Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Blackest Night #1

Tim Seeley Writer

Kyle Hotz Pencils

Dexter Vines, Walden Wong & Danny Miki Inks

David Baron & Allen Passalaqua Colors

Tom Napolitano Letters

Lee Weeks & Brad Anderson Cover

Full disclosure: I was supposed to review this issue before the Infinite Crisis one, but I got them mixed up. I hope you can forgive me. Anyway, our cover shows Sinestro being attacked by the Black Lantern versions of the Justice League. If you look closely, you'll notice that Sinestro is wearing both a white ring and a black ring. It's a fine cover, recapturing the inherent creepiness of Blackest Night.

Much like the Infinite Crisis retelling, this story changes just one aspect of Blackest Night: What if Sinestro didn't share the White Lantern power? Well, the immediate answer is quickly taken care of in just two pages. Nekron wins and turns everybody into a Black Lantern zombie. Sinestro is so distraught by his failure, he commits suicide. The remaining 40 pages of comic deal with the aftermath of this crushing defeat.

We head to San Francisco 19 days later, where Lobo is smashing in the skull of zombie Kid Flash. (And poor Bart's head will permanently be squashed for the rest of this issue.) Lobo has been hired by a mysterious benefactor to capture Dove, whose connection to the Lord of Order makes her immune to the Black Lanterns. And as such, she is the last woman alive on Earth.

As Lobo viciously tears the zombie Titans apart, he's bitten by Starfire, which allows him to demonstrate his immunity to the Black Lanterns — being a Czarnian, he's able to regenerate at a cellular level at will, thus instantly expelling any infection. Anyway, Sinestro soon shows up, revealing that the White Lantern ring wouldn't let him completely kill himself. So he mainly spends his time torturing the Black Lantern zombies by briefly reviving them with his white ring before his black ring kills them again.

Eager to atone for his failure, Sinestro travels with Lobo and Dove into outer space, where we learn the man who hired Lobo is Mister Miracle — the only New God who was able to escape the Black Lanterns. Mister Miracle has a wild plan to harness the energy of the Source to destroy all the Black Lanterns at once. Well, that turns out to be pretty tricky, and in one cool moment, zombie Darkseid kills Lobo, only to witness each drop of Lobo's blood grow into another Lobo (just like we saw way back in Young Justice #36).

Anyway, Dove, the embodiment of peace, was supposed to be the template for the Source energy to create new life from. But Mister Miracle was tricked into killing her, so Lobo killed Miracle in retaliation. In desperation, Sinestro used Lobo as the template, which successfully destroyed all Black Lanterns in the universe ... but unfortunately created billions of violent Lobo-like creatures.

Once again, I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting this story was. If it didn't rely so heavily on over-the-top, grotesque violence, I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more. Altogether, I'd say our two Dark Multiverse issues were a success.

Next time, we begin the final month of 2019 with Young Justice #11.

Untold Tales of Blackest Night #1

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.

Blackest Night #8

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: Doug Mahnke • Christian Alamy • Randy Mayor
Special thanks to Tony Avina

Our main cover shows the White Lantern Sinestro leading all the other Lanterns on a charge through a gigantic, crumbling skull, which, I assume, represents Nekron and death itself. Since this is the final issue of this story, this cover carries a strong implication that Sinestro will be the main hero at the end. That would truly be a shocking turn of events, but as we'll soon find out, that's not the case.

As usual, we get to see Reis' pencil work on this cover. I don't think this necessarily makes the cover any better. But it is interesting to see a bit of the process. Luckily, this cover isn't covered in excessive shading, so it is possible to distinguish the individual characters here.

Our alternate cover shows Hal Jordan reaching out to some hands in an almost spiritual pose. Unlike the main cover, this actually shows who the true hero is. This is a Green Lantern story, and Johns has spent several years now making sure nobody forgets that Hal is by far the best Green Lantern. I do like this cover, except for the fact it accentuates Mahnke's tendency to draw very pointy noses.

And we also have a variant to the alternate, eliminating the blinding light to make it more clear which hands are reaching out Hal. Some of these hands are vague enough to represent several different characters, but once you read the issue, it becomes clear who they are. These are all heroes who were dead before Blackest Night began or were killed in the early stages of the event.

Bart Allen did not appear in Blackest Night #7, so we're starting this issue on a rather abrupt note. Basically, our heroes have uncovered the light of life itself, known simply as the Entity, and Sinestro has selfishly merged with the Entity to become a White Lantern. He wraps Nekron in chains and rips out his heart, believing briefly that he had just saved the day. But the Black Lantern promptly commands Nekron to rise again, and he immediately reforms and strikes back at Sinestro.

