For me, the best was easily Blackest Night. I thoroughly enjoyed the main Blackest Night series, and reading it weekly with the GL and GLC titles told the complete story really well. The various extra mini-series and tie-ins varied in quality, but weren't needed to enjoy the event.
The overall premise was epic and, while I found some of the deaths gratuitous, it gave the ultimate villain a true sense of threat. The power source for the black rings was very interesting, especially once it started trying to escape. There were some nice character moments, too, and how some of the ring avatar choices were inspired. I could have done without the seemingly random 12 resurrections, and Brightest Day was just bad, but as a cross-over Blackest Night ticked all the boxes.
AND, perhaps most importantly, after all the horror and death, the solution was life! It was refreshing to see the hero in a big crossover 'save' a life to end the threat rather than just destroying it.
Flashpoint had a broken premise that I just couldn't get over. Barry Allen saved his mother and the butterfly effect caused everything in the Flashpoint world is a result. Nope. If there was a parallel mini-series timeline explaining this I may have given in to it, but Nora Allen lived and so everything changed? Bruce Wayne's father lived? Wonder Woman and Aquaman are at war? Superman was quarantined upon arriving on Earth? Can't buy it, can't see how her life could possibly impact so many things, even if it meant Flashpoint Barry never became The Flash.
The there is the mini-series itself. It didn't really tell much of a story. It started that way, following Barry waking up in a new world and trying to regain his powers and figure out what was going on, but it quickly descended into a series of 'cool' moments with little plot or explanation. Much of this was left to the various mini-series but I didn't really care enough to read most of them (probably half?). Again, the quality varied but I did feel I missed out on some things by skipping them.
Finally, I hated that letter and the entire scene around it. Note to Geoff Johns; you do not Batman well. Leave the character alone.
Forever Evil is a prime example of everything wrong with Geoff Johns' writing. An amazing concept (and I’ll give him that, his concepts are fantastic) mishandled at almost every turn.
The first issue was great, giving us a sense that evil had won, establishing Luthor’s motivations both as a villain and an unlikely saviour, and showing how the world now belonged to the villains. However, with issue 2 it began meandering and treading water until it ultimately devolved into a hyper-violent mess. He also packed in too much seeding for future stories, like Superwoman’s pregnancy and the Anti-Monitor. Batman showing up with Catwoman and ¼ of Cyborg (issue 3?) made me laugh with frustration.
And the heroes were completely ineffectual. They were jumped and Luthor stepped up to save the day. There were other ways to give Luthor his day in the sun without completely marginalising the Justice League (batman and Cyborg excluded, of course).
The Villains Months books ranged in quality as always, but JL and JLA were both really bad.
To me, Forever Evil is just one big wasted opportunity.
"Has Sariel summoned you here, Azrael? Have you come to witness the miracle of your brethren arriving on Earth?"
"I WILL MIX THE ASHES OF YOUR BONES WITH SALT AND USE THEM TO ENSURE THE EARTH THE TEMPLARS TILLED NEVER BEARS FRUIT AGAIN!"
"*sigh* I hoped it was for the miracle."
Dan Watters' Azrael was incredible, a constant delight and perhaps too good for this world (but not the Forth). For the love of St. Dumas, DC, give us more!!!
Nah I know you were being sarcastic. I just thought you thought that I didn't know that the things we brought up were usual for Johns. It's why I continue to find that everyone drinks Johns' "Bringing back hope" Koolaid so baffling. Dude's nice, has written some great stuff and he cares a lot about the DCU, but he's still someone who will toe whatever line the company is drawing (Be it Hope and Light or Death and Grimdark), who has written A LOT of crap, and much as he cares, misunderstands a large number of characters he writes, to the point that he'll re-invent them (generally for the worse) to suit his own needs, or just make up a nonsensical retcon.
Forever Evil would've been great but it doesn't make any sense if you haven't read Trinity War or the build up issues in JL and JLA. Still enjoyable, but not AS enjoyable. Also, the tie-in issues in Justice League featuring Cyborg and the Metal Men are not collected in the Forever Evil trade, which is a damn shame.
The same with Blackest Night. It is the culmination of everything that had been going on in Green Lantern since Rebirth. It's a decent enough story but without reading any of the GL and GLC stuff before it it's not AS enjoyable and can be confusing. It's oozing with mythology only relevant to GL readers.
Flashpoint however completely stands on its own. You really only need basic knowledge of the DC Universe to understand it. In fact the only Flash story I'd recommend reading before it is Flash Rebirth. Aside from that it's an open book (literally) . Most casual fans I know have read it.
I'm not a fan of any of these 3, but if I had to pick one it would be Flashpoint. It's an event that is told from start to finish within the actual event miniseries and not any other tie-in books. One of the reasons I hated Infinity was that Avengers and New Avengers were required reading, making the actual Infinity series pointless. Events like that are so annoying and it's why Blackest Night and Forever Evil fail for me.
It's the shallow fan in me that's biggest disappointment with Forever Evil is that we didn't get to see the Justice League fight the Crime Syndicate.
Which would have kind of defeated the point of the event, but still.
Flashpoint. Very fun read, in fact I'd love that set-up to have its own dedicated earth to explore. I'm a sucker for dystopia stories.
This is taking it for a standalone story, not counting what happened after. Granted I still like what happened after anyway, but still not factoring that in either way.
Blackest Night is good, but I'm just not that into the GL mythos.
Forever Evil had its moments but I'll remember it more for the tons of missed opportunities. Trinity War going through so many changes hurt it a lot, I'm sure.
"They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son." - Jor-El
Blackest Night, is basically popcorn movie with some gore and gratious violence (and some really lame deaths), but i like the concept, i like some of the world building (like the fallen heroes being honored by their loved ones and the people that they saved during the day that Superman died) and the Black Lanterns were a really cool concept here... too bad that their next appearances were pretty underwhelming
Flashpoint is an ok Flash story, but a really lame croosover event and i just dislike dystopias stories as main events after House M.
Forever Evil was fun in some parts, but has a lot of misses chances there.
I liked INFINITE CRISIS more than any of these, because gratuitous violence aside, it had an old-school, COIE feel to it, and I'm an old-school kind of comic book fan.
Additionally, there's very little mention of it, but DAY OF JUDGMENT was, I think, Johns' first crossover event for DC. Don't remember too much about the story, but it was the beginning of the end for Hal Jordan's Parallax phase. You might say it was the keystone for Johns' later reconstruction of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern mythos.
Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)
Buried Alien - THE FASTEST POST ALIVE!
First CBR Appearance (Historical): November, 1996
First CBR Appearance (Modern): April, 2014
Me too! I wanted to see them duke it out but nope! ugh wasted opportunity. They still didn't fight each other in Darkseid War.
I like all of them. I love the things Johns write and sometimes I disagree but most of the time he wins me over. Forever Evil was just proof that DC has the nest villains and Blackest Night was epic. Flashpoint was alright.
You know everyone always says how Marvel and DC have these great rogues galleries for their heroes...is it weird of me to say that I couldn't care less about them? Like, if you don't count the Secret Six, characters who've had the benefit of being protagonists and are among my favorites in all of comics, I can count every DC villain I give a crap about one two hands, and I wouldn't even need all my fingers. For me, DC (and Marvel's) villains can be enjoyable and do their role in servicing the story, but most of the time, I just don't care about them at all. And when I hear people say things like Batman and Flash's villains are more important and better than their Families, I just don't know what they're seeing.