Final Crisis - Publication History

Publication History

Final Crisis came out of several ideas Grant Morrison had when he returned to DC Comics in 2003. Morrison said, "I pitched a huge crossover event called Hypercrisis, which didn’t happen for various reasons. Some of Hypercrisis went into Seven Soldiers, some went into All-Star Superman, some went into 52 and some of it found a home in Final Crisis." According to Grant Morrison, work finally began on Final Crisis #1 in early 2006, with the intention of the series being a thematic and literal sequel to Seven Soldiers and 52, two projects that Morrison was heavily involved in at the time.

References to Infinite Crisis as the "middle Crisis" gave readers the impression there would be at least one additional major follow-up to the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. A May 2007 teaser poster confirmed this speculation with the tagline: "Heroes die. Legends live forever."

Final Crisis was preceded by Countdown, a year-long weekly series which was meant as a follow-up to 52. Halfway through, the series was renamed Countdown to Final Crisis. However, the artwork met with delays. To keep the release on schedule, Countdown wrapped with issue #1 and its planned final issue (#0) was revamped as a 50 cent one-shot special called DC Universe #0. Besides hyping upcoming storylines such as "Batman R.I.P." and "Blackest Night," the issue was narrated by Barry Allen and featured Libra leading a group of super-villains in prayer for the "god of evil", Darkseid. The result is, as described by Morrison, that "we’re watching him fall back through the present, into the past of Seven Soldiers where he finally comes to rest in the body of 'Boss Dark Side’, the gangster from that story."

To help readers identify events pertinent to Final Crisis and other major DCU events as the crossover approached, a "Sightings" cover banner appeared on various DC comics as "signposts, marking important storybeats and moments throughout the DC Universe." The first such headers appeared on Justice League of America (vol. 2) #21 and Action Comics #866, respectively (the JLA issue featured Libra's return and his recruiting of the Human Flame).

The original intent was for Jones to pencil the whole series. Due to delays, however, Carlos Pacheco drew issues #4-6 with Jones, and issue 7 was drawn entirely by Doug Mahnke. Jones said that “Any problems completing the series are my own. I love Doug Mahnke’s art, and he would have probably been a better choice to draw this series in the first place.”

In addition to the core limited series the larger storyline includes a number of tie-ins, including one-shots and limited series.

The one-shots comprise "Requiem," "Resist," "Secret Files" and "Submit". Also "Rage of the Red Lanterns" is the start of a storyline of the same name, that picks up on events in "Green Lantern: Secret Origin" and continues in Green Lantern #36-38. It starts as a tie-in because, according to writer Geoff Johns, "events in Final Crisis have motivated the Guardians to proceed further with their attempted containment of the light".

The limited series comprise Superman Beyond (a two issue mini-series also written by Grant Morrison), Legion of 3 Worlds (a five-issue limited series focusing on the different incarnations of the Legion of Super-Heroes), Revelations (a five-issue limited series), and Rogues' Revenge (a three-issue mini-series focused on the Flash Rogues).