The Doomino Effect for Sep 10, 2008

I only bought two comics this week.

Final Crisis: Revelations #2 picks up with The Spectre chasing down Renee “Question” Montoya, intending to inflict vengeance upon her for murder, which The Spectre concludes she has committed as the leader of the Order of the Stone. Montoya claims she’s innocent, as she has only infiltrated — not commanded — said Order. The Spectre seems to be making quite the blunder if she’s correct.

This is the type of mistake one would make from mishearing something or just not understanding the whole situation. This presumably is not the type of mistake one would make if one were even only semi-omniscient. Deities would judge through observation and awareness, not through erroneously interpreted socialization.

I’m hoping what this means is that The Spectre is somehow being manipulated for someone else’s purposes; I’d much prefer that to “God heard a rumor and acted on it.”

No doubt the facelessness of The Question removes what could potentially be one of the most attractive parts of Renee Montoya’s body; however, Philip Tan’s rendering of Montoya’s overly muscular body, even without a bra, makes her about as de-sexed as humanly imaginable. She’s gross, in the way that bodybuilders who try to fake femininity through silicone are gross. If you are a body builder who fakes femininity through silicone, I apologize, but you’re probably gross too.

Although the issue ends with the anti-life equation spreading further, the main thrust of this chapter is The Spectre’s struggle with understanding God’s will. God’s will, in this particular corner of the DC Universe, is the primum mobile from which The Spectre’s actions must take their lead. He’s burdened with the observations and doubts of a human, leading him to second-guess God’s will when relating it to his own desires. Radiant, the Spirit of Mercy, intervenes on Montoya’s behalf, leading to a punch-kick dialogue about — you guessed it — God’s will and mercy.

The struggle to assign meaning to God’s will leads me to Secret Invasion #6, in which we see an approach to interpreting God’s intent that is more suited to the interpreter.

Our heroes finally return to New York City to confront the Skrull Invasion, which Nick Fury and his Junior Commandos are doing a decent job of thwarting on their own. The expository stand-off between heroes and Skrulls reveals that the “He” who loves the Skrulls, loves the humans and commands the Skrull takeover of Earth is none other than “God.” Without missing a beat, and leaving no doubt of the parallels to modern society, Nick Fury replies “Yeah? Well my god has a HAMMER!”

It is no unfamiliar post-rational theocratic approach to God that is playing out here — I want Outcome A, and I fancy myself a religious person, therefore God too must want Outcome A. If you want Outcome B, and you believe your god wants the same thing, then whichever of us gets our way must therefore have the stronger and better God.

It involves none of the personal reflection and internal struggle exhibited by The Spectre, as overly drawn-out as that may have been. Fury’s participation in the deity duel suggests an endorsement only mockingly; his flippant comment obviously dismisses the Godwars by exposing them for the self-serving, self-fulfilling charade they are. Nonetheless, it was a striking duality with the presentation of the Almighty in DC’s Big Event offering this week.

And that’s what I focused on, because really, nothing much else happened this month. I’m digging Secret Invasion, but dang, this is about 4 issues stretched into 8.