Larfleeze finally manages to knock out Lex Luthor, while everyone else still has their hands full with the massive army of Black Lanterns. Finally, all the Lantern reinforcements arrive, after being summoned several issues ago. They join the fight in a crowded two-page spread, also joined by just about every hero in the DC Universe. (If you look closely, you can just make out Wally West and Jay Garrick.) Every single Lantern points their ring at Nekron in one large, focused attack of light. But this still isn't working. So Deadman takes control of Guy Gardner and explains to everybody that Nekron is just sentient darkness, and they can't actually destroy him because he's tethered to the land of the living through Black Hand. So Deadman suggests they bring Black Hand back to life, but nobody's really sure how they're supposed to do that.

Nekron eventually separates Sinestro from the Entity, so Hal decides to merge with it, using his power to seek out other heroes like himself, who had chosen to come back from the dead. Superman's Black Lantern ring is destroyed, as well as Wonder Woman's Purple Lantern ring and Barry Allen's Blue Lantern ring. These are replaced with White Lantern rings, forming a new corps with Donna Troy, Superboy, Ice, Kid Flash, Animal Man and Green Arrow.

However, the newly formed White Lantern Corps exists for exactly two seconds, as they all expend their energy into one blast that brings William Hand back to life. Everyone loses their White Lantern rings, and all that's left after this is a single ring flying around erratically. The ring flies through Nekron, injuring, but not killing him. It then plunges into the Black Lantern power battery, commanding the Anti-Monitor to live. The Anti-Monitor immediately attacks Nekron, saying he'll no longer be his prisoner and power source. But this shocking moment ends as quickly as it came, as Nekron easily banishes the Anti-Monitor to a different dimension.

Hand, meanwhile, has been vomiting up more White Lantern rings, which finally call Nekron's name, saying, "Let there be light." Nekron explodes in a flash of light, once and for all, while the rest of the rings begin seeking out a seemingly random group of heroes and villains to resurrect. And in a huge, four-page spread, we see the rings have brought back Eobard Thawne, Maxwell Lord, the original Hawk (but not the new, female one), Jade, Captain Boomerang (but not his son), Firestorm, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Deadman and Osiris.

Mera's love for Aquaman overrides her Red Lantern ring of rage, and Carter and Shiera embrace, finally remembering all their past lives. Superman congratulates J'onn, who responds with a small smile, and Ronnie and Jason separate as Firestorm, wondering where Professor Stein is. Hawk is confused and potentially violent, but Dove keeps him calm. Guy Gardner is the only reasonable one who tries to restrain Maxwell Lord, but Lord uses his mind control powers to escape and disappear in the confusion.

Jade kisses Kyle Rayner, and Superboy and Kid Flash check out a former Teen Titan they both missed. Kon asks if this is Black Adam Junior, but Bart (who was alive, but a stupid, non-heroic adult during that time) vaguely remembers this hero's name as Osiris. Osiris, however, just meekly says he wants to go home. Eobard also says he's going home. Barry tries to stop him, but he's attacked by Captain Boomerang. Barry promptly knocks out Digger, but that gave Eobard more than enough time to take off and begin setting up his attack that was detailed in Flash: Rebirth.

Barry wonders where Ralph and Sue Dibny are, but Hal sadly tells him they're not here. Deadman begins freaking out when he realizes he's alive again, saying he's not supposed to be here. Larfleeze returns the unconscious Luthor to our heroes, and, as promised, he takes one of the Guardians, Sayd, as his personal slave. The Indigo Tribe, meanwhile, quietly took off with Black Hand, imprisoning and basically lobotomizing him on their home world.

Our story ends with Barry and Hal revisiting Bruce Wayne's unmarked grave in Gotham City. Hal points out that the Black Lantern Batman they briefly encountered didn't seem to recognize any of them, suggesting that it wasn't really Bruce. Which, Hal admits, means Tim Drake has been right all along — Bruce is still alive. Barry asks what happened to the Entity, and Hal vaguely says he can still feel the white light urging them forward, away from the blackest night. And at an unknown location, a couple of random bystanders come across a White Lantern power battery sitting at the bottom of a smoking crater.




Well, it's finally over. The massive, bloated event of Blackest Night has reached its insane, nonsensical conclusion. I would have preferred to pare this story down to six issues, but Johns clearly had enough ideas for 12 issues. So when he got to the end, he had to cram everything together at a breakneck pace. A new White Lantern Corps? Cool! But they only get two pages. The Anti-Monitor is back? Amazing! But he only gets two pages. And don't ask why Black Hand barfed up those White Lantern rings — you won't get a satisfactory answer. Although, there is a sequel to this event — another unnecessarily massive and even more perplexing story called Brightest Day. Luckily for us, though, Bart barely spends any time in that event.

On a whole, Blackest Night was an entertaining story. It had great artwork, and it provided a lot of opportunities for deep, emotional moments. Sadly, Bart never really had an emotional moment here (thanks, Geoff Johns), but plenty of other characters did. There was a bit of horror with this story, and lots of intense action, which sometimes got a bit too gory. And I really did get tired of reading issue after issue filled with grotesque zombies. But mostly, I'm sad that this story just kept reinforcing the idea that Hal Jordan is the only one who can do anything. We have this huge roster of heroes at our disposal, and some of them even got upgraded powers, but at the end of the day, the only one who mattered was Hal. Everybody else served no purpose.

