History ComicBook / FinalCrisis

* DirtyCoward: Darkseid. Superman points out he could have used Batman as his host, but the god snarls he would have resisted for longer than he'd have liked, whereas Turpin just fought enough to nurture Darkseid before breaking.

--> Your enemies fight and win again and again because they ''truly'' believe their actions are in accordance with a

* AdaptationalWimp: In ''ComicBook/{{Kamandi}}'', Morticoccus was a massive semi-sentient virus that could kill any life form in a matter of seconds and even corrode metal. In this series, it's a bacteria that, according to Wonder Woman, was specifically designed to strip Earth's heroes of their powers. Although the infection manages to incapacitate a portion of the resistance, it's nowhere near as virulent as its original depiction.

* BackFromTheDead: Barry Allen returns as ComicBook/TheFlash for the first time in 23 years. Superboy and a de-aged Bart Allen are revived in ''Legion of 3 Worlds''.

->''You turned your back and I '''wrecked your world'''. Deprived your people of their '''powers''', their '''hopes''', their '''future''', '''themselves'''. What will you do when your friends, your enemies, your '''lover''', are '''all''' Darkseid? When there is one '''body'''. One '''mind'''. '''One will'''. '''One life''' that is '''Darkseid'''. Will '''you''' be the enemy of all existence, then? What irony that will be, [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Son of Krypton]].''

The first part of this one-shot expands Martian Manhunter's death scene to show that he put up more of a fight than previously indicated. The rest of the book focuses on the reaction from [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica his friends]] as his death triggered a telepathic event in their heads that compelled them to write down the history of the now-extinct Martian race.

** Morrison saw this series as their definitive statement about all of the themes that they had dealt with in their works, and ties up plot points left over from their runs on ''Seven Soldiers'' and ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Thanks to being weakened by Dr. Light and Effigy using [[KryptoniteFactor fire]], Comicbook/MartianManhunter, perhaps the most powerful member of the Justice League, lasts two pages against Libra --in the series proper. In the ''Requiem'' one-shot, however...

** In ''Superman Beyond'' a brief glimpse of Earth-6 (which seems to be identical to ''Comicbook/TheMultiversity'''s Earth-8; the Marvel parody world) shows [[Comicbook/SecretInvasion the heroes engaged in a mass battle with Durlan shapeshifters who have taken the form of other heroes]].

* BondVillainStupidity: Mokkari and Simyan not even bothering to inspect the captured Batman's utility belt, let alone remove it whne they take custody of the prisoner. [[spoiler: If they had, they'd have realized Bruce had the Radion Bullet on him when Granny abducted him from the Hall of Justice. Their mistake backfires spectacuarly in the closing issues. ]]

* CanonDiscontinuity: Rip Hunter's chalkboard says "don't worry about Countdown", lampshading how the poor reception towards ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' had rendered the series non-canon. However, Morrison did acknowledge [[spoiler: Darkseid's death]] at the end of ''Countdown'' and ''Death of the New Gods'' [[HandWave with the later issues of ''Final Crisis'']]: [[spoiler: Orion "killed" Darkseid's body at the end of Countdown, but Darkseid's spirit was tossed backwards through time, destabilizing the multiverse and allowing him to possess a human host, Boss Dark Side. This allowed him to resurrect his loyalists, build up a power base on Earth, kill Orion (who could not sense his father still being alive since Darkseid was now possessing a human body) and stabilize the current timeline]].

** Morrison saw this series as their definitive statement about all of the themes that they had dealt with in their works, and ties up plot points left over from his runs on ''Seven Soldiers'' and ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''.

* ThouShaltNotKill: {{Averted}} big time. As noted under "Batman Grabs a Gun" and "Godzilla Threshold", during the course of the story, the severity of the events and Darkseid's actions were enough that Batman, both the Wally West and just-returned Barry Allen Flashes, and even Superman decide that Darkseid ''needs'' to die, with Bruce grabbing a gun (the one weapon he swore to never use), loading it with the bullet used to kill Orion, and shooting Darkseid; Barry and Wally leading the Black Death, who's hot on their trail, to Darkseid in the hopes he'd kill him; and Superman actually being the one to deliver the actual death blow to the mad god.

* ThouShaltNotKill: {{Averted}} big time. As noted under "Batman Grabs a Gun" and "Godzilla Threshold", during the course of the story, the severity of the events and Darkseid's actions were enough that Batman, both the Wally West and just-returned Barry Allen Flashes, and even Superman decide that Darkseid ''needs'' to die, with Bruce grabbing a gun (the one weapon he swore to never use), loading it with the bullet used to kill Orion, and shooting Darkseid; Barry and Wally leading the Black Death, who's hot on their trail, to Darkseid in the hopes he's kill him; and Superman actually being the one to deliver the actual death blow to the mad god.

