Final Crisis/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• I just read the conclusion to Batman R.I.P. It just hit me that IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! What hit me a second later was: IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO! But while I'm talking about DC continuity, I originally didn't like the fact that Infinite Crisis ended, and immediately afterward, we got 52 and Countdown, which was a blatant lead up to yet another crisis. I originally thought: Wow, DC... way to leech our money you bastards. But then I thought, wait... this is all one event. INFINITE CRISIS ISN'T OVER! It's in the title, it's INFINITE. And as I was typing this very statement, Ultimate Fridge Brilliance if you will, I realized that it's really a send-up of Continuity Snarl and Cosmic Retcons and quick continuity fixes, as well as a MASSIVE Take That at continuity-obsessed fanboys. I mean, the whole reason Superboy-Prime ended up a villain was because he just wouldn't stop bitching about how his world was so much better and how he was gonna find his perfect earth and make everything better. It just dawned on me that Superboy-Prime is just a send-up of the Unpleasable Fanbase, the assholes who get mad because their favorite comic goes in the wrong artistic direction, or somebody dies that they don't want dead. Seriously, consider his origin. He was a normal kid in a universe with no superheroes. Superboy-Prime is what happens when you give the geek with too much time on his hands superpowers. And in the end, what happens? Continuity ends up more FUBAR than it was PRIOR to Infinite Crisis. What an epiphany. -- Maximus
  • It gets better. Kal-L of Earth-2, Superboy-Prime, and Alex Luthor are "things were better back how they used to be," "You're doing it wrong!" and "This is unrealistic, make it darker and edgier" respectively. -- biznizz
  • In Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, Superboy-Prime is sent to live in "the real world" where all of his exploits are made into comics written by Geoff Johns. The last panel is of him logging onto a DC comics message board. Anvil time.
  • Consider the death of Major Disaster during Infinite Crisis at the hands of Superboy-Prime: the catalyst for Disaster joining the Justice League of America during the Kelly run was an issue of Action Comics (#783) in which Superman (following the events of Our Worlds At War) wants to offer a second chance to a group of criminals lest one day they confront someone like Superman, yet *unlike* him, a superhuman who's willing to kill. Fast forward to IC and who kills Disaster? Someone who's like Superman, but willing to kill. Self-fulfilling prophecy, anyone? bannermanonemillion
  • While on the subject of Superboy-Prime, his bloodlust makes a lot more sense when you realize he knows he's in a comic book. None of these people matter to him because none of them are real. He's basically playing Grand Theft Auto on a cosmic scale.
• In Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, during the climax Superman gets a weird giant statue version of himself made out of idealism and stories. It wasn't until later that I realized that Superman got literal Plot Armor: Armor made out of plot.
• In Final Crisis, Barry Allen frees his wife from the Anti-Life Equation by kissing her. This seems to come out of nowhere, but then in Blackest Night, he temporarily becomes a Blue Lantern, wielding the power of hope. Back in Sandman, Dream and Choronzon are playing the oldest game, and when Choronzon declares himself to be Anti-Life, Dream wins by saying, "I am hope." Whether or not Geoff Johns told Grant Morrison about his Blackest Night plans, or whether this is an example of Johns doing the research rather than excessively fanboying the Silver Age heroes, it's pretty cool - Loki Lie-Smith