Next time, we'll begin the post-Blackest Night healing with a very quick look at Titans #23.

Green Lantern #51

Parallax Rebirth Part Two

Geoff Johns Writer
Doug Mahnke Art
Colors: Randy Mayor
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover: Mahnke, Christian Alamy & Hi-Fi
Variant Cover: Greg Horn
Assoc. Editor: Adam Schlagman
Editor: Eddie Berganza

Our main cover features the Yellow Lantern Scarecrow with tons of bugs and maggots pouring out of his mask. It's a well-done and appropriately creepy cover. The only problem is Scarecrow doesn't show up on a single panel in this issue. Which is completely ridiculous, seeing as how this story is dealing with Parallax, the literal embodiment of fear. Oh well.

Our variant cover shows all the other Lanterns facing off against the Parallax-possessed Hal Jordan, with Nekron looming large in the background. It's a nice enough cover, but I feel like we've already seen quite a few images just like this. And that's the problem with an eight-month event that gave a variant cover to almost every tie-in issue. Things start to feel a bit redundant.

Our story opens with the two Orange Lanterns — Lex Luthor and Larfleeze — bickering over who gets to use the Orange Lantern power battery. Lex probably would have defeated the Black Lantern Superman had Larfleeze's intense greed not got the better of him. But their squabbling is soon interrupted by the gigantic fight between Black Lantern Spectre and Parallax. All our other heroes are naturally worried about Hal's decision to bring back Parallax, but Ganthet urges everyone to let Hal carry out his plan, believing it to be the only way to tame the Spectre.

And that small panel is all we see of Kid Flash in this issue. Anyway, Hal's plan is largely a success. Parallax is able to free Spectre from the Black Lantern ring, but then Parallax immediately tries to destroy the Spectre. Carol Ferris manages to separate Parallax from Hal, and Sinestro tries to contain Parallax, but an unknown force pulls Parallax away. The Spectre then tries to help out our heroes by taking on Nekron, but soon discovers that Nekron has no soul and is immune to the Spectre's powers.




I really don't have anything to say about this issue. It was a decent Green Lantern story with nice art. I often get frustrated with all the other heroes not being able to do anything in the Blackest Night series, but I don't mind letting the Lanterns take charge in the Green Lantern series. I'll also note that I don't actually own this issue but am reading it off the DC Universe app. I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you're not a DC Universe member, then you're doing it wrong. Only $8 a month and access to more comics, movies and shows than you'll ever have time to get through.

Next time, we'll finally — finally! — bring this bloated event to a close with Blackest Night #8.

Blackest Night: The Flash #3

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.

Adventure Comics #7

What Did Black Lantern Superboy Do?

Tony Bedard Writer
Travis Moore Penciller
Dan Green, Keith Champagne & Bob Wiacek Inkers
Brian Buccellato Colorist
Steve Wands Letterer
Sean Ryan Associate Editor
Brian Cunningham Editor
Special thanks to Geoff Johns, Eddie Berganza & Adam Schlagman

Our main cover by Aaron Lopresti shows Black Lantern Superboy battling his one-time girlfriend, Wonder Girl, in the Fortress of Solitude. There's a faint light emanating from Conner's ring, but I'm not sure what it's actually doing. Anyway, this is a solid, straight-forward cover. Nothing too special, but it gets the job done.

Our variant cover by Francis Manapul (from dc.fandom.com) again goes to the multi-panel gimmick, which I probably never will like. But I do like most of the original panels, giving us Manapul's take on some key moments in this issue. Although I will admit the largest panel in the middle looks a bit off. Something about zombie Superboy's face just doesn't work for me.

Our story begins with Black Lantern Superboy attacking Wonder Girl in Coast City. The real Superboy is trapped inside his body, unable to prevent himself from choking Cassie. Naturally, this reminds him of the last time he became someone else's puppet and was forced to attack his friends.

Superboy remembers that last time, he was able to shake off Lex Luthor's programming, and he attempts to do the same now. But his "real self" is manifested as a withering, weak body floating in endless darkness. He does gain some hope when Cassie begins calling out to him, but he's horrified by the mean-spirited words his "zombie self" begins hurling at Cassie. Luckily, Cassie is smart enough to know that's the ring talking, even though the words do hurt more than the punches. She wraps Conner in her lasso and electrocutes him, which enables the real Superboy to take control for a millisecond and whistle for Krypto.

Krypto arrives four seconds later, and Conner is thrilled to see the will, love and rage manifested in his faithful dog. But then he's surprised to see his zombie self use freeze breath on Krypto — a power Conner thought he didn't have. Zombie Superboy again turns on Wonder Girl, feeding her the usual Black Lantern lines about how everything will make more sense once she surrenders to Nekron. Conner suddenly gets a brilliant idea, and while his zombie self monologues, he takes control of his heat vision to carve out a message to Cassie: "Fortress."

