Year in Review: 2009

In 2009, I was attending college full-time, living on my own just off campus. I wanted to get into comics, but I didn't have enough money, so I mostly just started collecting the major trade paperbacks. Or just reading them in the library. In fact, in a couple of years, I would read Legion of 3 Worlds for the first time in my university's library. I didn't understand it, but I was enthralled by it.

Although 2008 was a huge year for superhero films, 2009 was incredibly quiet. Almost like the calm before the storm. Marvel's only offering was X-Men Origins: Wolverine and DC's sole venture was Watchmen. I think the kindest thing to say about both those movies was that they each had mixed reviews. Elsewhere, the box office was absolutely dominated by Avatar, which pulled in $2.7 billion. And 10 years later, we're still waiting on that promised sequel. But just to show how far ahead Avatar was over everything else, the second-highest grossing film of the year, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, earned only $934 million. Despite Avatar's financial dominance, it was The Hurt Locker that came away with the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

And how did our little boy Bart do in 2009? Quite well, actually, considering he was literally brought back to life! Of course, it was kind of strange how he died as a 20-year-old but came back as a 16-year-old, but hey, nobody really liked Bart as the Flash anyway, right? And the important thing is Bart is back! (Even if he has to be Kid Flash again.) Bart was brought back during Legion of 3 Worlds, and before that miniseries ended, he was thrown into Flash: Rebirth. But before that ended, Bart was thrown into another, even larger event, Blackest Night. So it was a pretty wild, busy year for Bart, that unfortunately was hampered by some continuity issues. I guess it's also worth mentioning that in 2009, Impulse also made his smallest, least-memorable cameo on the Smallville TV show.

Best Issue: Final Crisis: Legions of 3 Worlds #4

Bart technically came back to life in the third issue of this miniseries, but that was only on the last page. In issue #4, he was fully back, immediately cracking jokes, reuniting with his cousin, XS, and, most importantly, terrorizing Superboy-Prime. Bart never could actually defeat Prime by himself, but he can get under Prime's skin like no one else. It was a pure delight watching Bart help turn the tide of the battle against one of the most powerful villains of all time. And, to make this issue even more special, Bart was able to witness the resurrection of one of his best friends, Superboy.

Best Writer: Geoff Johns

This is the fifth award for Johns on this blog, passing Mark Waid for most all time. And, as is often the case with Johns, he basically won this award by default. He wrote almost every comic Bart appeared in, from Legion of 3 Worlds to Flash: Rebirth to Blackest Night. That was all Johns, and no one else came close to matching that significance for this character. Of course, I'll always be frustrated with Johns demanding that Bart is only a valid character as Kid Flash. And Johns' artificial boosting of Barry Allen to make him by far the most important Flash ever. But ... I do need to give Johns credit for bringing Bart back in the first place. If it weren't for him, it's likely Bart could have stayed dead for a long time.

Best Artist: George Pérez

How can I not give this award to the man who drew Bart's glorious return? Pérez is a living legend, and it was honor for him to be the artist for this incredibly significant moment in Bart's history. Yes, Pérez did take his time on Legion of 3 Worlds, but the end result was well worth the wait. He crafted a beautiful, amazing story involving hundreds of characters. Each page was a loving tribute to the history of the Legion and comics as a whole. And that's probably the biggest thing that sets him apart from Ethan Van Sciver. I felt so much joy from Pérez's art, but from Van Sciver, I only felt anger.

Best Supporting Character: Brainiac 5

Brainy nabs this award for the second straight year, solely because he was the one who brought Bart back to life. And that's a feat that cannot be topped. Yes, Bart did have some fun with Superboy and XS this year, but nobody can match the contribution of Brainiac 5. But it wasn't just that he brought Bart back, it was the how and the why that testified to his true genius. Upon learning of the vision of Superboy-Prime defeating the Legion, Brainy immediately began working to combat this threat from every possible angle, including psychological. And that's where Bart came in. Brainy had to do quite a bit of planning and behind-the-scenes work to pull it off, and it all came together perfectly. A wonderful hero was brought back to life and a horrible villain was defeated.

