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IGN has previews of the Blackest Night titles due in December, and there’s some big plot points revealed.

The solicit of Blackest Night #6 is being kept pretty quiet beyond seeing that we’ll be learning some of Nekron’s secrets (presumably relating to the white light we learned about this month and how he’s returned?), however the real meat is in some of the other solicits.

The two that really lept out at me are Green Lantern Corps and Blackest Night: Flash.  In Green Lantern Corps we see things get just that bit worse for the Lanterns on Oa as Guy falls to his rage and becomes the latest recruit of the Red Lanterns. Its something that was hinted to in one of the last two issues where we saw Black Lanterns approaching Guy and a few other GLs, and they saw willpower eminating from the other GLs, but rage from Guy.  I must admit, I wasn’t really expecting any of the four “musketeers” to switch to another side during this event, but it looks like I was wrong.

But what does this mean?  Well, we know its an event related to the Corps that pushes him over, so that to me discounts the obvious cause of Ice being killed.  I’m personally wondering if its related to Salaak and the Alpha Lanterns.  We’ve seen the Alphas getting slowly out of control over the last while, and after Salaak shot down their attempt to take control of the Corps in the last issue there was the undercurrent of threat from them.  It wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve made a move against Salaak, attempted a coup, either killing or injuring Salaak and that’s pushed Guy over the edge.  And if Salaak’s out of the picture, and Guy’s a Red Lantern, then that leaves only Kyle in their way.

I also wonder if Guy will necessarily be out of action due to this?  He’s always been portrayed as an angry character, and he’s got a heck of a lot of willpower.  Hal’s willpower was still manifesting in the form of constructs when he had a red ring, and Atrocitous has shown the red rings can be mastered, so I wonder if it infact means that Guy will still be able to fight alongside the GLs.  If so, then his red ring combined with any of the green rings on Oa will make short work of the Black Lanterns.

The other solicit that really caught my eye was Blackest Night: Flash.  Firstly due to its brilliant Scott Kolins cover, mimicking the Ethan Van Sciver cover to Flash: Rebirth #1.  And the solicit itself shows us that this isn’t just a bit of fun by the artist as there’s a very strong tie-in between the few.

In Rebirth #4, Thawne mentioned to Barry that he had a rebirth of his own in the coming days.  This indicated that the Thawne currently terrorising Barry had actually come back in time, from a point after his resurrection, and that was a separate story waiting to be told.   Many had speculated that it would tie in with Blackest Night, and its now looking like that is indeed the case, as the solicit specifically mentions the Reverse Flash as one of the Black Lantern Rogues returning.

How this works should prove very interesting.  And is it our first hint that some of the Black Lanterns will indeed be fully restored to life by the end of Blackest Night?  It would certainly make sense for DC to use this event to bring back popular characters like Aquaman and Firestorm (as mentioned in my Blackest Night #3 review, Geoff’s already given us strong hints of what a post-BN Firestorm could be like).

Finally the solicit mentions that “The Flashes of Two Cities – Barry Allen and Wally West – battle the undead Rogues”.  I’m taking this as a solid sign that while he may be getting a new costume, Wally will still be keeping the title of “Flash”, which makes me very happy.  After all, Jay’s been using the name during Wally’s run so that idea of multiple Flashes is long established now.  Presumably Wally will still be protecting Keystone as he has been, just in a new costume, with the main series following Barry’s adventures in Central City.  Now we just need a hint as to what titles we can expect Wally to feature in.

Since getting the Assault on Black Reach set, most of my effort has been involved in painting the miniatures.  This was because I didn’t want to straight out assemble some of them without painting some of the individual pieces first.  Pieces like the heads of the Ork Deffkopta pilots for example I could see being a pain to paint once assembled as it’d be awkward to get in at them.

So as a result, I’d not really been focusing on playing the game until the miniatures I’d judged as really needing painted prior to assembly were done.  Realistically this just meant the Marine Tactical Squad and the Deffkoptas.  Now granted there’s still some details on the Deffkoptas I’m meaning to go back to, but the main bits have been done for now.  So now I’m starting to move my focus towards playing the game and to this end I’ve started going through the rulebook.

Its truely quite daunting just reading the rulebook.  You’re bombarded with the various types of checks and die rolls you must perform during the game, whether its combat, morale or traversing different types of terrain.   There’s the undeniable feeling that you’ve just jumped headlong into the deep end of a very, very deep pool.

