The Final Night #4

The Final Knight

Karl Kesel .. Writer
Stuart Immonen .. Penciller
Jose Marzan Jr. .. Inker
Trish Mulvihill .. Colorist
Gaspar .. Letterer
Ali Morales .. Assistant Ed.
Dan Thorsland .. Editor

The cover by Immonen and Marzan actually shows Impulse for once! Unfortunately, Impulse is nowhere to be found inside this issue, not even lurking in the background. But he's not alone. Half the characters on this cover only appear on the cover, including Aquaman, Superboy, Martian Manhunter, and Mr. Miracle, who presented the first (failed) plan to take down the Sun-Eater. I wonder if this was a late editorial decision. It's almost as if DC realized at the last second that a bunch of popular characters played no role in this conclusion, so they hastily threw them on the cover.

Our story picks right up where Legion of Super-heroes #86 left off, with Lex Luthor and Brainiac 5 presenting their latest plan. Unable to prevent the sun from going hyper-nova, they have decided to try to contain the blast by placing a massive force field around the sun. Luthor designed a force-field generator, and Flash assembled half a million of them in twelve hours, while other speedsters made continuous supply runs. I guess that includes Impulse, but nobody specifically said his name.

Luthor plans to have Green Lantern pilot Dusk's ship to put the devices in place, but Lantern suddenly disappears right there and then. So Superman volunteers to take his place, but first he stops to write a goodbye note to Lois Lane. He takes so long writing this note, that Ferro has enough time to sneak into Dusk's ship and take off before anybody can stop him.

Suddenly, Green Lantern returns with Parallax, the former Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who destroyed all existence in Zero Hour. But this time, Parallax wants to save the earth. He explains that he can get rid of the Sun-Eater, heal the sun, and moderate the energy so Earth warms up safely. Batman protests, but Superman accepts, and Parallax takes off to save the day. First, he rescues the idiot Ferro right before he dies. Then Parallax dispels the Sun-Eater and restores the sun to its former glory by reciting the Green Lantern's oath. And in an intentionally ambiguous ending, it almost appears as if Parallax died while doing this. Almost.


Well, that was a pretty convenient ending. At the end of the day, it didn't matter what any of the heroes did, because the most powerful being in the universe came in at the last second to do everything himself. At least Zero Hour required a handful of heroes to stop Parallax. But here, all the heroes spent most of the time sitting around in a dark laboratory, throwing out suggestions that never went anywhere. And if this was supposed to be a sweet redemption tale about Hal Jordan, then why wasn't he even mentioned in the first three issues of this miniseries? All in all, I consider Final Night and underwhelming crossover event.

Next time, we get back to basics with Impulse #19.

Legion of Super-heroes #86

Heart of Iron

Your guides to the 20th century:
Tom Peyer – Writer/Co-Plotter
Tom McCraw – Co-Plotter/Colorist
Lee Moder – Penciller
Ron Boyd – Inker
Pat Brousseau – Letterer
Ruben Diaz – Associate Editor
KC Carlson – Editor

The cover is by Alan Davis, Mark Farmer and Patrick Martin. It shows the hero Ferro, who can turn his skin into iron, riding a bomb into the sun. This is paying homage to the original Ferro Lad, who died in a similar manner in 1967. But this is 1996 with a new Legion of Super-heroes and new circumstances. However, Ferro does not actually dive into the sun in this issue. He wants to, but doesn't get to.

As you may or may not know, the Legion of Super-heroes is team of teenagers from the 30th century. Bart's cousin, Jenni Ognats aka XS, is a member of the team, which was stranded in the 20th century during the whole Sun-Eater attack. But Jenni was able to return to the future thanks to the future Flash, John Fox, and the cosmic treadmill. But the rest of her teammates are still here, mostly complaining about being stuck in 1996 and whining about how cold it is. I guess they do help out a few people here and there, but the majority of this issue serves to annoy me. Impulse will later have some direct adventures with them, but for now, he's relegated to the background of a flashback.

The interesting part of the issue comes at the end, when Ferro presents a plan to Brainiac 5 and Lex Luthor. You see, Ferro doesn't want any of the major heroes like Superman to risk their lives, so he volunteers himself for a suicide mission to deliver a bomb to the Sun-Eater. He even drew a little sketch that looks just like the cover. But Brainiac 5 and Luthor dismiss Ferro's idea, choosing instead to contain the hyper-nova with a force field. Luthor wants Green Lantern to set it up, but he mysteriously disappears at that very moment. So Superman volunteers, but Ferro's death wish isn't satiated.




I guess this would have been an OK issue if I were a Legion fan, but I'm not, so it came off as rather boring. I'm also not exactly sure why Ferro was so insistent that he kill himself. I think this was a case of the writers being too excited to re-create history, and their unbridled excitement came across as an usual eagerness for Ferro to end his own life.

None of the letters in Legion Outpost mention Impulse, or even XS for that matter, so we'll head straight to the ads:

Skittles. Taste the rainbow. I could be mistaken, but I believe this may have been one of the first time's Skittles used that slogan. And they've kept it going for 20 years.

