This Summer, the DC Universe’s heroes face their greatest challenge. What happens to the forces of good when Evil wins? DC aims to answer that question and wrap up the “Crisis Trilogy” with Final Crisis, beginning at the end of May. Here’s the details on ” The Day Evil Wins.”

Final Crisis is the third, and final, part of the “Crisis Trilogy” that began in the 80’s with Crisis on Infinite Earths and continued in 2005 with Infinite Crisis. Now, the saga of the Multiverse will be wrapped up by the stellar creative team of writer Grant Morrison and artist J.G. Jones. Grant Morrison, well known for his work on New X-Men for Marvel and his previous work on JLA, is the current architect of the amazing story in DC’s flagship Batman comic. J.G. Jones is best remembered recently for the amazing achievement of drawing all of the covers to DC’s groundbreaking weekly series 52. He is extremely excited to be drawing the story crafted by Grant. Final Crisis begins as Countdown ends, with DC Universe #0, a 50 cent comic currently on shelves. This is the jumping on point for all of DC’s major events. Here is the official solicitation from DC for DC Universe #0

DC UNIVERSE: ZERO

Written by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns; Art by George Pérez, Tony Daniel, J.G. Jones, Aaron Lopresti, Ivan Reis, Philip Tan and Carlos Pacheco; Cover by various

This is it! The greatest DC characters! Your favorite writers and artists! Everything leading to Final Crisis and beyond starts here for just 50¢! Take a journey through the past and present of the DCU, and witness the emergence of the greatest evil in the universe — and the stunning return of a force for good! You dare not miss DC Universe: Zero!

DC Universe | 32pg. | Color | $0.50 US

On Sale April 30, 2008

Few details about the plot have been revealed. There was, however, a panel at New York Comic Con did reveal some details. Here is report on that panel

Grant Morrison is running late. DiDio introduces the editors – Eddie Berganza is the editor of Final Crisis. J.G. Jones is brought on stage.

DiDio says that Final Crisis is the end of the official and unofficial trilogies. Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis – Destruction, Rebirth and “Ultimate” story of the Multiverse. DiDio says unofficial trilogy consists of an exploration of these characters. Morrison often says that the darkness that grows around the heroes only makes them shine brighter.

DiDio says Identity Crisis showed personal threat surrounding the families of these heroes. Being a hero is not fun. Infinite Crisis puts the greatest odds against the heroes. Where do you focus your attention? What do you do? Where do you turn? With Final Crisis DC has a tag line which is the true story: “The Day Evil Won.” Morrison and J.G. Jones are crafting that story. Everything comics do is “good vs. evil” and what they want to show is when evil wins, just how bright the good is.

Crisis is the primary book. A tragic event takes place in the first issue, one that will capture your attention. The one-shot Requiem with Tomasi as the writer will address that. It will explore the life of one of the key characters in the DC Universe. Comes out in June. In July the Rogues’ Revenge story starts with Johns as the writer. Follows threads of Salvation Run with new Secret Society. Some villains stand against that.

After third issue of Crisis, there’s a month off. Legion of Three Worlds. Revelations. Superman Beyond. Submit. Resist. Rage of the Red Lanterns. Those round out the books related to the event. There’s also a sketch book that’s not just an ordinary one – it shows the intricate planning and scope. Doesn’t give away the story.

Berganza says Final Crisis is like the 52 covers – but on every page.

Q&A Begins

What characters should we be looking after? “Mary Marvel is pretty cool. We brought back some of the Kirby characters too. Obviously all the big guys. Superman, Batman get big, big roles. Some of the other characters are exciting because we haven’t seen in quite a while though.” – Morrison

“Everything I’ve been doing basically since I started in DC, especially in JLA. World War III. Rock of Ages. Seven Soldiers. Those threads I started ten years ago are finally getting pulled together.” – Morrison

Jones mentions that a lot of Morrison’s work is falling into place now, where you can see the outcome of the work.

Fan mentions Animal Man #15 had a huge impact on him (dolphin slaughter issue). Morrison mentioned people at first didn’t believe him.

Question about super-powered animals. Asks about Gleek, the Wonder Twins pet. “Who?” – Morrison “No!” – Jones

What drew Morrison to the charcter of Libra? “Came from an old Justice League story by Len Wein. He did a run that was just phenomenal. He didn’t do much, but he was in a story where he started up a new Injustice League and stole powers from the JLA until he exploded because he couldn’t handle that power.” Morrison mentions that Libra is like Parasite just consume until they can’t handle it. Wondered why they just didn’t stop 10 minutes ago. Changed the costume because he looked like he came from a carnival. Morrison mentions Libra has a huge secret and we’ll see what he looks like under the mask.

Is Kamandi in the story in a prominent way? “First and second issue.” – Morrison (Fan is thrilled.)

Fan asks if he doesn’t kill Martian Manhunter, can Morrison write a series about him? “Oops! Uh… sure!” – Morrison.

Sorry Martian Manhunter fans!

Fan asks about event burnout and wanted to get thoughts. Berganza mentions Crisis is fairly limited with no tie-ins, just a couple minis and one-shots. Morrison mentions that you don’t have to buy all of some of the event tie-ins because some of the books are just crap (but not Johns and Rucka’s stuff!). “There’s other stuff you just shouldn’t be bothering with.”

Morrison believes every book you buy should be an “event”. Jones mentions when he was a kid, every Spider-Man book was an event.

Question about progress of the writing/art? “We’re on it! You sound like an editor.” – Berganza “There will be a one month break and that’s it.” – Morrison

Jones says 52 covers were distilling issues into one moment. Crisis is like being a cinematographer for a film. He gets to do a lot more acting and that it’s nice to shift gears. Keeps his brain fresh. The last continuity he did was three years ago. He’s now doing every character in the DCU.