Cassie understands the message well enough and immediately takes off for the Fortress of Solitude. Black Lantern Superboy naturally follows her, as does Krypto. Cassie quickly gets inside the fortress, but doesn't understand what, exactly, Conner was referring to. However, Krypto knows, and he digs up the healing chamber that currently holds Conner's corpse, undergoing its thousand-year recovery regiment. Krypto pulls the corpse out of the pod and the Black Lantern ring becomes confused.

Luckily, everything goes according to plan and the ring eventually flies off Conner's finger and heads toward the corpse, which Krypto keenly keeps away from the ring. Conner realizes he can't let the ring actually attach itself to the corpse, because then he wouldn't be able to destroy it without killing himself. So once he regains control of his body, he hits the ring with a blast of freeze breath while it's still in midair. Cassie scoops up the frozen ring and tosses it into space, hoping it'll stay frozen forever up there. (Remarkably, the ice did not melt on its path out of Earth's atmosphere.)

Conner and Cassie put his corpse back in the chamber so history can resume like normal and he can be revived in the future. Conner explains that he actually has Luthor to thank for giving him experience fighting off mind control, as well as Raven's subsequent trainings, otherwise he never would have been able to resist the Black Lantern. He then leads Wonder Girl and Krypto back to Coast City, where the Black Lantern Kid Flash is still running amok and none of our heroes have become Lantern deputies yet.




Bart only appeared in the background of a couple of panels in this issue, but it still was nice to see what his best friends were up to during this time. And it was especially nice to see the condition of an imprisoned soul in a Black Lantern body. I wish we could have received a similarly emotional story about Bart, but the only person writing Bart's story is Geoff Johns, and I don't think he's ever spent more than two seconds trying to get into Bart's head. Anyway, I thought this was a solid and fairly logical story. Granted, the pervading "logic" of these Black Lantern rings has always been a bit tenuous, but this story made enough sense for me. Now let's check out the new ads:

Perfect rebound. got milk? with Chauncey Billups. I know "rebound" is a basketball term, but Billups played point guard and was not a strong rebounder. In the 2009-10 season, Billups averaged 19.5 points, 5.6 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game for the Denver Nuggets, while reaching the All-Star team for the final time in his career.

EverQuest II: Sentinel's Fate.

Human Target. A brand-new six-issue limited series inspired by the Fox TV show.

Dante's Inferno. Go to Hell.

A four-page black-and-white preview of First Wave, a six-issue limited series about Batman, Doc Savage and the Spirit.

The DC Nation page shows the black-and-white versions of the covers to the Return of Bruce Wayne.

Supreme Commander 2.

Halo Legends on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Next time, we'll see how Bart gets that Black Lantern ring off his finger in Blackest Night: The Flash #3.

Blackest Night: The Flash #2

Chapter Two

Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Scott Kolins
Color: Michael Atiyeh
Cover: Kolins & Atiyeh
Variant Cover: Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Letters: Travis Lanham
Editor: Adam Schlagman

Our main cover shows Captain Cold being chased by the Black Lantern versions of the deceased, original Rogues. The Rogues are essentially a family, and it's a bit sad to see how many of them have died over the years. Which means, of course, that Leonard Snart has lots of zombified friends and family who want to pay him a visit. I'm not a fan of Kolins, so I don't care too much about this cover, but I am happy it shows a direct scene from the story inside.

I happen to own the variant cover, which takes a more symbolic interpretation of the other story in this issue — Barry and Wally fighting for Bart's soul. Our speedsters are placed in a skull being eaten by maggots, which is grotesque and horrifying. But I applaud Manapul for finding a new way to convey the death and destruction of Blackest Night without resorting to the usual black-and-white images that have dominated the covers of this series.

Our story picks up with the Rogues breaking into Iron Heights to take the fight directly to the Black Lanterns. However, the prison is ominously deserted. They eventually come across a guard, bloodied and screaming that "some of them are still alive." Captain Cold freezes the guard and cautiously leads his team into the trap. After some glimpses of the original Mirror Master, the living Rogues soon come face to face with the zombie Captain Boomerang, followed by the Black Lantern versions of the Golden Glider, the Trickster, the Top and Rainbow Raider.

We then cut to the ending of Blackest Night #6 with Barry Allen being deputized as a Blue Lantern. As the ring tells Barry of the great hope he has demonstrated, we're treated to a quick flashback of Barry leading Wally and Bart in an attempt to free the Guardians of the Universe and Bart unfortunately turning into a Black Lantern. Barry gladly accepts the call to the Blue Lantern Corps, saying he's spent the last 48 hours trying to bury his emotions. That tactic protected him from the Black Lanterns, but didn't help him make any progress otherwise. Now he can finally embrace the hope in his heart.

The resident Blue Lantern, Saint Walker, teaches Barry how to use his new powers, explaining that he will be able to sense where he's needed if he relies on his spirit instead of his eyes. So Barry closes his eyes and immediately sees Bart is dying, but there's still hope. So Barry starts heading toward Bart, but is attacked by the Zombie Firestorm. Barry and Saint Walker try to pull the living Jason out of Ronnie's dead body, but before they can succeed, Black Lantern Bart pushes the Blue Lanterns back with a whirlwind.

