Countdown to Final Crisis #13 Review

COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #13
Story by Paul Dini
Story consultant Keith Giffen
Scripts by Tony Bedard
Art by Pete Woods and Tom Derenick

I really enjoyed this issue, but there are a shitload of questions here. I'll tackle them as I go, but I'd like to point out none of them are questions that impact how much I enjoyed this action packed issue.

First up, let's deal with the Monarch vs. Prime fight. I believe the deciding factor on whether you enjoy this issue is if, after you read the line of dialogue, "I'll kill you to death!", from Prime, and you are happy with that equal parts retarded and hilarious sentence, then you will love this issue and have no problems with any of it. I have no qualms with it and felt it had a guilty pleasure / B-movie / All-Star Batman quality to it.

Back to the fight though, is Monarch god? Seriously, is he? I know his suit contains his power and stops him from blowing up, but after a back and forth battle with Prime, which saw Prime diminish in size and bulk as the Guardian energy he absorbed faded, Monarch's chest piece is ripped open completely and he annihilates the solar system or galaxy or whatever. It was insane the amount of damage he did.

Supposedly, most of his army, such as the Extremists or Crime Society, died in the blast, making me wonder what the point of giving them a mini-series and one shots and Arena weekly was all about. Prime said the first nuke-like explosion from Monarch actually hurt him and he was super sized then. By the end of the issue, Prime was child-like, so I'm not sure if he survived this supernova-like explosion. I think Johns has said he has plans for him, so I doubt he's gone yet.

The Challengers were in this issue as well and Donna sees the Source Wall writing hand thing write a message to go to Apokalips. Monitor 51 decided to help them get there before his world died. However, before that little trip came Batman and Red Robin's adventures versus Monarch's army, which had a Joker of their own. Batman went nuts and jumped on him without any regard for who else was there. Before he can kill this Joker, Ultraman punches the back of his head in! Ya, it was pretty gruesome. Joker makes a joke about crying over it to Red Robin as we get a scene change. Flashback later and Joker has a giant rock where his head used to be. Good times.

Finally, can anyone say Darkseid? Ya, he was behind Solomon way back at the start. We all kind of knew he was the big bad and assumed it, but it's outright confirmed here. If they'd done little things like this at the start and scattered throughout the series DC would have had a much better book on their hands.

Not sure what they're building to though. I think the series will end with the death of the New Gods. The Amazons and Mary will tie-in to this with Granny Goodness, but again, don't see the point at this time. I take it Monarch isn't dead, so I don't know what he'll do next. Jimmy is repository for the dead New Gods or something. Possibly dies at the end to birth the new New Gods? Things are coming to ahead, but, again, it doesn't make up for the horrendous pace and storytelling of the first half.

Verdict - Must Read. I can understand why some might not like this book, but it really takes a few issues to get into and if you start back just before this Earth-51 war, I think you'll really enjoy this entire string of issues. Many people just look at one scene, like the "kill you to death" one and claim the book is still crap when it's just not the case. Might not appeal to you, but it's far from the trash it was for the first 30 issues.

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