Blackest Night Disussion Thread (Spoilers)

[The Lensman]

Wow. This was a let down. More like Meh-est Night. It was a by-the-numbers first issue and it just didn't do anything for me.

Like a lot of folks, I'd been waiting for this since it was announced....and as time has progressed, I've been more wary of it. The two year lead in has been severely lacking (contrast that with the Great Darkness Saga's far shorter and ten thousand times better lead in) in awesomeness.

Even with two years, it felt rushed. The various Corps should've been established for several years before we went with the 21st Century version of GLC vs. Nekron and the dead again.

I really wonder if Geoff Johns has anything left to really make this series be the stand out that it should be.

Seeing hundreds of Black Lantern rings flying through space? Seen it before years ago when he had hundreds of green rings flying through space. Or when he had hundreds of yellow rings flying through space. Or, when after a majorly devastating battle between the GLC and SC, we had hundreds of green AND yellow rings flying through space, intertwining with each other.

I think we even had a hundreds of red rings flying through space scene as well, though feel free to correct me.

A spooky ring Corps? Yeah, their zombies. And all of them together, in the two page spread, lack the creepy-ness of a couple of the Sinestro Corps members. I found pretty much everyone associated with the Black Lanterns funny looking in the cliche' zombie way. All it needed was a "braaaaaaains" word balloon to really make it. I would've found that far more enjoyable than "rise".

Crazy violence? After Sinestro Corps War and some of the stuff from Infinite Crisis, not to mention the various monthly books....what's left that has any shock value?
Nothing in this book, that's for sure.

Bad guys that feel like evil bad asses? None here. Again, I almost laughed at the drawing of Black Hand licking Bruce Waynes skull. It had "look at how gross I am" all over it and felt too obvious. Ralph and Sue were evil because they were trying to be funny and mean at the same time. (rolls eyes)

And they killed Hawkman and Hawkgirl? All it means is that Didio found a way to get rid of Johns awesome Hawkman and will attempt to foist Katar Hol on us again as he continues restructuring the DCU to the way it was in his childhood in the 70s. Their death is completely meaningless because they'll be back. Not even an issue on that one.

Everyone thinks they'll be bringing back tons of dead characters back by the end. Who cares? They've already brought back Earth-Two Superman in IC, Hal Jordan and more recently Barry Allen......those three returns were the only one's that have any real "Holy Shit!" factor and they've been done. Who gives a crap if they bring back Ronnie Raymond, outside of an incredibly small fanbase? Hell, I collected Firestorm in the 80's and *I* don't care if they bring him back. Ditto for just about every character that Hal shows Barry.

I've read this book a few times, just to make sure I didn't miss anything the first time. Just as the current regime felt the need to redo some of the biggies from their teenage years, like Crisis and Great Darkness Saga's (and did second rate jobs of it) it's not surprising that they'd be doing "Tales Of The Green Lantern Corps" for the 21st century. While their previous redo's were fair to middling, this one might ultimately turn out good. But GLC vs. the dead has been done before.

(While typing this post I ran across this article http://diamondrock.blogspot.com/search?q=Nekron trying to get the name of the original mini correct...it's about the GLC's war with Nekron. The author makes the case that Nekron is probably the big bad behind the BLC, and it was certainly my first thought when I heard about BN.)

I've been slowly souring on DC for awhile now. Bringing back Barry Allen pretty much hardened my resolve and I'd had Blackest Night in mind as the last big event before calling it quits with superhero comics. This first issue didn't do anything to change my mind in the slightest and actually made the case for it. I really hope the next issue does something worth a damn....something that actually doesn't feel like a tired retread.

On a related note, the only two books in my subscription were Blackest Night and Star Trek: Crew. Ahhh, the look on the clerks face when I told him I really came in to get Crew #5, and his comments were priceless. He couldn't believe I was picking up a Byrne book over Blackest Night.

Crew #5 was awesome by the way.

[C.E. Evans]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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Geoff has also said as recently as a couple of weeks ago that you don't need to read the Blackest Night tie-ins to read and undersand Blackest Night. Yes its part of a larger story, being the trilogy that Mr. Light wrote about but it's not like Final Crisis where you have to gobble up half a dozen other books to get what's going on.

Yeah, I actually skipped Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War, but I thought Blackest Night #1 had a good amount of introductory material for people just coming aboard for the first time.

While it helps to have a basic understanding of the Green Lanterns and the Guardians (as well as the more recent major events in the DC Universe), I think Blackest Night does a good job of being both a self-contained story as well as part of a much larger story.

[Capt_Piett]

So here's what I don't understand...how for someone like Sue and Ralph who've been running around as Ghost Detectives, does this affect them? I'm assuming that anyone who becomes a Black Lantern is evil because they don't have a soul.....but since we have seen Sue and Ralph since they "died", it makes me wonder what they think of the desecration of their bodies?