Fortunately the Quick Start guide works to try and soften the blow.  Filled with lots of nice photographs it carries instructions for small starter games to help ease you into the game, starting with a basic game with just the Ork boyz versus the Space Marine Tactical Squad on a flat battlefield, just running right at one another.  It keeps things a lot more straightforward, and means there’s only a couple of weapon types (the marines for example largely have bolters, although there is the Rocket Launcher and Sergeant’s power sword in there as well).

This’ll definitely be my first move.  Although I’ve previously played a few Warhammer games and I’ve got other units I’ve bought, and a ruined building it makes sense to slowly incorporate them into games one at a time, allowing me the time to properly look up rules as they’re needed, which will probably be a lot more practical than trying to just read the rulebook cold.

And this is an area that got me thinking.  When I was younger, I used to play Space Crusade all the time, which was a much-simplified version of the game, using proper game boards and the like to help make some aspects of the game (measuring distances for example) easier.  Likewise the recently re-released Space Hulk seems to me as a nice bridge between the simplified Space Crusade, and the open, complex world of full 40K games.  I can’t help but wonder if there might be a market for these more specialised versions of the Warhammer games, especially given the detail and complexity of the main game could .  As I say, I’ve got very fond memories of playing Space Crusade with friends, and Space Hulk has been hugely popular even with established gamers of the main game, thanks (from what I can gather) to its faster-paced gameplay (in addition to the general quality of the new set).

I’d definitely also like to see more of the Black Reach style sets as well, perhaps focusing on other armies.  Again, Black Reach has been hugely successful even with established collectors due to its large number of highly detailed miniatures.  Similar sets could spotlight different armies or troop types, and perhaps encourage people’s friends to buy the sets, and combine them to create larger games.

Another thing I’d possibly suggest is that Games Workshop release the version of the rulebook included in the set separately.  I lost mine at one point, and when I checked for a replacement I realised my only option was to buy the full rulebook.  Its a beautiful-looking hardbacked book, however its also £35, and as someone just starting out, the idea of £35 just for the rulebook seems quite a lot and could be a bit off-putting.  Releasing the Black Reach version (fewer pages with backstory etc, smaller pages and paperback) as a cheap alternative could be quite a nice option, with the hardcover remaining a collector’s item.  Just a thought.

I’m certainly looking forward to getting started properly with Black Reach next week.  And from a painting point of view its certainly going to keep me busy for a good while to come.  I’m looking forward to finally getting my head around the game mechanics and rules and it’ll be nice to finally play a few games with the miniatures I’ve been spending the last while painting.

The War of Light’s impact starts to be felt in this month’s issue of Blackest Night.

Again, Johns anchors this issue around Barry and Hal, who’re dealing with the Black Lantern JLA from the end of last issue, and who find themselves saved at the last moment by the Indigo tribe in a surprise appearance.

Bringing the War of Light to the Blackest Night series, the leader of the Indigo tribe explains what’s been going on for those who haven’t been reading Green Lantern, but also helps fill in some of the general backstory as well.  The much-speculated white light gets a mention, but unlike the “White Lantern”, I’m more inclined to think what we’ll actually be seeing is a teamup of the lead Lantern from each Corps, forced to work together, rather than one special Lantern saving the day (Hal).

However, despite this being confirmed we’re still left with questions.  The Indigos obviously know more about what’s going on than potentially even the Guardians.  They’ve been in hiding, but I have to wonder how long for.  Are they as old as the Guardians, or older?  We also have Mera noting she was able to escape the Black Lanterns by controlling her emotions.  A balance related to the white light?  Or perhaps even peace such as we’ve seen with Dove?  Food for thought.

Really, the only misstep in the book probably comes about when Hal learns Carol is again a Star Sapphire and on Zamaron.  He’s ready to run off, until Barry stops him, as it’d leave Earth defenseless.  Without a Green Lantern (we learn their light combined with another Lantern can defeat a Black Lantern) Earth has no chance of stopping the Black Lanterns.  Hal’s response is to get in touch with Alan, or any of the light-weilding superheroes.   It really jarred for me, as Hal should be well aware that Alan’s ring is intrinsictly different to his (the status of the Yalan Gar origin of Alan’s battery not withstanding), and Hal’s been at the forefront of the emotional spectrum side of things.  He should know that light has very little to do with what’s going on.

While last month’s issue was all about Aquaman, this month its about Firestorm, as Jason is pushed to the forefront, and finds himself up against the Ronnie Raymond Firestorm, and it doesn’t end well.  Johns plays out the tragedy of Ghenna’s fate brilliantly.  What happens to her is horrific, with Jason an unwilling participant.  However I can’t help but wonder if Geoff is also teasing the future of Firestorm.   Should Ronnie be resurrected by the end of this series, we’ve been shown exactly how both Firestorms could work together as the lead role, with Jason moving into the Professor Stein role.   Its a tempting thought and a move that would potentially keep fans of both Firestorms happy.

