Blackest Night #6

Geoff Johns Writer
Ivan Reis Penciller
Eclair Albert & Joe Prado Inkers
Alex Sinclair Colorist
Nick J. Napolitano Letterer
Adam Schlagman Assoc. Editor
Eddie Berganza Editor
Cover: Reis • Albert • Sinclair
Alt. Cover: Rodolfo Migliari

Our main cover features the "New Guardians" — one Lantern for each color. Frankly, a leadership body that represents all the major emotions and powers makes more sense than the monolithic body of bald blue people. And after all the darkness of Blackest Night so far, it's nice to finally have something colorful and hopeful.

The sketch variant loses that bright, colorful optimism of the finished version. But I do appreciate the detail of the Lanterns' rings that becomes a bit lost with all the wisps of color and energy.

Our alternate cover shows a bleak take on these multi-colored Lanterns, having Nekron holding all their bloodied rings. I usually like Migliari's covers, but this one falls a bit flat for me. Maybe it's because of the odd placement of his chains, which look like large, goofy ears. Maybe it's because his heart doesn't actually look like a hole in chest, but an image on a shirt he's wearing. Maybe the rings look a bit odd and fake. Or a little bit of all of the above.

Our story picks up with a pair of black rings still chasing Hal Jordan and Barry Allen. All the Lanterns are trying to help Hal, but the ring keeps avoiding him and smashing through all of Hal's shields. Things only get worse when the Black Lantern-controlled Green Arrow and Superman begin attacking Hal. The Lanterns focus on Superman, who is naturally the biggest threat, and Sinestro offers to kill the Man of Steel, but Hal forbids it, insisting that Superman isn't actually dead.

As Barry runs away from his ring, he's tripped by the Black Lantern Kid Flash, who says he knew something was wrong about Barry's return. Bart says he felt it because he's just like Barry — still dead. Bart tackles Barry, saying he was the first lifeline Nekron created, and they only came back because he wanted them to. Which means, according to Black Lantern Bart, that they belong to Nekron.

Before the Black Lantern ring can slide on Barry's finger, Wally knocks Bart off Barry. Bart complains that Wally won't stop picking on him, and Wally asks Barry what happened to Bart. Barry doesn't know, but he asks Wally to protect Bart while he tries to get rid of the rings chasing him and Hal. Barry has Hal grab onto him with some green chains, and he rushes the two of them far away from the battle. The rings keep following, and Barry keeps running faster, ultimately traveling forward two seconds into the future. This does the trick, as the rings lose their connection to Barry and Hal during the two seconds they skipped.

We then check in on the Atom and Mera, who are still deep inside Damage's Black Lantern ring. Deadman hops into the body of Zombie Jean Loring and tells our heroes that he's been hanging out inside the Black Lantern "network," trying to learn as much as he can about this threat. Since Ray and Mera are the only two living beings here, he was drawn right to them. Deadman tells them that he's learned the Black Lanterns are in the process of bringing every Black Lantern in the universe to Earth right now. Deadman helps Ray and Mera begin to escape, and out in space, we see John Stewart desperately outrunning a massive army of Black Lanterns headed toward Earth.

Even though Ray and Mera were dragged into Damage's ring, they somehow became connected to all the other Black Lantern rings through the magic of this "network." Ray spotted one ring flickering, as if it was on its last legs, so he chose to bring himself and Mera through that one. And it just so happened to be Wonder Woman's ring, which conveniently puts the Atom and Mera back in the middle of the battle.

Mera begins fighting Wonder Woman, allowing the emotion of rage to consume her. Barry and Hal return to the fight, but no one still really knows what to do. One of the Guardians, Ganthet, says they need to summon every Lantern to unite their powers to destroy the Black Lantern battery. They begin working on calling in the reinforcements, but acknowledge this will take some time. So in the meantime, Ganthet grabs Hal's ring and creates a duplicate of it. He puts it on his own finger and becomes a Green Lantern, saying they need to double their efforts until the reinforcements arrive. He takes all the other Lanterns' rings, saying they all have the hidden ability to duplicate themselves and deputize someone else for 24 hours.

So now we have a bunch of new rings flying around Earth, looking for new hosts. The blue ring chooses Barry for his great hope. The orange ring of avarice chooses Lex Luthor. The yellow ring of fear goes to Scarecrow. The indigo ring of compassion picks the Atom. The red ring of rage goes to Mera. And the purple ring of love picks Wonder Woman. This last one is a little tricky, since Wonder Woman already has a black ring on her finger. But in the end, love wins out and destroys the black ring. The newly deputized Lanterns quickly gather together, led by Barry sporting a new blue suit, offering the hopeful message of "All will be well."




So we've come to our third major twist of this story. First the dead was brought back to life. Then the resurrected heroes became agents of the dead. And now, as the end quickly approaches, we're introduced to this new concept of random heroes and villains temporarily becoming Lanterns. It's an interesting idea, and it's kind of fun to go through all the major DC characters and try to figure out which emotion they most represent. But on the other hand, I'm getting kind of annoyed by the idea that the Lanterns are the only ones who can do anything. I mean, if that's the case, then why bother having any other heroes? Just put 20 Green Lanterns on Earth, and you're good to go.

The bit of Black Lantern Bart left me wanting for more. He didn't tell Barry anything we hadn't already heard — repeatedly — since the prologue of this story. I was kind of hoping that the possessed Bart would try to strike at Barry's emotions, like the other Black Lanterns have been doing. Have Bart say that Wally is the best Flash and the only one we need. Have him say that Max Mercury was a much better mentor and inspiration than Barry was. Tell Barry that the only worthwhile thing he ever did in his life was to die. That would have really cut deep. But probably too deep for Geoff Johns' fanboy heart.

Next time, we begin the publication month of March 2010, where we'll jump back in time to before Blackest Night to wrap up a Superboy story in Adventure Comics #6.