The Final Night by Ron Marz

The Final Night Reviews

• 
  Chad

  This was an interesting event from the 90's in that there were no villains. The sun goes dark and Earth's heroes have to figure out how to save everyone while stopping people from looting and other end of the world type behavior. I do think that some of the more interesting stories from this event happened outside of this trade in the individual titles of the time. It was great that a certain character gets a moment of redemption.
• 
  Subham

  This has gotta be one of my favorite stories ever!
  
  So we have a Sun eater whose come and trying to eat the sun and we know what happens when the sun is not there and so the heroes have to deal with this threat and what will happen when all they try fails? Its the final night of the heroes and of humanity but in those moments we see Hal Jordan now Parallax do something which might just save them and we see his redemption and Hal being one of my fav characters in fiction.. well this was hard for me to read and it felt so emotional like every page of it and in particular the end and the eulogy by different heroes or people he knew, just what an amazing writing.. a redemption and a great tribute to the hero he was!
• 
  James DeSantis

  A interesting 4 part event in the mid-90's that you can tell was mostly made to redeem a certain hero gone villain but still a fun little story none the less.
  
  A alien name Dusk lands on earth to warn everything of the dark times to come. Soon the sun is blocked out and everyone is slowly going crazy and everything will eventually freeze over and die. Putting main heroes like Superman even at risk without the sun you come up with some neat ideas. One having Lex work with the heroes is always cool, Superman being a badass hero even without powers, and all the new legacy characters at the time like Kyle, Wally, and more working with the OG heroes to save everyone.
  
  Overall this was pretty enjoyable. The dark art by Inman made for some really cool moody atmosphere. I enjoyed the side two issues too which mostly focused on Hal's redemption and then funeral (This is 20+ years old people so don't tell me spoilers!) and you have a lot of neat moments with heroes saying goodbye, even when still pissed at what the once hero did. But the way he went out is admirable. I also enjoyed everyone working together and eventually showing the better side of humanity.
  
  I won't say it was mind-blowing but it was a solid event you can read completely by itself. A 3.5 out of 5, I'll bump it to a 4.
• 
  Khurram

  I have to say that I liked this story more than I though I would especially the last 3 issues. The big three heroes. However it did give one of my other DC heroes a chance to shine (pun intended).
  
  I am not a great fan of the artwork, but that is how it was at the time. That story is great the Suneater a force of nature has come for the Earth's Sun. The greatest heroes are powerless to stop it. Now heroes and villains must unite, even this is not enough. Now a desperate call goes to a to an infamous fallen hero.
  
  I really the the them of redemption in the second half of this book.it was a more emotional boom that I was expecting at the end. It is what makes this book for me. A very good story. I also like the other legacy and new heroes have a chance to step up.
• 
  Brent

  Reread after twenty years; pretty good for an event miniseries, thanks to writing by Kesel and fine drawing by Immonen.
• 
  Oneirosophos

  A very interesting and unique concept, awfully executed with poor art.
  
  At least, it gave us some very good tie-ins.
• 
  Grant

  Kind of a charming 90s comic, weirdly small-scale for a story about the end of the world.
• 
  Tony Laplume

  A seminal work of superhero storytelling.
  
  The ‘90s were an interesting time for the medium. At times it felt like all flash no substance, and at others there was real effort to build on the late-80s milestones like Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. For DC that meant leaning ever more heavily into lineage, commonly thought in terms of James Robinson’s Starman, Mark Waid’s Flash, his Kingdom Come. There was also Ron Marz’s Green Lantern, the result of another trend from the decade, a tumultuous personal crisis introducing new faces behind familiar names, in this case Kyle Rayner replacing Hal Jordan, who had gone down a dark path as Parallax, both in the pages of that comic (“Emerald Twilight”) and Zero Hour, which resumed the company’s yearly “event comic” efforts in 1994.
  
  Event comics get a bad rap. The most famous DC event comic will probably always be Crisis on Infinite Earths, but many more followed over the years and decades. Perhaps the most unique (other than the weekly 52, which in hindsight almost feels like a spiritual sequel) was The Final Night.
  
  Waid’s Kingdom Come perhaps stole all the thunder with a remarkably similar playbook, a big superhero epic that’s grounded in human-scale storytelling and realistic art. Of course in Waid’s comic that meant the painted work of Alex Ross. In Final Night it’s Stuart Immonen’s.
  
  Immonen, and writer Karl Kesel, were part of the “triangle era” of Superman comics, what came to be known as the post-“Doomsday” era increasingly known for its own regular crises (there was even a “Death of Clark Kent,” naturally!). Immonen himself doesn’t seem to see his work during this time as overly special. He and Kesel (though his best work was as artist and writer, and you can tell his opinion based on the fact that Immonen hasn’t really written since) were “just another team,” one of four on four separate but frequently interrelated titles.
  
  But they were the best. Immonen’s simple approach was especially easy, for me, to appreciate in an era such as the ‘90s, which often, in art, seemed to define itself by bombast at the expense of everything else. There was precious little a reader could relate to, even at Marvel, where Immonen would eventually migrate and of course tamper with his style, losing some of his gentle touch.
  
