Top 10 Reasons Blackest Night Might Be The Best DC Event Ever
Could Blackest Night Have Been One Of The Best DC Events Ever?
Blackest Night was DC’s biggest event it it’s 75 year history, and could possibly be DC’s best event ever. It was a huge event with multiple mini-series’, many tie-in issues, promotional products and a build-up beginning with The Sinestro Corps War. It was a huge undertaking for everyone at DC, and the amazing thing is they did it with no delays and virtually no problems in it’s execution. Blackest Night crossed over into many DC titles and DC even decided to add another issue to many canceled titles, which has never been done before. Here are the Top 10 Reasons Blackest Night might just be the greatest DC event of all time:
#10. The Overall Scale of The Event
The main Blackest Night title lasted 8 issues, 9 months with the one month break between 6 and 7. BN was a huge undertaking with all the tie-in’s and mini’s, and DC pulled it off excellently. Blackest Night’s scale is unprecedented, and I think it will be a while until another event reaches the magnitude it has.
#9. The Promotions
DC decided to do the Blackest Night Promotional Rings program, where retailers could purchase bags of lantern corps rings after buying a select number of tie-in issues. The promo was hugely successful, many people even bought multiple copies so they could get more rings. I even have a set of the rings sitting atop my computer monitor that I am extremely happy I bought.
#8. The Possibilities For The Future
Blackest Night not only changed the DCU in unheard of ways, it also left possibilities for the future open wide. There have been more additions to DCU continuity and changes to it that it’s really impossible to tell what direction were headed. The next event, Brightest Day, is a direct result of Blackest Night, and has been referred to as DCU Rebirth. Blackest Night opened the doors, Brightest Day will shove us through them. Lead the way DC, lead the way.
#7. The 5 Year Build Up
This image was one of the very first glimpses we were given of Blackest Night, and readers were instantly hooked. The Sinestro Corps War gave us a taste, and that was enough to have readers buzzing frantically for 5 years straight. It was unknown at the time that Blackest Night would be so huge, and we weren’t even given a glimpse at the first Black Lantern until shortly before the event actually started. There was lot’s of foreshadowing to Blackest Night in both Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, and if you weren’t actually looking for them, you probably didn’t see them.
#6. The Tie-In’s and Mini-Series’
During Blackest Night, we saw 6 mini-series’ and 29 tie-in issues, including the individual issues added to the resurrected titles. The most popular mini was the Batman one, although all of them were successful. The mini’s served to show certain character’s BN experience while not crossing over into their core titles, so they wouldn’t interrupt their storylines. The reach BN had over the rest of the DCU is unprecedented, and will most likely not be surpassed for a while.
#5. The Impact On The Rest Of The DCU
The effects of Blackest Night will be felt for years and will be long-lasting, I guarantee that much. Many characters lost their lives, many were resurrected, and many have had changes in their situations. This event was hugely emotional for many characters, and it’s a sure thing they will never be able to think of their dead loved ones without remembering the Blackest Night. Blackest Night was not only a huge event for us, but the DCU will probably never fully recover from recent events.
#4. The Marketing Campaign
As Blackest Night was getting closer, we began to see more and more advertisements regarding it. The DC Nation features at the back of every DC issue featured ads for it, and DC even put an “Inside The Blackest Night” featurette on the Green Lantern: First Flight DVD and Blu-Ray. Ads like the one featured above arose, featuring the first glimpses at the way the Black Lanterns would appear, and featured Firestorm, Aquaman, Superman of Earth-2 and Martian Manhunter. These ads increased excitement for the event and got readers buzzing more than they had been previously.
#3. The Character Usage
From the beginning, Blackest Night obviously had more of a focus on the smaller DCU characters rather than the biggest name ones. The focus on second-tier characters like Mera, The Atom, Firestorm and The Titans proved that you don’t need Superman or Batman starring to sell a book, as Blackest Night continuously sold higher than many issues starring bigger name characters. We got to see those characters in their own mini-series, but the main Blackest Night title focused more on secondary characters and brought whole new dimensions to their personality.
#2. The Story
One of the reasons Blackest Night was such a huge success was the story it told. Blackest Night didn’t cater to expectations, and oftentimes brought twists and turns to the story that hardly anyone could have expected or predicted. It’s a tale of emotions, or lack of emotions, and does an excellent job at connecting with the reader on an emotional level without being cheesy or over-dramatic. While some elements were obvious to me, it was still amazing to see such a huge story unfold around a single element. The writers DC tasked with bringing BN to life were excellent choices, and the two most important in my mind are Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi. Together they grabbed the spotlight and put GL in it and did not let go.
#1. The Execution
The biggest reason Blackest Night was so great was the way DC executed it. They had tie-in’s with many current and cancelled title’s, they had 6 mini’s, and they did it all with zero delays. The marketing and promotions all tied into the story phenomenally and conveyed exactly what was to come without giving many details. DC has perfected events through Blackest Night, and they really seem to have their shit together. Flawless execution of the event is what made it so great, whether it’s the marketing, tie-in’s or promotions, it all came together and fit perfectly into the DCU, and will be incredibly hard to surpass.
Well, there you have it, the Top 10 Reasons Blackest Night was so great. I loved every minute of the event, and I must say I will miss all the anticipation that came with the trip to the comic store to pick up the latest issues.
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–moyermason@yahoo.com
5 Comments
Though I agree BN was a really good series, I’m going to wait a while before seeing where it really ranks. It’s really hard to say it’s better than Crisis on Infinite Earths, but it’s also really easy to say it’s better than Final Crisis. I think Brightest Day can help or hurt Blackest Night too.
However, you do make some good arguments!
Now let me make this clear, I never said BN IS the st DC event ever, I said it MIGHT be. That being said, yes, we will have to see what the aftermath of the event is, and BD depends greatly on that. Also, I think the upcoming Flash series, the JLA series and of course GL and GLC will show the most aftermath, so BN’s total success depends on these series issues for the next few months.
I’ve been thinking for a while that the definitive Aquaman and Hawkman series have yet to be written (though Veitch’s run on the former came close). Hopefully BD will see a comeback of these two characters. I’ve heard too many naive fools making fun of Arthur Curry like they know anything about the character and his abilities. He’s the fucking king of Atlantis!
If anyone can do it Geoff Johns can
Agreed!!!
Johns plucking Mera from obscurity and making her the break-out character of the series just shows the untapped potential within the Aquaman mythos.
It goes without saying that as soon as I saw Ethan Van Sciver’s promo art for Blackest Night, I knew the best thing about the series for me would be Aquaman’s triumphant return to the DCU!