Best Villain: Superboy-Prime

And that horrible villain, Prime, earns this award for the second time. Eobard Thawne is causing trouble in Flash: Rebirth, and Black Hand is making a mess of things in Blackest Night, but neither of those had the emotional connection to Bart like Prime does. I mean, just think about it: Bart was literally brought back to life just to battle Superboy-Prime. You can't get any more significant than that. And I've always been a fan of the special place Bart has in Prime's heart. He is legitimately terrified of Bart. When Prime heard Bart's coming back, he completely freaked out and immediately dropped everything he was doing to try to prevent this. Luckily, Superboy-Prime was too late.

Next time, we'll begin the year 2010, which will feature lots of Blackest Night, Bart's official return to the Teen Titans and a couple more appearances on Smallville. But everything starts with our return to The Flash: Rebirth #5.

Blackest Night #4

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 features some of the villains who have been revived, giving an unusual amount of focus to Copperhead. I admit he is rather intimidating looking, but he really doesn't play a big part in this story. In fact, he really only shows up in the background of some big group shots. I also have to complain about the design for the revived Maxwell Lord. For some reason, DC decided he needs a length of rope around his neck, even though he was quite famously killed by Wonder Woman with her bare hands. There was no rope around his neck when he died, so why does he have one now? And this isn't just on the cover — Lord has that rope on all the inside pages of every Blackest Night issue he appears in.

The black-and-white cover surprised me with the amount of flat pencil shading shading Reis did. You actually have to concentrate really hard to tell what's what on this cover, making me appreciate the inking of Albert and coloring of Sinclair much more. Of course, the true horror element comes through even more when you take away the inking and coloring. When you see the final cover, you say, "Oh, that's Copperhead. He's not a big deal." But when you strip it down to just the pencils, you're treated to an almost abstract image of claws, teeth and fangs.

Our alternate cover shows the revived original Atom, Al Pratt, attempting to devour the second Atom, Ray Palmer. This is a striking, realistic image that could pass as a movie poster. And it features a fairly important moment of this story.

Our story begins with Black Hand roaming the Coast City cemetery, muttering about the Blackest Night's eventual triumph over light, while the Black Lantern rings report power levels above 93 percent and continuing to climb. Meanwhile, Barry Allen, Mera and the Atom are battling a handful of zombie Black Lanterns at the headquarters of the Justice League of America in Washington, D.C. The handful of zombies quickly grows into a small army of revived villains, including Doctor Light, and some fallen heroes, including Firestorm. Sadly, half of Firestorm is still alive, but he's only able to take control of his body long enough to warn the living heroes to evacuate Earth.

The zombie Aquaman also shows up, and Barry prevents Mera from interacting with him by pushing all the zombies away with a whirlwind. The Atom then dials 911 on a phone and pulls Barry and Mera with him through the phone line and into the 911 call center.

In Gotham City, the Scarecrow finds himself envious of all the fear people are feeling at the sight of these zombies. The zombie Azrael approaches Scarecrow directly, but he says he's used his fear toxin too many times, and now nothing frightens him anymore. Since he's not feeling any strong emotions, the zombie Azrael can't hurt him and just walks away, killing more innocent bystanders to bring the Black Lantern power levels past 95 percent.

In Metropolis, Lex Luthor acknowledges that he has killed quite a few people over the years. And now that the dead are rising, he wisely sees that he would be a prime target for his many victims. So he secludes himself deep within his laboratory, behind many levels of security.

Back in the 911 call center, Barry takes charge, telling the phone operators to tell the public to stay indoors and to keep calm — the Justice League is on this. Since the Green Lanterns have gone off world in search of the source of the Black Lanterns' power, Barry says it's up to the rest of Earth's heroes to "hold the fort" until the Green Lanterns return. He tells Ray and Mera to find the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, to see if his powers can stop the zombies and if he or anyone else could possibly help poor Firestorm.

Mera and Ray are both feeling a lot of doubt in themselves, saying this is a job for Superman and Wonder Woman. Barry says the two of them know more about this threat than anyone else right now, so they're going to have to act in place of Superman and Wonder Woman. Barry relates to Mera's feelings of being an outsider, and he boosts Ray's confidence by pointing out that even though he ran away to the subatomic universe, he did choose to come back because he's a hero. So Barry sends them on their mission, while he goes off to play "Paul Revere" and rally the rest of the heroes around the country. Once Barry takes off, Mera asks Ray, if they're supposed to be Superman and Wonder Woman, then who's Barry supposed to be. And in a moment of pure Geoff Johns fanboy, Ray answers simply, "The Flash."

