Prime Time Geek

This review is SPOILER FREE.

I just need to say this right now: Dan Didio and DC Comics, just this once, I apologize for doubting you.

Months ago, prior to MegaCon, I complained in this space about DC Comics robbing Blackest Night of some emotional impact by allowing the identities of certain Black Lanterns to surface long before the comics reached the hands of readers. I looked at the revelations of Earth-2 Superman and Martian Manhunter as Black Lanterns as a catastrophic misstep, because what other revelations could they possibly throw at us that could match the heart-rending reveals of Kal-L and J’onn J’onzz to Earth’s heroes as the Blackest Night descended upon the DCU?

Yeah, well, shows what I know.

Unless you’ve somehow had access to Geoff Johns’ scripts or Ivan Reis’s sketches, Blackest Night #1 is certain to leave you in shock. Everything we’ve seen to this point–the emergence of the other Corps, the Sinestro Corps War, even the prophesy of Cosmic Revelations at the end of that story arc that first revealed the coming of ‘the Blackest Night,’–will do NOTHING to lessen the impact of the events that unfold in these first pages. Think back to when you read the Sinestro Corps War Special that kicked off that story, when all the villains, all of the Anti-Monitor’s heralds, stood revealed, and the dread you felt in that moment, the fear you might have felt (along with the need to see what happened next).

I promise you, Blackest Night #1 will top that feeling.

In terms of the art, Ivan Reis is at the top of his game here. Due to the sheer number of DC characters we see in the course of the issue, the fact that everything is coherent and every panel delivers emotional impact, is truly astounding. Add to those pages several double-page splash images that give the proceedings a “widescreen” feel, much like the work of illustrator Bryan Hitch did in his Ultimates work for Marvel. Any one of those splash spreads would make a great poster or gatefold cover, and no doubt at least one of them will when this issue gets into reprints. If he’s able to keep this book on time and it’s his work throughout all eight issues, Reis will have established his claim to succeeding George Perez as THE ‘epic’ artist at DC Comics.

But of course, none of it would matter without Geoff Johns’s seemingly-effortless forays into the minds of his main characters. We as readers experience the events of this issue through the viewpoints of a number of characters, and each of those viewpoints, each of those narrative voices, feels separate and distinct. Of course, its to be expected with Hal Jordan, who Johns has guided in his journey since “Green Lantern: Rebirth.” But the other voices that tell this tale are just as effective and riveting.

Now, seriously, if you’ve been waiting for this as long as most DC fans have been, the chances that you weren’t going to enjoy the story were, in my opinion, quite slim. But so many people picked up Blackest Night #0 on Free Comic Book Day not because they were Green Lantern fans or DC fans, but because it was FREE. It’s to those readers out there who might have been impressed with that issue but still not inclined to grab Blackest Night #1 tomorrow because they’re not fans of Green Lantern or DC that I say this:

Pick this book up. Trust me, you’re going to love it.