DCU Comic Book Reviews

BLACKEST NIGHT #3

Blackest Night

November 2009

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Ivan Reis

Inks by Oclair Albert with Joe Prado

Covers by Ivan Reis and Ethan Van Sciver

Synopsis

In New York City, Jason Rusch and Gehenna discuss their relationship and wonder if maybe they shouldn’t be Firestorm anymore.  The JLA communicator blinks.  In Gotham City, Hal Jordan (aka Green Lantern) and Barry Allen (aka Flash) fight against Black Lanterns, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Elongated Man, Ronnie Raymond (aka Firestorm).  They are helped by the sudden arrival of Ray Palmer.  At the headquarters of the JLA, Jason views the wall of monitors and sees Black Lantern attacks all over the world.  Suddenly, Jason is confronted by Mera who wants to make sure he is not a Black Lantern.  Meanwhile, the Black Lanterns are about to kill Ray Palmer when suddenly the Indigo Tribe appears to protect him.  They destroy the Black Lanterns and the transport them all to the JLA headquarters.  There, the leader of the Indigo Tribe explains the War of the Light.  To defeat the darkness and the Black Lanterns, they need to replicate the white light of creation.  And to do it, they need the help of Hal Jordan.  Suddenly, they are attacked by more Black Lanterns.  Ronnie attacks the new Firestorm, splitting them apart, then killing Gehenna and forcing Jason to become a part of the Black Lantern Firestorm matrix.  Meanwhile, Black power rings find the bodies interred in the JLA headquarters and the dead rise. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

In the midst of the dead fighting against the living, we get the ultimate exposition as the Indigo Tribe arrives to give the characters and the readers the necessary background to understand what is happening with the Black Lanterns and hints and clues as to what will happen to defeat the menace.  The arrival of the Indigo Tribe is well timed as Johns pushes the story past the set-up and moves into the second act of the story.  Well, somewhat.  While we do get some forward momentum with the arrival of the Indigo Tribe, it feels like in the next couple of page we take a step backward.  First, we have a Black Lantern fighting against a living hero, with the Black Lantern claiming a new victim.  Second, the ending to this issue is similar to the ending of the previous issues, with the dead once more rising to battle against the heroes.  Don’t get me wrong, all of this is good stuff and the Firestorm sequence is chilling as Jason becomes powerless when he becomes locked inside the matrix.  However, it feels redundant as if we have seen this before.  And it is more glaring after the exposition from the Indigo Tribe, in which we expect the plot to move forward but instead it kinda stagnates.  This issue is excellent and I am loving every moment.  Maybe I am eager to see how everything is resolved, but now that Johns has kicked the plot into gear, he needs to keep it coming and not fall back into the patterns of previous issues. 

It is not surprising that Hal Jordan and the White light would play such a big role in this mini-series.  For awhile now, Johns has put Hal into a position where he has literally become a member of most of the various Lanterns Corps out there.  So when the Indigo Tribe tells him he is connected to all of the other colors, they are correct.  So, it is makes sense that in order to defeat the blackness, you need white and to be the White Lantern, you would have to be part of all of the colors. 

The only drawback to this issue is the prominence of Firestorm, both versions.  I was a big fan of the recent Firestorm series, so I am familiar with the characters and their relationship to each other, but I doubt many of the readers will be.  Nor will many readers be big fans of the first version of Firestorm, Ronnie Raymond.  It is a gamble to put such a minor character on display like that.  While I think Johns does a good job with it, I think he also risks creating apathy towards the series because the readers are not emotional vested in either Firestorm.  Johns tries to create that emotional resonance with the first page and to a degree it worked, but there will be some people who could care less or question why they should care. 

I loved the conversation between Hal and Barry as they discuss how they have chosen to live their lives since they have come back from the dead.  However, it is a good thing that Johns is the writer for this as well as for Flash:  Rebirth, so that Barry could provide an assessment of his feelings and emotions in that conversation with Hal without giving away too much of the Rebirth plot (which is seriously delayed). 

By the way, area code 412 (as seen at the bottom of the first page) is for the city of Pittsburgh. 

The best part?  The Black Lantern emerging for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and telling everyone his name.