An effective tease at the end of the issue as well .  100%.  Thanks to the solicits, we know exactly what this means.  But its still hugely effective.

There’s no doubt that Geoff is bringing his best to this series.  The War of Light’s impact finally being felt in this series was very welcome indeed and I look forward to seeing what exactly is going to happen next.

The latest City of Heroes release has hit, and unlike usual, wherein we tend to get some kind of new mission content, this release seems to target more the quality of life, and some of the game mechanics getting attention.

The big feature that’s caused the most excitement in this issue has been power customisation.  The character creator has received a bit of a revamp, and now there’s a separate screen where you can go in and depending on the powerset either recolour the power, or pick a different look or animation for it.   I’ve not played with this a lot, but I have used it to change my fire controller’s powers to a blue flame from the normal one, and its a neat visual effect that further lets you refine your character and add your stamp to them.

The other big change is the new “super” sidekick feature.  Out goes the old system, and now players are automatically level-adjusted appropriately to the team lead.  This isn’t limited by range like the old sidekicking, and seems to be much more flexible, in that there should be no more scrabbling to match low level team members to higher level members.  It should also provide more incentive for high level characters going back to play lower level content with their friends.

Of course, Mission Architect itself has also been subject to some changes.  With the farming and bubble missions attracting so many players desperate to hit level 50 quickly the rest of the content in City of Heroes had been suffering.  I know that during the week I’ve struggled to find a team for general door missions.  The XP changes being introduced should hopefully look to redress that and get people back out of MA and back into the main game.

With City of Heroes now facing competition in the superhero MMO genre in the shape of Champions Online, and next year DCU Online its really nice to see the devs taking time to continually improve the gaming experience and freshen up the game.  Between this and Mission Architect providing user-generated content, there’s definitely a lot of life left in this game.

Continuing on from the events of last month, the Blackest Night has erupted across Oa, with the Lanterns in the Crypts being raised as Black Lanterns, and Black Lantern Jade having arrived to target Kyle.

This was a brilliant issue.  Possibly my favourite Blackest Night issue so far.   Unlike a lot of the other issues though, it probably feels more like a superhero comic with less of the outright horror elements that the others have had.  But, this really reminded me of some of the best action-packed moments of the Sinestro Corps War.

A highlight had to really be the scene with Salaak and the Alpha Lanterns.  Again, Gleason’s interpreation of the Alphas is spooky as heck, and much like saw with Boodikka over in this month’s GL title, the Alpha Lanterns are getting out of control.  Only this time, rather than a programming glitch, they just straight out try and take control of Oa and the Green Lanterns.  This leads into Salaak revealing a message from the Guardians actually stating that he is in charge in their absence, followed by Kyle and Guy.  Its a great scene, with Salaak laying down the law, and also the nice nod as to how important in the heirarchy of the Corps Kyle and Guy actually are.  Still though, you can’t help but get the feeling that the Alpha Lanterns haven’t been completely dissuaded from taking over.   There’s going to be big problems with them in the near future.

Talking of Guy and Kyle, they both get their moments to shine as well.  The Kyle/Jade confrontation I found to be pretty effective, with Kyle quickly seeing through Black Lantern Jade and blowing her apart.  Of course she reforms, taunting Kyle with images of all the women he’s lost.   Its a keystone to Kyle’s character that he’s pretty much cursed when it comes to women, and its been brought up quite a few times lately, so it’ll be interesting to see how Peter Tomasi approaches it.  He seems to be keen to move Kyle on as a character so I suspect “Jade” isn’t going to get the reaction she’s expecting from him.

It was also nice to see the execution from a couple of months back revisited so quickly as again, one of the Guardians’ poor decisions comes back on them as the executed prisoners all rise as Black Lanterns.

While this book was filled with great moments, there was also a very intriguing moment, as we revisit Kryb who escaped from Zamarron in the latest issue of Green Lantern.  Here we find her arrive at her planet, closely pursued by Star Sapphire Miri, only to find the children missing.  Its an intriguing scene as we see Miri willing to play off of Kryb’s (twisted) love for the children and agree to help her find them.  Obviously here we’re seeing a more dubious side to the Sapphires as Miri seems to view Kryb’s love for the children above all other factors.

This was just a great issue.   I can’t wait to see what happens next month, but its safe to say things look pretty bleak on Oa.  The Guardians appear to be dead (or at least missing after their imprisonment by Scar), and with the sheer number of Black Lanterns they’re facing, its hard to see how things are going to get better for the Green Lanterns.