Ray calls Mr. Terrific and drags Mera through the phone line in one of Mr. Terrific's T-spheres. They emerge in Manhattan, where the JSA are battling a handful of zombies. Meanwhile, Barry begins visiting a bunch of heroes including Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and Kid Flash (as we saw in Blackest Night: Titans #3). Barry tells them all that black rings have descended on Earth, raising their family and friends from the dead. He clarifies that these zombies are not the real people brought back, and that they're not entirely unstoppable. He tells them of the Green Lanterns' plan, saying it's up to them to protect Earth until then. Barry warns everyone to keep their emotions in check, as the Black Lanterns are attracted to strong outbursts of positive or negative emotion. He also theorizes that the Black Lanterns can be weakened by attacks of light.

Unfortunately, Barry didn't stick around long enough for Bart to tell him what the Titans have learned about Dove. But Bart (and Wally) do ask Barry where they should go. Unfortunately, Barry is only able to vaguely tell them to go "wherever there's trouble." Meanwhile, Black Hand is still muttering about the destruction of light in the Coast City cemetery, talking to a skull in his hand — presumably the skull of Bruce Wayne. As he reaches a sinister-looking door marked with the Black Lantern symbol, the Black Lantern power levels pass 97 percent.

The Atom has finally got in touch with Alan Scott, who regretfully explains that his Green Lantern ring is nothing like the Green Lantern Corps rings, connected to a power source on Oa. Alan is able to push the zombies back, but he can't actually destroy them. Bart's old friend Damage begins to despair at this, so Ray hops on Grant's shoulder and encourages him to shed his fear. Through his little pep talk, we learn that Grant is the son of the original Atom, Al Pratt, who just so happens to be here as a zombie Black Lantern.

Fearing the effect Al will have on Grant, Ray shrinks down inside Al and regrows to normal size, grotesquely tearing the zombie apart from the inside out. Ray encourages Grant to join him in beating down the zombies over and over again until it's over for the sake of the world. At this display of courage, Grant's rage, fear and love are replaced with a single emotion — hope. Unfortunately, this makes Damage a prime target for the Black Lanterns, and his heart is ripped out by none other than Jean Loring, Ray's ex-wife. And Damage's heart is the lucky one that puts the Black Lantern power levels at 100 percent.

Somehow, someway, Barry is able to sense this monumental moment, and he's drawn to Coast City. Black Hand has used the fully charged Black Lantern to transport it and the captive Guardians from Space Sector 666 to the Coast City cemetery. Once it's in place, Black Hand commands Nekron to rise, followed by the rest of Coast City. Barry helplessly watches as thousands of rings dive into the graves of the cemetery, raising an entire army of the dead, lead by Nekron, a man with a chain around his neck and a very large scythe in his hand. Nekron quickly spots Barry and says, "Barry Allen. You owe me your life. You all do."




This is still a pretty good story. The most haunting aspect here was the death of Damage. Because he and Atom were punished for doing everything right. In so many stories, a younger hero is angry and scared, but a mentor gives an inspiring speech, which fills the young one with enough confidence to go off and save the day. But in this story, feeling too much hope is a bad thing and a fatal weakness. Kind of horrific, mind-blowing stuff.

Blackest Night is ostensibly a Green Lantern story, but Johns wisely kept the Green Lanterns away for this entire issue, forcing a rather random grouping of heroes to deal with this threat. Well, Mera and Atom were random, but Barry Allen wasn't. Johns could have used virtually anybody to fill that role, but I feel like he chose Barry to show him off and almost justify bringing him back. The Flash: Rebirth still isn't done, but Johns has already put Barry front and center in a massive DC-wide event, elevating him to almost mythical proportions in terms of inspiration and leadership. It's a little frustrating, seeing as how Wally or almost anybody else could just as easily fill this role. It's also a bit strange, considering how Barry's personality here is so much different from the angry, whiny Barry we've seen in Rebirth so far. But I guess that last problem is entirely Ethan Van Sciver's fault for missing his deadlines.

