The Four Color Media Monitor

The Penn. Express-Times writes about "Final Crisis Requiem", and I'm not comfortable with how they seem to be putting emphasis on a character dying, especially in these days when death has been way overdone while simultaneously rendered meaningless. They say:

Finally, two months after his death in "Final Crisis No. 1" Martian Manhunter, J'onn J'onzz, gets a memorial in "Final Crisis Requiem."

It's really what "Final Crisis No. 1" should have been.

The one shot, written by Peter J. Tomasi with pencils by Doug Mahnke, fills in and fleshes out the events of Manhunter's death and memorial held by the heroes of the DC universe.

But what is so great about a book that focuses on somebody dying? By now, it's become outrageous.

Tomasi handles the tragedy of Manhunter's death well and balances the drama between the death, the memorial and the funeral.

Somehow, I have a hard time believing that.

The writer fills the book with cool, little character moments. Green Arrow and Green Lantern (both characters died and have been brought back) discuss Manhunter's death. Batman places Oreo cookies on the coffin, a nod to the humorous "Justice League International" series of the late '80s written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, with art by Kevin Maguire.

Why does that seem so otherwise inappropriate here to be putting cookies atop a coffin? As if it weren't bad enough that 3 years ago, they insulted the JLI in Countdown to Infinite Crisis by implying that their humorous approach of the time was just a cover scam by Max Lord to conceal other shady doings of his, and then making him a cold-blooded killer who shoots Blue Beetle in the head, now they have to do something that seems unintentionally funny as well?

Just by flipping through it, you can tell how each character is affected by the Manhunter's death.

And that's just how the art should be.

It's a shame it took two months after Martian Manhunter's death for DC to come out with this book, but fans will find it a fitting tribute.

A real tribute would be to write a starring book with J'onn alive and well inside, not one where he's killed off! I'm sorry, but this is just simply insulting, and another example of how the MSM seems to consider the death of a hero better than a story where one could seriously triumph over evil. And death has been done down to that level more than enough already in the past couple years, so much that I wouldn't be surprised if this had no impact either.

Trackposted to: Cao's Blog, Faultline USA, Is it Just Me, Maggie's Notebook, Pirates' Cove, Third World County.

Labels: crossoverloading, dc comics, golden calf of death, msm propaganda