Yesterday DC released Blackest Night #7, the plot developments of which freed the publisher up to make an announcement regarding another plastic ring promotion and start promoting the final issue of the miniseries, the precise contents of which were “classified” to protect one of those plot developments until now.

First, that ring promotion. Click here to read about what it is and some of the details on how retailers (and thus readers) can get their hands on one—or one on their hands?—and some info on a more fancy, schmancy light-up version of the set (Another of the many, many DC Direct offerings I think would be kind of cool to have in my castle if I were a billionaire who had already spent and invested my money on everything more worthwhile, and had thousands left over to spend on neat prop replicas…today it’s just about possible to build your own version of the JLA trophy room in your den!). It’s worth noting that DC more or less spoiled the nature of this particular ring, and hinted at the promotion already, when annoucning Brightest Day, but I doubt it will dampen any excitement over the promotion—especially for DC, who sure sold a lot of comics using those rings the last time around.

Second, did you guys read Blackest Night #7 yesterday? As jaded and cynical as I am regarding super-comics these days, I have to applaud a neat little switcheroo at the end there. The fact that someone would be doing that thing at the climax of the series/event is something fans have been predicting since the Blackest Night was first teased, but I don’t think anyone expected it to happen like that. The more predictable and expected thing may happen—there’s still a whole issue to go—but damn, it’s exciting when something like Blackest Night manages to surprise, isn’t it? Sorry to be so vague; DC’s The Source blog isn’t, if you wanna know what I’m talking about but haven’t read the issue/don’t intend to/don’t care about spoilers.

Finally, what I found most intriguing about the issue was the other suprise development, Nekron raising that…entity he did, from where he did and the breif explanation of what it is and where it came from. That’s a pretty bold story move, I think. Geoff Johns has hinted at the light vs. dark, nothingness vs. creation conflict behind the serires all along, but this makes it awfuly literal, and links DC Comics’ cosmology to a vague version of the creation myth of the Bible (and, perhaps, other modern religions) in a rather direct fashion. I suppose that’s not all that new for DC—The Spectre has been running around their universe for decades, and angels and demons have always been commonplace—but it seems refreshing ambitious for a Geoff Johns story, for a Green Lantern story and for a big DCU crossover story instead of, say, Sandman or Swamp Thing or The Demon or The Spectre.

Er, sorry to be so vague, but I don’t want to spoil it. It’s awfully exciting to see something in a big Green Lantern crossover story, one being crossing over to pretty much the whole DC line (even Tiny Titans! Sort of!) and promoted with plastic rings in comic shops using a trippy, New Age, Jesus-was-a-spaceman sort of event that seems more Neon Genesis Evangelion than Crisis on Infinite Earths. And I mean awfully exciting in a good way.

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