Two brief questions about FINAL CRISIS, and an observation or two.

Picture ganked from Dr. K. Can you tell I've been reading his blog lately? He's doing some very fine analysis of that most convoluted of event comics. In fact, I'm seeing a lot of fine analysis of these books all over the Web, which tells me that perhaps I'm just not as sharp on the uptake, and too lazy to make the time to dig deeper. Anyways, here are the questions:

1. What happened to Libra? It could be a pretty obvious scene in one of the spinoff books or perhaps even in the main one, but if I saw his fate, for good or ill, I sure don't remember it. ETA: Thanks to reader Janus, who reminded me that good old Luthor dealt with Mr. Libra in issue #6. That's what I get for posting at work without my comics to refer to!

2. Oracle trashed the internet while all this was going on. Does the post-FC world no longer have it, or at least is it down until people can rebuild it?

And now, the observations.

First, does anybody else think that this is, in some ways, a remake of Flex Mentallo, or at least crafted from that same cloth? I know I stated earlier that Grant is recycling, but the more I read, the more I recognize a lot of the metatextual ideas he introduced so long ago.

Also, I suspect that this perhaps would all be clearer to me if I had read 52 and Countdown, especially all the beeswax with the Monitors, who completely flummuxed me at first in regards to who they were exactly, what they wanted, and why they were there. Eventually, I remembered all the Anti-Monitor stuff from Crisis on Infinite Earths, but as I understand it they had a bigger role in the previous event. Oh well.

Finally, I get the feeling that Grant is sitting back and having a chuckle at all the consternation he's caused, at least judging by the smug and condescending tone he's taken in some interviews I've read lately. That's fine, but he should recall the words of Ian Hunter:

Yeah its a mighty long way down rock 'n' roll
As your name gets hot so your heart grows cold
'N you gotta stay young man, you can never be old
All the Way from Memphis

Not to worry, though, because I'm gonna pre-order the upcoming Seaguy mini anyway. But still.

See? No earth-shattering insight or deep, probing questions here. But hey, I'm maintaining a post-a-day schedule so far for February!

ETA: This is not quite a review per se- here is what I wrote about FC #'s 6 & 7, as well as Superman Beyond #2.