SUMMARY:
Darkseid has fallen and in his stubborn decent into Hell he is dragging all of Earth and perhaps the Multi-verse with him. Heralding his "return" and the dawn of the Fifth World is a mysterious villain by the name of Libra who has not been seen in ages. He appears suddenly and bands together the villains of the DCU making a failed jewel thief by the name of the Human Flame his star pupil. In a vulgar display of power, Libra murders the Martian Manhunter in front of the villains and then has the Daily Planet blown up with Lois Lane still inside! Although some (including the Rogue's) refuse, most everyone joins Libra's front swearing an oath to Darkseid. Others, like Luthor and Sivana join, but with silent reservations about all that is going on.
While the heroes are scrambling to deal with all this, Orion, Darkseid's son shows up dead. Shot by a Radion bullet fired backwards through time. Worse yet, Hal Jordan is framed for the murder and the attempted murder of John Stewart and taken to Oa for trial. Batman is performing an autopsy on Orion when the Alpha Lantern
assigned to the case reveals herself to be possessed by the spirit of the evil god Granny Goodness, turning on and kidnapping Batman. She takes him to the evil gods' base of operations inside the Command-D bunker inside the condemned city of Blüdhaven where Darkseid's minions are working on creating new hosts for their evil spirits. Darkseid's chosen host is none other than the gruff street detective Dan Turpin who had been investigating a case of missing children when he was overtaken by those children and indoctrinated with the Anti-Life Equation. Wonder Woman heads to Blüdhaven when she is beseiged by Mary Marvel (herself possessed by Desaad) and corrupted with a virus which turns her into mindless servant of Darkseid.
With Earth's mightiest heroes incapacitated, Darkseid makes his next move - unleashing the Anti-Life Equation on Earth's entire population via the Internet. Although the Oracle is able to shut down the Internet, a vast majority of the public have already succumbed to the ALE, becoming mindless drones, serving Darkseid. When things begin to look their darkest however, a blast of hope arrives to save the day.
Barry Allen, who was killed during the first Crisis, re-appears suddenly. Running through time and space being chased by Death itself, Barry and the other Flashes meet up and try to find a way to stop Darkseid. Across the globe, Mr. Miracle (Shiloh Norman) is working with Sonny Sumo and Japan's Super Young Team to spread the word of a mysterious symbol which has been popping up across the globe - the symbol of the New God Metron. A letter from the alphabet of the gods, the symbol reverses the effects of the ALE and frees those trapped by it. Also attempting to spread this message is
Black Lightning. When he is overcome by Justifier shock troops, he finds that he must pass Earth's only hope onto the most unlikely of sources - Tattooed Man Mark Richards. Tattooed Man memorizes the symbol, incorporating it into his living tattoo and spreads the word to the Justice League, in the process becoming an honorary member himself.
Meanwhile, Superman has been at his wife's hospital bed side, barely keeping her alive thanks to his special powers. Suddenly time stops and a female Monitor named Zillo Valla appears, asking him to join her quest to save reality in exchange for a portion of the Bleed, the life nurturing substance which can only be manifested by the Monitors, cushioned between the worlds of the Multi-Verse within the Orrery of Worlds. The Bleed (or Ultramenstruum) is like a stem-cell of reality and would be able to heal Lois. Superman of course agrees and goes with Zillo Valla on a multiversal trip with several other Superman counterparts from across the Multiverse. It's here that he learns that Darkseid's fall is but a portion of mankind's problems. The real threat is the return of the evil Mandrakk the Dark Monitor. While all of the Monitors feed from the living narrative they observe within the Orrery like celestial vampires, Mandrakk had become obsessed with the hunger for knowledge and threatens to consume all of existence. Superman is able to defeat Mandrakk but his servant Rox Ogama survives, corrupted by the essence of Mandrakk.
