, C…

D) Darkseid shoots the bullet into the past, where

A) it hits Orion, killing him, and

B) is dug up and delivered to Batman, who loads it into a gun and

C) shoots Darkseid in the shoulder with it.

Except, this sequence does not kill Darkseid. It could, if he refuses to leave his host, but before it comes to such, the God of Death, the Black Racer, follows the Flashes chasing the bullet Darkseid just fired through time back to its source, at which point, the Black Racer reaches Darkseid instead of the too fast Flashes and takes him.



Monitors

How do we know what the Monitors are/do?

When they first appear in Final Crisis several are named as individuals and tell us their roles because Monitors speak in exposition. On top of that, they are called “Multiversal Monitor[s],” which means they monitor a multiverse. That’s the time they show up and it is more than explicit and expository.

Are the Monitors narrativising themselves? Are their canonical history and present changed by their story of it?

Yes. Rumors and suppositions become truth in the Monitor-land and for the Monitor’s who are infected by narrative, and more importantly, by fiction.

This is how Rox Ogama can be transmuted to a second/perpetual Mandrakk, how the Superman statue comes to have its purpose as a protector/defender, and myriad other developments come to pass.

What happened to the original Monitor?

It's like the Holy Trinity except in armor and one of them is all antimattery. There was the Monitor, pure, entirely of self, and it discovered a flaw (existence/narrative) and sent a probe in, which is the Monitor we know and that Monitor (Dax Novu, the Jesus of Monitors) panics at the idea of contradictions in reality and splits into two Monitor and Antimonitor as the contradiction infects him. Cue CoIE, a response to the contradictions and an attempt to clean it all up. (He cleans it up by scabbing over the contradictions with a new Superman; cue Post-Crisis DCU.)

Story has now infected the Monitors, though, who continue to divide and multiply and have contradictions, so as time passes, they invent a mythology around the Superman-scab and invent a conflict. They invent a Devil, a fallen angel/entity, which is how Dax Novu became Mandrakk, the Dark Monitor, the Vampire Monitor, the Prime Eater of Life, the Judge Who Can Only See Condemnation and Evil. He's the guilt of the Monitors, their panic and self-loathing. He's the Devil. The Jesus-Monitor became the Devil-Monitor.

Who or what was Mandrakk and what was his purpose/goal?

The Devil, the scapegoat horror in the mirror, for the Monitor species. Mandrakk is the paranoia and self-hate of a whole people who perceives only bad and is received only as bad. When reality is near the end, when things are darkest, he swears he will return to Superman and feed on the world. And, he does return, in issue seven of Final Crisis, where we are given a simpler version - not of his origins - but of his identity. We're shown he's vampiric and a Monitor, that he has come at the End of All Stories, that he is a father and Nix Uotan is his son, that he was parasitic and immense beyond our universe.

Most importantly, Mandrakk demonstrates that there are stories crossing over with each other at all times throughout life and history. His personal story is very important to him, it's important to that story, but in Final Crisis, he's just one more threat that pops up, one more cosmic horror, one more fallen godthing made of fear and loathing. He is not even the same Mandrakk as met Superman or was first perverted into the Devil of the Monitors, but he does not appear to know that. The Mandrakk story overtook the individual who became Mandrakk’s story.

In the Crisis of the Monitors, the Monitors have killed their Devil and been blessed with Heaven, except the one who stayed behind for us, Nix Uotan, Judge of All Evil. A judge of All Evil who still judges us as good.

What was Nix Uotan failure?

To monitor and maintain his universe, Earth-51. It was not his fault, however, as he was set up and betrayed.

What is this thing about Uotan "judge" of all evil?

Nix is the best judge, basically, in opposition to the kind of judge his father, Rox Ogama, became. Whereas Rox/Mandrakk could only perceive evil and condemn based on it, Nix, as the Judge of All Evil, looks out on everything as sees the good, the positive and the wonderful in each thing.

Is the scab to cover the wound of discontinuity, Superman?

Yes. But a more pure or superfunctional version of Superman than even our Earth-0 Superman.


Earth

If the Guardians have cordoned off the Earth, how do the heroes hold a funeral for J’onn on Mars?

They do not cordon if off until after the funeral. And, even then, we don’t know how far out the Guardians string the police tape, so to speak.

Why does the German Supergirl say the sky is menstruating? Does she mean bleeding?

Because the red skies of DC's various Crises are manifestations of The Bleed, the membrane between universes, hemorrhaging or overtly bleeding. This may be, at least metaphorically, an obstretrical hemorrhage, but it may just be cyclical and in other ways a menstrual metaphor.

Jody Garland points out, "Superman Beyond refers to the Bleed as the Ultra Menstruam, meaning Beyond Monthly."

How is Flash’s wife at home if she’s with the JLA?

There are three Flashes in Final Crisis and they all have wives. It is Barry Allen’s wife who is under the spell of the Anti Life Equation, not either of the other Flashes’ respective wives.

Why is Mary Marvel evil and perverted?

She is possessed by Desaad, New God of Sadism and, as Black Adam puts it, “a leering old man.” She is not, herself, turned “evil.”

