Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Scott Kolins
Color: Michael Atiyeh
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover: Kolins w/Atiyeh
Variant Cover: Francis Manapul w/Brian Buccellato
Editor: Adam Schlagman
Our main cover features the Blue Lantern Flash running ahead triumphantly. It's a fine cover, but I feel like Barry's chin is a bit big, and his face is kind of smug. Actually, I'm not exactly sure how to best describe that emotion. I'll just say it doesn't quite work for me and leave it at that.
I happen to own the variant cover, and I must admit: This is not Manapul's best work. It shows the battle-worn Rogues, with tears in their costumes and blood splattered on their faces. But it's just too much for me. Too messy. Too chaotic. And even Kolins, who loves to inflict meticulously detailed misery upon the Rogues, didn't have them get beat up this much inside.
Our story picks up in Keystone City, with Owen meeting with a random villain named Sandblast, who has come to the Twin Cities in hope of joining the Rogues. Owen promises to help Sandblast join the Rogues — he'll even get Captain Cold to overlook Sandblast's sex offender status — if he helps him find the missing Captain Boomerang. Sandblast agrees, so Owen leads him out to a large pit in a construction site.
Owen then suddenly shoves Sandblast down the pit, where he lands on a pile of corpses and is attacked by the chained-up Black Lantern Captain Boomerang. The zombie sees the fear in Sandblast's heart and promptly kills him. Digger then calls up to Owen, saying their plan is working. He can feel his heart starting to beat again, but he just needs to devour a few more hearts.
We then check in on the Blue Lantern Flash, who has put Wally in a protective bubble to shield him from the attacks of the undead Firestorm, Solovar, Reverse-Flash and Kid Flash. Solovar jokes about how "bright" Barry has always been, but Eobard contends that Barry hasn't always been bright. Bart agrees, mocking Barry's shock upon learning there was a new Kid Flash. Barry's mentor, Saint Walker, explains that unlike Solovar and Eobard, who are merely reanimated corpses, Bart is actually still alive and they should make saving him their priority. Sadly, this plan leaves out Firestorm, who does have a living person trapped within an animated corpse.
And speaking of Firestorm, he causes Barry to drop his protective shield around Wally by attacking him with a tidal wave of dirt. Bart seizes upon this opening, jumping on top of Wally's shoulders, saying that Wally hates him as much as he hates Wally. Eobard attacks Barry, and since Flash: Rebirth has finally finished, we're actually able now to acknowledge that the living Eobard is currently hanging upside down in Iron Heights.
Right on cue, we check in on the chaos of Iron Heights. Captain Cold puts up a sheet of ice to pull Mirror Master out of the Mirror World, and he manages to position all the zombie Rogues behind him and the living Rogues in a hallway. Heat Wave and Weather Wizard create a fiery inferno for the Black Lantern Rogues, hoping to incinerate them once and for all.
We cut back to Black Lantern Bart, who is now on top of Wally, mocking him for no longer being able to be the Kid Flash to Barry. In what might be an insight of Geoff Johns' true feelings, Bart tells Wally that he'd be better off dead. Bart vibrates his fingers into Wally's chest, but before he can pull out his heart, Bart screams out in pain and is surrounded by lightning. Wally and Bart find themselves floating in vast void of white, and Bart begins crying, saying he didn't mean what he said and he's sorry for screwing everything up. Bart's Black Lantern ring then detects an infection and moves to "expel" the infection.
Back in Iron Heights, the Trickster throws his entire bag of tricks into the inferno, creating a large explosion. But this was all for naught, as the zombie Rogues quickly reconstitute and continue to march menacingly toward the living Rogues. But as they pass Eobard's cell, the zombies suddenly become locked in a trance and stand motionless by the door. They seem to be drawn to him, but much like Dove, these Black Lanterns are unable to detect any emotion in Eobard. Captain Cold has no idea what's happening, but decides to freeze the zombies anyway, and drop a massive cold-grenade on their way out. The entire prison becomes covered in ice, and for some reason, the Black Lantern Eobard also becomes frozen in the middle of his fight with Barry.
Before Barry can try to figure out what happened, Wally tells him what just happened with Bart. Wally's figured out that they're still connected through the Speed Force, and he wants Barry to vibrate through Bart to pull him free. Apparently, Wally still causes objects to explode when he vibrates through them. Barry points out that he doesn't even know Bart and wouldn't know what to say, but Wally believes Barry always knows what to say. So Barry vibrates through his grandson's body.