I haven’t really blogged much about Strange Adventures in a while.  I did mention the Comet vs Comet solicit back in June, but other than that, the last issue I mentioned was issue #3.

Sadly, its because the series really has gone off the boil for me.   The abundance of versions of Synnar who keep turning up has gotten dull, and the storyline hasn’t really gone anywhere.  I mentioned in my comments on issue 3 that I assumed the Aberrant Six would be key to this series, but instead all we’ve really had is the usual “Woo you’re part of the Aberrant Six” dialogue from Synnar with still no real idea what that is.

More annoying is how Starlin is now ignoring his own plots.  He clearly established in the last series that Comet is pretending to be his own nephew, and allowing to believe everyone believe that the original Captain Comet is indeed dead.  However the fact he was resurrected was mentioned by Synnar infront of Adam Strange in issue 6, and in issue 7 while in the Weird’s conciousness its a big part of the story that Comet is facing off against his older self.  Despite this, Adam doesn’t bat an eyelid about the fact he’s been lied to.  Instead of addressing this plot, Starlin seems to just be completely ignoring it, so you have to wonder why he bothered with it in the first place.  Even a “we’ll discuss this later” line from Adam would’ve helped.

I guess my frustration with this series stems from the fact that there’s elements to these characters that really deserve to be explored.  Gavyn is dealing with the destruction of the Throneworld and its subsequant repopulation by the Rannians.  The Rannians are suffering from their relocation and attempts to rebuild their civilisation as Adam works to keep their survival secret.  Yet these plots have scarcely had a look in since the initial issues.  I’d much rather we’d have gotten an Adam Strange 6 issue mini series focusing on these aspects.   Likewise the plot of Captain Comet pretending to be his own nephew and being a lot more, well, cowardly following his death/resurrection I thought made the character pretty interesting (even if it did jar with his Mystery in Space characterisation).  Yet as mentioned, its been ignored.  These are plots that Starlin himself has setup as well so it would’ve been nice to see him play with them more.

We now know that Strange Adventures is the last in this series of minis from Starlin.  Sadly I can’t really see many of the plots he established being addressed at all by the last issue.  Even more sadly I find myself not bothered.   I’m pretty burned out on the Synnar stuff now, so I’m actually quite glad that story will be taking a break.

Comet and Adam Strange are slated to appear in R.E.B.E.L.S. next, so I’m guessing DC is now seeing that series as something they want to push, to focus on the non-GL cosmic side of the DCU.  Which in itself is also a bit of a shame.  While I won’t really miss Synnar, as I say, an Adam Strange, Comet and Prince Gavyn 6 issue series focusing on the situation with New Rann would be something I’d jump on.  Still I’ll be picking up the R.E.B.E.L.S. issues to see what happens next with these characters.

This was the tie-in I really thought I was going to skip, however the preview really changed my mind.

I missed a lot of the history the Titans are steeped in, so there are elements of this story that are slightly lost on me. Terra’s betrayal is obviously a key one. Its a big part of the Titans mythos and gets referenced a lot, however as I’ve never read it, the impact is lost on me. That said, the scenes with Garr and Terra were still well done. While lacking the outright horror we saw in James Robinson’s Superman tie-in, there was still a chilling tension to the scene where Garr meets Terra, as you know what’s coming.

Interestingly though, a pair of characters I’ve never been drawn to have been Hawk and Dove. However despite this, I found myself getting really into their subplot, as they find themselves facing off against the Black Lantern original Hawk. Like in other tie-ins, we find ourselves revisiting a specific scene, in this case the failed attempt by the Black Rings to raise the original Dove, and we get a further hint about the Doves when Black Lantern Hawk fails to recognise the white emotion that Dove is registering. Fuel for the “White Lantern” theory?

A theme that gets mentioned a fair bit is how the Hawks are avatars of War, so the obvious flipside to that is that Dove must be an avatar of peace, which could tie into the rings being unable to raise the original Dove (who was said to be at peace).   I wonder if this perhaps points to Dove being a pivotal character in this series.  While a lot of the White Lantern speculation has naturally rested on Hal, perhaps Dove will end up being the focal point for the solution?  Geoff has been at pains to show that while Hal may be one of the greatest Green Lanterns, he struggles badly with other rings.  The blue ring caused him no end of problems, and Sinestro easily batted aside his attempts to use yellow rings during the Sinestro Corps War.

Given that for the first time I found myself really enjoying the Hawk and Dove characters, the cliffhanger actually really hit me.  I finally enjoy the characters and now Hawk appears to be dead.  What this means for Dove, we’ll have to see next issue.

