Blackest Night #5

Geoff Johns Writer
Ivan Reis Penciller
Oclair 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 shows the new villain for this story, Nekron, lording over all the major heroes who have been brought back to life: Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Ice, Kid Flash, Superboy, Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Arrow. This is an unusually bright and colorful cover for this series, and I'm kind of torn by that. On one hand, I am getting a little tired of the doom and gloom of Blackest Night. But on the other hand, that bright blue background almost feels like a betrayal of the core nature of this story. In any case, I am happy to see Bart and Kon front and center, joining some of the biggest names in DC of heroes who have cheated death.

The sketch variant, as always, is an interesting work-in-progress view. But beyond that, I don't see much value. Reis' pencils are so light, it's very difficult to distinguish the smaller heroes from the larger Nekron behind them. But I am glad this cover isn't completely filled with shading like some of the others have been.

Our alternate cover shows an actual scene from this issue — something that's been teased since the very beginning — a Black Lantern Batman. It is a cool and creepy cover. But I wonder how many readers in 2010 actually believed this was the real Batman brought back to life. I mean, the end of Final Crisis did show that Batman wasn't actually killed by Darkseid, but just sent back in time. So I guess all this stuff with "Batman" was just to throw people off? Make them wonder?

Our story begins with Hal Jordan, a representative from each different color Lantern, and the two remaining free Guardians of the Universe, exploring Space Sector 666 for the Black Lantern power source. But they're too late. The massive lantern has already been teleported to Coast City, where it's currently reviving the 7 million people who were killed there back in the '90s.

And in Coast City, Barry is currently fighting through that massive hoard of zombies to reach Black Hand and Nekron, accusing them of sacrilege. Nekron says Barry's yeah was the first, and his rebirth is the last. Black Hand adds that dying is inevitable, and that people age because they're not supposed to be here. Barry has battled Black Hand in the past, and he asks why he's so different now. Black Hand boasts that he's dead now, and he somehow manages to catch Barry's throat and slam him down on the ground, all while still cradling the skull from Bruce Wayne's grave. Barry correctly identifies that skull, but is quickly overwhelmed by all the zombies around him.

Wally West finally makes an appearance in this series, after being forced to hide off page until his new costume was revealed in Flash: Rebirth #5. Wally saves Barry, who tells him Nekron is the main bad guy here. Wally has heard of Nekron from Kyle Rayner before, who described him as an alien that could animate the dead. Both Flashes conclude that Nekron and Black Hand have received major upgrades recently. Wally then stupidly describes himself as the Nightwing to Barry's Batman, but Barry insists that Wally is the Flash to his Flash. He then asks Wally if he brought any reinforcements, and Wally proudly shows off Superman, Wonder Woman, Kid Flash and the Titans, Superboy and a few others.

In Manhattan, the Atom is trying, and failing, to prevent a Black Lantern ring from reviving Damage. He's attacked by his ex-wife, Jean, who somehow has the ability to stretch and shrink, which she uses to grab Ray and Mera and take them down into Damage's ring for some reason.

Back in Coast City, Bart addresses Barry as "Grandpa," who asks not to be called that, since it makes him feel old. Bart drops some unnatural, expositional dialogue, explaining that he's Barry's grandson from the 31st century, just in case anybody reading this didn't already know that. Bart finally gets to the point, saying he has good news and bad news. Barry wants the good news first, but Wally wants the bad news first. So Bart makes another dig at Barry's age, by saying seniority wins out.

The good news, Bart says, is that somehow all the Black Lanterns die and don't come back whenever they try to take Dove's heart. Barry thought Dove was dead, so Bart explains that this is the new Dove, a girl. Barry says they need to get her front-and-center in this fight, and Bart says the Titans are already working on that. But that brings Bart to the bad news: Donna Troy has been bitten by a Black Lantern and is getting worse. Wally says they should take her to S.T.A.R. Labs or Doctor Mid-Nite, and Bart says they've tried, but Donna insists on staying and fighting.

Barry then leads Wally and Bart through the massive zombie army and straight to the Black Lantern power source. Bart spots Nekron and asks if he's the "Black Lantern boss," but Barry tells him not to worry about Nekron and instead focus on the aliens floating in the sky. The rest of the Guardians of Oa are suspended in black goo, and Barry theorizes that if they free them, the Guardians will be able to help them shut down the Black Lanterns. But our speedsters have a hard time loosening the Guardians, and the one Guardian possessed by the black fights back, slashing at Barry's back and vomiting a bunch of black goo on Bart.

Suddenly, Hal and his Lantern friends show up and promptly destroy that possessed Guardian. Barry asks Hal if he knows anything about Nekron, but Hal really isn't able to add anything substantial to Wally's report. However, he assures Barry that the "color-coded cavalry" is here to save the day. The seven different Lanterns all combine their powers and begin blasting the Black Lantern power source. But this attack is unable to prevent the lantern from spitting out more rings, which surprise Bart with their speed. We also see that despite Donna's earlier instance on staying close to Dove, she has now unfortunately become separated from her. Wonder Woman checks on Donna, who says that she's changing, and begins crying out in pain.

Hal notices that the multi-Lantern attack isn't actually doing anything, but Black Hand corrects him, saying the Lanterns are actually making Nekron stronger. He holds up the skull from Bruce's grave, which comes in contact with a Black Lantern ring that commands "Bruce Wayne of Earth" to rise. And we finally get the long promised zombie Batman. Everybody is shocked by this and stop what they're doing to stand and stare. Nekron begins lecturing the heroes, saying many of them died and have come back, only because he allowed their resurrections. He now plans to use them to expose the Guardians' greatest secret.

As Nekron talks, the zombie Batman begins vomiting a bunch of Black Lantern rings that quickly fly onto the fingers of Wonder Woman, Superman, Superboy, Kid Flash and Green Arrow. Once the rings are in place, Nekron commands them to die, and they promptly turn into zombie versions of themselves. Nekron then says "Bruce Wayne" has served his purpose, and the zombie Batman explodes with a shriek. Two more Black Lantern rings are trying to connect to Hal and Barry. Hal slowed it down momentarily with a shield, but the ring has now broken through. And all Barry can do is keep running away, hoping it won't catch up.

So the whole Black Lantern "Batman" business was completely worthless. But beyond that, this was another strong installment in this story. We're no longer just dealing with reanimated dead heroes and villains — we now have to worry about every hero who has already previously been brought back to life. And as you can see from that final two-page spread, that list includes some pretty big heroes. And you have to feel bad for Bart. These past couple of years sure have been turbulent for him. After pushing Superboy-Prime into the Speed Force, Bart turned into a 20-year-old, was killed, was brought back to life as a 16-year-old, and now he's a Black Lantern. Poor kid just can't catch a break.

I was happy that Bart finally got around to telling Barry the critical information he gained from the Titans. But the interactions between Bart, Wally and Barry were very awkward. It's like Geoff Johns was worried readers wouldn't know who Wally and Bart were, so he forced them to spout off stilted, expositional dialogue. And beyond that, they really didn't do anything. The three fastest beings in the world all gathered together to have a conversation. And that's because this is a Green Lantern story once again. Everyone else can show up, but they can't actually do anything of any significance.

Next time, we'll move to the publication month of February 2010. This will feature a bunch of Blackest Night tie-ins, some of which actually take place before the issue we just reviewed. But I'm going through these comics in publication order, not reading order, so these strange time jumps are all DC's fault. Anyway, we kick off that month with a quick check-in on our old pal, Superboy-Prime, in Adventure Comics #5.