The Evolution of Species
Writer: Adam Schlagman
Pencils: Jason Fabok
Inks: Ryan Winn
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letters: Travis Lanham
Our cover by Tyler Kirkham, Matt Banning and Nei Ruffino showcases several characters who kind of got overlooked during Blackest Night — an error this issue attempts to rectify. The only two we care about are Donna Troy, front and center, and, to a much lesser extent, Animal Man, bottom right corner. Sadly, this is a rather bland, uninspiring cover. I'm most disappointed in Donna's face. She's a fierce warrior, who's going through a traumatic experience of fighting zombie versions of her deceased family, and she's fighting off a Black Lantern infection in her neck. So why does she look so bored?
Our variant cover by Ethan Van Sciver is an incomprehensible mess from a side story about a Yellow Lantern we don't care about. So we'll just quickly move on from that gruesome scene.
It is fitting that an event like Blackest Night would rise from the dead months after reaching its conclusion. This issue contains a bunch of short stories and some deleted scenes from that massive, never-ending event. Even though it went on for eight issues and dozens of tie-ins, Geoff Johns really had enough story for 12 issues. And apparently he was pretty bummed out that some of his scenes never made it in print. Until now. Anyway, Bart Allen appears in the background of two short stories here, so let's get going.
Our first story is about Animal Man, who was planning on celebrating Heroes Day with a quiet barbecue in his backyard with his family. Suddenly, he's attacked by a charging swarm of extinct animals, and Buddy Baker has to scramble to save his son from the zombie beasts. The animals are quickly reduced to piles of bones, arranged in the shape of the Black Lantern symbol, and Buddy hears Nekron's voice in his head, asking why he's still alive.
Later, Animal Man joins the Justice League and Titans in Coast City, heroically flying right over Kid Flash's next, side-by-side with Starfire. Buddy and Kory had quite the adventure together during 52, so they make a pretty good team against this army of the undead. Until the Black Lantern "Batman" spits out the black rings and one of them turns Animal Man into a Black Lantern. Buddy is horrified as he's unable to prevent himself from attacking Starfire and ... well, basically attempting to rape her. Luckily, Starfire realizes the real Buddy would never behave this way, so she doesn't hold it against him.
Eventually, a white ring connects with Animal Man, turning him into a White Lantern. Buddy hears the Entity's voice in his head, explaining that Nekron did not "allow" Buddy's multiple resurrections, but Buddy kept coming back because he chose to. The Entity tells Buddy he still has a lot to fight for, and he has more power than he realizes. Finally, the day is saved, and Buddy is able to return home, where his family lovingly embraces him, then quickly demands he take a shower because he stinks.
I've always found the dynamic of Animal Man's family to be very sweet. And that might be mainly because it's one of the very few functional family units in the whole DC Universe. Anyway, this story was nice, but rushed. The extinct animals were cool, but didn't make any sense. And Fabok's art was less than stellar on this story, particularly with characters' faces and eyes.
A Losing Battle
Written by: J.T. Krul
Artist: Ed Benes
Colors: Brian Buccellato
Letters: Rob Clark Jr.
Our next story takes us back to Titans Tower in San Francisco on Heroes Day. Wonder Girl takes responsibility for the death of Marvin and laments that they haven't had time to erect a statue of Kid Devil yet. She asks Donna Troy how she can keep fighting after enduring so much loss, and Donna says she always keeps in mind what would happen to the world if she stopped fighting.
We jump ahead to the big fight in Coast City, and Donna's infection in her neck is growing worse. She feels the same way she felt when she was killed by a Superman robot. Wonder Woman comes to check on her, and Donna can see the purple emotion of love coming from her. Suddenly, Donna loses control of her body and attacks Cassie. She wraps her hands around Cassie's throat, but is able to speak, saying they need to find Dove so she can kill her. Cassie sadly says, "I know," displaying the indigo emotion of compassion.
Cassie calls out to some nearby Titans to help, and Cyborg and Superboy pull Donna off Cassie. Dove also responds to the call, and Cassie asks her to get rid of Donna's infection without killing her. But Dove isn't sure if she can, noting the Black Lanterns she destroyed was basically by accident. Cassie urges her to try anyway, so Dove begins blasting Donna with a ray of light. Donna screams out in pain, but just at that moment, the Black Lantern "Batman" appears and a black ring attaches itself to Donna.
Cassie is horrified to see the Black Lanterns have claimed her idol, Wonder Woman, her boyfriend, Superboy, and her mentor, Donna Troy. For a brief second, she wonders how she can possibly fight them all. But then she remembers Donna's words from the beginning of this story and vows to keep fighting to the very end, no matter what.
I always felt like the Donna Troy bite was a worthless, overlooked element of the Blackest Night story. So now we get an opportunity to actually explore the ramification of this bite and ... nothing happened. We saw that maybe the bite might have turned Donna into a Black Lantern, but then the fake Batman barfed up the rings and that totally negated the whole point. Really, the only thing I appreciated from this story was the acknowledgment that Kid Devil died before Blackest Night. But now I'm mad that we didn't get to see a zombie Kid Devil during this event. Anyway, Benes' art was decent enough in this story, as long as you overlook his obsession with drawing women's butts and boobs.
Next time, we'll wrap up the year 2010 by launching a new era of Teen Titans.
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