Final Crisis #3 (OF 7)

And the penny drops.  There was a race between good and evil for the soul of the world.  And evil won.  The event that presented itself as "The Day Evil Won" just paid itself off name-wise.  Darkseid now rules the earth.  And it's only issue three.

It's this issue where things have gone from a single murder mystery to a widescreen big budget epic like only DC can make with the fabled New Gods at the core of the mayhem.  The Anti-Life Equation is a plot device often spoke of yet hardly elaborated upon.  Sometimes, it's an energy source that can destroy all life.  Other times, it's just a source of massive power, such as in the JLU series.  However, the original Kirby series stated the Equation was a power that gave its wielder complete control over a person's will, given one is dead if their will is not theirs.  For years and years, it's acquisition been top on Darkseid's to-do list and now, that he's got it, things are going to go very, very badly.  In an interview after Final Crisis 1, Morrison commented how he believed the Greek Gods were meant to be culminations of certain emotions (Aphrodite is the whole of every person's feelings of love).  With that in mind, Darkseid now controls every single expression of emotion on the planet, effectively making him the God of Earth of a sort. 

More so than the current event churned out by the Marvelous Competition, Final Crisis has really convinced me of threat and plot progression.  Batman is kidnapped, Superman is wrought with Lois's injury, Hal is arrested, the Flashes are in a future where Darkseid has won, Wonder Woman is infected with Morticoccus, and the Martian Manhunter is dead.  Meanwhile, the Anti-Life Equation has begun to spread via the internet, Mary Marvel has returned as an avatar of Darkseid's will, and Libra has begun to show his true hand, turning on the Human Flame by submitting him to the Equation.

After a couple issues of some confusing storytelling, Morrison wraps up the first act with a bang.  J.G Jones' art who, beyond a dull and nonsensical cover (what is Supergirl doing?  Why is she even on the cover instead of Wonder Woman?), Jones continues a detailed and dynamic pace.  Morrison's story, while somewhat similar to his previous Rock of Ages, has all the punch and scale of a Greek epic.  As each issue seems to get the momentum going faster and faster, this issue certainly kicked things up a notch, for sure.