Blackest Night #6

Release Date: December 30, 2009
Cover Date: February 2010

Story: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Ivan Reis
Inks: Oclair Albert and Joe Prado
Cover: Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert
Variant Cover: Rodolfo Migliari

Some of the most powerful members of the DC Universe have become Black Lanterns, and Barry Allen and Hal Jordan are next! To break the emotional tether that allows the black rings to follow them, Barry grabs Hal and runs fast enough to jump them two seconds into the future. Meanwhile, the Atom and Mera are still stuck inside a Black Lantern ring with the undead Jean Loring, and Deadman fortunately shows up to help them escape. Along with the other representatives of the seven Corps, Hal realizes that while combining their powers to recreate the white light of creation was correct, it just wasn’t powerful enough to stop Nekron himself. They need all of the members of every Corps to do so, and while the Indigo Tribe sets out to gather them, Ganthet takes matters into his own hands. He reveals to Hal that his ring can duplicate itself (which we last saw Kyle Rayner do after the “Emerald Knights” storyline in 1998!), and Ganthet himself puts it on to become another Green Lantern. Furthermore, he explains that the other color rings are all based on Oan technology, and they can deputize an additional member for twenty-four hours if their safeties are overridden. Atrocitus isn’t pleased about this, but Ganthet’s already used his powers as a Guardian to activate this feature. New rings fly out, and we’re introduced to some new ring slingers: Mera the Red Lantern, Lex Luthor the Orange Lantern, Scarecrow of the Sinestro Corps, Flash the Blue Lantern, Atom of the Indigo Tribe, and…Wonder Woman of the Star Sapphires! Even though she was a Black Lantern, her love for everything was powerful enough to break through and destroy the black ring, bringing her back to her normal self. With this new group, our heroes are ready to begin the final battle as every Black Lantern in the universe descends upon Earth (as seen at the end of Green Lantern [Vol. 4] #49).

You know, Blackest Night #6 was mega-hyped as the issue where the shit would really hit the fan…but it didn’t. DC Comics promoted this issue with the following: “The secrets of Nekron are revealed as darkness consumes the DC Universe.” That’s completely false! No “secrets of Nekron” were revealed! Sure, the deputizing of other well-known characters as new Lanterns was a surprise (and I practically predicted Luthor as an Orange Lantern), but it wasn’t the ground-quaking cliffhanger that DC was making things out to be. Not only that, they didn’t even bother to induct a new Green Lantern into their ranks! Ganthet doesn’t count, as was already a Guardian. I know there’s seventy-two hundred Green Lanterns already, but it would’ve been cool to see some random DC hero (or villain!) get the green ring. There’s a few other glaring problems, too. The cover subtitle of “The New Guardians” is misleading, too; the seven Corps representatives pictured are not Guardians, nor do they become them. Also, Ganthet’s claim that the various color rings are all based on Oan technology is not entirely correct. In the case of the Red Lanterns, he’s clearly wrong: the last time I checked, Atrocitus made the Red Power Battery and rings using shamanic magic!

In conclusion, Blackest Night #6 was an okay issue, but suffered greatly because of the hype. It didn’t even come close to the massive expectations piled upon it by DC.

Blackest Night: JSA #1

Release Date: December 23, 2009
Cover Date: February 2010

Story: James Robinson
Pencils: Eddy Barrows and Marcos Marz
Inks: Julio Ferreira, Luciana del Negro, and Ruy Jose
Cover: Eddy Barrows
Variant Cover: Gene Ha

JSA elder statesmen Wesley Dodds, Rex McNider, and Terry Sloane have been resurrected as Black Lanterns, and the current team roster is having a very hard time fighting them off. In addition, Damage has recently become a Black Lantern, and the team can barely come to grips with that! Still, they need to buy time for Mr. Terrific, who’s studying the inert Black Lanterns that Superboy brought back (Blackest Night: Superman). Terrific’s got a plan to synthetically duplicate the light energy that can destroy them, but as he gathers the necessary heroes, he realizes to his horror that Dodds, McNider, and Sloane have likely figured out what he’s got in mind. He’s proven correct, as Alan Scott’s power ring registers the Black Lanterns massing outside JSA headquarters.

This is another issue much like Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #1 in that it wasn’t bad, but it didn’t seem the least bit necessary to the overall plot. It’s nice to see what other DC heroes are up to, but do we need an entire miniseries devoted to it?