Probably the freakiest part of the issue though regards Donna Troy.  The return of her young child who died in a car accident is hinted at throughout the issue, first her mentioning his death, and then when the pram appears to her.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens next issue, but it does promise to be pretty twisted and horrific as the cover to issue 2 suggests.

Overall, a surprisingly strong start to a miniseries I’d genuinely thought I wouldn’t bother with.  The writing and art I both enjoyed, and I found myself being drawn to characters I previously hadn’t had any interest in.  Looking forward to issue 2.

Green Lantern #45 is a heckuva busy issue.  With last month’s Green Lantern #44 Geoff Johns was busy kick-starting Blackest Night by focusing on the Hal/Barry fight with the Black Lantern J’onn.   With Blackest Night now in full swing, he turns his attention back to the war of light, revisiting the various plot threads sparked during the earlier Rage of the Red Lanterns and Agent Orange arcs.

The John Stewart/Xanshi stuff was covered in the preview in its entirity.  Sadly we don’t get any other teases as to what the story is here.  We do know that this plot is due for some focus in the upcoming issues, however another page at least would’ve been nice here.  Its always a slight disappointment when a preview shows you an entire subplot.  Again though, this is largely due to the number of plot threads Geoff’s revisiting in this issue so its understandable.

The rest of the issue is filled full of the various Lanterns.  We get a bit more of the conflict on Zamaron, with Carol and Sinestro providing for quite an interesting battle of wills (if that’s the right word), as Sinestro plays on her character and mocks her for taking up the Star Sapphire purely to try and help Hal.  In reponse we get Carol briefly trapping Sinestro in one of the Sapphire’s conversion booths where we get an intriguing look at Sinestro and Abin Sur’s relationship, specifically in terms of Sinestro seeming interested in Abin’s sister.   Since we know the Abin is one of the Black Lanterns to rise, I’m guessing this is a plot we’ll be seeing sooner rather than later.  And even more interestingly, they’re interrupted by the arrival of the Black Lantern Sinestro Corps led by Black Lantern Amon Sur.  Its interesting that both Abin and his son have been risen as Black Lanterns, and surely that’s something Geoff is going to play with.

On Ysmault the Alpha and Lost Lanterns have retrieved Laira’s body but find themselves under attack from the Red Lanterns, but are also having problems with the Alpha Lanterns.  Boodikka is refusing to leave as her programming to terminate all enemies of the Corps is conflicting with the need to evacuate the planet.  Once again, we’re seeing the Guardian’s mistakes start to come back on them.   The Lost Lanterns say they’re going to have to force her to leave, but you can’t help but think she’ll react badly to that.  And then the Black Rings show up.  Laira is of course one of the first to rise as a Black Lantern, but given Ysmault’s population was nearly entirely wiped out by the Manhunters, you can’t help but think the Red, Alpha and Lost Lanterns are about to find themselves badly outnumbered.

The scenes with the Blue and Orange Lanterns though probably provided the biggest payoff.  Given the nature of the Orange Lanterns (they’re killed and Orange Lantern copies created), it always seemed like Larfleeze was going to be in a lot of trouble come Blackest Night, and here we see that come to pass as the Black Rings arrive on Okaara.

We’ve also got the continuing assault on Odym.  A nice touch, playing on how full of life the planet is, is the fact that the Black Rings sent there are just hovering in orbit.  There’s nothing on the planet for them currently, so they’re just waiting for something to die.  It gave us the really nice visual of the rings circling Odym like vultures.

I also liked the visual of the Orange Lanterns, with Larfleeze’s greed knowing no limits, having moved on from the idea of just grabbing a blue ring, to grabbing the whole central battery.  It was interesting that Ganthet wasn’t too concerned about the Battery though.  Granted, the Blackest Night has arrived, but you think his Corps being left powerless would concern him just a little, unless he’s betting on the Black Rings disrupting the Orange Lanterns as we saw in the final pages as he’s aware the Black Lanterns are the larger threat.

All in all, it was very nice, to see the War of Light return center stage, and going by solicits, it looks like this is the aspect of the story that the main GL title will be focusing on from the duration of Blackest night.    You’ve got to admire the sheer number of subplots Geoff is managing in this issue, its just perhaps a shame that we don’t get a bit more of them due to the restriction in number of pages.  But then, they do say you should always leave people wanting more

Very much looking forward to the next issue, hopefully with a lot more of the John Stewart/Xanshi stuff, and it’ll be nice to see Ganthet’s Blue Lanterns get more involved.  Although Ganthet will need to try and get a Green Lantern in range of Odym unless the Black Lanterns on Okaraa can cause Larfleeze to retrieve his “Corps” and leave behind the Blue battery.