Morrison: I knew I was doing Final Crisis quite early in the Batman run and saw a way to tie everything together. That issue ends with Superman pulling Batman's charred corpse out of the ruined Command-D bunker. But even as he does so, Batman is vaporized by Darkseid's Omega Beams. Batman breaks his vow against firearms just once, shooting Darkseid with the same god-killer gun Darkseid used to murder his own son, Orion. There the Dark Knight makes his final stand against the almighty Darkseid. Bruce Wayne survives the events of the ominously titled Batman RIP only to meet his end in Final Crisis #6. Morrison always made it clear that their Batman series and Final Crisis were intrinsically connected, though exactly how didn't become apparent until the penultimate chapter of Final Crisis. And at the bottom of everything lurks Mandrakk the Dark Monitor. While the prophet Libra spreads the gospel of Anti-Life across the world, the sheer weight of Darkseid's celestial body falling from the heavens threatens to drag Earth into an infinite abyss.

In this apocalyptic tale, the New Gods have all perished in their version of Ragnarok, with Darkseid and his minions reincarnating inside mortal, human shells on Earth (a plot point first introduced in Morrison's earlier Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle series). Billed by DC as 'The day evil won,' Final Crisis chronicles the final war between humanity and Darkseid. Batman Confronts the Final CrisisĮven as they explored Batman's battle with the Black Glove and his possibly imminent demise in 'Batman RIP,' Morrison also began weaving a much bigger cosmic saga in 2008's Final Crisis. If you missed it before, be sure to check out the first part of our Grant Morrison Batman retrospective, and make sure you check out Morrison's Substack page Xanaduum for more behind-the-scenes insights. In the second half of our retrospective on Morrison's Batman work, we look back at the impact of Final Crisis, why Morrison never considered a replacement other than Dick and the challenges of wrapping up this ambitious story while also accommodating the needs of the New 52 relaunch.

Final Crisis by Grant Morrison