Rox Ogama's first major move in facilitating the return of Mandrakk was orchestrating the fall of his fellow monitor Nix Uotan. After the destruction of Nix's Earth-51, he is cast out of the Monitor world and sent to live on Earth as a human. Nix Uoton was destined to become the over-Monitor which would be capable of defeating Mandrakkk. His ejection paved way for the evil that followed. What the evil Monitor did not anticipate however was the actions of Metron who helps Nix remember his true destiny as a monitor, restoring him to full power.
Just as soon as Superman returns from his Multi-versal battle and restoring Lois to health, he is called away again. This time he is sent to the future to deal with Superboy-Prime and Time Trapper. There he is given a glimpse of a God-Machine, capable of performing any task imagined by man. By the time he returns, all of Earth has crumbled and
fallen into disarray. The only hero on the other side of the Command-D bunker's protective field is the imprisoned Batman. When Simian and Mokkari's attempts to clone a legion of Bat-men fails, the Dark Knight breaks out of his restraints and heads off to confront Darkseid. Ever resourceful, Bruce had saved the god-killing bullet retrieved from Orion's corpse and, for the first time in his life, breaks his stance against gun use, shooting the Evil God with the bullet that killed his son. In response, Darkseid hits Batman in the heart and brain with his Omega Sanction. By the time Superman arrives, Bruce has been reduced to nothing but a skeleton.
Lex Luthor and Dr. Sivana mutiny against Libra, taking charge of the villains and aiding Superman in freeing all of the rest of society (along with Wonder Woman) from the grips of the ALE. Darkseid's last action is to fire the gun backwards in time that will inevitably kill his son Orion. Weakened by the poison bullet in his side, Darkseid collapses before Superman when suddenly Barry Allen appears running past Darkseid and putting the evil god right on Death's path.
Although Superman and the other heroes are able to reverse the Anti-Life Equation and free those trapped by Darkseid, the dying god has still consumed all of reality and many lives have been lost. Retreating to a sole floating tower filled with artifacts from their past, the remaining heroes create a time capsule detailing their last stand and launch it off into the nothingness outside. Hoping for a brighter tomorrow, Superman shrinks and then freezes all of the remaining population in cryo-storage. Alone with just himself, Superman finishes re-constructing the God Machine he saw in the future and confronts Darkseid. With every last fiber of reality consumed and imbued with the essence of Darkseid, Superman is left with no other option but to destroy the world and rid it of the evil one's presence.
Left alone in the darkness, Mandrakk (in the body of Rox Ogama) makes his move. Charging the God machine using the power harnessed inside of Metron's chair, Superman uses his one wish. Nix Uoton appears bringing the armies of Supermen and the Green Lantern Corps who stake the vampiric nemesis and his servant Ultraman. The Green Lanterns (along with Hal Jordan who had been cleared of all charges) help Superman and Nix dig Earth-0 from the black hole Darkseid had caused it to fall into. Per Superman's wishes, Nix Uoton appears before the Monitor counsel and disbands them, un-creating the Monitor world and falling back to Earth to live as a human once again.
While the effects of Darkseid's Omega Sanction has never been documented, somewhere, back in the
stone age era of Anthro the first man, someone bearing a striking resemblance to Bruce Wayne finds the heroes' time capsule rocket crashed outside of his cave. Returning to the cave the man begins to draw the symbol of a Bat on the wall...
NOTE:
The bare essential storyline of Final Crisis (as envisioned by the author) is
included in regular colored cells. The additional tie-ins or issues relating to
the complete Final Crisis picture are put in roughly chronological order shaded
in gray. Keep in mind that certain books cover a broad span of time so some
sections may actually have occurred a little earlier or a little later than
where it is positioned. For instance the first part of Final Crisis Revelations
(Dr. Light's death) happens before Batman is kidnapped (since it's referenced in
the Justice League storyarc "Welcome to Sundown Town"). However the rest of
Revelations #1 happens post Final Crisis #3 - which is why the rest of the
Revelations series has been placed there. Chalk up any inconsistencies to the
fact that space-time is breaking down as a result of Darkseid's fall. ;-) |
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