The earth's ability to sustain life can now be measured in days. As some heroes try to maintain order and keep hope alive, others discover that the Sun-Eater's actions will cause the sun to go nova, obliterating the entire solar system. Luthor and Brainiac 5 develop a way to contain that explosion and, hopefully, reignite the sun. This plan also fails, and one of DC's greatest heroes must sacrifice his life to finish the job.
 

Review

WHY DO PEOPLE WATCH disaster movies? After all, there's not much dramatic good vs. evil stuff when you're trying to survive an earthquake or a tidal wave; forces of nature frankly don't care whether us humans live or die.

The drama in these types of stories come from the heroes themselves. How do they react to the end of the world? How do you go on knowing that all is lost? Watching ordinary people -- or ordinary superheroes, as the case might be -- deal with an impossibly hopeless situation shows us a side of them we rarely see, precisely because they are superheroes, and conquering the odds is what they do best... until the odds are impossible. Then what?

The main plot itself is fairly standard: force of nature threatens planet, heroes try to stop it. I don't think I'll be ruining anything by telling you they win. Aside from some scientific technobabble courtesy of Lex Luthor and Brainiac 5, it's a well-scripted exercise in the disaster genre.

"A better than usual annual get-together for DC's heroes." - The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide

The real treasures in this mini-series are found in the subplots, as heroes and normal folks alike cope with the knowledge that this might in fact be the final night. The scene between Batman and Vandal Savage, an extremely long-lived villain, is perfectly in character -- even when everything else seems lost, Batman's sense of justice refuses to allow Savage to walk away from his crime. The scenes with Firestorm and the Ray -- two heroes with the power to control light -- are also touching, as they realize how futile their powers really are against the greater darkness.

As for the art, all I can say is that it's spectacular. Immonen and Marzan do an exceptional job using light and shadow to portray a world where all light is artificial, and hope is fading fast.

The crossovers themselves are better than usual, as each hero deals with a situation in which their enemy is not only the super-villain in front of them, but despair itself. After all, what's the point of slugging it out when everything's going to end? The Superman titles are particularly interesting, as the Man of Steel -- whose powers are fueled by our sun -- comes to grips with his weakness at the time when he's needed most.

All in all, this was a satisfying read, even with -- no, especially because of -- the final resolution, which comes through only because Hal Jordan, the former Green Lantern who at the time called himself Parallax, steps in and makes everything all right. In other words, our heroes failed, and only the death of a demi-god saved us all. Between that and watching a hungry Sun-Eater destroy our sun, I don't know which is a more frightening concept.