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[Old Man]

And the same for the follow up post with no name attached.

[john lewis hawk]

You think it doesn't already? Seriously?

[Hermit_Sage]

interesting, next week's book is a book I was on the fence on.

so its a great book to use as my review to return to the review group.

[thefourthman]

interesting, next week's book is a book I was on the fence on.

so its a great book to use as my review to return to the review group.

holy shit! what the hell? You are still alive?!?!

[doombug]

And the same for the follow up post with no name attached.

I really didn't expect such a positive and great review from you.

[Hermit_Sage]

holy shit! what the hell? You are still alive?!?!

hey if you posted in the 24,Chuck, Wrestling threads you'd see I have always been here!

[Jubilee]

Exactly a point I made above. Don't read it, read the recaps, then hate it. Typical internet punk.

You do realise I did read this book. I just didn't pay for it.....

[Jubilee]

Exactly a point I made above. Don't read it, read the recaps, then hate it. Typical internet punk.

I read it! I swear Old Man! One of these days me and you are going to meet up in an alleyway and just have it out.

[Jubilee]

This is how a mega-event should be written. A lot of things happen and an ending is reached. At this point, you could stop reading comics forever and never wonder how the event finished.

Somebody asked where they should start if they wanted to get into Blackest Night. The answer is Blackest Night #1, but if you want to fully enjoy all that is happening, you have to start with Green Lantern: Rebirth. That is how far back the roots for this series go.

Somebody who only reads the Wickipedia recaps might very well say that it doesn't sound that good. That's because it is best enjoyed by reading it, not just summaries...something that seems to happen all too often. There is more physical and emotional impact through the direct involvement of watching a football game as opposed to read a story in a newspaper.

I suppose the DC haters, the Geoff Johns haters, and the Dan DiDio haters are going to find ways to tear this apart. More power to them. This is Johns's best work to date. Hopefully, we will get more of this in the future.

The art is superb. There are only a few places where it is not perfectly clear what is happening, not on every page, as is often the case today.

If you are a superhero fan, this is the best it gets for big events. On that basis, I give it a 9.9. It's almost perfect, and is on a par with Watchmen.

I also can't tell if you're joking with this. Saying it's on par with Watchmen? I think.. this is almost confirmation to a theory I've had for a while now, that this is some kind of joke account.

[******]

interesting, next week's book is a book I was on the fence on.

so its a great book to use as my review to return to the review group.

Yay!

[******]

hey if you posted in the 24,Chuck, Wrestling threads you'd see I have always been here!

Those threads don't count.

[******]

I also can't tell if you're joking with this. Saying it's on par with Watchmen? I think.. this is almost confirmation to a theory I've had for a while now, that this is some kind of joke account.

Just a hunch, but I don't see myself drinking out of a Blackest Night coffee mug every morning 25 years from now.

[Punchy]

Finally got off my arse and went to get my comics from last week, I should have a review for this up early evening my time.

[Punchy]

Blackest Night #8(of 8 ) - 'Blackest Night' - Johns, Reis, Albert and Prado

Story - So it's come to this. The end of Blackest Night. The culmination of 5 years of Green Lantern stories, the ultimate battle between life and death. Heady stuff. But is it any good?

Eh, it's OK I guess, I've read better.

I suppose I have mostly myself to blame for the feeling of apathy I hold towards Blackest Night #8, I read the spoilers for this issue a week before I read it, and already had time for the ensuing events to percolate in my brain and for me to form an opinion, without even reading the comic. But surely a comic lies in the telling? If all I'm interested in is spoilers, why don't I join the Wikipedia Review Group? The events of Blackest Night may have pissed me off in their blunt, factual form, but has Geoff Johns found a way to convey them which makes it work?

The answer is no. I've often found Johns to be a rather clunky and unsubtle writer. His dialogue is leaden at times, and his reliance on splash-pages and cool catchphrases annoys me. He's like Mark Millar without the sense of humour and original ideas. Blackest Night #8 is probably one of the lesser Johns issue's I've read. It just seems kind of... perfunctory, Nekron is despatched rather easily, and then a bunch of seemingly (I say seemingly, more later) random characters are resurrected, and Hal and Barry are back where they started, staring at Bruce Wayne's graves like lusty Necrophiliacs.

The thing that annoyed me most about this issue was probably how Nekron was dealt with, it just seemed so unspeakably lame and unlikely. I know this is a DCU crossover, and you have to suspend your disbelief a lot more than some other companies' events (Secret Invasion's main threat was ended by a gunshot to the head, that I can buy, even if it's a laser gun and the victim was a big green alien) but here... I just came out of nowhere. I never bought Nekron as a proper threat anyway, and his demise underlines that, all the JLA had to was dress up as the Ku Klux Klan and he'd go bye-bye? Lame. And what was the point of the Anti-Monitor in this story? Wasteful.

And then there's the resurrections. A selection of classic DCU characters (and Osiris) have been brought back to life. Only some, not all. Why only these guys? Obviously most of them are there to set up a new series spinning out of this event, but at this stage it seems kind of arbitrary that these characters and these only are back. It pulls you out of the story, you're acutely aware of a writer's hands being behind this, you know Johns picked these, and right now, it seems like he just chose his favourites, and that sticks in my craw. By all means use your favourite characters (or versions of characters), but don't be so blatant about it. The silver-age nostalgia here is also worrying, does Johns love the past so much he's willing to kill his own characters and replace them with long-dead ones? (See Kendra/Shiera). DC of course are saying that it's not random, that this was all part of a plan, and these characters and not, say Ted Kord, are back for a reason, and maybe they are, we'll see, but for now... not good. I will say that some of the possibilities are interesting, I like seeing the classic Aquaman back, the relationship between Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond is ripe for good stories, and Deadman being alive fascinates me.

Overall, this is an OK ending to an OK event, it has it's problems, Johns' own short-comings, and the seeming randomnness of the resurrections, but I am interested in several future stories spinning out of this, so I suppose this issue has done it's job. At least this issue actually featured all the Green Lanterns, which is only appropriate for a Green Lantern event, too often in this book, they were absent.

Oh, and I'm deducting a point for Larfleeze, he's eye-rolling at the best of times, but he was particularly odious here. Ugh.

Art - At least Ivan Reis is on top form, this mini-series has shown he's capable of handling pretty much anything thrown at him, the 2 page spreads in here are wonderful, and without him, this book would really be terrible. He reminds me of Neal Adams in his clean, classic style. I can't wait to see what he's up to next, I'd like to see him on Superman.

Best Line - Um... Johns' dialogue is pretty bad, I suppose it's 'LIVE', sums up the book.

5/10 It would be 6, but as I said, Larfleeze.

[******]

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