DCU Comic Book Reviews

BLACKEST NIGHT #5

Blackest Night

January 2010

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Ivan Reis

Inks by Oclair Albert and Joe Prado

Covers by Ivan Reis and Rodolfo Migliari

Synopsis

In Sector 666, a member of each of the 7 corps, led by Hal Jordan, search for the Black Lantern.  But they are too late.  Sayd and Ganthet tell them the Black Lantern went to Earth.  On Earth, in Coast City, the Barry Allen (aka The Flash) confronts Nekron and the Black Hand.  Nekron sends the dead from COast City to attack Barry, who is soon joined by Wally West (aka The Flash) and other heroes.  Kid Flash tells the other heroes that Dove’s powers seems to counteract the Black Lantern power.  Donna Troy, who had been bitten by a Black Lantern, is slowly turning into one.  The Flashes attempt to free the Guardians from the Black Lantern central battery.  Scar retaliates.  Just then Hal Jordan and the other Lanterns arrive and destroy her with their power rings.  They then attack the Black Lantern central battery.  Rather than destroy it, it increases Nekron’s power.  Suddenly, Bruce Wayne rises to become a Black Lantern.  The heroes see “Batman” and an emotional connection is made.  Nekron tells everyone that he was responsible for not allowing the heroes to truly die, that he kept them from reaching their final resting place.  Now, Black Lantern Batman commands all the heores that were brought back to “life” to Die!  Superman, Green Arrow, Kid Flash, Superboy, Animal Man, Ice, all become Black Lanterns, with power rings searching out Barry Allen and Hal Jordan.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Man, you know you are pretty far down in the hero food chain when you come back to death as a Black Lantern and you don’t even get a panel showing the transformation.  Wonder Woman and Superman get their own panel, Superboy and Kid Flash share a panel, and Green Arrow is with Black Canary.  But Animal Man and Ice?  Just a brief mention.  At least they are on the final page.  Ice is on the cover, but not Animal Man.  No love for Buddy, I guess. 

It would help to read Green Lantern #48 before reading this issue.  More importantly, it would be a bigger help if there was an editorial box telling me to read GL first.  Maybe the way the first page is set up, the editorial box wouldn’t look good, but it is annoying to realize I knew the ending to GL before I had read it. Granted, there is nothing surprising about the end, but, still.  Also, I wonder how this will read in the eventual collection.  Will it make sense?  You basically have the end of a quest in which we never saw the quest.  Right now I am sure most people are reading both books, so they’ll fill in the blanks, but in 10 to 15 years, new readers won’t be reading both collections at the same time, so it may be a head scratcher. 

With that out of the way, this was a great issue and a great transition from the set-up of the story to the central conflict of the story.  Johns and Reis have moved away from the horror trappings of the dead rising (the zombie subgenere, if you will) and have moved the story into a straight action thriller.  The pace is swift and the action pretty much non-stop.  This is good stuff. 

I was actually surprised the Rainbow Rodeo was put together so soon; I would have expected their appearance later.  It seemed like Hal’s return would signal the end; in this case it just signals that things are getting worse.  I realized that Johns had much more on his mind than simply having Hal lead the cavalry to the rescue.  And I like that.  Moreover, Johns keeps the story continuing in an organic manner; I don’t feel like there is anything shocking.  Surprising, certainly, but nothing out of left field or unexplainable.  The ending with all of the characters who had “died” become Black Lanterns (who were told to “die” rather than “rise”) was brilliant both in its idea and in its execution.  And I like the fact that Johns doesn’t end with the rise of “Bruce Wayne” but rather adds on the horror for a more sinister cliffhanger. 

The brief bit with Bruce Wayne may help to explain the discrepancies in terms of his body.  As noted in Batman and Robin #6, the body of Bruce Wayne showed up in a place that is different than where the Black Hand dug it up.  But it looks as if it wasn’t really Bruce, but some kid of construct.  Since Bruce was hit by the Omega Sanction, where your death is to life through hell, than perhaps Nekron’s connection allowed him to use Bruce’s essence.  Or something like that.  Not that it matters. 

The opening sequence was interesting.  I was curious to see the way Abin Sur’s name was used in the Indigo tribe oath.  In Green Lantern #48, Indigo-1 had said the Abin Sur as their savior; this just reinforces what she had said. 

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