Fan mentions that some characters in a Crisis just aren’t cosmic. How does Morrison work in the non-cosmic level characters? Morrison says they start 30,000 years in the past and they start on a very ground level – Metropolis. Darkseid’s evil – he’d crush an ant just as he’d crush a galaxy. There’s evil everywhere and everyone must face it on their own level.

Who steps up this Final Crisis? Previously it was Wally West and Dick Grayson. Morrison is trying to give everyone a moment. Lanterns first then Superman and Flash step up more towards issue #3.

Question about the end of Infinite Crisis ending with the multiple worlds – will that be thrown out? Morrison says what they do with that is the very meat of the story. They won’t get rid of it but develop it in ways they probably won’t expect.

Green Lantern Corps are big. This is kind of a cosmic murder mystery and the Corps seal off the Earth with green police tape. It’s like a giant crime scene.

Fan asks if Morrison crafts a story then theme or theme then story. Morrison said this one came out of an interest in working with the New Gods and also working on the ideas stemming from 9/11. The Western World kind of feels under threat, like the end times. People feel kind of creeped out and overwhelmed. Wanted to explore the idea of evil. Morrison said he had pretty high ambitions for it.

Question about Mary Marvel submitting to Darkseid’s evil. Will others submit and will their costumes change? Morrison said everyone has to make a choice to stand with evil or not, villains too.

Will Morrison himself appear in Final Crisis? Not yet, but he’d like to be abused be Desaad, strung up. “Pleaaaase no!”

Can we see All-Star Superman beat the crap out of All-Star Batman? “Possibly but don’t expect me to write it!” – Morrison

Captain Marvel Jr. is in #3 with a small role but has a much bigger role later. Final issues are a huge battle.

Does R.I.P. tie into it? Right after RIP there’s a two part story that ties to Final Crisis. It’s kind of the last Batman story in a way. He’ll stay on Batman after Final Crisis.

Doom Patrol in Crisis? Not a big role but they might be in the background.

Jones says they got him on the job by luring him with previous Morrison work like Marvel Boy.

Morrison says there’s a lot of shame, darkness and guilt in the Western World that we’re trying to deal with.

Will Final Crisis show Morrison’s spin on Zatanna or more the top hat type? Not a big role in Crisis. Mentions he thinks Dini is doing something with her and that Reign in Hell is probably doing something.

Black Adam hasn’t turned up yet because he doesn’t quite fit. Morrison says he might be though, would love to see Mary Marvel wipe the floor with Adam.

Fan wants to know if he’d be working with DC Animated stuff? Morrison mentions there were talks about All-Star Superman, but just vague talks. DC is very interested in various stories.

Does working for Morrison disturb JG with his bizarre character? “He’s disturbing me right now!”

Morrison doesn’t really like killing characters because it’s too easy and too final. He wants their fates to be much worse and much stranger.

Berganza mentions the series will show a lot of darkness but feels there will be a lot of light showing. Says we’ll know what he means in a few months.

Jones is penciling and inking. No wash work. He’s leaving a lot of things more open, changing his ink style. Alex Sinclair on colors. He paints it like he does his color painting, but without color (just doing shading).

Since the world is being destroyed every other week in the DCU, how is Morrison going to show the shock/theme of a 9/11 type event in the series? The panel mentions that’s the focus of the series, definitely.

Morrison has really gotten into Supergirl. Mentions Bizarro comics that came out recently and that there was a Supergirl story in there that was the “best Supergirl story ever.” Took it from her being a shining example of young womanhood – can do art, design clothes, pet cat, pet horse.

Jones says it’s a part on every page. Morrison says Jones does the best Clayface ever.

Jones and Morrison did a lot of design work together, including some redesigns including some stuff that had changed. Jones says the design process is often more fun than just doing pages. Morrison mentions we’ll see a lot of that in the sketchbook.

Will the changes that occur, including the new designs, last? Jones says they’re going to tell their story and then it’s up to the rest of the DCU creators. Morrison mentions the entire tone of the universe will change with DC Universe Zero.

Morrison wants to take off a couple years after Final Crisis. Come up with new superhero ideas. Just wants to do Batman.

Morrison can’t remember if he’s had a hand in anything outside of Alpha Lanterns for other titles he’s not writing. With Alpha, he wanted a FBI for the GLC.

Question if novels or cinema influence or if it will be written along those lines. Morrison says they’re all so different that comics exist in their own style. Morrison doesn’t really believe that there is a cinematic comic, that it’s more of an iconic image thing. He says issue #10 of All-Star Superman isn’t really cinematic to him. Believes maybe there should be another term for it. He feels there’s specifically a comic book style and that Final Crisis is in that. Jones is doing something in a handheld camera-esque thing. Morrison says there’s a lot of different techniques in this book and Jones follows by saying he’s experimenting a lot with “camera framing.”

New Gods/Fourth World play a big role, Fifth World coming. New Gods are sometimes less godly and sometimes more. How is that worked into the story. Jones mentions their look was discussed a lot. Morrison wanted the New Gods to embody light and darkness. The evil ones suck the light out of the room. Morrison mentions that Darkseid casts no shadow because he is the source of shadow. Morrison also mentions that gods are eternal ideas, given new clothes by new generations. This time the gods’ war is done and they’re cast down, manifesting themselves in new ways.

Jones doesn’t really look forward to doing specific characters, he just wants to work on great stories. He wants to see a script or talk to the writer and then if he’s interested, he’ll do it.

– Panel Ends –

I have read Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis and I can’t wait to see what Grant Morrison has planned for the entire DCU. One thing is for sure, it will be a wild ride and nothing will ever be the same.

Final Crisis begins May 28th.