  Anyway, Final Night is concerned with the big picture, and the many small ones that bring meaning to it. There are powerful moments throughout. Among the first is Lex Luthor shaking hands with Superman in the first issue, and then in the last one, Superman taking a moment to write a farewell letter to Lois...There was never a better Lex than in this era, especially as Immonen wrote him later, and no better an encapsulation of Superman’s spirit than in these pages, without drawing too much attention to it.
  
  Because the big swerve isn’t about him at all, but Hal Jordan. After Geoff Johns brought him back as Green Lantern, the whole arc Hal traveled in the ‘90s threatened to become trivialized, but it would be a mistake to let that happen. Final Night, with the inclusion of a one-shot sketching the important points of his later misadventures and the funeral from the pages of Green Lantern, read like what Robinson spent so much time chasing in Starman, what even Waid never got to do in Flash, which was to give that definitive send-off for the elegy they were writing all along. Which is to say, if you want to understand ’90s DC, Final Night is essential.
  
  It’s the kind of comic that doesn’t seem to draw attention to itself. So we have to do that for it.
• 
  Russell Pearce of Sector 2814

  Honestly just average. Art is meh, writing for the first half is just stagnant. Once you get to Ron Marz (who is one of my all time favorite writers) section at the end though it gets good. Kinda redeems the whole book with that last section. Required reading only if you care about completing the Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner stories.
• 
  Koen

  Definitely not the best I've read so far.. Missed a bit of the magic here I guess... But I liked the way things were developing and how it all turned out.. Pretty eager to go start on the next chapter ;)
• 
  Rex Hurst

  This was one of those major events which ran rampant throughout DC and Marvel. Every year it seemed some new event swept across all the various series, meaning that at least one - if not two - issues of your favorite comic was interrupted by some overarching plot which you may or (more likely) may not care about. The collection of The Final Night series contains only the original series without the cross-over issues. As such the focus from issue to issue is a little haphazard, shifting this way than that
  
  Unlike other crossover events published by DC, the conflict of The Final Night did not revolve around a conventional villain. It was primarily a story of survival that focused on the main characters performing disaster response, while attempting to prevent impending mass extinction of all life on Earth. At the end of each issue was an in-story website feature written by S.T.A.R. Labs, giving information updates and emergency support to residents of the DC Universe as the crisis progressed.
  
  There is quite a lot of background needed to understand this book. Superman's enemies destroyed his home city, driving Hal insane and causing him to destroy the Green Lantern Corps, giving up his role as Green Lantern and becoming the nigh-omnipotent Parallax in the process. In a few years, Hal went from being an iconic hero to a murderous villain. Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern, suddenly went nuts and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps and seemingly half the universe in Emerald Twilight. Jordan turned up as the master villain behind Extant in Zero Hour. With Final Night, this cycle comes to a merciful close.
  
  Basically this book was the attempt to redeem Hal Jordan while giving him a swan song. The plot is weird but basically revolves around an old Legion of Super-Heroes villain called the Sun Eater coming to devour Earth’s sun. The world is saved in the end, of course, and by an unlikely hero.
• 
  Alan

  Ever since Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC continued to try to put out universe-encompassing events whenever possible. This graphic novel contained the four core issues of its 1996 event, which thankfully wasn't as long or huge as some of the other events, along with a couple of the most important additional issues, as opposed to all the single appearances across various titles. I don't know if reading the individual title issues would have made this feel bigger or better, but the best thing I can say is, at least this event was relatively short. The Sun-Eater, some unknown massive black nebula thing, is making its way across the universe devouring suns and destroying worlds. Now it's come to Earth and the planet's heroes are helpless to stop it. A harbinger of sorts arrived before it to warn everyone, mainly telling the heroes, they'll be helpless to stop it. Honestly, this felt like they were out of ideas so they culled and reworked Crisis and other events for a mini-rekindling of the sort of thing that happened way too often by this point. They didn't even use their best artists, although I had stopped reading comics at this time, so maybe the so-so artwork was among the best they had to offer at the time. The best part of the story is the follow up "Funeral for a Hero" where everyone mourns Hal Jordan's sacrifice to stop the Sun-Eater. It served well to give some redemption to Hal Jordan after DC totally fucked him up in the preceding years, and, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, would plant a seed for the rebirth of Green Lantern and DC in 2004 that (at least temporarily) reinvigorated Green Lantern and the whole DC universe. Not as bad an event as Zero Year, but nowhere near as good as some of the other major events at DC.
• 
  Stephen Newell

  Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this one for a random pickup from the library. Honestly, it feels like a unique story in many ways considering all of the corny and purely random stuff DC put out in the 1990s. While the art is nothing special (and at times laughable), there is a lot to love for me. Sometimes I do just need some of that random and corny, a enjoyable blend of a special event with high stakes and the strangeness of 90s comic lore.
  

