"Final Crisis" No. 3

"Final Crisis" No. 3 arrived yesterday. As always, writer Grant Morrison is brimming with ideas, many of them riveting. But the book continues to be kind of choppy. I frankly didn't understand much of what was going on in the first half. One thing was clear by the end of issue No. 3, though: Things are grim, grim, grim in the DCU, with Martian Manhunter dead, Batman held captive, Superman almost losing Lois, Green Lantern being hauled away, Wonder Woman transformed into ... I don't know what, but it's not pretty.

"Final Crisis" has been billed as the day evil won, and that day has arrived. What's interesting is that in both "Final Crisis" and "Secret Invasion," Marvel's rival major event, the heroes appear to have lost the war before it even began, thanks to planning by the dark gods in "Final Crisis" and the Skrulls in "Secret Invasion." I'm following "Secret Invasion" a lot easier, but I'm probably more on the edge of my seat with "Crisis."