Hal vs. Sinestro. What more do you need?

• The Miami Herald’s Richard Pachter has a few kind words for the FINAL CRISIS HC, calling the collection “provocative, thrilling and resonant.” And because it’s not a blog post without me shamelessly interjecting my life into it, it’s nice to see my old stompin’ grounds giving DCU books some love.

• Continuing their concerted BLACKEST NIGHT coverage, IGN unveiled a first-look at GREEN LANTERN #43, a prologue to BLACKEST NIGHT #1 spotlighting Black Hand. And, in case you missed it the first time, up above is a spread from #43 which has a few hints about BLACKEST NIGHT, to say the least.

• Over at THE BEAT, Heidi has the 2009 Harvey Award nominees. Winners will be announced at the Baltimore Comic-Con, which will be held October 10-11, 2009. The ceremony and banquet for the 2008 Harvey Awards will be held Saturday night, October 10. Congrats to DC’s nominees, which include Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely for their work on ALL STAR SUPERMAN, Alex Ross for his cover work on JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA and Rob Leigh for his lettering on THE SPIRIT.

Two big things are hitting the wire today, so here we go:

Today marks the launch of IGN.com’s BLACKEST NIGHT mini-site, which will include previews, interviews, video features, sketches and more exclusive content. Check back on Monday, as IGN will unveil a first look at GREEN LANTERN #43, a BLACKEST NIGHT prologue, and early next month they’ll debut an exclusive video feature about the upcoming event, including interviews with series writer Geoff Johns. So, swing on over and bookmark the page, as it’ll be the hot spot for all things BLACKEST NIGHT.

The New York Tmes unveiled their weekly graphic novel bestseller list, and Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco and Doug Mahnke’s superhero epic FINAL CRISIS is atop it, in its first week of eligibility. Neat, huh?

Other notable titles making the list: BATMAN R.I.P., BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE, JOKER and BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.

Neither can we. But what to do before the first issue hits? Well, did you know that GREEN LANTERN #43 is a prologue to BLACKEST NIGHT? No? That’s a shame. Well, this issue, featuring story by some guy named Geoff Johns and the new regular GREEN LANTERN art team of Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy not only gets the ball rolling toward the big summer event, but it also features the birth of the first Black Lantern. Discover who he is and just what his connection to death — and in turn, the Black Lantern Corps — really is. Wait, words aren’t enough? Fine. Here are two pages from the issue. Enjoy!

GREEN LANTERN #43 hits 7/8.

As discussed in yesterday’s FINAL CRISIS post, here’s the introduction to the hardcover, from Jay Babcock, editor/publisher of ARTHUR magazine. Enjoy:

It’s another rainy Wednesday. We’ve been doing errands all afternoon in a borrowed car and we’re on our way home after the last stop: Fat Jack’s Comic Crypt in downtown Philadelphia. I’m in the passenger seat, giggling like a monkey.

“What are you laughing at?” my girlfriend asks in that way you do when you’re concerned for someone’s mental health.

In my best solemn narrator impression voice, I read aloud: “‘As he speaks, the vast, slow motion INVASION OF REALITY begins. Machines bigger than CITIES arrive out of the VOID and ANCHOR themselves to the garbage heaps of LIMBO.’”

“It does not say that,” she says with a breaking smile.

I turn the page and continue: “‘Phantom armies clash on the battlefields of LIMBO. This strange, last outpost of EXISTENCE. The FORGOTTEN versus the YET TO BE. Like some half-remembered dream. All the rules of Existence are broken.’”

“It does not say that,” she says, starting to chuckle.

“And then Superman yells, ‘There are 52 WORLDS in the multiversal super-structure! …Warn everyone, like Paul Revere! Tell them Mandrakk is coming! I’LL DO WHAT I CAN TO PLUG THE HOLE IN FOREVER!’”

“Wow. And this is a Superman comic book? People are reading this?”

“It’s Superman Beyond 3D Number 2, which is part of the Final Crisis miniseries, the number one title from DC right now.”

We’re stopped at a red light that never turns, so I show her the comic book. And she starts laughing, too. How old are we? We’re both 38. But in this moment I feel like I’m 12 years old, reading aloud from Crisis on Infinite Earths, riding home from an after-school trip to Comics Plus in Pomona, California with my eighth grade friends, courtesy of Kevin Kolodziej’s endlessly benevolent supermom. Or, closer, I’m 28, reading aloud to a college friend on the phone some fantastic captions from a worn-out back issue of New Gods (or was it Jimmy Olsen, Superman’s Best Friend? I can’t remember) I’d just found at Another World Comics in Eagle Rock, California, where the excited narrator is describing the Forever People, Jack Kirby’s cosmic techno-hippies who live harmoniously in a psychedelic tree village somewhere outside Metropolis….

