Reilly2040's Blog

Its all going a bit wrong on Earth.  The dead are rising, and increasing their numbers by the minute.  Firestorm’s been taken out, and just after they find out how to stop the Black Lanterns, Indigo-1 teleports Hal away, leaving Earth defenseless again.  Uh-oh.

Given that Green Lantern has been the cornerstone of this whole event, this issue is interesting in that no Green Lanterns actually appear.  Hal’s time in space recruiting the other Corps is currently being left to the Green Lantern title, while this book remains focused on the events on Earth.

So with Hal gone, the focus shifts to Hal’s partner throughout the first three issues, Barry Allen.  Barry immediately takes control of the situation, taking it upon himself to ensure all the world’s heroes are updated on what’s going on and that they have to hold the line on Earth until Hal and his team can nip the Black Lantern problem in the bud.

In my comments on the first three issues, I’ve been glowing of Johns’ use of Barry in this series, and this issue is no exception.  With Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman tied up elsewhere, the leadership role easily shifts to Barry’s character in a way that feels really natural as he tells Mera and Atom to get in touch with Alan Scott to see if his green flame will be effective against the Black Lanterns.

Much like my review of the recent Stargate Universe, where this story really shines is with its characters.  While Barry is written taking charge Johns also throws in great character moments for Damage, and is clearly enjoying giving Mera the spotlight, a character who wouldn’t necessarily have lept to anyone’s mind, but who’s been used brilliantly.

However, we’re also teased as to some of the ongoing mysteries in the series.  As the power metre hits 100%, and the central black battery moves from Ryut to Earth, Black Hand teases about the Guardian’s greatest lie and about something being buried on Earth.   There’s definitely a big reveal brewing here, and I can’t help but assume its going to be related to the massacre in Sector 666.  We know it gave rise to the Inversions and ultimately the Red Lanterns.  We know that Ryut is located in Sector 666 as well.  There’s going to be something there.

And as a final thought, with the Black battery now relocated to Earth, that means the Anti-Monitor is now back on Earth as well.  So if the heroes do manage to defeat Nekron and shut down the black battery they may just unleash another load of the problems.

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.

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.

Its been a little while since Flash: Rebirth #3 hit the stands. Ending with the reveal of Professor Zoom being behind all Barry’s recent troubles, it was obvious that the series had hit a turning point.

There’s very obvious parallels with Green Lantern: Rebirth here.  In that series, Sinestro was revealed as the villain at the end of issue 3, who then spent issue 4 explaining the plot.  Much the same happens here, and like issue 4 of GL: Rebirth ended with Hal’s restoration, this issue similarly ends with Barry back and with a renewed sense of who he is.

Also like issue 4 of Rebirth, there’s retcons aplenty here.  The “giant yellow space bug” came under a lot of flack when Parallax’s true nature was revealed in Green Lantern, and while that change has since been accepted and become a major part of how the GL universe is shaped (with the emotional spectrum and its avatars) I must admit, I’m finding the revelations in this issue a little harder to swallow.  Barry as the source of the Speed Force just seems to open up questions and problems that previously didn’t exist.  If Barry powers the Speed Force, what powers Barry?  And what was powering it while he was dead?  If Barry’s accident created the Speed Force, and Zoom’s recreation of that accident created his, why doesn’t Wally have his own?  Unless that’s something that’ll be revealed in Flash #25…

The existance of the Negative Speed Force (surely that should be the Reverse Speed Force to keep the theme?) is something I’m torn on.  I could see it as a counterpoint to the Speed Force we’re familiar with.  A hell for Speedsters versus the heaven we’ve previously seen.   That could at least tie into Savitar being incredibly glad to be out of the Speed Force in issue 1.  However I can’t help but think that Zoom having his own evil speed force makes him a bit too much like Sinestro.  I’m also not keen on the changes to Barry’s return in Final Crisis or Barry’s turning into the Black Flash being a sign of the negative speed force’s infection.  Heck, if this was always the plan for Barry’s return, couldn’t the reasons for him coming back just have been left a mystery in Final Crisis?  It seems a bit strange that they’re already retconning a series less than a year later.

