Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Blackest Night #8 of 8
DC Comics
Johns, Reis, Albert & Prado
DC wraps up its latest crossover/event with the finale of Blackest Night. It has a lot of what you might expect from a project of this scope. There are a lot of splash pages, lots of characters, plenty of clichéd dialogue and plenty of loose threads for future storylines. It's a competent issue but doesn't really deliver the powerful ending that I was anticipating. The issue itself is light on the action and seems to abandon many of the elements that we've seen as pillars during the last nine months or so. For some, I'm sure this issue will be revered because it does have a big-stage-like quality to it that lathers up to some of the characters. However, as a finale to a story it leaves too much unresolved to really be satisfactory. This just simply wasn't the Sinestro Corps War.
From the beginning this storyline has reminded me of the DC-Marvel crossover some fifteen years ago that resulted in the Amalgam Universe. In order to merge the two universes a character was created that would be all powerful to provide the means to toying with these iconic heroes. The character, Access, wasn't built up at all and the result was that the readers got some cool fights, interesting merging of characters, but no real plot or force behind the idea. It was good fun while it lasted and gave a chance for fans to see Hulk battle Superman and see a character that was Batman and Wolverine combined.
Blackest Night is a lot like that crossover. There is no reason to believe Nekron is all powerful. This issue explains how he exists in the land of the living but doesn't even try to tackle his reach of power. As such, his ultimate defeat comes off as laughable. He essentially stood around for eight issues looking cool until some people attacked. Sinestro is the White Lantern and actually fails to take him down. Hal makes a speech and things start to happen. It's all good fun but as a line wide crossover it needed to be more than just fun. It needed to tell a compelling story and it leaves a lot to be desired and ignores basic elements within its own arc.
One of the absolutes of this event has been that when heroes battle their dead friends they understand that they aren't "really" their friends, but some husk with memories being brought to life. Well, that was ignored here as, in fact, those dead folks come back to life. Not all of them, mind you, but enough to make you scratch your head.
Another piece of the story that is just run over in this issue is the idea the Black Lanterns keep on coming no matter how many the heroes put down or severe their connection to their rings. How many do we even see fight in this issue? Seems like only a handful and that there is a lot of standing around. Believe me, I'm not clamoring for more dead lovers versus the heroes stuff but you need to create some sort of atmosphere that resembled the other seven issues and this one fails to do that.
The ending leaves a lot of open threads and some of them are great, particularly where some of the characters end up. However, too many are left open. For example, why is that the red lanterns, yellow lanterns and others simply begin fighting each other? Does Sinestro, previously on death row just walk away? Where do the white rings go that resurrect everyone as they don't appear to be wearing them anymore? What happened to the Guardian Scar seeing as how the other Guardians are alive? You can get away with leaving some plot pieces open but some of these come across as lazy.
Within the issue there are some fun moments from some of the characters like Guy, Luthor and others. One of the best pieces to this entire event has been the reintroduction of Deadman. He's great in this issue and I would say one of the top five characters in this event. Enough of these moments exist to keep the issue moving and interesting.
The comic does provide a chance for the art to show off a bit. I lost count with somewhere north of one hundred characters in this issue. That's a lot to draw and I was pleased to see that the level of detail only suffered in the area of backgrounds. The coloring isn't as bright or vibrant as it was in the past but I can appreciate the difficulty in coloring the whole white light scenes. Considering the page count, character count and array of colors I did like the art in this comic. It felt "big" as it should.
This event has always been about catering to the core DCU fan. If you only followed a handful of DC titles then the big reveals about who is alive might skip right over your head or you might not care at all. However, the fans that follow the details of the DCU from event to event are going to be pleased with the contents of this book, particularly the end.
I can see how a lot of people are going to love this comic. It has a lot big speeches and lots of flashy artwork. No one knows how to build up his pet characters like Geoff Johns. However, as a story, this comic book really only ends the Nekron threat that, to me, never felt like a threat in the first place. I look forward to getting back to basics with the core Green Lantern titles.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