Well, that's it for comics with a publication date of 2009. Next time, we'll do our Year in Review, before finally returning to Flash: Rebirth.

Blackest Night: Titans #3

"When Doves Cry"

Writer: JT Krul
Art: Ed Benes
Color: Hi-Fi Design
Letter: Rob Clark Jr.
Cover: Ed Benes, Rob Hunter & Rod Reis
Variant Cover: George Pérez
Asst. Editor: Rex Ogle
Assoc. Editor: Adam Schlagman
Editors: Brian Cunningham & Eddie Berganza

Our main cover shows a frightened, beat-up Dove surrounded by a handful of Black Lantern zombies. It's not a particularly original pose, but it is effective. And as we'll see inside, this confrontation is the key of the whole miniseries.

I got this image of the variant cover from dc.fandom.com. It is fitting that George Pérez was brought in to draw the zombie versions of so many of the characters that he and Marv Wolfman either created or popularized. Of course, Phantasm doesn't actually appear in this issue, but who's counting?

Our story begins with Donna Troy continuing to wrestle with the happy memories of her family against the horrific sight of her deceased husband and son attacking her as zombies. Donna (still in her pajamas) is still buried in the Titans Tower with Wonder Girl and Kid Flash. And although our heroes have been cautious to not move too much to worsen the cave-in, the zombie Terry and baby Robby have shown no such caution and are fast approaching.

Donna tells Bart to get her costume so she can fight the zombies. Cassie tells Donna she shouldn't fight because she's injured, but Donna insists that this is one battle she has to fight.

Outside, Beast Boy finally frees Cyborg and Starfire from Omen's illusions by turning into a stegosaurus and smacking both Omen and Terra. Beast Boy quickly alerts his friends to the new Black Lantern zombies, and they immediately begin battling Pantha, Wildebeest, Tempest, Aquagirl and Dolphin. But Beast Boy still has a hard time fighting Terra, who tries once again to remove his heart, seeing the fear and love in it.

Suddenly, Donna punches her zombie husband up out of the ground. Bart and Cassie emerge right behind her, with Bart noting the death of Garth and worrying who else has been killed by the Black Lanterns. Donna finally manages to put aside all her conflicting memories and the manipulative words of the zombies and run her fist through Terry's chest before grabbing baby Robby and tearfully snapping his neck.

Perhaps inspired by this, Beast Boy launches an all-out attack on Terra, hitting her as a cheetah, lion and bear. He says he realizes this zombie isn't the real Terra, but he also finally admits that deep down, he always knew the real Terra was a traitor. Seeing Gar's heart consumed by rage, the zombie Terra mockingly says he's still in love with her. Beast Boy says he knows, as he rips Terra in half.

The zombie Garth attacks Bart with a shower of ice shards, saying this should remind him of the icy chill of being beaten to death by the Rogues. Garth also notes that Bart should have stayed dead, but "he" wanted Bart back. And then Dove comes out of nowhere to attack Garth (don't ask me how she went from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., and back so quickly).

Omen haunts Cassie with images of Robin and Superboy fighting for her love, but Donna quickly saves her by snapping Omen's neck. But to Donna's horror, the zombies Terry and Robby have quickly reformed. Dove is also heartbroken by this sight, and collapses to her knees in despair, saying the zombies can't be stopped. The zombie Holly attacks Dove, and tries to remove her heart. But the Black Lantern can't identify the white emotion in Dove. And as Holly touches Dove, the zombie begins shrieking in pain. The Black Lantern ring says "connection severed," and soon all that's left of Holly is a smoking pile of dust.

All the other zombies suddenly stop fighting our heroes and immediately head toward Dove, identifying her as their only true threat. Dove quickly begins to figure out what's going on, and she advises the Titans to stay away. As the zombies close in on her, she manages to emit a large blast of white energy, which disintegrates all the zombie except for Terra, Hawk and Garth. Exhausted by this, Dove momentarily falls unconscious, where she sees a vision of the original Dove, Don. He urges her to not give up on the original Hawk, Hank.

