By now, I don’t think I have to tell you the verdict on Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis’ DC event comic epic, Blackest Night. It’s good, damn good. But is it so good that it’s worth dishing out an additional $30 for a hardcover version? In a nutshell: absolutely.
A lot of times publishers release hardcover collections of their recent story arcs or event comics, slap a foreword and a sketchbook on either end and call it a day. The Blackest Night hardcover is not in that category. In fact, it’s jam packed with so much extra content that it’s on par with an Absolute edition in terms of supplemental materials. No, it’s not oversized, but the extras are so worthwhile that it feels like a steal at $30.
The hardcover begins with a forgettable foreword from Green Lantern film producer Donald De Line, but soon launches into the epic zombies-on-crack tale that overtook the DCU last year. Included is the Blackest Night #0 issue that kicked it all off on Free Comic Book Day 2009. Having followed Green Lantern for so long when this all launched, it’s easy to forget how truly massive and all encompassing Blackest Night is. Seeing it as a standalone piece really only allows it to shine a bit brighter as it becomes less of a Green Lantern-centric tale and one that truly delves into the greater DCU.
The one thing sorely missing from the collection is Black Hand’s eerie journals that were included in the back of most issues of Blackest Night, giving some well written background to a character that was so instrumental in this series. I’m not sure why they would be dropped, but I was upset to find that they were nowhere to be found. I suppose it adds to the value of owning the original issues, but for a hardcover that is so packed with extras, it’s disappointing to be missing seven or so pages of great character building.
Making up for that loss in spades is the supplemental goodies that DC crams in. We’re talking all the covers to the series; sketch variants and incentive variants, as well as character designs and sketches, missing script pages and best of all, “director’s commentary”. Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, inkers Oclair Albert and Joe Prado, colorist Alex Sinclair, letterer Nick J. Napolitano and editors Adam Schlagman and Eddie Berganza all contribute to a massive behind-the-scenes discussion that covers every issue of the series. A lot of the commentary is simply clever in-jokes and favorite moments, but it does provide a rather in depth look at the book’s evolution from all aspects of creating. While the commentary is the lengthiest of the bonus material, my personal favorite is the inclusion of the script pages for a deleted scene featuring one of my favorite characters, Ragman. Ragman is a character that is overdue for his time in the spotlight, and it’s nice to see that maybe Geoff Johns was thinking the same thing.
If somehow, some way, you missed Blackest Night initially, this is the biggest DCU story of the last ten years, the one that anyone interested in superhero comics should check out. And if you are with the majority, then you already own the issues. So do I, but that’s not stopping me from displaying this beautiful hardcover on my bookshelf.