* WhamShot: [[spoiler:Batman getting hit by Darkseid's Omega Beams, which reduces him into a smoking skeleton and temporary kills him out of the DC comics.]]

* GodzillaThreshold: It takes Darkseid coming back and causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt for Batman to finally use a gun. He even calls it his "once-in-a-lifetime exception." It also marks the point where even Superman, and both Wally West and Barry Allen decided "ThouShalNotKill" has a limit and that limit no longer applies to Darkseid.

* GodzillaThreshold: It takes Darkseid coming back and causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt for Batman to finally use a gun. He even calls it his "once-in-a-lifetime exception."

* BigBad: Darkseid, fatally wounded in his battle with Orion, is killing the entire multiverse as he slowly dies. In the meantime, he and his followers possess humans on Earth and conquer the planet with the Anti-Life Equation, while his {{Dragon}}, Libra, takes over the Secret Society of Supervillains. Mandrakk the Dark Monitor is the GreaterScopeVillain, seeking to consume what remains of existence after Darkseid's fall.

* FanDisservice: Think Evil Mary Marvel is [[EvilIsSexy wickedly sexy?]] [[spoiler: That's not Mary, it's [[DirtyOldMan Desaad]] driving her body]].

-->-- ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}

* Renew interest in the ComicBook/NewGods, particularly ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}, who was suffering from massive VillainDecay.

** {{ComicBook/Darkseid}}, while normally a GalacticConqueror, ascends to a MultiversalConqueror here.

* Bring an end to the dual "Crisis Trilogies": TheMultiverse trilogy started by ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' and the "Hero Exploration" trilogy started by ''ComicBook/{{IdentityCrisis|2004}}''; ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' is considered the second chapter of both.

** DC announced that ''Final Crisis'' was the third part of two "trilogies". Final Crisis is the final part of the Multiverse Trilogy (which, natch, is about the life, death, and resurrection of TheMultiverse starting with ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'') and the final part of the Hero Exploration Trilogy (which takes an intimate look on the heroes and villains of the DCU, starting with ''ComicBook/{{IdentityCrisis|2004}}''). In both cases, ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' is the second part.

* Bring an end to the dual "Crisis Trilogies": TheMultiverse trilogy started by ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' and the "Hero Exploration" trilogy started by ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis''; ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' is considered the second chapter of both.

** DC announced that ''Final Crisis'' was the third part of two "trilogies". Final Crisis is the final part of the Multiverse Trilogy (which, natch, is about the life, death, and resurrection of TheMultiverse starting with ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'') and the final part of the Hero Exploration Trilogy (which takes an intimate look on the heroes and villains of the DCU, starting with ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis''). In both cases, ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' is the second part.

* DyingToBeReplaced: Zoom and Inertia are [[spoiler:depowered and killed]], respectively. This conveniently means [[spoiler:there are no active Reverse-Flashes]] by the time ComicBook/EobardThawne returns in ''The Flash: Rebirth'', which is in part a follow-up to ''Final Crisis''.

* OmnicidalManiac: Darkseid is dying, so he decides to take ''the whole freaking multiverse'' to his black hole of a grave. Also Mandrakk, an EldritchAbomination and [[OurVampiresAreDifferent cosmic parasite]] who hungers for the multiverse.

* PapaWolf: Dr. Sivana, of all characters, who turns on Libra after watching his kids get Anti-Life'd.

* PrecisionFStrike: [[spoiler:Nix Uotan delivers one to Mandrakk just after the Green Lanterns impale him at the same time (though he's holding Ultraman's corpse at the moment):]]
--> [[spoiler:"No one *** with the judge of all evil."]]
** Annoyingly this is changed in the digital version to [[spoiler: “Don’t push your luck with the judge of all evil”]]

* RasputinianDeath: [[spoiler: Darkseid]].

* ReligionOfEvil: The Religion Of Crime.

* SanitySlippage: Ultraman, for one.

** Mind you, he's ''ecstatic'' about this. [[GoMadFromTheRevelation And not entirely wrong.]]
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Most Excellent Superbat's power.
** Basically, he screws all the rules of time, space and money by employing a suit of armor ''powered by the energy of infinite money''. [[Creator/GrantMorrison Or something.]]

* ShutUpHannibal: Batman did this to Darkseid.

* TheVirus:
** The Anti-Life Equation was promoted to this.
** There was also a God-Disease released that shut down many superhero's powers, including Dr. Mid-Nite's, but wasn't elaborated on any more than Frankenstein being immune to it (due to him not actually being alive). This appears to be one of the things ''Countdown'' was supposed to explain. That did not go well.

