Final Night


Final Night is a DC Crisis Crossover that published in 1996, that chronicles the day the sun went out, and the challenges Earth's heroes must overcome to Save the World.

The story begins with a Human Alien named Dusk, whose job is to warn planets about the arrival of the Sun-Eater, a cosmic entity that devours stars. Inevitably, the heroes of Earth try to prevent the Sun-Eater from, well, eating the sun. They don't succeed, and the world is plunged into darkness.

Our heroes now have to deal with the rapidly-decreasing temperatures and skyrocketing crime rate due to apocalypse panic, while the great minds come together to figure out a way to prevent The End of the World as We Know It.

The story as a whole is surprisingly down-to-earth, and far more believable than one would expect from a superhero tale about the sun getting extinguished.

Tropes used in Final Night include:
  • Apocalypse How: Class 6. When the sun goes out, you've only got so long before the earth freezes over.
    • It is later revealed to be a Class X-2, the sun's mass collapsing upon itself would cause it to go supernova, wiping out everything.
  • Artistic License Geology: It's implied that, without the sun (and the help of The Spectre), the Earth's core would freeze over.
  • Big Bad: Subverted. While the Sun Eater arguably qualifies, it's portrayed more as an environmental catastrophe than as a living creature, making this one of the few Crisis Crossover storylines without an overarching villain behind everything.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Remember, Superman is a solar-powered hero. As time goes on, he gradually loses potency as a Flying Brick. He is reduced to sub-In a Single Bound levels, having to jump multiple times to reach his destination, and using great strain to lift a single automobile. He stays normal for long enough to get married to Lois Lane but thats after this story.
  • Enemy Mine: We're talking The End of the World as We Know It here. It's only natural that guys like Lex Luthor bump heads with the heroes to try to figure something out.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Hal Jordan.
  • Internal Homage: Superman lifts a car to throw at his armored enemies, an homage to the cover of Action Comics #1.
  • Mythology Gag: In the first appearance of a Sun-Eater in the Silver Age, it was destroyed by Ferro Lad, who gave his life. Ferro is reintroduced in Final Night; he draws an homage to his iconic death scene[1] while trying to help brainstorm a solution. Later, he volunteers himself for the heroes' last-ditch mission to contain the shockwave when the Sun goes nova, sacrificing himself to save the world, but is told by Hal Jordan that he has too much to live for.
  • The Night That Never Ends
  • No Endor Holocaust: Hal Jordan explicitly states that he was going to repair the damage caused to the Earth's ecosystem during the crossover; Batman has to persuade him not to try resurrecting human casualties of the disaster.
  • Not Himself: Green Lantern: Rebirth retcons Parallax as a fear entity who manipulated and possessed Hal Jordan. Despite this, however, Hal is truly himself here, his mind shining through despite Parallax being in his soul.
  • Original Generation: Dusk. This was her only appearance.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Hal Jordan, aka Parallax, formerly aka Green Lantern, gave his life to reignite the sun. This was the end of the his fall into evil, followed by the beginning of his redemption as The Spectre.
  • Wacky Wayside Tribe: Hitman #8, which features five ex-cons at a bar trading war stories from The Sixties. Can also count as a Red Skies Crossover. Nevertheless, the issue adds mood if not plot to the story in general.
  1. ↑ flying into the Sun-Eater while carrying a bomb that would destroy it
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