Bart grabs Barry's hand, saying he should be wearing a black ring. Barry pushes Bart off him with a blast of blue energy and his new catchphrase: "All will be well." Barry then shoves Bart up against a tree, saying he knows Bart is still alive in there. But Bart kicks his grandpa away, insisting that he wasn't supposed to return. Barry's ring almost seems to act on its own, as it creates two blue images from Bart's past — Impulse and Kid Flash (but not the Flash, because DC is doing everything it can to ignore that period). Bart tries to run away from these projections, all while chiding Barry for delaying the inevitability of death.

Saint Walker admits that everyone will eventually die, but points out that no one should forfeit their life before their time. He then encourages Barry to stop struggling and hold onto his hope. The blue Impulse and Kid Flash eventually catch up to Bart and try to take off his black ring. But Bart chooses to mock Barry for becoming a light that the Black Lanterns can see from across the world.

The Black Lantern Eobard Thawne finally catches back up with Barry, boasting of his lifelong mission to rip Barry's hope away. He attacks Saint Walker, and Barry moves quickly to protect his new mentor, but this causes his Impulse and Kid Flash projections to fade away. Bart urges Thawne to go after the "old man," and Thawne obediently moves in on Barry, saying he now wants his greatest rival to hope.

Wally arrives in the nick of time and shoves a vibrating fist through Thawne's chest, causing the zombie to explode in a hundred pieces. Saint Walker places blue energy bubbles around these different pieces of Thawne to prevent him from reforming, and Wally places Bart in a headlock, while Barry explains the time-traveling nature the dead and alive Thawnes. When Wally asks about Barry's blue uniform, Bart calls it a beacon, saying the Reverse-Flash wasn't the only one to follow Barry's footsteps here. Right on cue, the Black Lantern Solovar shows up.

Solovar hits Barry, Wally and Saint Walker with a powerful psychic attack that causes Walker to lose control of his blue bubbles. Eobard quickly reforms and joins Solovar and Bart in looming over our three heroes. But while Solovar's body acts on its own, the real Solovar inside continues to cry out to Barry, begging for Barry to help him like he'll help Bart.

Back in Iron Heights, Golden Glider attacks her brother, reminding him of their tragic upbringing. And for a moment, Leonard Snart allows his heart to feel a bit of love. The original Trickster is chasing Axel around, while the two Mirror Masters are locked in a bizarre Mirror World battle. Heat Wave takes on Rainbow Raider, while Weather Wizard fights the Top.

Golden Glider sees the glimmer of love in Snart's heart, and she tries to get him to feel the emotion stronger to allow her to take it. But Captain Cold quickly shuts down his emotions and regains control of the fight. He freezes his undead sister and shatters her into a thousand pieces before turning to help his teammates. Surprisingly, the Top has defeated Weather Wizard, and Captain Boomerang is preparing to extract Mark Mardon's heart. But before Snart can attack Digger Harkness, Owen Mercer shows up, begging Captain Cold to not hurt his father. Cold explains that this walking bag of bones isn't actually Owen's dad, but Owen refuses to listen and rushes his father away from the prison, promising to bring him back.




This wasn't a bad comic, but it's still lacking the emotional impact with Bart that I'm craving. This is a Barry story, and Barry knows nothing about Bart. Plus, Flash: Rebirth isn't done yet, so we can't really get too deep into the speedsters' relationships. And, as always, we have to remember that Geoff Johns never really cared about Bart, or much about Wally, for that matter. So all the potential heart-wrenching moments we could have had between Bart and Wally — heck, even Max Mercury — completely went to waste. Black Lantern Bart didn't get to say or do anything of particular interest, and that's a shame.

Next time, we'll take a quick look at Justice League of America #41.

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.

Green Lantern #49

Tales of the Black Lantern Corps: The Birth of Nekron

Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Jerry Ordway
Color: Hi-Fi
Letters: Rob Leigh
Assoc. Editor: Adam Schlagman
Editor: Eddie Berganza

Our main cover by Ed Benes shows John Stewart drowning in a sea of bones and corpses. These aren't Black Lantern zombies —they're just skeletons, pure death. It's a pretty creepy, grotesque cover.

Our variant cover by Rodolfo Migliari shows a scene from this issue — John falling back on his old Army skills to battle the Black Lanterns. But while he sets up a sniper shot, a handful of zombies sneak up behind him. It's a rather interesting concept, but one we won't get into today. These covers show images from the main story, but Black Lantern Kid Flash only makes his cameo in the backup story.

Our story picks up with the Zombie Jean Loring dragging Mera and the Atom into a Black Lantern ring. Jean sees the compassion in Ray's heart, but instead of trying to rip his heart out, Jean has chosen to try to educate Ray and turn his compassion toward the Black Lanterns. As our trio continues to shrink inside the molecules of the ring, they reach a point where Jean is somehow able to show Mera and Ray visual aids to accompany her lesson.

