Final Crisis | |||||
Greg Cox | |||||
Multi-cast production, adaptation | |||||
GraphicAudio, 8 hours | |||||
A review by Steven Brandt
Okay, I know there was a lot more to it than that, but Final Crisis has a few things going against
it. First, it's based on a comic book mini-series. If you know anything about comics, then you already know
that it is nearly impossible to get the whole story by reading a single series or mini-series. The genre is
lousy with cross-overs, tie-ins, team-ups, and all manner of hyphenated monstrosities.
Second, Final Crisis is one of those messy non-continuum story lines that deal with variable times, dimensions,
and realities. It gives me a headache just thinking about it. Even if you are not a comics fan, you have
probably seen the Back to the Future movies and know what I'm talking about. Third, the perspective
of the audiobook jumps around a lot between times and universes, and it's hard to keep track of where and
when you are. Some elements of this story originated in other books, like the 52-issue
mega-cross-over, Countdown to Final Crisis, and some elements are continued in other books. It's a big mess.
So far, I have made it sound like I really hated this audiobook, but that's not the whole story. As much
trouble as I had following the plot, I still enjoyed the audio production quite a bit. The music and sound
effects were simply awesome. Graphic Audio's slogan is "A Movie In Your Mind," and the sound is
cinema-quality to be sure. This is a full-cast production, featuring a main narrator and a long list of voice
actors playing the parts of various characters. It's a pretty long list, at least two dozen I would guess,
so I won't name them all here, but there is a full reading of the credits at the end of the audiobook,
telling who played each character. I liked that because full cast productions like this sometimes neglect
to tell you who the voices were. The narrator and character actors all did a good job, and I especially
liked the voice of Batman, it was kind of rough and gritty, the way you would expect Batman to sound.
The music and sound effects were especially stirring during the battle scenes, which make up almost this
entire audiobook. The battles are fought on several different fronts, with different groups of super-heroes
at each location. Every DC hero and villain you've ever heard of, and probably a few you haven't, showed up
at one time or another, and the climax featured the Supermen from all 52 universes teaming up
together -- pretty exciting stuff.
Final Crisis was originally written by Grant Morrison and published by DC Comics as a seven-part
mini-series. The issues were published between July 2008 and March 2009. The limited series was collected
and published as a hardcover graphic novel in June 2009, and adapted to audio by Greg Cox in 2010.
Oh, I wanted to mention one more thing. In one of the parallel Earths, there was a Japanese team of
super-heroes called the Super Young Team. The members had really funny names like Most-Excellent Superbat,
Big Atomic Lantern Boy, Crazy-Shy Lolita Canary, Shiny Happy Aquazon, and Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning
Flash. I had to laugh every time I heard those names. These characters were created by Grant Morrison
specifically for Final Crisis.
I don't think Final Crisis will appeal to a wide audience of audiobook readers, mainly just
comic fans. I know I didn't make the story sound very good, but honestly, it's worth a listen just
for the music and sound. Also, if you've never listened to an audio production of a comic, you
should give it a try, it's a pretty amazing experience. GraphicAudio did a top-notch job with this one.
Steven Brandt spends most of his waking hours listening to audiobooks and reviewing them for his blog, Audiobook Heaven. When not reading or reviewing, Steven is usually playing the saxophone for the entertainment and amusement of his family. |
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