That's a good start.

Grant Morrison certainly does not have a problem delivering a grand scope to this comic book, which is quite impressive, and sets the tone for the entire comic book.

The book begins with a visit from a New God to Anthro, and one of the book's endings is another classic DC character visiting Antro, as well. It's a strong frame to the general story, which is a mixture of two main plots - the death of the New Gods (and their rebirth as humans on Earth) and the rise of Libra, the new head of the Secret Society of Super-Villains.

To achieve his goals of the first story, Morrison is playing fast and loose with DC continuity, which I am more than fine with, as it helps the story a lot more if these New Gods are treated as mysterious alien beings as opposed to "oh yeah, that guy who was on the Justice League with Guy Gardner and Ice."

The idea of the Guardians cordoning the crime scene of Earth!?!? That was awesome.

Libra's verbal smackdown of Vandal Savage? Awesome.

Green Arrow's outrage at the death of a fellow hero? Well placed.

Dan Turpin, period? Excellent.

This was just a well-paced comic that sets up numerous plots while still giving plenty of interesting scenes in this issue, as well. All with strong, detailed artwork from JG Jones, who is better here than he has been in the past, and he's already a good artist, so it's a very good package.

The only drawback, I guess, is that some of the scenes could have "popped" a bit more - like the hero death, I imagined that being a bit more notable - still handled well (the Human Flame's reactions were priceless).

The cliffhanger was intriguing as well (presumably it is Orion being reincarnated as a human) - this was a great start to Final Crisis.

Looking forward to more!

Recommended.

FYI, Don MacPherson reviewed it on his blog, too. Click here to read his thoughts. He liked it as well, but I think he liked it a bit less than me. Although it's basically a difference between, like, a 8/10 for me and a 7/10 for him, ya know?