Jean explains that darkness existed before light and life. She claims the Guardians of the Universe waged war against the universe, not for it. So in response to this threat, the darkness spent eons creating its own guardian — Nekron. Jean says Nekron isn't death, but peace. She says if she understood this truth when she was alive, she wouldn't have killed Sue Dibny, but instead would have killed Ray to grant him the gift of death. Jean adds that both Ray and Mera are special, and would have been saved by Nekron had they died, like many other heroes. She then shows Ray and Mera how the Zombie Batman spat out a bunch of Black Lantern rings that turned those heroes into Black Lanterns.

Jean says Nekron is now using those heroes to destroy the light and return the universe to its rightful tenants. As she boasts that no one is going to stop them, Deadman sneaks into the ring to save our heroes.




I really don't understand the point of this side story. It really didn't teach us anything new, and it kind of contradicted the main purpose of the Black Lanterns. Yes, these zombies do like to try to manipulate their targets a bit, but ultimately, all they want to do is spark a strong emotion in their hearts, which they then remove to convert the target into another drone in their army. So it doesn't make any sense for Jean to refuse to do that when Ray is so full of compassion right now. Basically, what this side story boils down to is a lazy excuse by Geoff Johns to get Ray and Mera from Point A to Point B, as we'll see next time in Blackest Night #6.

Blackest Night: The Flash #1

Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Scott Kolins
Color: Michael Atiyeh
Cover: Kolins w/Atiyeh
Variant Cover: Francis Manapul w/Brian Buccellato
Letters: Travis Lanham
Editor: Adam Schlagman

Our main cover is playing off Ethan Van Sciver's exceedingly boring cover of Flash putting on his boot for The Flash: Rebirth #1 — a series that hasn't ended yet. At first glance, one might think that this is an image of Barry becoming a Black Lantern. But when you compare the two covers, you'll see this is a reverse image of Rebirth, meaning, of course, that this is the Reverse-Flash, Eobard Thawne. Sadly, this raises some questions that would have been answered had a certain artist met his deadlines.

I got this image of the variant cover from dc.fandom.com. It shows Barry fighting Nekron, which does not happen in this issue. I absolutely love Manapul's take on Barry Allen, and it is nice to have a bright red cover amid all this Blackest Night stuff. I do have to say that Nekron looks quite generic and not nearly as scary as he should be.

This story takes place during Blackest Night #4, picking up with Barry running around the country, warning everyone about the Black Lanterns. We're given a quick glimpse of Avernus, the hidden graveyard of the Rogues in Central City, where we see some mild graffiti adorning the grave of the Reverse-Flash. In Keystone City, Wally hears Barry's words and promptly kisses Linda goodbye, telling her to keep the TV and computers off, since he doesn't want Irey getting involved. At the Rogues' safehouse in Central City, Captain Cold, Weather Wizard, Heat Wave, Mirror Master and Trickster somehow hear Barry's words, as well. Captain Cold believes keeping his emotions in check won't be a problem for him.

As Barry runs, he reminisces on his own death and rebirth, accompanied by the ensuing fight with Eobard. This part gets a little awkward, since the conclusion of that fight has not yet been published. But Barry does note that Eobard's body is currently resting in a grave, while the Eobard he fought in Rebirth was from the future, saying he recently had a resurrection of his own. And now that Barry is witnessing fallen heroes and villains coming back to life, he wonders if this very event is what Eobard was mentioning.

Back in Avernus, we see Bart's half-brother, Owen, teaming up with Tar Pit to search for his father, the original Captain Boomerang. Owen actually put some thought into choosing Tar Pit as his companion. Owen knows the Black Lanterns are after people's hearts, and he knows that Tar Pit literally doesn't have a heart — he's just animated burning asphalt — so that should keep him safe. As they examine the torn-open graves of Avernus, they see one more Black Lantern ring fly down into the Reverse-Flash's grave, commanding Eobard Thawne of Earth to rise.

We then get our one and only glimpse of Bart in this issue, heading out with the Titans, asking his grandpa where they should go. Barry gives the vague answer of "wherever there's trouble," just like we saw in Blackest Night #4. But then we see some new things that happened between this moment and the end of that issue. Wally tries to tell Barry something about his old gorilla friend, Solovar, but Barry's suddenly approached by the zombie Eobard, who falsely proclaims himself the new Black Flash. Barry recognizes this isn't the real Eobard, just his animated corpse, and he manages to keep his emotions under control. Zombie Eobard lunges at Barry, but he dodges the attack at the last second, gets behind Eobard, and throws him up into the sky at super speed. Barry immediately takes off toward Gorilla City, estimating he'll be 500 miles away before Zombie Eobard hits the ground.

