-Today was the day, nearly three quarters of a year after the fact Blackest Night has come to its conclusion. I’ve been along for the ride since the beginning traveling down a road that while bumpy at times proved to be a fantastic trip nonetheless. Along the way there were many sights to stop and just take in. Heroes and Villains returning from the dead or in some cases joining them, Old faces we haven’t seen comeback almost like a half of fame quarterback returning to lead a team to the Super Bowl (or in Brett Favre’s case the NFC Championship), Anyway enough gushing, on to the review.
Blackest Night was broken up into 3 essential reads, that being the main Blackest Night series as well as Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. The spin-offs also proved fun but proved unnecessary to enjoy the overall experience although Blackest Night Wonder Woman and Flash proved quite interesting and well worth the price of admission. Over countless issues we’ve witnessed old friends become new enemies and more costume changes then a high school musical. We've had emotional baggage up to our ears and mind games galore. It's all been part of a rather wonderful formula.
In-case you need a refresher here goes (Blackest Night Spoilers up to BL 8)
-Black Rings attach to dead heroes and bring them back as Black Lanterns, notable zombie heroes include Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Hawkman and the list goes on and on.
-Heroes unite to try and take down said Black Lanterns but can’t as they just reform and continue killing people all the while building up the Black Lantern Central Power Battery to 100%.
-Once the Battery gets charged Nekron is unleashed and wants to end all life in the universe to bring about a little peace and quite.
-Some living heroes who have died in the past are turned into BL’s including Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, etc… Black Rings also try to (and almost) grab a hold of Hal and Barry but the two get away.
-The Various other colored corps each deputizes someone on earth into their corps (not by choice). Some inspired choices include Yellow Lantern Scarecrow, Orange Lantern Lex Luthor and Red Lantern Mera!
-The corps fight off the BL’s by learning that mixing the various color lights kills them permanently. Lots of epic battles occur throughout the core 3 books.
-They still can’t defeat Nekron and all seems lost until the White Entity is finally unleashed and joins with Sinestro.
This takes us to now, the corps have all arrived on earth and are throwing down with the Black Lanterns. This leads to a bit of a stalemate as White Lantern Sinestro can’t die as neither can Nekron seeing as how they control Life and Death respectively. What plays out in Blackest Night 8 is an epic conclusion to an epic storyline that I will not ruin for anyone out there. What I will say is that Geoff Johns masterfully wraps up his epic space opus with BRILLIANT art from Ivan Reis, Oclair Albert and Joe Prado with coloring by Alex Sinclair. Mixing all of these awesome talents just makes everything even better. To create some of the epic battles on display could be no easy task and I tip every hat I own to the talent involved.
Story wise it all wraps up and makes sense considering what has been going on for the last several months. We get the resolution we’ve been promised while also leaving open some crazy possibilities. Without getting into specifics, the status quo in regards to who is dead and who is alive has successfully been flipped on its back, spun around and thrown across the room. By the end of the issue you will find yourself wondering just how far reaching the effects of Blackest Night have reached, its questions like this that will drive people like me crazy while waiting for Brightest Day!
Geoff Johns has made Green Lantern the most consistently awesome read in the DC universe and with Blackest Night has successfully brought the rest of the DC Universe into the fold of things. Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for zombie tales (though I don’t think of Black Lanterns as zombies) but Blackest Night has since day 1 been what I look forward to on my Wednesday’s. The series has been filled with more memorable moments then you could shake a stick at whether it was Kyle's death/rebirth, Guy's becoming a Red Lantern, Sinestro taking the spotlight, Mogo, Ant-Monitor, etc... again the list is just too damn long to go on but needless to say it was more than enough to keep any comic fan happy and now sadly like all great things it has come to an end, but in ending has ushered in a new exciting path for the DC Universe, one could almost call it a Brightest Day…ZING!
A perfect “Summer Blockbuster” event comic that has kept me on the edge of my seat for months, so then Mr. Johns, what do you have in store for us next???
Final Verdict:
9.5 out of 10
it loses half a point cause it had to end :-(