* TookALevelInBadass: Darkseid took ''several''.
** Talky Tawny.

* WritingForTheTrade: Reading it in its original form was confusing at best, incomprehensible at worst. In the trade, where most of the important tie-ins were included, it becomes a tour-de-force, especially if you have the ''R.I.P.'' trade handy as well (as that has the Batman tie-ins by Morrison).
** Reading Morrison's own Seven Soldiers is important, too. Whilst the various series got lost in the build-up to Infinite Crisis and was branded as 'on the eve of Infinite Crisis, this is what Character X was doing before that!', it actually proves to be very important in the setup for Final Crisis. It explains a variety of questions - Which DC Editorial then went and trampled over by having Countdown try to explain everything and try to line up the dots, only to fail miserably.
* YearOutsideHourInside: Time is implied to pass this way for the Monitors. The Thought-Robot, for instance, was only created after the original ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'', which thanks to ComicBookTime can't have been more than a decade ago for the characters involved, yet to the Monitors it's so unspeakably ancient that not even they have any idea what its purpose is, despite their supposed omniscience. In ''Superman Beyond'', their realm has long since gone to ruin due to Darkseid's fall, even before the Anti-Life Equation hits Earth.

* MindScrew: The final issue, which is told in flashback, contains a whole slew of {{Noodle Incident}}s (Wonder Woman's escape from the Female Furies, etc.)

* MonkeysOnATypewriter: The infinitely long Book of Limbo was apparently written by a monkey, presumably the same one from Morrison's ''ComicBook/AnimalMan'' run. This may or may not be the same monkey who helps out Nix Uotan and Metron later on.

* NoSell: A virus isn't going to do much to someone who's not technically alive, like Frankenstein.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: When being told that Darkseid was the power behind Libra, the Rogues in ''Rogues' Revenge'' essentially tell Libra (who they have refused to work for) to go tell his master to get the hell off of their planet.
** Same with Lex Luthor versus Libra. Luthor may be a miserable sociopath, but he loves life more than he does having to live in a evil-driven world run by Darkseid.

* IndividualityIsIllegal: There is only one will, and that will is '''DARKSEID'''.
* InternalAffairs: The Alpha Lanterns serve this role for the ComicBook/GreenLantern Corps.
** In the pages of the Green Lantern books, the Alpha Lanterns were specifically created to ensure they would be absolute, incorruptible Lanterns, specifically to ensure the ComicBook/BlackestNight would never happen. [[spoiler: They weren't expecting Granny Goodness to possess one of them]].
* LastOfHisKind: The ultimate fate for [[spoiler: Nix Uotan]].

* CurbStompBattle: Superman delivers this to [[spoiler: Darkseid in the climax when he ''sings'', at his full strength, a shattering note of power, breaking Darkseid's essence and [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu destroying the god once and for all.]]]]
** Earlier, the Justifiers versus the Checkmate strike force. Mr. Bones and Count Vertigo would turn out to have survived; Negative Woman and the Atomic Knights weren't so lucky.

* DareToBeBadass: In a metafictional sense, the entire story can be viewed as one to the readers, to tell depression to go fuck itself.
** Specifically within story:
--->'''Nix Uotan:''' Don't you ''get it''? We're all gonna ''die'' and the super heroes ''can't save us'' this time! They're as useless as [[OldShame my stupid]] ''drawings''.
--->'''Mystery Guy:''' If [[PossessionImpliesMastery your]] super heroes can't save you, then maybe it's time to think of something that ''can''. If it don't exist, dream it up. Then, make it ''real''.
*** Just as follow-up, how successful was this particular dare? By the time we return to young Nix, he's ''[[MemeticBadass wearing a]] '''[[MemeticBadass hat]]''' [[MemeticBadass made out of the]] '''[[MemeticBadass internet]]''', [[MemeticBadass and an]] '''[[MemeticBadass ankle-length black leather trenchcoat]]''' [[MemeticBadass fastened with a]] '''[[MemeticBadass lightning bolt]]'''''. (ItMakesSenseInContext)
** As a capstone to this, the TrueFinalBoss of the story is more or less the AnthropomorphicPersonification of TooBleakStoppedCaring. [[spoiler: He's defeated by the Supermen of the Multiverse and the Green Lantern Corps, both of whom draw their powers from ''light'']].

* AssimilationPlot: The Anti-Life Equation + Darkseid on Earth = Humans without humanity.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Anyone exposed to the Anti-Life Equation.