Barry is horrified to see ruin and destruction at Gorilla City, with dead apes lying in the streets. As he searches for the cause of this chaos, he stumbles across the odd cave paintings we saw during Rebirth. Barry recognizes this as basically a diagram of the Speed Force, and he begins to wonder how Gorilla City is connected to the Speed Force. For some reason, this thought fills Barry with hope, which then attracts the Zombie Solovar. Barry's hope is immediately replaced by rage when he sees what's become of his old friend.

The Rogues, meanwhile, learn of a bunch of Black Lanterns attacking Iron Heights Penitentiary. They document the return of the first Mirror Master, the first Trickster, the Top, Captain Boomerang and Golden Glider. Captain Cold says it's only a matter of time before those zombies start hunting them down, so he orders his team to take the fight directly to the Black Lanterns.

As Barry fights Zombie Solovar, he notices that the real Solovar is also fighting from the inside, begging Barry to help him. So Barry rips off Solovar's ring and rushes it far away from Gorilla City. But as he runs, the ring begins regenerating Solovar right there. Solovar again begs for help, but Barry sadly has to tell his friend he doesn't know how to. So Barry ditches Solovar and the ring, and heads back to the U.S., where he somehow learns that the Black Lantern power level has reached 100%. Barry finds himself in Coast City, and he calls Wally and Bart to him.




This wasn't a bad issue. I often have mixed feelings about these issues that take place in-between pages of another issue, as that potentially opens the door for a lot of continuity problems. But in this case, everything seems fine. The Flash is fast enough to have a couple of quick adventures on the side without disrupting anything else. Mostly, though, this issue was a nice way to catch up with the extended Flash family ... well, sort of. It's easy enough to show us what the Rogues are up to, but as for everyone else? Well, Geoff Johns is kind of stuck in limbo right now. Flash: Rebirth needs to end before any new stories can be told about Wally, Bart, Max and Jesse. But since Rebirth has been delayed yet again, Wally is confined to two quick panels, and Max and Jesse are not even mentioned. DC also couldn't even start a new monthly Flash series, all because of Rebirth. It's kind of amazing to see how large of an impact one man had on the entire company just because he couldn't keep his deadlines. Granted, part of the blame falls on the editors' heads. They should have demanded to bring in some additional artists to get the story out on time. Waiting for George Pérez is worth it. Waiting for Ethan Van Sciver is not.

We don't have any new ads with this issue, but we do have a new DC Nation page by Paul Levitz, talking about his upcoming run with the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Next time, we'll get one more quick cameo of Bart in Green Lantern #49.

Teen Titans #78

Tortured Souls

Writer: J.T. Krul
Pencils: Joe Bennett
Inks: Jack Jadson & Ruy Jose
Colors: Rod Reis & Peter Pantazis
Letters: Sal Cipriano
Cover by Bennett, Jadson & Reis
Asst. Editor: Rex Ogle
Editor: Brian Cunningham
With special thanks to Geoff Johns

Our cover shows Ravager and her dad, Deathstroke, joining forces to take down a mostly unseen army of Black Lantern zombies. I've always felt it was weird that Rose Wilson supposedly hates her dad so much, yet continues to dress exactly like him. Anyway, this is a fine cover, but it does reveal something I can't stand about Bennett's work. He insists on giving Ravager an extremely pointy nose on her mask. It's even worse inside this issue, and it's very distracting.

Our story features a lot of fighting and a lot of complicated Wilson family drama. For our purposes, all that matters is that Jericho and Ravager have joined Deathstroke in fighting off the Black Lantern versions of their deceased friends and family. But after fighting these regenerating zombies for so long, Jericho finally decides he needs to try something new. He jumps into the body of his zombie mom, which gives him a glimpse of what the other Black Lanterns are doing at this moment — notably, Dove is fighting the zombie Hawk, the zombie Terra is tormenting Beast Boy, and Wonder Girl and Kid Flash are trying to help the recently bitten Donna Troy. In other words, everything that happened in the Blackest Night: Titans miniseries.

Joey manages to take control of his zombie mom and fight off the other zombies long enough for Rose and Slade to exit Slade's house. Once they're clear, Joey hits the self-destruct button, destroying the entire house. Of course, this still doesn't kill the zombies. They are drawn to Joey's willpower and attempt to remove his heart — even though he's in his zombie mom's body. Joey jumps out of that body at the last second, and notices that the other Black Lanterns actually destroyed his zombie mom, permanently severing her connection to the Black Lantern ring. So Joey begins hopping back and forth between the rest of the zombies, tricking them into destroying each other.




This was an OK issue. Lots of family drama I don't care about. Lots of gun shooting and sword slashing and wondering "Why isn't this working?" And I guess Jericho's solution almost makes sense, based on the Black Lantern logic we've seen so far. Powerful attacks of light and the emotion of peace can destroy them. But I guess having another Black Lantern pull out a Black Lantern's heart works. I don't know, I don't care that much. Let's check out the new ads:

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A new era begins. Outsiders by Dan DiDio and Philip Tan.

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The DC Nation page is just the cover of Blackest Night #6.

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Next time, we'll begin another miniseries, Blackest Night: The Flash.

