Tales From The Dark Multiverse: Blackest Night #1

This was an incredibly fun read. I have a soft spot for the main man and this doesn't even remotely disappoint me in the slightest. Read Full Review

I am quite enjoying these Dark Multiverse specials. They offer a nostalgic look at some important junctures in DCU history as well as providing an entertaining new story. And they add a bit more depth to the original stories by showing how wrong things could have gone. And this particular installment was a fine alternate retelling of the original Blackest Night. Read Full Review

It also has one of the darkest endings for this Dark Multiverse series to date, but it's also a fun one if you are a fan of Lobo. Read Full Review

Despite the grim tone, Dark Multiverse: Blackest Night #1 feels a lot like a road-trip odd-couple comedy. Read Full Review

A nice twist on a really popular event. It really feels like a fresh take. Read Full Review

They really don't hold back. Characters die. It gets pretty dark. Kudos to Tim Seeley for really pushing the script. And artist Kyle Hotz only gets better with each project he draws. Worth a look. Read Full Review

Tales of the Dark Multiverse: Blackest Night (Seeley, Hotz) captures the spirit of the original story while showing just how easily it could have all gone wrong. Then it goes further. Read Full Review

Overall, this was a very good issue. It was nice to see different characters in the event and a good struggle was placed on all of them with dealing with love and death, but it did leave me wanting more. Read Full Review

All in all, a recommended special. Kinda dumb, gory, a few small bits of horror, and lots of fun character usage. Reminds of those great old 'What If' days. But let it end here, DC. Stop milking the cow before you see blood. Read Full Review

I plan to read all of Johns' Green Lantern run when I have a moment, and I can't help but wonder if my opinion on this book will change when I revisit Blackest Night and check out its tie-ins. Have I missed something about this book? Not sure! But I'm happy to say that it works either way, and adds another solid entry to an extremely creative assortment of books. If Infinite Crisis and The Judas Contract bring this series home, you'll have a must-buy trade on your hands. Read Full Review

While this is probably the best thought out story that we've gotten in this strange series, it really could have been so much more if it was tightened up a bit and if the art had more to do than have dark, space backgrounds. This is was fun though and think that it has worked the best for the type of stories that we've been given so far and I hope that this level of quality continues as we move forward. Read Full Review

While this book delivers a solid story and fine art, it fails to truly deliver something great. The way the ending feels forced into a suitably dark place really took me out of it. But, if you have been enjoying the Tales From The DC Dark Multiverse titles, I'd say it's still worth giving a look. Read Full Review

The Blackest Night has gotten even darker in the Dark Multiverse, and it relishes in it. Read Full Review

It does its best to not fall into the zombie tropes but the comic could have used more of it. There's also some good in Sinestro's failures. But add in Lobo, Dove, and Mister Miracle and you've got a comic that's not quite sure what it wants to be. Read Full Review

Seeley does a good job of setting the stakes and establishing the remaining characters. I didn't love the big twist mainly because the Dark Multiverse stories are already so excessively bleak and this ending feels too easy. The trouble with this series that Marvel didn't have with What If? is DC opens the chapter on a dark note and then takes it down an even more hopeless path. It seems the point of the Dark Multiverse stories is to just be oppressive and joyless and on that front it's succeeds, but altering the events without any positive slant makes these books increasingly harder to enjoy. Read Full Review

Amusing ideas aren't in short supply but Its ambition doesn't satisfy the clumsy handling. Read Full Review

Tales of the Dark Multiverse: Blackest Night #1 proves that not all great stories have to be revisited, as these Elseworld narratives continue to fumble. Read Full Review

DSMister

Nov 13, 2019

I really liked this one. It doesn't necessarily end in complete darkness, but rather a worse fate. And that's definitely an interesting take. This story is meant to be an elseworld-type story, and honestly, it really hits right when people who want to bring different takes to a story do it. Dove was such a broken pedestal here, I really felt sorry for her. I just wanted to hug her and tell her everything would be okay, but of course, that's the dark multiverse, and hope isn't going to solve everything unlike the universe we're accustomed to. Nonetheless, you can see that Dove is just plainly defeated, and that really tugs you in the feels. Lobo is every bit as great as he always was. Except towards the end, his arc gets pretty emotion al. Turns out that he developed feelings for Dove, and it's really heartbreaking to see him lose the only thing keeping him sane in this broken world. I really love it. Sinestro has complete guilt of what he's done. In his moment of selfishness, he now is trying to find a way to fix it by any means necessary. Thankfully, he's not any more evil. He needs Dove, and Mr. Miracle definitely was going to provide a way to do it. But at the end, Sinestro is always going to live in guilt of what he's done. Ironically, he's the worst version of himself: a selfish man who wants power, but became broken because of it. What a great take. And finally, Mr. Miracle... man, he lost everyone, and you can see it through his chimes of jokes and jovial demeanor. On the surface, he's still keeping up everyone's hopes, but you can tell he's every bit as broken as Dove. He lost his wife and his family (damned though they were). He was forced to use a plan that should never have happened in the first place, and he's really resistant to the impulses of seeing his wife again, but at the same time, he's ultimately forced to kill Dove, making Lobo really mad. This was definitely one of the best Tales of the Dark Multiverse yet, and I'm really excited to see what's going to come up next with Infinite Crisis. more

