Now that we're beginning to see some of
the shape of how Blackest Night will be collected in trade, I thought it would be interesting to compare the collections with those of the most recent previous crossover,
Final Crisis.
It bears comparing the way DC has collected recent crossovers because I dare say it's a work in progress. Consider that of the last four crossovers (defined as a major line-wide event where the main story took place in a minseries) before
Identity Crisis --
Final Night,
Genesis,
DC One Million, and
Day of Judgment -- only two of them have been collected at all, and certainly not to the extent that
Infinite Crisis and many of its crossover issues were.
So let's look at
Final Crisis and
Blackest Night in the categories of lead-ins, the event, crossovers, and aftermath. I'll choose "winners" for each category, loosely based on which approach I favor or gives the most bang for the buck.
Lead-Ins:Final Crisis had a whole year's worth of lead-in stories,
Countdown to Final Crisis. Of course, if you consider that all the nearly fifty-plus issues of Geoff Johns'
Green Lantern run have been leading in to
Blackest Night, that's pretty hefty, too. It looks like ten
Green Lantern trades versus four volumes of
Countdown -- but then, for completists, there's
Countdown to FInal Crisis: Lord Havok and the Extremists,
The Search for Ray Palmer,
Arena, and
Countdown to Adventure, plus
Salvation Run (and even
Amazons Attack was involved), and none of the
Countdown books have really been considered breakaway successes.
Winner: Blackest NightThe Event:Previously we examined
all the issues going in to Blackest Night -- not only the eight issue miniseries, but also seven three-issue miniseries (another eighteen issues) plus seven "resurrected" titles -- thirty-six issues that are specifically titled
Blackest Night.
Final Crisis, in contrast, had seven issues, plus the
Requiem,
Resist,
Submit, and
Rage of the Red Lanterns specials, the
Final Crisis Secret Files, the two-issue
Superman Beyond, the three issue
Rogues' Revenge, and the five-issue
Revelations and
Legion of Three Worlds -- twenty-seven issues total, and some of them extra-sized. We had thought
Blackest Night was a behemoth as compared to
Final Crisis, but it actually looks a little more even.
In terms of collections,
Final Crisis had the main hardcover (which included some of the specials), the
Final Crisis Companion,
Revelations,
Rogues' Revenge, and
Legion of Three Worlds -- just four hardcovers and a paperback if you'd like to say you read the whole thing. At this writing, however,
Blackest NIght has the main hardcover plus
Rise of the Black Lanterns,
Black Lantern Corps volumes one and two, and
Blackest Night: Tales of Corps volume one and two. That's five hardcovers (so far) to
Final Crisis's four.
Winner: Final CrisisCrossovers:Final Crisis distinguished itself by a general lack of crossovers, though there were some:
Justice League of America #21 and #31 dealt specifically with the fallout of
Final Crisis, as did
Titans #16; we also can't forget the "Last Rites" story that appeared in
Batman after
Batman RIP. Mostly, however, we can agree that
Final Crisis kept to itself. Not so
Blackest Night. I count at least sixteen issues of regular DC Comics series with ties to
Blackest Night (and I probably missed some), plus at least eight issues each of
Green Lantern and
Green Lantern Corps. Some of these will likely be collected in the hardcovers above, but if you're going for the complete
Blackest Night picture, you'll probably be updating your collection with a good wide swath of the DC Comics Universe.
Winner: Final CrisisAftermath:Of course, it's hard to judge the aftermath of
Blackest Night given that we don't know what will be released yet (though more hardcover
Green Lantern volumes are sure to come).
Final Crisis saw in its wake four six-issue miniseries,
Run!,
Dance,
Escape, and
Ink, all of which will be collected in softcover. As contrast,
Infinite Crisis only had two follow-ups specifically labeled as "aftermaths":
Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Bludhaven (really a very early
Final Crisis prelude) and
Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre. We'd be surprised if the upward trend didn't continue with at least four miniseries coming out of
Blackest Night.
Winner: To be determinedSummary:It surprises me that
Final Crisis "wins" above, because I prefer how much more
Blackest Night is tied into the DC Universe. One thing that sticks out to me, however, is the question of crossovers into monthly titles.
As I mentioned,
Final Crisis has a lot of "fallout" -- that is, not monthly titles that cross over into the main event as with
Infinite Crisis and
Blackest Night -- but rather its effects are felt later in
Teen Titans,
Robin,
Nightwing, and the like, and you get a complete story even if you only read the
Final Crisis miniseries.
This reminds me of
Identity Crisis, "the crossover that wasn't" -- as I understand it,
Identity Crisis didn't start out as a crossover, but as it gained attention, writers began incorporating it into their stories and eventually it became a cornerstone of
Infinite Crisis. I think this is how I'd like crossovers to be -- there's some thrill to seeing issues co-branded with
Blackest Night, but something more organic like
Identity Crisis and
Final Crisis (or even how
Blue Beetle and
Teen Titans eventually crossed over with
Sinestro Corps War) seems a better hedge against
event fatigue.
Love when a crossover involves your favorite monthly? Wish those pesky events would stay in their place? Let me know in the comments!