However, while I’m unsure about the retcons in this issue, I can still say I really enjoyed it.  There’s a load of great “Flash Family” moments here, and Professor Zoom is reestablished as a real threat, and a chilling villain.  The scene where he turns up at Wally’s house and threatens Linda and the kids was genuinely scary.  Which only made the appearance of Jay and Bart a real punch-the-air moment.

This is one area where Ethan’s art really excells in this issue.  Here he gets the chance to do some brilliant splash pages.  Be it Bart and Jay turning up to take on Zoom or Wally running into the Speed Force, determined to bring everyone back out of it, Ethan renders these moments beautifully.

And the return of Max.  What can I say?  A moment that had been well telegraphed from the first issue of this series, and a loose plot thread that had fans crying out for resolution.  Max has always been a really popular character.   I loved his use in Waid’s Flash run as the Zen Master of Speed, and this popularity was only reinforced when he became Bart’s mentor in the Impulse series.   The splash page when he returns to Earth, having been persuaded by Barry that he’s the closest thing Bart has to a father (especially powerful when you consider Barry is Bart’s actual grandfather) brought a huge grin to my face.

This issue was definitely a big improvement over the first three.  Although improvement is probably being a bit unfair in that I think the whole thing (like Final Crisis) will read better all together in trade form.  But as a standalone issue in a monthly series there was definitely a more satisfying read than the previous issues.  The series is probably still not up there with Green Lantern Rebirth for me, but its definitely starting to tick the right boxes, especially with the way the whole Flash family was showcased here.

Green Lantern #44 continues the story of Blackest Night, following on from J’onn’s appearance in that title.

As seen in the preview, the action picks up with Hal and Barry investigating Bruce’s grave.  Geoff Johns again takes the opportunity to build on the Hal and Barry friendship, this time playing on the fact that they’re both at heart cops.

Hal’s quick off the mark to take a shot at J’onn while Barry is more thrown by J’onn’s appearance and wondering what’s going on.  Again, its a nice touch by Johns, playing their personalities off of one another with Barry being more cerebral whereas Hal is very much a man of action.  This triggers the Black Lantern Martian Manhunter to attack them in earnest.

If anything, this issue actually works really well as a showcase for J’onn.  Ok, so he’s an emotion-eating zombie in it, but Geoff Johns does a great job of showing off just how powerful and diverse J’onn’s powers are as he gives Hal and Barry a real run for their money through a combination of his intangibility, shape-shifting and raw power.  There’s also a great fake out where we see Barry attacking and pummelling J’onn,  only for it to be revealed that its actually Hal he’s attacking, having fallen victim to J’onn’s mental powers.

Then we get the real shock moment of the issue with John once again visiting the remains of Xanshi, only to find the area flooded by black rings saying “Xanshi RISE”.  The visual of the entire area of space flooded by the rings flying about was superbly rendered by Doug Mahnke and the idea that its on necessarily the population of Xanshi but the planet itself is very exciting.  The idea of a Black Lantern equivalent to Mogo could be fun indeed.  And even if it is just the population, John suddenly finding himself swarmed by Black Lanterns with no backup should be fun.  We know from the solicits that upcoming issues will feature John heavily (I’m assuming Hal will be more focused on the Blackest Night mini itself) so I’m really looking forward to him getting some much deserved focus.

So the latest solicits have gone up at IGN, and give us a tantalising look at the future of Blackest Night.

Firstly, I’ve got to say how much I love that cover for Blackest Night #4.  While I’m still a little unsure about the raised GL badge on Hal’s uniform, the rest of the cover is a cracking image.  It needs to be at least a desktop wallpaper onDC’s site, if not get a release as a poster.

