Release Date: November 25, 2009
Cover Date: January 2010
Story: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Ivan Reis
Inks: Oclair Albert and Joe Prado
Cover: Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert
Variant Cover: Rodolfo Migliari
Moving into the second half of the Blackest Night event, our heroes finally confront Nekron, Lord of the Unliving. The representatives of the seven Corps (Atrocitus, Larfleeze, Sinestro, Hal Jordan, Saint Walker, Indigo-1, and Carol Ferris) combine their powers to recreate the white light of creation and take out Nekron’s massive black power battery…but, since this only the fifth issue out of eight, it of course has no effect. Meanwhile, Black Lantern Jean Loring grabs a hold of Mera and Atom, and uses the Atom’s size-changing powers to shrink them down and pull them inside of a Black Lantern ring.
As if things couldn’t possibly get any worse, we get to see Nekron use a new power. After raising what appears to be Batman as a Black Lantern, Nekron claims that he has permitted various heroes to return from the dead in the past, therefore he has control over their lives and deaths. Black Lantern Batman coughs up a new batch of black rings, and Nekron simply declares, “DIE!” Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Kid Flash, and many other heroes instantly perish and become Black Lanterns. The issue ends with black rings flying towards Hal and Barry Allen.
As with past issues, the art and story have been quite solid. Anything important that readers may have missed from the multiple miniseries and tie-in issues from other books is quickly summed up here; the main Blackest Night plot is the sole focus. Some of the one-liners were a bit cheesy (especially a few by Hal and Carol), but for the most part, the heroes and villains were too busy trying to stay alive rather than banter.
One thing I especially liked was the passing mention of Kyle Rayner’s past battle with Nekron (in Green Lantern Annual #7). This may seem minor, but hear me out. The mention shows that while the story in the annual has obviously been retconned a bit (Kyle fought undead Green Lanterns, but the current GL series has shown that some of them never died in the first place), the events therein did still take place, and therefore are still relevant. I was concerned that Nekron’s striking new design meant that he was going to be treated as a brand-new character, but this is thankfully not the case.
The glut of tie-ins and other media nonwithstanding, the core Blackest Night series has done an admirable job of keeping up the pace. Hopefully the upcoming “skip month” (January will not feature a regular Blackest Night issue) won’t slow things down.
