Blackest Night #8

Geoff Johns Writer
Ivan Reis Penciller
Eclair Albert & Joe Prado Inkers
Alex Sinclair Colorist
Nick J. Napolitano Letterer
Adam Schlagman Assoc. Editor
Eddie Berganza Editor
Cover: Reis • Albert • Sinclair
Alt. Cover: Doug Mahnke • Christian Alamy • Randy Mayor
Special thanks to Tony Avina

Our main cover shows the White Lantern Sinestro leading all the other Lanterns on a charge through a gigantic, crumbling skull, which, I assume, represents Nekron and death itself. Since this is the final issue of this story, this cover carries a strong implication that Sinestro will be the main hero at the end. That would truly be a shocking turn of events, but as we'll soon find out, that's not the case.

As usual, we get to see Reis' pencil work on this cover. I don't think this necessarily makes the cover any better. But it is interesting to see a bit of the process. Luckily, this cover isn't covered in excessive shading, so it is possible to distinguish the individual characters here.

Our alternate cover shows Hal Jordan reaching out to some hands in an almost spiritual pose. Unlike the main cover, this actually shows who the true hero is. This is a Green Lantern story, and Johns has spent several years now making sure nobody forgets that Hal is by far the best Green Lantern. I do like this cover, except for the fact it accentuates Mahnke's tendency to draw very pointy noses.

And we also have a variant to the alternate, eliminating the blinding light to make it more clear which hands are reaching out Hal. Some of these hands are vague enough to represent several different characters, but once you read the issue, it becomes clear who they are. These are all heroes who were dead before Blackest Night began or were killed in the early stages of the event.

Bart Allen did not appear in Blackest Night #7, so we're starting this issue on a rather abrupt note. Basically, our heroes have uncovered the light of life itself, known simply as the Entity, and Sinestro has selfishly merged with the Entity to become a White Lantern. He wraps Nekron in chains and rips out his heart, believing briefly that he had just saved the day. But the Black Lantern promptly commands Nekron to rise again, and he immediately reforms and strikes back at Sinestro.

Larfleeze finally manages to knock out Lex Luthor, while everyone else still has their hands full with the massive army of Black Lanterns. Finally, all the Lantern reinforcements arrive, after being summoned several issues ago. They join the fight in a crowded two-page spread, also joined by just about every hero in the DC Universe. (If you look closely, you can just make out Wally West and Jay Garrick.) Every single Lantern points their ring at Nekron in one large, focused attack of light. But this still isn't working. So Deadman takes control of Guy Gardner and explains to everybody that Nekron is just sentient darkness, and they can't actually destroy him because he's tethered to the land of the living through Black Hand. So Deadman suggests they bring Black Hand back to life, but nobody's really sure how they're supposed to do that.

Nekron eventually separates Sinestro from the Entity, so Hal decides to merge with it, using his power to seek out other heroes like himself, who had chosen to come back from the dead. Superman's Black Lantern ring is destroyed, as well as Wonder Woman's Purple Lantern ring and Barry Allen's Blue Lantern ring. These are replaced with White Lantern rings, forming a new corps with Donna Troy, Superboy, Ice, Kid Flash, Animal Man and Green Arrow.

However, the newly formed White Lantern Corps exists for exactly two seconds, as they all expend their energy into one blast that brings William Hand back to life. Everyone loses their White Lantern rings, and all that's left after this is a single ring flying around erratically. The ring flies through Nekron, injuring, but not killing him. It then plunges into the Black Lantern power battery, commanding the Anti-Monitor to live. The Anti-Monitor immediately attacks Nekron, saying he'll no longer be his prisoner and power source. But this shocking moment ends as quickly as it came, as Nekron easily banishes the Anti-Monitor to a different dimension.

Hand, meanwhile, has been vomiting up more White Lantern rings, which finally call Nekron's name, saying, "Let there be light." Nekron explodes in a flash of light, once and for all, while the rest of the rings begin seeking out a seemingly random group of heroes and villains to resurrect. And in a huge, four-page spread, we see the rings have brought back Eobard Thawne, Maxwell Lord, the original Hawk (but not the new, female one), Jade, Captain Boomerang (but not his son), Firestorm, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Deadman and Osiris.

Mera's love for Aquaman overrides her Red Lantern ring of rage, and Carter and Shiera embrace, finally remembering all their past lives. Superman congratulates J'onn, who responds with a small smile, and Ronnie and Jason separate as Firestorm, wondering where Professor Stein is. Hawk is confused and potentially violent, but Dove keeps him calm. Guy Gardner is the only reasonable one who tries to restrain Maxwell Lord, but Lord uses his mind control powers to escape and disappear in the confusion.

Jade kisses Kyle Rayner, and Superboy and Kid Flash check out a former Teen Titan they both missed. Kon asks if this is Black Adam Junior, but Bart (who was alive, but a stupid, non-heroic adult during that time) vaguely remembers this hero's name as Osiris. Osiris, however, just meekly says he wants to go home. Eobard also says he's going home. Barry tries to stop him, but he's attacked by Captain Boomerang. Barry promptly knocks out Digger, but that gave Eobard more than enough time to take off and begin setting up his attack that was detailed in Flash: Rebirth.

Barry wonders where Ralph and Sue Dibny are, but Hal sadly tells him they're not here. Deadman begins freaking out when he realizes he's alive again, saying he's not supposed to be here. Larfleeze returns the unconscious Luthor to our heroes, and, as promised, he takes one of the Guardians, Sayd, as his personal slave. The Indigo Tribe, meanwhile, quietly took off with Black Hand, imprisoning and basically lobotomizing him on their home world.

Our story ends with Barry and Hal revisiting Bruce Wayne's unmarked grave in Gotham City. Hal points out that the Black Lantern Batman they briefly encountered didn't seem to recognize any of them, suggesting that it wasn't really Bruce. Which, Hal admits, means Tim Drake has been right all along — Bruce is still alive. Barry asks what happened to the Entity, and Hal vaguely says he can still feel the white light urging them forward, away from the blackest night. And at an unknown location, a couple of random bystanders come across a White Lantern power battery sitting at the bottom of a smoking crater.




Well, it's finally over. The massive, bloated event of Blackest Night has reached its insane, nonsensical conclusion. I would have preferred to pare this story down to six issues, but Johns clearly had enough ideas for 12 issues. So when he got to the end, he had to cram everything together at a breakneck pace. A new White Lantern Corps? Cool! But they only get two pages. The Anti-Monitor is back? Amazing! But he only gets two pages. And don't ask why Black Hand barfed up those White Lantern rings — you won't get a satisfactory answer. Although, there is a sequel to this event — another unnecessarily massive and even more perplexing story called Brightest Day. Luckily for us, though, Bart barely spends any time in that event.

On a whole, Blackest Night was an entertaining story. It had great artwork, and it provided a lot of opportunities for deep, emotional moments. Sadly, Bart never really had an emotional moment here (thanks, Geoff Johns), but plenty of other characters did. There was a bit of horror with this story, and lots of intense action, which sometimes got a bit too gory. And I really did get tired of reading issue after issue filled with grotesque zombies. But mostly, I'm sad that this story just kept reinforcing the idea that Hal Jordan is the only one who can do anything. We have this huge roster of heroes at our disposal, and some of them even got upgraded powers, but at the end of the day, the only one who mattered was Hal. Everybody else served no purpose.

Next time, we'll begin the post-Blackest Night healing with a very quick look at Titans #23.