Barry meets Bart in the white void, but Bart tries to push him away, claiming he's already dead. Barry assures Bart he's not dead. He admits they don't know each other, but he says they both know that Bart still has a long road to run. Bart tearfully embraces his grandfather, who somehow "pulls" Bart out of the clutches of the Black Lantern ring. Out in the real world, as soon as Barry passes through Bart, Bart joyfully erupts out of his black costume, and the ring reports the connection has been severed.
Bart tells Barry and Wally that he could see both of them and hear everything he said, but had no control of his actions. And he also could feel Nekron calling all the Black Lanterns back to Coast City. The speedsters then examine the frozen Reverse-Flash, but the only clue they discover is the face of the living Eobard reflected in the ice covering the zombie.
The Rogues somehow manage to track Owen and find him weeping at the edge of the pit. Cold reports that they've taken care of the rest of the zombie Rogues, but they still need to finish off Captain Boomerang. Owen pleads with them to leave his father alone, saying he's close to bringing him back — he just needs to feed a little more. Cold says these zombies don't work like they do in Hellraiser, pointing out that the Black Lanterns are playing with them like cats playing with mice.
Snart then peers down the pit and is horrified to see women and children among the victims Owen sacrificed to his father. He sternly tells Owen that Rogues do not kill women or children, and he shoves Owen down the pit. Zombie Digger sees the fear, hope, love and avarice in his son and promptly shoves a boomerang through Owen's heart. The Rogues watch as a Black Lantern ring flies down the pit, commanding Owen Mercer of Earth to rise. Snart says it's Owen's own fault, and he leads the Rogues away, telling them to keep moving forward with a cold heart.
Our speedster heroes, meanwhile, reach Coast City to find it under attack by the gigantic and terrifying Black Lantern Spectre. Bart admits he's a little scared, and Barry says that's OK, but Hal needs their help. Wally's confused by this, saying he thought feeling emotions made them targets for the Black Lanterns. But Barry now believes they've been fighting this battle the wrong way, and that they shouldn't keep tossing aside emotion. And in direct contrast with Captain Cold's advice, Barry tells our heroes to move forward with an open heart.
I've given up trying to understand how these Black Lanterns work. That bit with Eobard made no sense at all. It almost seems like Johns was desperately searching for an easy way to get Reverse-Flash out of the picture. And frankly, the rescue of Bart didn't make much sense either. You're connected through the Speed Force ... true, true ... but how does that free you from the Black Lantern ring? I really wish Wally would have told Barry that they need to find Max Mercury to accomplish this task. Not only does he know the most about the Speed Force, but he actually has the strongest emotional connection to Bart. But I forgot: Johns doesn't care about Max, either. And I honestly believe that Johns was legitimately frustrated that he couldn't reduce the Flash family to just Barry as Flash and Wally as Kid Flash. Regardless, this issue was one more example of how Johns has not spent any time trying to understand Bart. Black Lantern Bart did not say anything mean or cruel, so it really fell flat when he began weeping and apologizing for what he said.
The best part of this issue was actually Owen's story. It's downright creepy that he fell for his zombie dad's trick and was so desperate to have some sense of family brought back that he didn't care about murdering dozens of people to chase this pipe dream. But all in all, I'd have to say this three-issue miniseries was a disappointment. Granted, part of the problem was it being hampered by the slow release of Flash: Rebirth. But beyond that, this just became another story of Johns telling us that Barry's the best and all the other speedsters suck. Wally literally did nothing this entire story. He just stood around like an idiot. And there was no mention of Max or Jesse — two perfectly qualified superheroes who would be able to help out quite a bit in this crisis. Oh well. None of that really matters anyway, because this whole thing is just a small part of a story that has the main purpose of showing us that the Green Lanterns are the best and everyone else sucks.
We don't have many new ads, but let's check them out, anyway:
Blackest Night Checklist Part 3. That's right, this event was so massive, it needed three separate checklists. And this list included 26 comics!
Green Lantern: Secret Origin now in softcover.
Women of the DC Universe limited edition busts.
The DC Nation page features a preview of The Web.
Next time, we'll see what the Black Lantern Spectre is up to in Green Lantern #51.
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