* CanonDiscontinuity: Rip Hunter's chalkboard says "don't worry about Countdown".
** Exception: Given the relative obscurity of ''Seven Soldiers'', Morrison did acknowledge [[spoiler: Darkseid's death]] at the end of ''Countdown'' and ''Death of the New Gods'' [[HandWave with the later issues of ''Final Crisis'']]: [[spoiler: Orion "killed" Darkseid's body at the end of Countdown, but Darkseid's spirit was tossed backwards through time, destabilizing the multiverse and allowing him to possess a human host, Boss Dark Side. This allowed him to resurrect his loyalists, build up a power base on Earth, kill Orion (who could not sense his father still being alive since Darkseid was now possessing a human body) and stabilize the current timeline]].
* CanonWelding: Morrison saw this series as their definitive statement about all of the themes that they had dealt with in their works, and ties up plot points left over from his runs on ''Seven Soldiers'' and ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''.
** Also, some of Jack Kirby's personal creations (The New Gods, Kamandi, Dan Turpin) are brought together in order to give them all a GrandFinale.
* CaptainErsatz: ''Superman Beyond'' is built on this trope, but [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Captain]] [[ContinuityNod Allen]] [[ShoutOut Atom]] is a particularly noticeable example.
** Much later, in ''Final Crisis'' #7, the entire army of Superman is made up of expies of Superman knock-offs from other companies.

* TheCavalry: Lead by Nix Uotan, comprised of:

* ContinuityPorn: Hoo boy. Grant Morrison intended this story to be the final chapter in ''two'' trilogies of Crisis events, as well as to continue plot threads left hanging by ''Seven Soldiers'', ''52'', ''Batman RIP'', and even his ''JLA'' run, which had concluded eight years prior to Final Crisis's publication. Not to mention the story's references to ''Cosmic Odyssey'', a Jim Starlin story that was ''twenty'' years old at the time. So, naturally, Final Crisis pretty much made ''entirely'' of this trope.

** Green Arrow to the possessed minions of Darkseid, up until he's converted.

* DeusEstMachina: Superman uses one at the end to erase Darkseid's lingering presence and restore space/time. However, rather than being a god from a machine, the machine ''is'' the god, who can perform any one task.

* DiabolusExNihilo: What Mandrakk will be to be to those who didn't read ''Superman Beyond'', which thankfully is included in the hardcover.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Darkseid's Omega Sanction causes the victim's soul to tumble through an endless number of worse and worse realities until the victim's spirit breaks from the despair.
** As a later issue of Grant Morrison's run on Batman reveals, [[spoiler:all his Omega Beams did to Batman was cause everything that had happened to him up until that point. Yes, even Darkseid's Omega Sanction couldn't make Batman's life worse than it already is.]]
* FixFic: ''Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds'' is essentially a fix fic by Creator/GeoffJohns, simultaneously clearing up the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' continuity boggle '''and''' bringing back two unfairly dead characters, [[ComicBook/TheFlash Kid Flash]] and ComicBook/{{Superboy}}, the latter of which Johns had to kill off in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''. (It was either Superboy or ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}, so all things considered...)

* GodOfEvil: '''DARKSEID IS.'''

** BatmanGrabsAGun

--> Your enemies fight and win again and again because they ''truly'' believe their actions are in accordance with a higher moral order. But what happens in a world where good has ''lost'' its perpetual struggle against evil?
* {{Goth}}: Mary Marvel's new Apokolips-enhanced image is somewhere between this and leather BDSM fetish gear.
* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler:Desaad to Mary Marvel]]

* HumanoidAbomination: Darkseid's physical body.

* AnachronicOrder:
** Trying to follow the timeline of the build-up and actual events of the story can get a bit confusing. The order is about this: ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'' (where we see the first seeds being planted), ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' (the Crisis which reestablished the Multiverse), ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' (confirmation of the Multiverse, Religion of Crime), Morrison's ''Batman'', tertiary ''Countdown''/''Death of New Gods'' info (including ''Salvation Run''), ''DC Universe'' #0 (not really needed, but shows Darkseid's resurrection), ''Requiem'', ''Rogues' Revenge'', ''Final Crisis'' #1-3, ''Submit'', ''Resist'', ''Revelations'', ''Superman Beyond'' (taking place within seconds in reality to save Lois), ''Legion of 3 Worlds'' (taking place after Superman returns and is then whisked into the future, however this time around, time continues to pass in both time periods), ''Final Crisis'' #4-5, ''Batman'' #682-683 (included in the collected Batman R.I.P.), finally concluding with ''Final Crisis'' #6-7.
** Let's also not forget ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' and ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'', if only for the sake of introduction to the Multiverse/The Monitor and the general tone and info respectively.

* AnyoneCanDie: ComicBook/MartianManhunter and Franchise/{{Batman}}. They get better, [[DeathIsCheap obviously]], but still.