Why the Mad Hatter-tech helmets if everyone is under Darkseid’s influence?

The helmets are basically there to give marching orders. Really clear psychic headphones.

Is Element X the Worlogog?

Yes. The Worlogog, often visualized as a Calabi–Yau manifold, and Element X, visualized in Final Crisis as a Calabi–Yau manifold, is the building block of actuality as well as a manifesting-element and tool for manipulating actuality. It is a supersymmetrical aspect of actuality by either name.

Is Barry Allen also Libra?

No.

Are Hawkman and Hawkgirl dead?

No, although in Final Crisis, they are meant to be. It was a decision after Final Crisis was published that left their off-panel deaths not actually deaths.

Why is The Question with the army of Supermen?

She was on Earth-51 when they came by and hitched a ride with them, since she felt she owed it to friends still on Earth-0.

Is Turpin dead in the end?

My vote says No, but it could go either way. The heroes go out of their way to avoid killing him repeatedly and his last words in the series are Turpin’s own and not Darkseid’s, who has been excised (or exorcised).

Why does Turpin not remember meeting Boss Darkseid and seeing the kidnapped children by issue two?

He is suffering a memory block from the trauma of having Darkseid enter him. This is also why he is sexually excited by his brutal (and unnecessary) beating of the Mad Hatter.

Is Ultraman dead?

He was a vampire Superman. Both vampires and Superman have pretty good chances of return, if you even consider either alive in the first place.

Does Batman die?

Yes. The Omega Sanction causes Batman to live a succession of lives, which we see as Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, and when he survives, he is thrown into the past where he meets ancient indigenous Americans who will become the nation known as the Miagani, in what will one day be Gotham City.

Alternately: No. Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader's alternate lives are, like Batman's flashforward to his false funeral after his heart attack, his visions during the ritual at Nan Parbat, and at various other moments of near death expressed during Morrison's Batstuff, hallucination only. That people from the various lives of Batman attend the same funeral may be evidence of this.

Why is Sonny Sumo in here instead of living it up in ancient Japan?

Our Sonny Sumo did just that. The Sonny here is from Earth-51, though he doesn’t confirm this until Mother Box tells Mr. Miracle.

Why is Superbia always falling?

It’s a joke, Son. Superbia is Latin for “pride.” Pride, you may have heard, goeth before the fall.



Meta

What is the Channel Zapping technique?

Though addressed in relation to Final Crisis as if it were a new technique, this is something Morrison has been employing since he got into comics. Channel Zapping is the paring down of a narrative to the most interesting parts, as if one were skipping back and forth between channels on TV to only watch the cool stuff.

It is conflated, in the final part of Final Crisis, with an “orchestrated chaos” that feels less informative than it is, and involves on sequence being given to us in segments running causally backwards panel to panel.

Why aren’t characters introduced by name?

A popular complaint to this day, is that Final Crisis omitted introductions and just presented characters without saying who they were. It is not actually true, for the most part. We are, at minimum, given names as soon as someone appears in the comic.

Man and Metron are named in the first two panels. Vandal Savage is not named until later in the first issue, and, while Dan Turpin is not named for several pages after his introduction, he has a running voice over giving us lots of other information and his role is explicit. The decedent deity is named as soon as the body is identified. The Question and Green Lantern, John Stewart, are named as soon as they are introduced.

The only time mass amounts of characters go unnamed is during group shots where their role is not as individuals but as a group; the villain protest march, piles of bodies, the draft gathering, et cetera.

Are there sigils in Final Crisis?

There are a number of glyphs and sigils present in the comic, including those worn on the chests of various characters, such as the Superman S-shield, Batman’s bat, and Orion’s sun. They also come on t-shirts, painted on faces, emblazoned in tattoos, and spraypainted onto buildings.

Is Final Crisis patterned on the qabalistic Tree of Life and the sephirot?

One could make a good case for this and for the intentional application of Crowley’s English Gematria.

Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman may represent different lines of progress in the sephirot, with Superman representing the Pillar of Mercy, Batman, the Pillar of Severity (which would echo the Khamael synchronicity below), and Wonder Woman, the Pillar of Mildness.

In Crowley’s Gematria, the following values become evident:

Superman = Sun of Life, Treasure, Solar Self, Quantum...
Batman = Mars, Khamael, task, yajna, forge, guard, Ruach...
The Question = androgynous, ipsissimus, strange drugs, Zarathustra...
Nix Uotan = our chosen, great work, wonderful, limitless......
Wonder Woman = Mister Miracle...


What similarities in pattern are there between Final Crisis and other DC crossovers?

(I’ll come back to this.)

Is Final Crisis patterned onto Spiral Dynamics?

Not as tightly as Seven Soldiers, New X-Men, or The Filth, certainly.

How do the Five Stages of Grieving play into Final Crisis?

Not too well, that I’ve noticed. But, then, I don’t see them applying one for one in life too much, either.

Is Final Crisis patterned onto chakras?

I believe it is possible, but cannot map them one for one, myself, in a satisfactory manner.