Solomon Grundy. Born on a Monday. Would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

Or maybe not.

The Grundy we know definitely wasn’t the wimpy type. He’d just grab the burger from your mitts and stiff you when it came time for payback. But after looking at the cover to Blackest Knight Solomon Grundy, he might just gulp down the burger as a meager appetizer before donning his napkin Boss Hogg-style to go to town on YOU!

In this crossover issue of what is fast becoming DC’s best and most popular big event since Crisis on Infinite Worlds, the old JSA/Earth 2 menace comes to a deadly crossroads in his mostly undead life and emerges as a new player in Blackest Knight, in which every deceased DC character save Aunt Harriet have been rising from their graves to torment former friends and foes.

But how can a zombie like Grundy become a Black Lantern if he’s already a zombie? Wouldn’t that be like, as comedian Steven Wright once explained, putting a new engine in your car and forgetting to take the old one out to make your car go 500 miles per hour?

Seriously though, how would that work? If it did, would he become the Black Lantern version of Kilowog? But don’t you have to be dead as opposed to undead for that black ring to come floating to your headstone along with that eerie voice that commands you to “Rise?”

But is Grundy alive, dead or undead at the beginning of this issue? I shouldn’t say, to be honest. I mean, this isn’t Cliff’s Notes—it’s a review. So you’ll have to read the book to find out. And no, don’t read it at BSI either. There’s a Green Lantern (Guy Gardner from space sector 2814—he’s not quite as busy as Hal Jordan) on detail who’ll gladly remind you that it’s not a library!

If Grundy doesn’t become a Black Lantern, does he instead decide to join the Green Lantern Corp and other heroes to fight, what has been so far, the not-so-good fight? Hey, if a freakin’ squirrel can be part of an intergalactic police force and wield a green power ring, then why not Grundy? ‘Nuff said.

In this issue, you have the Phantom Stranger and longtime Grundy arch-nemesis Alan Scott, the golden age Green Lantern, trying to do whatever they can to ensure Cyrus Gold makes the right decision to save his soul. In case you don’t know, Gold is the mortal who became the swamp-spawned zombie known as Solomon Grundy.

And then you have Etrigan the Demon, who’s been getting around more than a fresh-out-of-rehab and off-the-wagon-again Lindsey Lohan on a Saturday night. In case you’re not aware, he’s also in Batman: The Widening Gyre this month, causing all sorts of mayhem. But don’t worry, you can’t say Etrigan is being overexposed like Wolverine just yet. Wait until the Demon animated series, action figures, plush toys, video game and all-new motion picture get released. Then he’ll be everywhere.

I digress—again. In Blackest Knight Solomon Grundy, Etrigan has his own agenda and, naturally, comes into conflict with Scott and the Phantom Stranger. And you’d think a tragic tale about Grundy that features the Phantom Stranger and happens to tie-in to Blackest Knight would be extremely dark and depressing. Only to a certain point.

The scripts and pencils give this book a feel that’s somewhere between Marvel Zombies and a B-grade horror movie. But that’s NOT a bad thing. That’s what makes this a fun read. There’s no reason why every single Blackest Knight crossover has to have the exact same style of art or the same tone.

The pacing of the story is very brisk. In one single issue, writer/artist Scott Colin provides us with a recap of Grundy’s basic origin and lays out a major crossroads for the character. But there is no cliffhanger here. You know by the very last few pages what Grundy’s immediate fate will be and which team he’ll be playing for. Not bad for 3 bucks!

Though the Batman, Superman and Titans books involving Blackest Knight would have to receive a higher grade, Solomon Grundy Blackest Knight is still a must read tie-in for a must read big event.

We should all remember the fact that Grundy has been around longer than most of today’s comic book characters, and he even appeared on a lot of those old Saturday morning Super Friends cartoons as a card-carrying member of the Legion of Doom. And those old toons were a far better alternative than watching Smurfs on the next channel over.

So you sort of owe it to the big guy to pick up this book just to see what happens to him. Don’t worry, this is Blackest Night, so you know it WILL be worth it.