The Blackest Night Superman solicit introduces us to an idea I hadn’t even thought about, but makes so much sense, when the Psycho Pirate’s Medusa Mask is hinted as a weapon against the Black Lanterns.  As something that controls emotions, it would make a lot of sense that it could be used against them.

Also interesting is the appearance of John Stewart on the variant cover for not Green Lantern, but Green Lantern Corps.  I’m guessing his Xanshi subplot may turn out to be a big thread in Blackest Night then, and perhaps this hints that there’ll be a lot more crossover in the plots of GL and GLC than there was in Sinestro Corps War.

The preview for Green Lantern #44 is also up, expanding on Hal and Barry’s conversation at Bruce’s grave as the Black Lantern J’onn turns up.  Again Geoff Johns writing Hal and Barry’s friendship continues to be a real highlight of the DCU at the moment.  I love their conversation regarding secret identities, and Barry commenting on how much better Kyle’s crab mask is than Hal’s

Again we’re seeing that the Black Lanterns seem to possess their personalities rather than the usual “Brainzzzzzz” zombies, so it’ll be interesting to see what exactly their nature is.  Do they have the actual souls bound to them, or are they just copies of the original personalities within the body?  Are Ralph and Sue still out there doing their ghost detective bit, while their physical remains were off killing the Hawks?  Of course, if so then it suggests the possibility of a resurrected Carter and Shiera Hall versus Black Lantern Hawkman and Hawkgirl/woman.

After two years of buildup, Blackest Night has finally arrived.

As Ganthet predicted during the Sinestro Corps War, the other Corps have risen and the War of Light is now in full swing, with the Alpha Lanterns attacking the Red Lanterns on Ysmault, Ganthet’s own Blue Lanterns under seige from Larfleeze and the Orange Lanterns, and the Green Lanterns and Star Saphires fighting the Sinestro Corps on various fronts.  But now, the Black Lanterns are rising.

This is an exceptional first issue.  After two years of hype, and a PR blitz by DC over the last few months with previews, action figures and interviews, it would’ve been so easy for this issue to disappoint even if it had been good.  But it doesn’t.  Not by a long shot.  This is Geoff Johns finally being able to tell the story he’s been building to.   Unlike Final Crisis there’s no slow buildup here.  We’ve had the buildup, and now its straight into the main event as the black rings seek out various prominent characters from across the DCU.

There’s real horror in the reveal of the Black Lanterns who are rising, especially on Oa where the entire crypt of deceased Green Lanterns is brought back to confront the GLs.  Line of the issue has to be Guy’s “What the #@$%?”.

Ivan Reis is at the top of his game here as well.  He’s always been my favourite Green Lantern artist, but here he takes things to another level.  He’s dealing with some fairly horrific visuals which are apart from the space opera stuff we’ve usually seen him do, and he handles it beautifully.  There’s various splash pages throughout that just caused me to stop and actually look at the detail, and appreciate them fully, be it Hal showing Barry images of all the heroes who’ve died while he was gone, the Black Lantern reveal on Oa, or the reveal of Ralph and Sue as Black Lanterns.  Its astounding work.

And having mentioned Barry, here Ivan reinforces something I felt while reading the Blackest Night #0 preview, that Ivan draws one of the best interpretations of Barry I’ve seen.  He really captures the feel of speed in the character in a way I don’t think any other artist has done for me.  I just love it.

One of my big worries was when Blackest Night got moved from being a Green Lantern event to a DCU-wide event.  With it being the third part in Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern trilogy, and with all the build up to the War of Light being very Green Lantern-centric, I was really worried that this would prove to be a poor pay off to the dangling Green Lantern plot threads.  I needn’t have worried though, as Geoff manages to do a sterling job of making this feel like the natural continuation of the Green Lantern storylines while interweaving the larger DC universe.  He features the Green Lanterns, while also paying attention to other characters throughout the DCU, and it all gells together wonderfully.   My only worry would really be that anyone not following Green Lantern for a while may get a bit lost by some of what’s going on.