It’s that laughter, that kind of involuntary-response joy/wonder/glee at first awed, disbelieving encounter with an over-the-top-and-beyond your idea/image in a comic book—something so WEIRD and GREAT and TRUE that you can’t believe it actually got published—that is happening here, in this moment, as we wait for the accursed light to change, as we turn the pages and get to the part where Captain Adam demonstrates quantum super-position, and then Superman reaches his hand through… Well, you’ll be finding out through what exactly soon enough. Let me just say this: I’ve been loving moments like this for as long as I’ve been reading comic books, which is a pretty long time, and no one has delivered more of them per issue during the last 20 years than writer Grant Morrison, from Animal Man, Doom Patrol and (Final Crisis overture) Flex Mentallo to New X-Men, JLA and All-Star Superman. But Final Crisis is his grandest-scale moment yet, a particularly harrowing section of the story that is the DC Universe, in which the ultimate conflict goes down—not who would win, Superman or Darkseid (although that’s in here, too)—but the real biggie: existence versus non-existence! Is versus Isn’t! UNIVERSE VERSUS             !!!

Final Crisis is a major achievement of 21st century imagination and craft in mainstream media, works on countless levels, far too many for me to enumerate here. Final Crisis is so good that although it’s part of a continuing, decades-in-the-telling saga involving countless characters, you can follow the plot and dig on the ideas and the dialogue and the sheer spectacle of the events that spiral from the trash up into the transcendent, even if you’re not familiar with all the backstory. (Rest assured that there are detailed annotations available online regarding previous references to Darkseid’s hatred of music, which parallel earth Nubia and where her Wonder Horn comes from, and so on…) Of course, that’s the way it’s always been with DC Universe comic books: you don’t always know everything about everyone, and sometimes you miss stuff, and sometimes you only suss out later what something was really all about. (Same is true for life in the real world, actually…) Final Crisis continues in that tradition, but as you’ll see, it’s at a higher dose—a different pitch, a denser signal—than usual, one that mirrors the world we are living in, when too many things really are going terribly wrong all at the same time, when headlines really do scream about catastrophe, turmoil, doom, collapse and apocalypse.

And maybe that’s this audacious work’s genius, even more than its elegant architecture, its overwhelming dazzle, its virtuoso artwork by J. G. Jones and Doug Mahnke: the way that it shows us, sitting here in a car, a path beyond the current situation, out of economic cataclysm and endless horrible wars and ecological peril and unchanging red lights. We’re being flat-out wowed into a very psychedelic, progressive, imaginative space by a superhero comic book. And that makes us laugh. We hum a brighter, richer tune. And then the light changes, and we go.

Plugging the hole in forever,

Jay Babcock
Philadelphia
February 2009

Jay Babcock is the editor and publisher of Arthur, the free bimonthly magazine of “homegrown counterculture” and Rolling Stone’s “Hot Magazine” of 2005, whose contributors have included Alan Moore, Paul Pope, author Douglas Rushkoff, musicians Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), David Byrne (Talking Heads), and many others.  His writing on music, culture and ideas during the last 15 years has appeared in Mojo, Vibe, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the LAWeekly.

The FINAL CRISIS hardcover is out this week, and we’re happy to try and list why this collection is essential reading.

Springing from the riotous imagination of New York Times bestselling author Grant Morrison comes a super-hero epic unlike any other (and that’s a good thing). From his earliest work on the metafictional romp ANIMAL MAN to the psychedelic historical mash-up of BATMAN R.I.P., Grant Morrison has built a reputation as a writer overflowing with ideas and executing said ideas with pinpoint precision, energy and a flair for humanity amidst a tidal wave of action, drama and off-the-wall characterization. In short: You don’t just read a Grant Morrison book. You experience it.

FINAL CRISIS pairs Morrison with a trio of artists up to the task of matching his exhilarating output. Featuring the modern, cinematic line work of artists J.G. Jones (52), Carlos Pacheco (SUPERMAN) and Doug Mahnke (BLACKEST NIGHT #0, GREEN LANTERN, BATMAN), FINAL CRISIS is a mind-warping, kinetic rollercoaster ride into the past, present and future of the DC Universe, through the funky, thought provoking filter that is Morrison. A Crisis unlike any other, FINAL CRISIS is as much blockbuster popcorn movie as art house piece.

