DC Universe

Much like previous DC events, Final Crisis kicks off with a specially priced one-shot highlighting the state of the DC Universe. Unlike previous events, this DC one-shot also gives the straight dope on some non-Crisis related things about to take off, so let's cover all the bases shall we?

• A mysterious narrator introduces us to the DC Universe where we take a sneak peek at the Justice League, learn of an impending Final Crisis (to follow the previous two seen in Crisis On Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis), but before all that, we glimpse into the future where Superman fights with the Legion of Three Worlds against an onslaught that involves whacked out villain Superman Prime, a sГ©ance with Brainiac 5 and some of the Legion Lasses and a giant battle with some kind of shadowy entities! This will all be followed up on in (duh) Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds by Johns and Perez.

Spoilers

• Meanwhile, our narrator steps over to Gotham City where Batman is interrogating his arch foe, The Joker. Mr. Smiley pants hasn't been too talkative since his face got extra screwed up in that stand-alone prose issue of Batman, but as the Dark Knight interrogates him about the origins of this mysterious "Black Glove" character who's been zeroing in on him, one thing becomes clear—it looks like Batman's life may be on the line when "Batman R.I.P." lands in stores.

• Somewhere else, Wonder Woman punches out a Minotaur. But what she doesn't see is a cabal of villains mysteriously gathering dirt and ash from the sites of the worst genocide's in modern history with some ulterior motive. Behind all this? The Greek gods Apollo and—what looks to be—Zeus, who are amassing an army of Spartan-like warriors to take WW on in the upcoming "Rise of the Olympian" storyline by Gail Simone and Lopresti.

• Somewhere in the desert, two people have died at the hands of the Black Hand, and it's up to Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart to find out why. Soon after, we get a peek inside what the Hand's been up to (namely puking, man!) and inside the future of the many colored lantern corps. This will all be explained when Green Lantern: Blackest Night Prelude by Johns and Reis ships...eventually.

• Remember the Specter? Well, he's pretty much totally off the wall with his revenge on evildoers these days as he forces a mutilating killer to be eaten from the inside out by maggots. Of course, our narrator friend notes that in order to really get the point, the Specter's latest host—Crispus Allen—will need to soften his ways. Our guess? That won't happen early in Final Crisis: Revelations by Greg Rucka and Philip Tan (a series which apparently also involves Dr. Light).

• Lastly, our narrator drops into what we're assuming is Central (or Keystone) City, and while he's formed, a forgotten villain by the name of Libra is bringing together a bunch of villains including some of Flash's Rogues, Killer Croc and a dude that looks like Mario in a flame retardant suit. Libra wants them to join his new Secret Society, worship some crazy god and read from the Crime Bible. But just as he's wrapping his sales pitch, lightening cracks across the sky and our narrator remembers who he is. We're guessing this will all be directly followed up on in Final Crisis #1 which hits stores May 28th!

Did ya notice?

Well, hey...we know the papers yesterday were reporting word that the returned character who narrates this tale is Barry "The Flash" Allen. While the last-page lightening bolt may be a little obtuse for some folks, did ya notice that the narrative captions shifted from black to red over the course of the issue as the narrator slowly regained a sense of himself? Check out this here sequence from the Specter page:

New Art! New Art!

Our unexpected favorite thing in this issue, new George Perez art of The Specter fighting the Anti-Monitor from Crisis On Infinite Earths. We're not sure why they had to have a flashback spread here rather than more Crispus Allen stuff...but we really don't care either. Ain't it purdy?

Harlequin...not Harley Quinn

The other standout page of the issue was Tony Daniel's ultra rad, ultra full page of small panels whose color scheme makes them fit a Harlequin pattern just like Batman and Joker are talking about. And that's only one of the many layers of metaphor going on here.

Well that's it for now, kiddies, but rest assured we'll be checking back into the mysteries this one-shot unfurled as we move forward in our coverage of everything Final Crisis!