So, FC has come and gone - well, except for the remaining issues of the Legion of Three Worlds tie-in, but why should we quibble about a tie-in finishing late when it took 9 months to get the 7 issues of the main storyline out? I mean, there's so much more else to complain about, right?

Its been a long, long time (and I go back pre-Crisis On Infinite Earths; hell, I remember when Green Arrow didn't have a beard) since I've been so disappointed in a comic, or in a comics publisher. From talk at the local comic shop, and random samplings on the interweb, I'm not alone.

Fault one: The storyline. That's a biggie, since all stories need a storyline and comics are stories, even if Grant Morrison thinks they're really just a place to dump out his ill formed quasi-mystic pseudo-philosophies. Final Crisis had several plotlines, and indeed, some of them were quite promising - the demise of Batman, the return of Barry Allen, the corruption of the Alpha Lanterns, Vandal Savage vs the Spectre, the death of J'onn J'onnz - but it had no cohesion. Intellectually, I assume that J'onn's death is linked to Barry's return, because they're in the same book; but for the life of me I cannot figure out how they are connected. I have no clue why Vandal Savage as Cain is in the same story as Granny goodness as an Alpha Lantern. Each of these plotlines could have easily (and more successfully) stood alone. Together, they're just a hash of concepts competing for page space.

Fault two: The premise. Marvel has a mid-year (I'm from Australia, so its not 'summer') event every year. We know what to expect from them: something partially U