DCU Comic Book Reviews

BLACKEST NIGHT:  JSA #2

Troubled Souls

March 2010

Written by James Robinson and Tony Bedard

Pencils by Eddy Barrows and Marcos Marz

Inks by Julio Ferreira, Luciana del Negro, Ruy Jose

Covers by Eddy Barrows and Gene Ha

Synopsis

Grant Emerson (aka Damage) and Johnny Chambers (aka Johnny Quick) of Earth, and Lois Lane of Earth-2 rise from the dead to become Black Lanterns.  In New York City, Dr. Fate, Alan Scott, Stargirl, and Lightning protect STAR Labs from being overrun by Black Lanterns so Mr. Terrific can find a way to beat them.  Elsewhere, Black Lantern confronts Power Girl and Wildcat.  Lois convinces Power Girl that all she wants to do is she her husband once more before she dies.  Meanwhile, Black Lantern Johnny Quick confronts his daughter, Liberty Belle.  The two run together.  Outside STAR Labs, the rest of the JSA are fighting Black Lanterns.  Newly created Black Lantern Damage convinces his former teammates that all he wants to do is die.  He asks they step away so he can take care of the Black Lanterns on his own.  They back away and Damage blasts away, destroying everything in the vicinity, including the STAR Labs building.  Just then Black Lantern Lois Lane appears to see her husband.  Too late, Mr. Terrific realizes the plan.  Lois severs her connection to the black power ring, allowing the ring to find a new body:  Kal-L of Earth-2 who rises (once more) from the dead to become a Black Lantern. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This issue was not much different from the previous issue.  It is a bloated mess, with too much going on for any of it to have much of an impact.  It is not bad, per se, but the story is lost among the dead returns and the plot points.  The main core of the story is the return of Superman and the parts that lead up to that, specifically Lois’s plea to Power Girl and Damage’s plea to his team are handled well.  The rest of it just gets in the way of that story.  The reunion of the Quicks and the subsequent race is extraneous material, unnecessary to the main plot.  Now, maybe the Quicks will be part of the resolution to the story, but there is no reason why Robinson couldn’t build that into the third and final issue.  In this issue, it just doesn’t fit into the rest of the story.  Take that away and you could’ve had more with Lois and Power Girl, maybe a few scenes to help solidify their relationship, to really sell the idea that Power Girl would listen to a Black Lantern.  The same is true of the scene with Damage in which the heroes seemingly believe him rather too quickly.  The key, I think, is that the set-up scenes need to be believable so that we as the readers buy into it, so then when the ending comes, we are surprised. Think about when Lois approaches Kal-L, you can almost believe that all she wants is to see her husband.  Now, all we can think is:  what is she up to?   As it is, I expected what happened and that is exactly what happened.  It just got lost amongst everything else. 

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