When Dove wakes up, she sees the three remaining zombies have fled, and no one really has the heart to chase after them just yet. Donna asks Dove what she did, and Dove isn't quite able to explain it, other than she knows those zombies, including Holly, are now gone. Donna says they should go stop those three runaways, but Bart suddenly receives a super-speed message from his grandpa Barry Allen. He tells the others that, according to Barry, dead heroes are rising all over the world.

While Bart relays the rest of Barry's message to Donna and Cassie, Cyborg pulls Beast Boy aside, urging him to not let these head games get to him. Gar admits he chose to look past Terra's treachery and believe she was a good person deep down because he loved her. Vic says it's a good thing to hope for the best in people, but Gar just chose the wrong girl. Gar confidently says the right girl for him is still out there, and he'll find her eventually.

Donna gathers everyone together, saying they need to get Dove to the front lines of this war. She also tells Dove to stay close to her, saying she can feel the Black Lantern power spreading in her, and she needs Dove to kill her if she becomes one of them. As Donna looks at her teammates, one of her eyes becomes a Black Lantern eye, enabling her to see their emotions. Dove is pure white, but everybody else is a mix of colors. Beast Boy, rage, hope and will; Starfire, rage and love; Cyborg, will and rage; Wonder Girl, hope, rage and fear; Kid Flash, hope and fear.




This was a pretty good miniseries. Ed Benes is a solid artist (even if he's obsessed with scantily clad, overly sexualized women). And J.T. Krul has a good handle on these characters. Of course, this story focuses mainly on Donna Troy, Terra and Hawk and Dove — characters I care very little about — I did like the little bit of Bart we got here. He and Cassie, the youngest of this group, are understandably still full of fear after all of this. But Bart's quick conversation with his grandpa has given him a great amount of hope to balance out that fear. And that brings me to the best thing about this miniseries — it lines up perfectly with the main Blackest Night series. And it made its publication deadlines (a rarity at DC in this era).

Let's check out the new ads:

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The DC Nation page is by Simona, talking about Catwoman.

What mattered the most was remembered the least. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for Nintendo DS. I'm slowly making my way through these games. They don't make a lick of sense, but they are kind of fun.

Next time, we'll see exactly what Barry told Bart in Blackest Night #4.

DC Universe Halloween Special '09 #1

Kid Flash in Mirror Games

Written by Joe Harris
Art by Andrei Bressan
Color by Marcelo Maiolo
Letters by Rob Clark Jr.
Editors: Adam Schlagman & Eddie Berganza

Our cover by Gene Ha shows Bizarro reading the previous year's Halloween Special to a group of hostages, while Superman, Guy Gardner, Robin and Kid Flash rush in to save the day. It's a fun, goofy cover, showing us that even though this is Halloween, most of the 13 stories inside will be a bit on the lighter side. And frankly, that's the way to go in the middle of this massive horror event, Blackest Night. For me, personally, it's nice to see that Bart is back and was chosen as one of the few characters on this DC-wide event.

Our story begins in a dark bathroom with a group of teenage girls trying to summon Bloody Mary through the mirror. To their horror, the mirror shatters on its own and out of it emerges Mirror Master, who promptly grabs the youngest girl and holds a large mirror shard against her throat. One of the girls is able to slip away and call the police, and soon a police barricade is set up around the house and a hostage negotiator is summoned.

This naturally attracts the attention of a couple of trick-or-treaters, who are dressed as zombie versions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. They had apparently heard ahead of time of the girls' desire to summon Bloody Mary, and they begin to argue whether she is real. Kid Flash eavesdrops on the conversation, before quickly zipping away. The kids didn't see Bart, but they did hear a strange sound like somebody kicked out the plug of an Xbox 360, or shot it with a death ray. As Bart rushes off to what he's sure is a battle with Mirror Master, he kicks himself for spending Halloween night listening to police bandwidth instead of finding a party to go to.

Inside, Mirror Master still has a tight hold on the youngest girl, while making all the other girls gather up ever mirror in the house and smash them to bits. Mirror Master hears Kid Flash approaching, but Bart smartly vibrates through the wall behind him and punches the Rogue, causing him to let go of the girl. Bart hits Mirror Master a couple more times, before asking him what's with the hostages and the large pile of mirrors at his feet.