There's a Cap'n Crunch one-page comic, wherein the Cap'n uses his delicious cereal to motivate three kids to cross a dangerous rope bridge.

CD-ROM comic books burst onto the scene! Featuring animation from the classic 1960s DC Saturday morning cartoons.

If you can't meet the pros in person, we'll send them to your door. Dynamic Forces New York Comic Convention.

It's the ultimate Halloween party. And you're invited. Batman: The Long Halloween. Jeph Loeb. Tim Sale. This is a classic that is required reading for any and every comic book fan.

Night time has come. Night Force. Marv Wolfman, Brent Anderson, Will Blyberg.

Subscribe to the world's mightiest heroes! A normal issue of Legion of Super-heroes cost $2.25, but you could get 12 issues for $21, plus the annual for free.

Watch This Space talks a bit about the DC Versus Marvel trade paperback, which included Mercury, the cross of Impulse and Quicksilver. But most of the editor's column is taken up with a sad note about the sudden passing of 30-year-old artist Mike Parobeck. Apparently he was killed by complications due to diabetes. He was the penciller of Impulse Annual #1, an issue I really didn't care for. But Parobeck was better-known for his work on the comic adaptation of Batman: The Animated Series.

Same time. Same place. Different dimensions. Sliders. Fridays on Fox.

Prepare to fly. Nights: Into Dreams ... Sega Saturn.

Next time, we conclude DC's big event of 1996 with The Final Night #4.

The Final Night #3

Chapter 3: Keeping Hope Alive

Karl Kesel • Writer
Stuart Immonen • Penciller
Jose Marzan Jr. • Inker
Patricia Mulvihll • Colors
Gaspar • Letters
Ali Morales • Asst. Editor
Dan Thorsland • Editor

This cover by Immonen and Marzan shows Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel flying away from scores of body bags. It's a rather haunting image, painting a much graver picture than anything we see inside this issue.

We skipped issue #2, but trust me, we didn't miss much. In issue #3, we find out it's been three days since the Sun-Eater covered the sun. Most of the heroes are busy trying to prevent riots from breaking out around the world and provide supplies to people in need. Meanwhile, a select few are holed up in S.T.A.R. Labs, working on a permanent solution under Lex Luthor and Brainiac 5. And, if you look closely, you can just make out Impulse lurking in the background.

Brainiac 5 and Luthor discover the sun is trying to fend off the Sun-Eater, in a sense, and is in danger of going hyper-nova, which would destroy Earth. But our heroes still aren't any closer to finding a solution. Oh, and the Phantom Stranger spends his time taking Dusk around the world to show her that humanity hasn't given up, or something inspirational like that.


This was a rather dull issue for what's supposed to be DC's big crossover event of 1996. Yeah, every character imaginable is there, but none of them are doing anything interesting. Maybe I'd like this story more if Impulse had something to do, but it really feels like Karl Kesel's story was only long enough for two or three issues, so there's a lot of stalling going on to stretch it to four issues. And the art is really lackluster. Jose Marzan Jr. is normally a better inker than this, so perhaps a lot of this blotchiness can be blamed on the coloring.

Next time, we'll check out one of the Final Night tie-in issues that happens to draw Impulse in the background — Legion of Super-Heroes #86.

The Final Night #1

Chapter One: Dusk

Karl Kesel ... Writer
Stuart Immonen ... Penciller
Jose Marzan Jr. ... Inker
Lee Loughridge .. Colorist
Gaspar ... Letterer
Ali Morales ... Asst. Editor
Dan Thorsland ... Editor

The cover by Immonen and Marzan shows the biggest, most powerful DC characters — Batman, Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter — standing on Clark Kent's place of employment, The Daily Planet. It's an OK cover, but it seems to suffer from some of the crude computerized coloring that plagued this era.

Our story begins with Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes being alerted to an approaching alien spacecraft, which just happens to land in Metropolis. The alien introduces herself as Dusk and delivers a dire warning: The Sun-Eater is coming! She explains that a gigantic alien is on its way to devour the sun and destroy the solar system. So Superman summons every superhero imaginable to figure out a way to stop this upcoming threat.

And that brief glimpse of Impulse swinging his legs back and forth is all we see of him in this issue. The first plan the heroes come up with is to have Mr. Miracle create a large boom tube to teleport the Sun-Eater away. But that fails. Then all the energy-based heroes combine their powers to create a second sun in an effort to lure away the Sun-Eater, but that fails, too. Soon, the Sun-Eater envelops the sun, casting the Earth in frigid darkness. And Lex Luthor decides to end his tropical vacation to help the heroes save the world.




So that's not a terrible beginning to a big event book. Putting the sun at risk certainly is a large enough threat to unite all of DC's heroes, but unfortunately, only a select few can actually do something about it. It's a similar problem that faced Zero Hour, but unlike Zero Hour, Final Night so far isn't providing any random fighting opportunities for all the land-bound heroes like Impulse.

I only have the digital copy of this series, so there won't be any ads here.

Impulse doesn't appear in the next issue, so we'll skip ahead to The Final Night #3.