I Review Comics

Jul 10, 2020

It's been a while since I originally read this one. It's probably the densest continuity heavy book to come across my desk since I started reading DC comics a few years back. While reading I honestly got a little lost because I'm not as familiar with these characters as I would like. I got into DC comics during DC Comics Rebirth and unfortunately, Blackest Night took place during the New 52 era of DC comics. I missed all of these books aside from a Batman comic here and there. The gist of this What If? scenario is that at the climax of the "Blackest Night" event Sinistro is given the opportunity to save the universe by splitting power with Hal Jordan but due to selfishness he keeps the power for himself which causes the Black Lanterns t o overrun the galaxy. It's a really depressing situation even more so than the Knightfall review I reviewed a while back. The story picks up a few years later. Lobo has been tasked with bringing Dove, the last living human Woman on earth to Takron-Galtos a prison world by ######. Along the way, they meet heroes that have survived and run across those that have died and become Black Lanterns. The standout character for the comic is Lobo. I've been reading comics for most of my life and I've never read a Lobo book. Tim Seeley does a great job of giving me the gist of what expect from the character and he's a lot of fun despite my lack of knowledge. He's also the de facto hero and POV character for the comic book. This was surprising because almost all of the advertisements feature Sinistro and zombified Lanterns. The Green Lantern mythos has always gone over my head and has been sort of a barrier. I stopped reviewing the Grant Morrison run because I flat out didn't know what was going on. I'm not a big fan of cosmic stuff and the dense nature of Lantern mythos has always been restrictive. This story gives us some Green Lantern stuff but puts the focus on some characters that are normally regulated to side stories or the background. Because most of the characters are street level or down to earth it puts the characters in the same position as me as the reader. They are just as lost in some spots as I was while reading. The art direction is appropriately dark which blends well with the horrific scenario presented in the book. The action sequences are pretty good and imaginative. It's fun to see characters pushed beyond your expectations. Books like this take advantage of comics as a visual medium and are simply fun to look at. Kyle has a great script to work with and you can tell he's having fun bringing the title to life. Upon a second reading, the book is still pretty dense but I had a better grasp on the story. This is probably the most content you'll ever get out of a 50+ page comic and is well worth the $5.99 cover price. I also believe it may serve as a great companion piece to the original storyline. The book has a conclusive ending and gets pretty bleak for all involved which is a staple of the greatest What If? stories. more

M1sf1r3

Dec 05, 2019

Prelude: Tales from the Dark Multiverse have been reasonably good. Let's see how Seeley goes with Blackest Night. The Good: I really loved this team. Unlike other issues, this world was expanded on and it works quite well. The Limbo Lantern is a very interesting concept. Probably one I wouldn't like to see too much in the main continuity but here it works. The Bad: A bit confusing to read. Conclusion: While it can be confusing to read, the team, expanded world and Limbo Lantern make this a strong issue from Seeley.

Azrael

Nov 17, 2019

I don’t think this was necessarily bad. However, DC is clear they want to capitalize on Marvel’s What If series by doing alternative history. That would be great but they need to not pack so much into such a short space of time. Maybe they need to study how Marvel did their long running series because while not bad isn’t all that good. It’s average at best. But points come from Lobo here but are taken away by Scott Free’s final decision.

Nihilist

Nov 13, 2019

Another month, another pointless Dark Multiverse story. While I adore the core concept of this series, depicting bad what-if scenarios, so far we haven't seen a single meaningful tale, which could possibly impact the bigger plot. Therefore, it's safe to call this comic "filler". You may want to pick it up if you're a giant fan of Johns' original event and crave for more, no matter the quality, but if you're not, there's not much value in here to be found. Get yourself few trade paperbacks of Blackest Night instead, even if they're an unchronological mess. It's still better than reading a single, self contained issue, not adding anything to the DC multiverse.

Afre

Nov 14, 2019

This is not very good issue. Why? Because it tries to fit and event to a single issue. Sure, it is a what-if issue, but at times feels like filler or that everything happens so fast. Lobo was great, but I hate what they did with Scot. Art is passable?

Psycamorean

Nov 16, 2019

Too long, filled with Seeley-isms and overall boring.

Aussie Dad

Nov 16, 2019

Years ago they were imaginary tales, then else world tales but the premise was for writers to put new and interesting spins on major landmarks stories. Unfortunately this does little to enhance the original. For the $5.99 cost of this issue I expected a lot better.

RKS

Dec 01, 2019

Unimaginative story that takes you nowhere and leaves you there. If you want to read a story about D Lister Lobo then this story is for you. Save your money, similar to all the other Dark Multiverse books this one fails to deliver on an easy concept to expand upon.

Darkseid24

Nov 13, 2019

Another story, that downgrades Darkseid & the Anti Life Equation. It seems modern DC writers have absolutely no clue about how powerful it is. Since this is an alternative version of Blackest Night it would have been interesting to see Scarecrow in it, but no... quite boring& poitnless this time.

Spacey Medicine

Nov 16, 2019

I think I actually like Blackest Night less now. So… good work there.