Join a cabal of the universe’s deadliest villains lead by the mysterious Libra, engage with new, exciting characters like the Alpha Lanterns, watch a legendary hero return and an equally legendary hero fall and experience Morrison’s grand plan for Jack Kirby’s New Gods in the FINAL CRISIS HC collection, which includes FINAL CRISIS #1-7, FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND #1-2 and FINAL CRISIS: SUBMIT.

The FINAL CRISIS hardcover will be in comic shops on June 10 and in bookstores June 16. Swing back to The Source tomorrow to get a first look at the hardcover introduction, by Arthur Magazine editor and publisher Jay Babcock.

And, because it’s all about me, here’s my favorite sequence, from the second issue of FINAL CRISIS, featuring the return of you-know-who.

Well, here’s hoping everyone had a reasonably relaxing Memorial Day weekend. Here at The Source, we’ve gathered a few links you might have missed while you were out grilling or enjoying the balmy weather (or not, depending where you’re located):

• BATMAN & ROBIN writer Grant Morrison gave a lengthy interview over at IGN, discussing the post-BATTLE FOR THE COWL status quo and his plans for Gotham’s villainous population:

IGN Comics: So the wait is over and now fans know the identities of the new Batman and Robin – Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne. Before we get into specifics though, I’d like to talk about the big picture. You’ve made no secret of the fact that this is all part of a greater, long ranging story that you’re telling. How does Batman and Robin fit alongside your recent Batman work?

Morrison: It’s pretty simple. It comes in straight chronological order after the recent stuff. This is the sequel to Batman RIP, which is why the first arc is called ‘Batman Reborn.’ It builds directly off of it, and there are threads we pick up from before. As I’ve said before, the main villain in the first arc has already been seen in Batman #666, which had the potential future for Gotham City in it. So it’s a straight continuation and the next part in the long running story from ‘Batman and Son’ onwards. We’ll be picking up threads from that first book as well.

• Speaking of IGN, the site also previewed GREEN LANTERN #41, which continues the build-up to July’s BLACKEST NIGHT mega-event. They’ve also got artist J.G. Jones’ stellar variant cover for BATMAN & ROBIN #1.

• Has it really been a year? NEWSARAMA has a preview of TRINITY #52, the final issue of the series, while COMIC BOOK RESOURCES ROBOT 6 blog annotates the 51st issue of the weekly series.

Happy Monday, all. By now, you’ve probably pried yourself away from the pile of free goodies you snagged from your local comic shop on Free Comic Book Day, which was Saturday at participating stores. How was it? Get anything cool? As you probably know, FCBD also marked the debut of BLACKEST NIGHT #0, kicking off this summer’s mega-event from writer Geoff Johns and artist Ivan Reis, along with artist Doug Mahnke. If you haven’t gotten a copy, you might have time to take an early lunch and beg your favorite retailer to pretend it’s Saturday.

• THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS kicked things off for New Yorkers with a nice primer of events happening in the Big Apple.

• Geoff Boucher, over at THE LA TIMES Hero Complex blog, had a nice general FCBD primer for fans on the big day, which is worth checking out to get a sense of what publishers were offering.

• USA TODAY’s David Colton also had a nice FCBD preview, along with a quote from our very own Geoff Johns, who summed up the event like so:

“It’s like the peace summit of comic books when all of the major publishers work together,” says Geoff Johns, writer of DC’s Green Lantern. “There’s always something for everyone.”

• Speaking of USA TODAY, over at their Pop Candy blog, Whitney Matheson points out five books fans should’ve picked up on FCBD, including BLACKEST NIGHT #0, which Whitney described as: “Green Lantern fans are psyched about this all-new story that introduces the new series and is guaranteed to include more top-notch writing from Johns.”

• Additionally, Comic Book Resources had a 15-hour marathon of coverage, while Newsarama made their annual FCBD pilgrimage to Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find, in Charlotte.

So, how was your Free Comic Book Day? Let us know.

Well, of course we had to end with the Black Lanterns. And, as you’ve probably noticed, IGN has a first look at the amazing piece of work by artist Doug Mahnke, which gives us a first look at the Black Lanterns and some of their potential members.

And in case you missed it, here’s a collection of our entire CORPS 101 series, from Green to Black. Why waste valuable time linking back when we can show it all in one place? That’s my logic, and I’m sticking to it.

What’s love got to do with it? A lot, actually.

The Guardians of Oa have the Green Lanterns while their counterparts, the Zamarons — fueled by emotions, unlike the Guardians — created the Star Sapphires, a group of super-powered soldiers wielding the power of love.

Click below for more info on the Star Sapphires, in this, our penultimate “Corps 101.” Can you guess which comes last?