Matt Price and Kyle Roberts review X-Men Origins: Wolverine and talk about a few of the best comics that came out this week, including the one-shot with the same title, X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Batman Battle for the Cowl: The Underground, and Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #4.

DC Comics brings surprise endings to “Adventure Comics” 0 and “Legion of Three Worlds” 3. And Marvel Comics has two new launches, “War of Kings: Darkhawk” 1 and a revamped “Black Panther” 1. Kyle Roberts and Matt Price give you the lowdown.

Kyle Roberts and Matt Price discuss the final issue of “Final Crisis” and a new comic based on the animated “Brave and Bold” cartoon. The New Avengers get involved with Dark Reign in “New Avengers” 49, as Cage seeks his child. And Captain America teams up with Namor in “Captain America” 46.

Things don’t look good for Batman at the end of Final Crisis #6, where the Dark Knight Detective is apparently killed by Darkseid.  At the end of the recent “Batman: R.I.P.,” DC’s executive editor Dan Didio indicated Bruce Wayne as Batman would be gone for a while, but that he wouldn’t be dead. Still, Superman holding Batman’s corpse seems to indicate Batman is at least comic-book dead for the time being.

Pity the poor casual reader who picks up Final Crisis 1. As confusing as it is to enter a shared universe of costumed heroes and villains, coming into a big company crossover must be even harder.

Writer Grant Morrision (Invisibles, Seven Soldiers, everything else ever) has kept his promise to readers – this story does start with Anthro and end with Kamandi – but in-between is a confusing cross section of life in the DC Universe.

If you’re waiting for something heroic to happen, or even a good fight to break out, then maybe Final Crisis 2 or 3 will have something for you. In this issue, we get the Green Lanterns investigating the death of a New God. It’s an event they find shocking, which just goes to show they haven’t been reading that miniseries, Death of the New Gods, or talking with fellow Justice Leaguer Superman, who was involved in the action.

And if you haven’t been reading Justice League of America, you’re probably wondering who this Libra character that’s trying to take over the Secret Society of Supervillains is. Join the club. 

Maybe all of this will read better in the trade, when the gaping holes can be filled in by turning a few more pages. For those of us going month-to-month, the effect is underwhelming. It just seems a mish-mash of characters, very few promising leads to what’s going on and no clear direction on where the story is headed.

Perhaps hype was the enemy, because Final Crisis 1 came with such pedigree and so many eager readers that it can’t live up to our expectations. Luckily for the upcoming second issue, my expectations are now lowered. Hopefully they’ll be knocked out of the park by the time this series ends.

– Greg Elwell 

Greg Elwell, Kyle Roberts and I discuss some of this week’s new comics on the weekly comics podcast.  Grant Morrison X2 this week, with “Batman” #677, the second part of “Batman RIP,” along with the kickoff of DC’s big crossover “Final Crisis” #1.  Mark Millar starts a new series, tied into the 1980s series “Secret Wars,” with “Marvel 1985″ #1, and Joss Whedon and John Cassaday wrap up their X-Men run with “Giant Size Astonishing X-Men” #1.

– Matt Price

Just a reminder – due to the Memorial Day holiday, comics ship on Thursday this week.  If you go looking for “Final Crisis” on Wednesday, it’s not going to be there. 

That said, what a beefy week of comics.  The much-anticipated “Final Crisis” #1, of course.  The original Toyman returns in “Action Comics” #865.  The second part of Grant Morrison’s “Batman RIP” ships.

Marvel’s not being left out of the party, either, as the grand finale to Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s “Astonishing X-Men” hits this week, in “Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men” #1.  Mark Millar goes Marty McFly in taking us back to “1985.”

On the indy front, Dave “Cerebus” Sim releases his Holocaust-themed “Judenhass.”  

Full list and commentary after the break.

ACTION COMICS #865
I’m loving the Kevin Maguire covers, and “Action Comics” has been outstanding since Johns took over.

ALL STAR SUPERMAN #11

Good time to be a Superman fan — “All-Star Superman” is also an amazing take on the Man of Steel.  The penultimate issue, and I have to say, I think the 12 issues of “All-Star Superman” will be one of those runs people will still be reading 10 years from now. (No, not because the last issue will be that late.)

ANGEL REVELATIONS #1 (OF 5)

By the creative team of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Adam Pollina.  This is a Warren Worthington series, not Liam/Angelus.

Morrison says:  “The Gods are here to destroy everything that we hold dear, everything that has meaning to us, everything that has value for us. They want to utterly crush the human species and reduce us all to slavery and that’s as big a threat as it gets. We wanted to do a primal superhero myth that would pit absolute evil against pure good in a way you don’t see much of in comics these days so it’s the story of the DC universe facing its apocalypse and only Darkseid could cut it as the main villain.”

Also, SPOILER SPOILER, Morrison says “Batman isn’t coming back from it. Batman, as we know him, is not coming back from it.”

– Matt Price