Can anyone explain Final Crisis to me?

[Talavar]

I guess this stuff is spoilers, so don't clicky if you don't want to know:

[spoiler]

Okay, here's my understanding of Final Crisis so far: the New Gods mostly have died, but have taken up residence in human bodies on earth.  The evil ones seem to know that they have, and kept their powers, while the good ones are mostly in the dark about it (Why?  Who knows?).  Some guy named Libra seems to be representing them to the villains of earth, starting with a D-list flame-related villain, for whom he killed Martian Manhunter.  He's now taken that flame-related villain's free-will away with the Anti-life equation.  People show up trying to kill some of the good New gods in their new human forms, but a Japanese super-team saves them.

A bullet was shot backwards through time and killed Orion, despite the Flashes attempt to run backwards after it - Jay, Wally and Barry, who's alive, but I don't know why.

While investigating Orion's murder, Alpha Lanterns come, and eventually arrest Hal Jordan for the crime.  Hal has no memory of his whereabouts during the murder.

Batman got captured, and Superman won't leave Lois' bedside after she's hurt in a bombing of the Daily Planet.  Green Lantern Alan drafts all the superheroes to get ready to fight, but they don't know who to go after.  The internets get hacked by an email virus that Oracle can't stop from opening.

Finally, Wonder Woman is going into Bludhaven and gets attacked by a brain-washed Mary Marvel.  She seems to be hit with a viral form of the anti-life equation.  The two Flashes arrive a couple of weeks in the future, and find it to be conquered by Darkseid.  A group of monstrous characters, including Wonder Woman are poised to attack. [/spoiler]

I feel like there's an interesting story in there somewhere, but it just feels like the issues I'm reading are missing pages or something.  I've occassionally felt this way about Grant Morrison's writing before, but not to this degree.  Can anyone fill in the blanks for me, or have I basically got the gist of it?

[tommyboy]

You've summed up what we've been shown pretty well.
I have no idea where this is coming from or where it is going, which I like.
Will we end up with a multiverse again, or just one reality, or 52? I don't know.
I actually liked Infinite Crisis, so I'll possibly like this one. I have so far, but of course it's best to judge a work on all of its parts.

[the_ultimate_evil]

your 4 female furys at the end seem to be

[spoiler]wonder woman, catwoman, batwoman and giganta [/spoiler]

[Robsoie]

I feel like there's an interesting story in there somewhere, but it just feels like the issues I'm reading are missing pages or something.  I've occassionally felt this way about Grant Morrison's writing before, but not to this degree.  Can anyone fill in the blanks for me, or have I basically got the gist of it?

I guess the missing pages you feel is because of the marketing strategy DC has decided to use for Final Crisis.
By example, let's take the murder of the Martian Manhunter in  Final Crisis #1, Morrison just got this played in 1 page, so you are left with lot of question Morrison will not answer in any of the Final Crisis main serie : you don't know how he was captured, you don't understand how such hero with his level of mind power can fall that easily, you don't understand how just a "simple" weapon going through his chest can kill him (as he can move his organs usually in such situation that happened before).

So to know the answers to those kind of question you need ... to buy Final Crisis : Requiem.

Final Crisis is a great story, but DC decided to play the cash cow card, basically for everyone wanting to get the complete story, you will need to buy not just the main Final Crisis serie, but the side stories like "Final Crisis : Requiem", "Final Crisis : Revelation", "Final Crisis : Rogue Revenge", "Final Crisis : Legions of Three Worlds", "Final Crisis : whatever i can come with to get your money".

And additionally for some complement to this, the mini-serie Seven Soldiers of Victory is a good buy because of the preparation of the new gods and shilo norman setup that followed in Final Crisis.

Basically that's it, fortunately with the internet you can find summary of each side story or just find answers in various forum so you can understand very well the main event, but without the internet, to follow the story correctly and does not feel the "missing pages" thing, you will need to pull  cash in every side story.

The famous cash cow marketing strategy, the same Marvel is using currently for the Secret Invasion event too.