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AdamCollings wrote:Oh, I'd also like to learn what this anti-life equation is all about.
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mindspike wrote:
Final Crisis. If you can puzzle it out - and you have read the entirety of Grant Morrison's run of JLA and Seven Soldiers of Victory and Death of the New Gods and Countdown - and you don't forget to read all of the tie-in books as well as the aftermath in the pages of Batman and Return of Bruce Wayne... so nearly a hundred issues worth of material. If you can do all of that - and I have - it will have been one of the most frustrating and least rewarding exercises you could possibly have undertaken, one that still makes me angry.
mindspike wrote:
But the most important thing to remember about the Anti-Life Equation is this: Kirby never intended for it to be truly and extensively defined. And in my opinion, every attempt to make it into something concrete has been a - sometimes ludicrous - failure.
Paeter wrote:mindspike wrote:
But the most important thing to remember about the Anti-Life Equation is this: Kirby never intended for it to be truly and extensively defined. And in my opinion, every attempt to make it into something concrete has been a - sometimes ludicrous - failure.
I didn't know this, but am in full support of it. I always thought the equation was much more ominous a threat when it had this unknown, almost lovecraftian quality to it. So I'm with Winston in saying don't worry about trying to understand it. That may actually make it less interesting or scary.
AGoodReed wrote:Does anyone remember what the Anti-Life Equation was in Justice League Unlimited?
mindspike wrote:AGoodReed wrote:Does anyone remember what the Anti-Life Equation was in Justice League Unlimited?
This is what I think is happening.
- Anti-Life Equation in JLU:
So what was it? The short answer - I believe - is "enlightenment."
Consider Luthor's experience in pursuing it at the source wall and his actions afterward.
1. He penetrates the eye of a god.
2. He enters an undefined realm.
3. He sees something we don't.
4. The camera zooms in on a single eye, consuming it, and entering it.
5. Luthor dresses for a formal occasion.
6. Luthor offers something to Darkseid, who accepts.
7. They disappear.
My interpretation: If Cosmic Truth cannot exist within reality (hence the Source Wall), that which possesses Cosmic Truth cannot exist within reality. Fully possessing Cosmic Truth - the Anti-Life Equation - means becoming one with the Source. Luthor can't do anything halfway, having been exposed to the Truth, me must possess it in it's entirety. Knowing this, he takes time to dress for his own funeral and then takes Darkseid with him into the Source.
Why is it beautiful? Because Truth is beautiful, because the Source is the energy of creation.
Why is it the Anti-Life Equation? Because all that mortal flesh sees is the cessation of physical being, when what happens is the transcendence of being from the physical to the energetic. Of all the interpretations of the Anti-Life Equation, this is the one I find most satisfying - no coincidence I think that it is left to the viewer to infer.
I found it to be a very satisfying end to the series, providing a final and certain conclusion for both Darkseid and Luthor. I'm sorry it didn't resonate with you.
AGoodReed wrote:
- It didn't resonate with me because:
Consider how the season opened - with Luthor running from authority, focused only upon himself. As the season progressed Luthor uses and manipulates people for his personal gain. When the truth of his situation is revealed, Luthor finally stops looking within and at his own strength, and starts looking outside, towards the Source. Having located an external source of strength, Luthor is changed by it. His actions change, becoming focused on others rather than himself. In the end, he surrenders to the authority of Darkseid, the embodiment of the divine (literally a New God).BKS Iyengar wrote:There is no progress toward ultimate freedom without transformation.
mindspike wrote:AGoodReed wrote:
- It didn't resonate with me because:
Ah, but what if.....
- Luthor's final fate:
Contrast with the actions of the other villain. When the truth of their situation is revealed, they are either destroyed by confronting it (Grodd) or they choose to avoid it (everyone else) and continue in their denial. When they fight for the good guys at the end, it is an act of self-preservation, not a pursuit of self-improvement. In the end, they even return to fleeing from authority.
I like this story arc mainly because I see it as a redemption story for Luthor. He even gives up his villain suit in the end for the "power suit" of a business man who builds things and provides for his community. Superman and Batman are the avatars of Justice, but what Luthor needs is not Justice but Revelation. In the end, he gives up everything that made him what he is in pursuit of the Ultimate Truth.
I like it.
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