Adventure Comics #5

He Primed Me Part Two: Flame War

Geoff Johns and Sterling Gates – Writers
Jerry Ordway – Penciller
Bob Wiacek and Jerry Ordway – Inkers
Ken Lopez – Letterer
Brian Buccellato – Colorist
Jerry Ordway, Francis Manapul, and Brian Buccellato – Covers
Sean Ayan – Editor

Our main cover is a twist on George Pérez's famous image from Crisis on Infinite Earths of Superman holding the dead Supergirl in his arms. But this time, it's Alexander Luthor holding Superboy-Prime. And Alexander is actually the dead one — not Prime. It's a pretty fun cover, and another indication of just how deep and far the Blackest Night event reaches. Even on Earth-Prime, the place without any superheroes, is affected by the resurrection of heroes and villains.

I got this variant cover from dc.fandom.com. I love Manapul's take on Superboy-Prime as a Red Lantern. And all the side images are nice, too, but I'm still not a fan of these disjointed "panel" covers.

Our story picks up with the Black Lantern Alexander Luthor leading a group of Black Lantern versions of many of the people Superboy-Prime killed. Alexander has somehow restored Prime's Anti-Monitor armor because he wants him as powerful and, more importantly, as emotional, as possible. The fight has carried over to Manhattan, as Prime has realized that even with his great strength, he can't actually kill these zombies. But he does know who can actually stop these creatures — the writers and editors at DC Comics.

So Superboy-Prime flies through the DC offices, terrorizing all the real people in charge of the company, such as Dan DiDio, Eddie Berganza and many more. But before Prime is able to actually kill any of them, Alexander teleports Prime and the rest of the Black Lanterns back to Prime's basement. Alexander points out Prime's large comic book collection, saying most people find hope and inspiration from these books, but for Prime, these books are his kryptonite, as they only fill him with rage. Alexander then brings up Prime's girlfriend, Laurie, insinuating that Prime had killed her when he lost control.

The Black Lanterns finally pin Prime down and begin removing his armor to get to his heart. Prime notices a Black Lantern ring buzzing around him, just waiting for him to die. He then concludes that since he can't beat the Black Lanterns, he might as well join them. But instead of allowing the zombies to rip out his heart, Prime shoves them all off him, grabs the ring and puts it on his finger.

The ring commands Clark Kent of Earth-Prime to die, and momentarily turns him into a Black Lantern. But Prime resists, and sensing his great willpower, the ring actually turns into a Green Lantern ring. But then it quickly turns indigo, picking up on Prime's compassion, as he genuinely regrets what he did to Laurie. But Prime also wants everyone to love him, so the ring becomes orange for avarice. It then immediately turns yellow for fear, seeing all the heroes Prime once admired but now fears. The ring even creates yellow images of Superman, some of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Flash, and, of course, Bart Allen.

The ring then settles on the color red for Superboy-Prime's intense rage. And the ring realizes the thing Prime hates the most in the world is himself and what he's become. Prime lashes out at the Black Lanterns with his Red Lantern powers. But the ring makes one last change to purple for love, as Prime's thoughts return to his dead girlfriend. He creates an explosion of purple energy that finally destroys all the Black Lanterns once and for all (including half his stuff in the basement).

Prime collapses to the ground, as the ring tries to simultaneously return to all those different colors, but ultimately breaks apart. Prime begins to cry, wishing he could be given a happy ending. Suddenly, Laurie comes running down the basement stairs. She's not dead, although her arm is in a sling. She tells Clark that "they" heard him and are sorry, so they sent her back to make sure Clark isn't alone. As Clark embraces Laurie, we see a Black Lantern ring on Laurie's hand identifying the emotion of hope in Clark.




This was a fun, wild comic. I always feel like I enjoy Superboy-Prime stories much more than I should. And that's probably because I've dealt with far too many comic book "fans" who act too much like Prime. When you think about it, this story doesn't make much sense, but it doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, either. Besides, Prime has always kind of been the exception to the rule, so it's sort of understandable how the Black Lantern ring would react so differently to him. Prime's greatest weakness has always been that he's too emotional. Period. He's incredibly cowardly, angry and selfish. And below that, is the powerful belief that he was, is and should be a good guy. And so you get this strange mix of powerful emotions that Prime, and a power ring, can't control. So even though this story doesn't make much sense, there is a certain amount of logic behind it.

Superboy was relegated to the backup feature of this issue, and it's a little awkward since that story takes place before Blackest Night began. I know DC had a big problem with publishing stories out of order at this time, but to have this problem blatantly on display within the same issue is taking the cake. Well, let's check out the new ads:

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Heroic Holiday Gift Guide 2009. dcholidaysweeps.com.

See it first on BBC America. Doctor Who.

The DC Nation page just shows some pictures of staffers at a Halloween party.

Make your first impression their last! Dragon Ball Raging Blast on PS3 and Xbox 360.

I just dropped by to say die. Bayonetta on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Next time, we'll take a quick look at Deathstroke and his messed up family in Teen Titans #78.

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.