The Best Event Launch in Recent Years? Possibly.

Living where I do I don't really have an LCS - a local comic shop - but thanks to the good folk at Destination Venus I didn't miss out on Free Comic Book Day. Thankfully, amongst the FCBD goodies that arrived in my monthly shipment was Blackest Night #0 and I couldn't have been more impressed.

For my mind this book is as close to the perfect 'event launch' as I've seen and I applaud DC's decision to promote the forthcoming Blackest Night through Free Comic Book Day.

The main story feature - running across 12 pages - features Barry Allen (the Flash) and Hal Jordan (the Green Lantern) reminiscing about some of their past adventures: where there's been a constant theme of death and destruction, and their fear of more to come.

The story ends with the oath of the Black Lanterns and the rise of the Black Hand. At this point I was sold and I'm looking forward to reading the ongoing story later this summer.
This was a powerful short story beautifully told through both the words and the images - here's a couple of pages courtesy of Newsarama.

The remaining pages, adverts aside, included profiles of the teams set to battle in out in the War of Light - Green Lantern Corps, the Red Lanterns, Agent Orange, the Sinestro Corps, the Blue Lanterns, the Indigo Tribe, Star Sapphires and the Black Lantern Corps.

Blackest Night #0 (DC Comics), June 2009 Free Comic Book Day
Written by Geoff John, art by Ivan Reis, Oclair Albert, Rob Hunter, Albert Sinclair

Recommended (even if you have to pay for a copy!)