Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! #6

“Step Six: Stop Running”

Cover Price: $2.99
Bargain Price: $0.25
Cover Date: December 2009

Having read the intervening issues, I’m sorry to say that Run fails to live up to its first issue, but only just. As the story progresses, it quickly becomes a tale about the Human Flame’s rather inept quest for power, coupled all along with his penchant for self delusion, particularly among a cadre of DC’s lamest villains, and for carelessly taking advantage of those around him. Still, it’s hard to think of him as truly evil. He does commit horrible, despicable crimes, but he lacks the Machiavellian mindset to seem truly evil. Instead, he’s just kind of a douche, and while that’s pretty entertaining for two or three issues, it does begin to grate a bit by the end. As I hoped, there is no road to redemption for the Flame, but, as I feared, the result is a lead character who becomes increasingly annoying, so much so that writer Matthew Sturges brings in Jon Steward, Firestorm, and Red Tornado to give us heroes to latch onto and through whom we can witness the Flame’s inevitable and slightly ironic end. Still, I’m being perhaps a bit too harsh on the book. Even if it isn’t quite what I wanted, it is still entertaining and wonderfully off kilter with some terrific art from Freddie E. Williams II and, for a quarter, you can’t ask for much more than that.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! #1

“Step One: Make a Lot of Enemies”

Cover Price: $2.99
Bargain Price: 3/$1.00
Cover Date: July 2009

Being the Human Flame sucks, although Mike Miller hasn’t realized it yet. An early convert to Libra’s religion of crime in Final Crisis, Miller got his wish of seeing the Martian Manhunter burned alive only to be betrayed and brainwashed. Now, the Final Crisis is over and a restored Miller quickly realizes that he is one of the most wanted men alive, tied as he is to a Justice League founder’s homicide. None of this phases Miller, though, as he is, quite simply, a total jerk and that is easily the best thing about this series. It would be easy to portray Miller as a sympathetic hero, changed by the events of Final Crisis and on a road to redemption. Instead, Matthew Sturges writes Miller as a slovenly loser falsely convinced of his own greatness. Still, there is something likable about this supremely unlikeable character. Perhaps it is the detailed, yet caricature laden style employed by Freddie E. Williams II or perhaps it is his everyman portrayal. I’m very interested to see where Sturges and Williams take the character, especially now that he’s being pursued by the mob (for stealing drug money) and the JLA alike. It seems like the inevitable arc of the story will be for Miller to yet find some redemption, but I’m not sure I hope he will. It might end up getting old, but, for the moment at least, I’m enjoying reading about a completely wretched human being who can shoot fire from his nipples.