This was a cracking start to DC’s big summer event.  This felt like it had all the impact of Secret Invasion #1 and there promises to be a lot of good stuff to come.  Roll on the next issues of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.

This week saw the launch of DC’s new weekly experiment: Wednesday Comics.

For those that don’t know, its markedly different to their previously weeklies, which took the form of normal comics.  This time, they’ve launched something in broadsheet form, printed on newspaper (and nicely folded up to regular comic size for the benefit of the shelves).

Its a bold experiment.  We get stories from some of DC’s best creators using a wide range of characters, from the obvious Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Lantern, to Adam Strange, Catwoman and Kamandi.  However each week, we only get a single page of the story in each case.  It sounds really odd, but it actually worked very well, barring possibly the Wonder Woman story which tried to be too dense I think.

But for me, what really made this work was the style of story.  There was a very retro feel to the whole thing, in both the stories and the art style.  Completely moving away from the mainline DC comics, these are standalone stories, taking the iconic characters unencumbered by multiverses and the like.   There’s a distinct silver age, or newspaper strip feel to the whole project, and I loved it.

After Countdown, DC really needed to rethink what people would look for in a weekly comic, and I think they may have nailed it.  It’ll be interesting to see how the format holds up over the next 12 week.s

Ok, its no surprise, but Geoff Johns has confirmed this isn’t the final cover for Rebirth #6 (fairly safe money that the gradient will be replaced by a group shot of the Flash family, including Wally in his new suit?), but still, the solicit is worth a mention.

The one thing that’s been leaping out from Rebirth so far has been that its been a struggle to care about Barry being back, however I did also say that I hoped issue 3 would be a big turning point.  From the solicit for issue 6, I’m now feeling a lot happier that it will be.

The solicit hints at big changes in store for the Flash family.  Obviously we know that Wally is due a new Ethan Van Sciver-designed costume, but what’ll happen to his family, and will he be making a bigger change to his life to accomodate them other than a change of outfit?  The stuff about Kid Flash’s destiny is also interesting.  I wonder what exactly that means.  What choice will he be facing?

There’s also the talk of a new archnemesis for the Flash family.  In my Rebirth #3 post I’d speculated that the Reverse Flash may be revealed as working for someone else, and it sounds like that may be the case afterall.   I’m very glad this is the case (unless they’re just referring to Reverse Flash being redefined for the new series, but it does sound like its an original villain being introduced).

But most important is the picture of Barry on the cover.  He’s smiling at last.  Whatever happens in the second half obviously refocuses his outlook on life (specifically his own).  Of course, its not a surprise that Barry will be sorted out, character-wise.  Obviously Geoff Johns wasn’t going to leave us with a moping Barry Allen at the end of this, that people were going to struggle to like, and most importantly, it wouldn’t really jibe with Barry’s appearance in Blackest Night #0, which I really enjoyed, and has probably convinced me more about Barry’s return than issues 1-3 of Rebirth have so far.

This solicit has been perfectly pitched to me.  It raises a lot of interest in me in terms of where this series is going to go over the next 3 issues, as well as leaving me optimistic about the second half of Rebirth.   I said it in my Rebirth #3 post, but I’ll repeat it here.  I suspect this series will read better as a whole, and I imagine that by the end of the run, I’ll be excited for the direction of the Flash going forward.

This issue is largely concerned with events immediately after last issue’s big revelation.  In fact in terms of time covered, you can easily imgine this whole issue takes place in probably less than half an hour.  It rattles along at a fair old pace.

Barry has been revealed as the new Black Flash, and the JLA have been called in, quick time.  Jay’s already on the scene with Wally and explains they’re going to try and separate Barry from the Speedforce.  This way, he’ll no longer have his speed, but he’ll be alive and normal once again.