And since Ralph had long ago given up drinking Gingold, how did his corpse stretch? I also was not aware his body had ever been removed from Fate's tower after the Black Adam miniseries. Was this covered anywhere, or did Johns just screw up somehow? I don't think a Black Lantern ring would be capable of breaching Dr Fate's Tower's defenses.

And One Guardian is able to take down the rest of the council? Even augmented by unknown powers? Couldn't they just blast her into atoms when she was chowing down on the other Guardian?

[Mr Light]

Have they actually shown Sue and Ralph since the ending of 52?

[DarKush]

Lensman,

Thanks for the link on Nekron. The blogger's theory certainly sounds plausible. I could see GJ resurrecting him and making him over. I haven't been a deep follower of GL recently, but I have read Rebirth, Wanted: Hal Jordan, Secret Origins, and the Sinestro Corps War, courtesy of the local library. I like what GJ has done with Black Hand, but he still felt too small a villain for me to believe he is the main guy behind the Black Lanterns. Nekron would make more sense.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

DarKush wrote:

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Lensman,

Thanks for the link on Nekron. The blogger's theory certainly sounds plausible. I could see GJ resurrecting him and making him over. I

And read this link as well. Pretty much proves Nekron is behind the whole thing.

[Admiral_Young]

Sue and Ralph I don't think have been since their Ghost Detective stints. Geoff has explained a little in interviews over the last few weeks the nature of the Black Lanterns. It's still a little confusing to me as well how the whole thing works.

[DarKush]

Thanks Laser Beam. I got a chance to read the original Nekron story and I really like the cover of Issue #5. In the original story, Nekron was pretty badass but he looked sort of lame, but now he looks badass. Hopefully GJ will have his powers and actions fit his makeover.

Question for BN readers, I was browsing through one of the books and there was a great scene with John Stewart confronting I think the spirit of the dead of the world he destroyed? Has that plotline been advanced or concluded? If so, could someone spoil me? There just seem to be so many Blackest Night books out there it's hard to keep track of them. I wish they would go to a numbering system like the Superman books have.

[Mr Light]

*bump* So how are people enjoying Blackest Night so far, now at the halfway point? I'm only buying the primary mini-series and not the tie-ins, I'll get those in trade form. I'm enjoying the series but I'm surprised and disappointed that the main mini is basically "Barry and Hal and C Listers fight zombies" for the entire first half. The lead-up was all about the different Corps of color and they haven't appeared at all outside of the Indigoes so far. Are they in the GL and GLC issues? I don't know anything about Nekron at all so his shocking return doesn't do much for me, but we'll see how it goes.

[shivkala]

The book does seem really slow. And while I'm not a big fan of "force every title to tie into the big event story," I think Blackest Night is being hurt by being (somewhat) isolated. A lot of what happened in the mini could have been covered in individual titles, leaving the mini open for the War of Light

[Mike Farley]

Most of the various color corps stuff is indeed being covered in the 2 Green Lantern books. Sinestro and his corps have just teamed up with the GLC and the Star Sapphires in the latest issue of GREEN LANTERN.

And the Blackest Night is beginning to spill over into the other DC books as of last week's issue of DOOM PATROL. It's only getting bigger from here on out.

I've been really enjoying it so far. I love that we're seeing someone other than the Big Three taking center stage.

However, I do think the big climactic reveal in issue #4 had a bit of the wind taken out of it's sails by being spoiled in the press a few months back.

[The Lensman]

My feelings haven't changed at all. It's moving too slow, has been predictable in every conceivable way, and I'm just sick of the way the Hal and Barry bromance is being shoved down everyone's throat and then some. Sorry Geoff, I read these guys as kids and you're not going to convince me they're the end all be all of comic characters, especially since their replacements had more character in one year than they did in thirty some odd years of publication. They still do.

And what should have been a relatively contained series is now becoming a big bloated mess. Doom Patrol apparently was still on my pull list from the Byrne days (ugh) and it adds nothing to either story and feels like the forced story that most crossovers do.

As for the "reveal" at the end of issue 4......again, having read the original series that this is basically a remake of......my first thought upon reading the first BN related article was that it was going to be Nekron. Mainly because Geoff Johns went from being an excellent writer who was forward looking, when he was writing Flash and JSA, to an Event Writer who wallows in nostalgic bullshit with a heavy dose of fan wank (see Legion Of Three Worlds) It's getting older and staler by the minute.

[Admiral_Young]

I'm waiting until the trades come out. We're fast closing on the month long gap...I can't remember when DiDio said it was going to be.

[Mr Light]

According to Amazon, which is often wrong about when the title is actually available (they tend to post a date a month AFTER it comes out), Blackest Night is coming out on July 6th. http://www.amazon.com/Blackest-Night...7770827&sr=1-1

[Admiral_Young]

That is when I thought it would be out. I love the cover to Superman: Secret Origin too.