  The key to creating an event of this magnitude for DC's writers always comes down to one thing: If you are going to bring together virtually all the heroes (as you do), how do you effectively challenge the "big guns", mainly the Supermans of the world, and the interdimensional force of The Sun-Eater does just that (no sun...no powers for Supes). Additionally, we have the wrapping up (and genuinely heartfelt redemption) of Hal Jordan's time as Parallax. And I'll always give bonus points for a DC event involving The Spectre and Phantom Stranger in some way. If you're looking for a quality 1990s comic book event for a quick read, go ahead and grab this, as it is a solid choice for entry-level readers. Although you'd probably benefit reading the Hal Jordan wiki to at least remind yourself why the heck he's kinda evil now? (3.75 out of 5)
• 
  Richard Gray

  Despite many references to this book in other comics - not least of which is the essential Green Arrow: Quiver - I'd never actually read this before. While it's not essential, it's a solid part of the bridge between Zero Hour and Hal Jordan's eventual return in Rebirth. The basic premise is simplicity itself: the Sun Eater has, well, lived up to nominative determinism and the world is thrown into cold and darkness. Like many of the crossover events at the time, it's a mini-series that serves as a jumping off point for tie-in issues. Unlike those stories, the heroes aren't fighting a single bad guy but rather just dealing with the crisis. Yet what fascinated me the most was the last half of the main book, where Hal Jordan/Parallax has an extended moral dilemma. It's a minor hit, but worth reading to fully understand how Jordan becomes the Spectre down the track.
  
  NB: Read as part of my
  DC Crisis and Beyond Journey: #14
• 
  Brannigan

  This is an interesting story of man vs nature. The nature being an unknown entity/force that goes around eating suns. It’s come to earth and the heroes attempt several plans to stop it and in the end Hal Jordan has to come to the rescue.
  
  This was another crossover story back in the day. For some reason DC didn’t collect all the stories together to make a cohesive story. Instead they just collected the main story so you can tell while reading that you’re missing a lot.
  
  If you’re really interested in the story wait until DC creates an omnibus. Otherwise borrow it from a friend or library.
• 
  Malum

  This is a very boring story. The sun goes out and we follow a bunch of heroes around as they help people. Reading Rebirth era DC comics now, it's pretty amazing to see how bloated their cast was in the nineties. Also, Superman has the worst hair ever. I also thought it was funny how Kyle Rayner kept disappearing/possibly dying and no one gave a shit.
  
  The only worthwhile moments in this whole book were the ones with Hal Jordan.
• 
  Clay Bartel

  I bought this book because of a footnote in Superman Transformed. The 97-98 story run where Superman becomes and energy being.
  
  Well final night has little to do with Superman, other then setup that the sign is dying and Supes is powerless to stop it.
  
  This is really a Green Lantern and Parallax story. And it's a good one!!!
  
  Art is its weak point but I just love this book because it leads into Superman Transformed and that is one of my favourite runs ever.
• 
  Sotofunkdamental

  El sacrificio de Hal Jordan. Argumento: "¿Tienes miedo a la oscuridad? Los héroes del Universo DC se unen de nuevo para enfrentarse a una amenaza capaz de devorar el Sol, quitándole toda la energía. Sin luz. Sin calor. ¿Qué harías si se hiciera de noche... para siemrpe? Ésta es la historia que Karl keser y Stuart Immonen presentan en La noche final, una saga que sobresale como una de las mejores de cuantas se han publicado a lo largo de los años y merece un puesto de honor en esta colección".
• 
  Rylan

  I enjoyed this a lot, this brings the Hal/Parallax story to an emotional conclusion. Something known as the sun eater takes away earth’s sun leaving the planet to freeze over. This is an interesting story because the conflict isn’t solved by the heroes punching a villain rather they have to try their best against an unbeatable foe. It’s nice seeing all the heroes work together helping people.
• 
  James De León

  Not the best event series...it's good to read if you want to know what happened with parallax and how hal redeemed himself. The art looks atrocious at times. 2.5/5
• 
  Supratim Dhar

  A sun eater comes to destroy our sun and the earth goes into 24 hours of night condition. Hal Jordan comes to save the day as Parallax and in doing so dies.
• 
  Jacob Snider

  A little patchy at times, but overall a really interesting read!
• 
  Drew

  Both the story and the art are pretty forgettable, but it is nice to see Hal Jordan’s Parallax arc conclude. The best stuff in there was the Green Lantern stuff.
• 
  Nicolas Ferrer

  Chau Hal, que la fuerza te acompañe
• 
  Evison Tatenda

  Great story, loved every bit of it.
  The illustrations, the story, the incorporation of different heroes, especially when they showcased the Green Lantern. The ending was beautiful.
• 
  Chuck Ventura

  I love this, if only for the fact that it's a DC-wide team up that doesn't involve multiverse mumbo jumbo.
  
  The sun-eater is about to eff up the galaxy, and the heroes and villains need to work together and stop it before Earth freezes over. That's it. More time for contemplative character moments, especially Hal Jordan's redemption. Brings me to tears, man.
  
  Overall, lower stakes than your usual DC crossover but still entertaining.
• 
  Dan Prestwich

  I appreciate the DC creative team trying to find a more novel threat, but I'm not sure superheroes vs snow makes for compelling drama.
  
  C-