Quarter Bin #59 "Binge-worthy IV: The Final Night"

These four issues were the best surprise of my back issue binge at Zimmie's, because at the time I'd been frantically searching for an inexpensive edition of the trade collection, since it's long been out of print.  The Final Night is one of my all-time favorite comics, an "event" that is still so unique that it remains a standout in that regard but is otherwise an excellent example of an undervalued era, Stuart Immonen's Superman.  From 1995 to 2000, he laid the groundwork for the kind of iconic vision Geoff Johns would become famous for, exploring the roots of a famous characters while at the same time building something for the future.  His Superman was something you could only have found otherwise in the artwork of Alex Ross, strong but not overly muscled, assured yet vulnerable.  Buried in the heart of a time when the Man of Steel faced one long arc after another with three other creative teams competing for attention, Immonen began in collaboration with Karl Kesel but eventually wrote his own stories to accompany the distinctive style he'd later alter to become more mainstream at Marvel.

I had the issues from when they were originally released, but they were part of the first comics purge I had to make a few years back and among the first ones I realized I should have put aside, which I did with only a handful that first time and then a little more the second time.  It's my opinion that no serious comics fan should go without this story in their collection in some shape or form.

The Final Night #1 (DC)
From 1996.

via comiXology

"The sun shone down warmly on Metropolis, the city of hope."  That's the copy from the first page of the issue.  Soon enough an alien spacecraft arrives, and its unknown occupant is greeted by Superman and a group from the time-displaced Legion of Super-Heroes (it should be noted that Immonen had worked on the Legion prior to his Superman run).  Soon the alien is identified as Dusk, and she reveals that she is the herald of the end of the world.  Somewhat standard material, story-wise.  Eventually we have a shot of all the heroes populating the DC landscape at that time, who've gathered for the occasion.  If this were George Perez (or anyone else for that matter) there would be all kinds of action in this shot, but Immonen is content to let them rest.  There's the Legion (including Inferno, subject of an Immonen mini-series), The Ray, the Wonder Twins (as presented within the pages of Extreme Justice), Robin, Big Barda, Mister Miracle, Guy Gardner (Warrior style), Wildcat, Takion (an attempt to create a new New God that was fun to read in his own series for the short while it lasted), Doctor Light (the female/hero version), Phantom Stranger, Captain Marvel and family, Alpha Centurion (subject of an Immonen one-shot), Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), Jade and Obsidian (children of Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern), Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, Firestorm, Impulse, Fire and Ice, Doctor Polaris (the first villain to join the fight), Amazing Man, Maxima, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman.  Captain Atom is featured in a later panel.  Batman is there, too, but keeping to himself, which is exactly what you'd expect from him but what rarely happens in these event books.  The absence of the Spectre is discussed and then explained (he'd played a crucial role a few years earlier in Zero Hour, and would later return to prominence within the pages of Day of Judgment).  Lex Luthor finally appears, alongside the Contessa, near the end of the issue.  His role becomes increasingly prominent as the story continues...

via Boosteriffic

via Read DC Entertainment

The Final Night #2

via Comic Vine

By the third page of the second issue, Luthor is publicly shaking hands with Superman.  It's a historic moment for any number of reasons, a precedent later echoed in Forever Evil and subsequent issues of Justice League most significantly.  It's the first time Luthor is not merely the villain but someone trying to do what's right, not because he's looking to exploit an angle but because for once he's living up to his bluster, that he could very well have been Superman himself if the Man of Steel hadn't dropped out of the sky to, well, eclipse him.  The issue also sees Superman weakening, ironically enough, the result of the sun no longer giving him its strengthening rays.  Luthor's mind, and ego, meanwhile, are quickly going to work, and this is the other half of what makes Final Night worth preserving, other than its gorgeous art.  Dusk falls under attack by angry civilians who blame her for what's happened, only to be rescued by Ferro, which leads us to another echo, this time of a story that had already happened, the famous Legion story entitled "The Death of Ferro Lad" from 1967.

via DC Comics

 

The Final Night #3

via Comic Vine

"The universe isn't as simple as you might think, Superman.  To the trained eye, it's obvious that the sun is trying to heal itself -- but not quite in the way we'd want.  We don't know much about this phenomenon on Earth, but I'm sure where the young Brainiac comes from, they have all the timetables figured out."  That's Luthor again (you could've guessed, right?), and a page later it gets better: "Without the sun your powers are nearly gone.  I really think you should leave this to the big boys..."  Who else could get away with that?  And what other story than Final Night has ever produced such a scenario?  In more humble developments, Phantom Stranger helps Dusk see humanity in a better light by showing superheroes in more ordinary duties than we're used to.  Then humanity itself shows, well, humanity to Dusk.  Guy Gardner tries to get drunk, and the best thing that crazy alien DNA he had at that time ever did was provide a perfect setup for...

The Final Night #4

via Comic Vine

The most unexpected development was what came in the last issue, the start of the redemption of Hal Jordan, once and future Green Lantern but at the time Parallax, the villain who haunted Zero Hour and who would be expunged thanks to Day of Judgment and then Green Lantern: Rebirth.  But also, with all original emphasis included this time, these words from our old pal Lex Luthor: "Fascinating, Flash.  Thank you for sharing that essential information."  Who wouldn't want to read a whole series dedicated to that Lex Luthor?  And to think, we've only just gotten back to something even close (although Paul Cornell's Luthor-centric arc, collected in the "Black Ring" volumes, from Action Comics are also worth noting)...!  When his petty thought process is finally exposed, it leads to Superman doing what only Superman can do, unless it's Ferro trying to do it for him, and then finally what Jordan must to redeem himself.  The story ends with a rumination on Superman and Batman, but with the words of the Green Lantern oath, grounding the whole thing in the superheroics that seemed to have been cancelled by the unique scope of the event.

via iFanboy

Would I love for DC to acknowledge at the very least Final Night's significance to the Green Lantern mythos?  That's be great.  It's worth rediscovering for any of the reasons I listed otherwise, too, regardless of where it stands in current continuity.  With Convergence coming next year, does that even matter anymore?