Green Lantern (Vol. 4) #49

Release Date: December 23, 2009
Cover Date: February 2010

Story: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Ed Benes, Marcos Marz, and Jerry Ordway
Inks: Ed Benes, Luciana del Negro, and Jerry Ordway
Cover: Ed Benes
Variant Cover: Rodolfo Migliari

With Hal Jordan on Earth battling Nekron, and most of the other Green Lanterns protecting Oa, John Stewart is out in space figuring out how to deal with the resurrected planet Xanshi. Aside from a horde of Black Lanterns breathing down his neck, John also has the added complication of Drix, a former Green Lantern who was already a zombie. Now, he’s a strange Green/Black Lantern hybrid, and he’s one voice who’s begging John to be put out of his misery. John’s former wife, Katma Tui, is also here as a Black Lantern, but she’s more interested in breaking John’s spirit and then killing him. She reminds him of a story he once told her of his days as a Marine Corps sniper in Mogadishu: John was forced to pick off Somali fighters who were torturing other Marines, and he felt no remorse. In fact, the only thing he feared was being left to rot in that war-torn hellhole. This doesn’t faze John in the slightest, though, as he’s long since accepted what happened. With a blast of willpower, he overcomes the Black Lanterns, and heads into orbit to request reinforcements from Oa. To John’s horror, they’re nowhere near Oa anymore: Xanshi has moved into the solar system, ready to unleash its Black Lantern population upon Earth!

While a good John Stewart story is always welcome, this issue just felt like filler…up until the last panel. We know John’s lost love, Katma Tui, had come back as a Black Lantern, and we know he’d have a hard time dealing with it, and we know he’d eventually prevail and defeat his foes. Very by-the-numbers, but again, the final panel with Xanshi moving towards Earth was very cool. We can safely assume that this will impact the upcoming Blackest Night #6.

The “Tales of the Black Lantern Corps” backup story, however, was much more interesting. From the perspective of the shrunken Atom, Meta, and Black Lantern Jean Loring, we get to see the “birth” of Nekron,. In the beginning, as we knew, there was darkness, until the white light came along and pushed upon it. When the darkness pushed back, the light splintered into the seven colors of the emotional spectrum. While the Guardians created the Green Lanterns to protect the universe, the darkness slowly created its own champion: Nekron. Born in the image of death, Nekron himself is not death, but meant to be a symbol of “peace.” Jean explains that Nekron specifically allowed various heroes to die and resurrect over the years so he could use them in his war against the light, as the light was nothing but an accident that needs to be cleaned up. As they fly deeper into the ring, we see that Deadman is following close behind in the shadows.

Aside from yet another retcon (when Nekron is created, he’s already wearing his current costume, not his old one), this backup tale was very good. It looked like something that belonged in the pages of Blackest Night, but there just wasn’t enough room! It’s a shame that we had to sacrifice a chunk of Green Lantern for it, but given that the aforementioned John Stewart story was a bit weak, this helps balance it out nicely.

Who will survive, and what will be left of them?

As we all know, all of the other color Corps were specifically created for Blackest Night. The question is…what will happen to them when Blackest Night ends? Sinestro and his cronies obviously aren’t going anywhere, and at least one Star Sapphire will stick around to give Hal Jordan a headache. That’s only because those characters predated all of the Blackest Night frenzy, and were never meant to start their own Corps to begin with. The rest of the other Lanterns — red, orange, blue, and indigo — really don’t have a purpose anymore. The Green Lanterns obviously need them to help defeat the Black Lanterns, but once those are dead (again) and gone…the other color Corps have no real use anymore.

The Red Lanterns are run-of-the-mill monsters; we’ve already got millions of those in the DC Universe. The Orange Lantern is a greedy loner; cripes, we’ve got Lex Luthor or any other Wall Street businessman for that. The Blue Lanterns are worthless without Green Lanterns around; since they act as nothing but support staff, why wouldn’t the Guardians just use other Green Lanterns instead, as they have in the past? (In fact, they doubled the number of Green Lanterns per sector when the Corps was restarted for that exact reason.) Lastly, the Indigo Tribe kept to themselves before the Black Lanterns showed up, anyway, so I’d imagine they’d just return to seclusion. (Once we find out why Abin Sur was so important to them, anyway.)

That’s the biggest problem with introducing scores of new characters and backstory specifically designed for a single crossover: once it’s over, you’re stuck with a ton of leftovers that have nothing to do. It’s a severe flaw when it comes to writing, and practically a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation: the introduction of all of the other color Corps heavily diluted the Green Lantern concept, but now, it’s extremely difficult to properly dispose of them. A few of the new characters are actually quite interesting creations; it would be a shame to see them shuffled off the wayside.

Ringing in the new year

Does anyone else find this amusing?

As you can see, it’s a promotional piece for next week’s Blackest Night #6. What I find amusing is that the artist who painted it clearly used the toy rings DC Comics has been handing out alongside their comics as a photo reference. The split in the back of the ring isn’t there, but otherwise, the shape, color, and design of each ring is exactly the same. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a knock against the artist’s talent at all; it just made me snicker.