It quickly gets out of control though, Barry’s still not convinced he should be back, and breaks free.  Superman tries to catch him, but Barry easily out runs him (in a scene very reminisent of Impulse’s first appearance in Smallville).  Barry attempts to return to the speedforce, hoping to use Iris as an anchor so he’ll be able to escape again, cleared of the Black Flash possession.  However as he enters the speedforce, he is stripped of his memories until Max Mercury and Johnny Quick appear to help him, and the villain of the piece stands revealed as Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash.

As I mentioned above, the pace is quicked into high gear in this issue.  Despite a short flashback, this issue ditches the solemn introspection of the first two, and gets on with the reveals.

The main one, isn’t really a surprise.  And in some ways I’m glad Professor Zoom’s been revealed here rather than dragged out much longer.  It definitely feels a bit too much like a repeat of the Sinestro reveal in Green Lantern Rebirth though, and I think that’s a bit of a shame.  Thawne’s return had been widely predicted from the moment the words “Johns”, “Van Sciver”, “Flash” and “Rebirth” were said together, and after Hunter Zolomon was depowered in Rogue’s Revenge it was taken as a lock.   I certainly understand the desire to bring him back alongside Barry, but given the obvious Green Lantern Rebirth parallels, I can’t help but wonder if it might’ve been better left until the new Flash ongoing, allowing for more of a surprise villain in this series.  Saying that, we still don’t know how he returned to life, and the series is only halfway through, so there’s scope for a big twist or surprise mastermind yet.

Its a bit of a shame for Johnny Quick to appear just to get immediately dusted by Barry.  Max looks to be in trouble as well, but unlike Johnny we don’t actually see him die (if that’s even the right word, since they’re essentially speedforce ghosts anyway).  The heavy name-dropping of Max throughout this series does make me wonder if there’s not a bigger plan for this character.  In this issue, Jay specifically mentions how Max was the speedforce guru, so it leaves me wondering if Max isn’t yet to provide the solution to Barry’s Black Flash problems.

And regarding Barry as the Black Flash, I was very glad to see Ethan Van Sciver didn’t pull his punches here and just draw Barry in a black and red costume.  There’s various panels throughout where we see Barry taking on a more monstrous form as he fights against his transformation, and I found them very effective.  With regards the art, I’ve still got the slight peeve that Kid Flash’s boots are wrong, but Ethan has said that’s deliberate, so there’s not much to be said about it.  Other than that silly fanboy complaint, Ethan is continuing to do his usual great job on the art

So overall?  I’m glad to see things pick up pace over the slow first two issues, and I’m definitely feeling a bit more into the storyline this issue than last.  The only way I’d say this series is failing is that its still not selling me on having Barry back as a character.   When Hal’s spirit was led back to Earth by Ganthet, and he stood up from his coffin in his new outfit to take on Sinestro, it was a real punch-the-air moment.   I’ve yet to actually have anything in this series to convince me to care that Barry’s back and will be taking over from Wally.   Now that Professor Zoom has been revealed as the true threat, I’m really looking for Barry to kick things into gear, stop moping, and show us how he, and he alone is the man for the job (and yes, I’m aware I said something very similar last month).  I’ve got confidence that Geoff Johns will pull this out of the bag with the last three issues.   This issue very much strikes me as a turning point for the series, with the introspection covering Barry’s history well during the first two issues, and here almost non-existant, it occurs to me that this could well be structured as a series of two halves, with the first half interested in establishing the character of Barry, and the second dealing with the actual threat.   It’ll be interesting to see if I’m right.

Buying the Final Crisis Hardcover (which I’m very much looking forward to reading) has made me wonder something about this series as well.  Especially with its slower first two issues.  I’ll be very interested to see how this series plays out when read back-to-back in one sitting.   I suspect it’ll flow a lot better, and my complaints about pacing etc will vanish.