"The Blackest Night falls from the skies
The darkness grows as all light dies
We crave your hearts and your demise
By my black hand - the dead shall rise!" ~ Oath of the Black Lanterns
Finally, the Blackest Night is upon the universe. Black Hand, the newly revealed Herald of the Black Lanterns, has defiled the grave of Bruce Wayne, known far better as the Batman. With the dark knight's skull in his possession Black Hand has unleashed a plague upon life - the plague of the Black Rings. From Mars to Earth, from Oa to Ysmault and beyond, they seek out the dead.
Now the deceased rise once more, and the end of the universe seems nigh...
Dramatis Personnae:
The Justice League of America
The Green Lantern Corps
The Sinestro Corps
The Red Lantern Corps
The Blue Lantern Corps
The Star Sapphires
Agent Orange
The Indigo Tribe
The Black Lantern Corps
Black Hand
Scar
?????? (hidden)
Plot Summary:
Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, visiting the grave of Bruce Wayne, are reminiscing about the fallen heroes they have known. It is a scene taking place all over the world, as masked avengers take time out to honour the superheroes who were killed in the line of duty. However, their day of peace will soon be turned into a nightmare.
Black Hand locates the grave of Batman, and, digging it up, steals the former Dark Knight's skull for his diabolical ritual. With the cadaver in tow, he recites a new oath, and brings about the release of thousands of black power rings. On Oa, and in the various graveyards of heroes in the universe, these rings seek out the dead, and resurrect them for a new purpose - to take the hearts of the living. As Hal and Barry fend off the body of their old friend J'onn J'onzz and the surviving heroes find themselves attacked by their own loved ones, now in the guise of Black Lanterns, all seems lost to the darkness...
Verdict:
If there is to be an apocalypse-based story published by any other company, it had better take note of DC's crossover here.
Blackest Night is, simply, magnificent. I couldn't believe how well all the hints and nudges we've seen and all the Preludes have been sewn into this rather epic final stand for the universe. Everything, from the references made to this event as far back as Green Lantern: No Fear, to the destruction of Xanshi has it's place in the telling of Qull's doomsday prophecy.
Some history, for those who don't know. This Crossover has it's roots in an Alan Moore story, called Tygers, in which we see Abin Sur as he encounters the prophetic Qull. Of the three questions asked of the demon, one concerns the ultimate threat faced by the Green Lantern Corps in the future. What Abin Sur is told is the infamous Prophecy of Blackest Night. This short story was published in 1986, and this makes the book I'm looking at now 24 years in the making.
The characters involved here are fascinating to watch. The story is centred around Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Ray Palmer and John Stewart of Earth, and how they react to the rising of the dead and the attacks on both Earth and other planets. Our first encounter is with a Black Lantern Martian Manhunter, and believe me, the scenes with him in are just fantastic. The threat emanating from the Martian is palpable, as is the shock and confusion of the Flash and Green Lantern. This is, of course, quite understandable, as after all he's meant to have died, and seeing him return would be a shock to anyone, but here's where Blackest Night gets a little clever, in the vein of Marvel Zombies. The Black Lanterns aren't just shambling zombies, or even fully animate puppets; they take on the exact personality, mannerisms and speech patterns of their living counterpart. In effect, Hal and Barry don't end up fighting a monster, they end up fighting J'onn J'onzz as he was in life, except more corpse-like in appearance now. This injects the action with even more tension than before; after all, J'onn has fought alongside the Justice League for many years, and as a result, he knows all their tactics. Who better, then, to beat them?
What is more interesting, for me, is the way the Black Lanterns are expanded upon as the plot progresses. Two key hints are given that the Black Lanterns are not all that they seem; Deadman's corpse rising without him, leaving him as a ghost, and the Spectre's host body taking on the form of the Spectre as a Black Lantern, despite the Spectre being still inside it. Essentially the idea being alluded to here is that it is the rings wearing the people, as opposed to the people wearing the rings, which both ties in with the overall climax of the series and also, in the case of Deadman, makes the events of the book even more tense, as he is forced to fight to repossess his body before it can do anyone harm.
Now, no great collection is complete without some great art to go along with it, and I'm glad to say that Blackest Night does not disappoint. Throughout, the artwork is stylistically rendered and utterly crisp to a fault, and I cannot really fault anything I saw in there. Black Hand looks horrifically sinister, even more so now he is a Black Lantern herald, and Guardian Scar just terrifies me to look at. Seriously, she's like some kind of horrifying sentient zombie dwarf, which is somehow the scariest thing I've seen bar the "familiar faces" that attack Atrocitus in this. Many of the Black Lanterns have slight costume redesigns in order to fit in with their new corps, and I'm glad to say that these redesigns are just excellent. The central feature of each character, of course, is their shiny new Black Lantern symbol, and it's often interesting to see how these are applied to the characters in question. Some of them are obvious, some are subtle, but either way all of them are inspired to some degree.
Overall, then, I am delighted to be the owner of this collection, and strongly advise people get it. It's about £18.99 in stores, but it's much cheaper on the internet if you know where to look.
9.2/10
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