Mirror Master explains that he wants to destroy all the mirrors because he saw something much worse than him zipping through the Mirror Dimension. He doesn't know if it's just because it's Halloween or what, but he's sure this monster will rip them all up if she gets out. Bart asks who Mirror Master's talking about, and the youngest girl says, "Bloody Mary."

At those words, the shards of mirrors begin to swirl in the air and the image of a ghostly woman appears. Kid Flash gets all the girls safely to the back corner of the room, and then — somehow, someway — he causes Bloody Mary to disappear as quickly as she appeared. The art is extremely confusing here, and all we get for an explanation in the dialogue is a "targeted hypersonic wave."

Bart pulls himself out of the girls' embrace, saying he should probably check on the neighbors, and the girls invite him to their party. Bart then notices Mirror Master somehow slipped out in the confusion, and is unable to find Evan McCullough later. But we, the reader, see that Mirror Master escaped the old fashioned way — just running down the road. He's choosing to avoid using any mirrors for now to avoid Bloody Mary, but he happens to step on a puddle of water as he says her name aloud for some reason. Bloody Mary promptly pops up out of the water and drags Mirror Master down with her.




This story sucked. I know it's just a Halloween feature that's not supposed to be taken too seriously, but it still felt like only a half-formed idea. Joe Harris wanted to do Bloody Mary and Mirror Master, but apparently didn't spend any time figuring out what Bloody Mary is, how she works and how to get rid of her. Kid Flash was only thrown in here for the cliché "teenage boy saves teenage girls" scenario. This was a weak story with incoherent art. And that's a shame, because I'm craving a fun Kid Flash story.

Next time, there won't be a whole lot of fun, as we wrap up the Blackest Night: Titans miniseries.

Blackest Night: Titans #2

Bite the Hand that Feeds

Written by: J.T. Krul
Pencils: Ed Benes
Inks: Scott Williams (pages 1-6) & Ed Benes
Colors: Hi-Fi Design
Letters: Rob Clark Jr.
Cover by: Benes, Hunter, & Pete Pantazis
Variant Cover by: Brian Haberlin
Assoc. Editor: Adam Schlagman
Asst. Editor: Rex Ogle
Editors: Eddie Berganza & Brian Cunningham

Our cover shows Donna Troy holding her deceased son, who looks like a normal, healthy toddler in her eyes, but in the reflection of the mirror is revealed to be one of the Black Lantern zombies. This is a pretty fun and creepy image, even if it's not 100 percent accurate with the story inside. One interesting thing to note, though, is the baby's teeth. Last issue, Donna was lamenting that Robert died just after growing his second tooth. But now that he's been revived by this unholy evil, he has a mouth full of teeth.

I got this image of the variant cover from mycomicshop.com. It shows the original, zombified Hawk attacking the new Hawk. For some reason, this comes off as rather silly to me. I guess the Zombie Hawk's face looks more goofy than scary.

Our story picks up in Titans Tower, with Donna examining the strange baby carriage that suddenly appeared in her room. But the carriage is empty, except for a rattle with the Black Lantern symbol on it. Suddenly, Donna's deceased husband, Terry, approaches her, holding baby Robert in his arms, casually talking about how the boy wants his mommy. Unlike Beast Boy's initial encounter with Terra, there is no psychic manipulation going on, and Donna clearly sees her family members as decaying zombies. But she's too surprised and confused to react in a rational way. Believing this must be a dream, Donna automatically takes Robert into her arms. The baby immediately sinks his teeth into Donna's neck, as Terry explains this isn't a dream, but a nightmare.

Outside, Starfire and Cyborg are battling Zombie Omen, who has created a bunch of illusions of herself, while Zombie Terra has trapped Beast Boy with some rocks. Terra wants to pull out Gar's heart, but only when it's overwhelmed by a single emotion. Right now, Gar is feeling love, fear, rage and hope, which is thwarting Terra's attempts for the moment. Beast Boy turns into a marten to slip out of the rocks, then a hawk to fly above Terra and land on her as a mastodon. Gar still tries to talk to Terra, but she only repeats her desire to take his heart.

Terra's hand begins to glow black, which sends a lot of pain through Gar's body. But Starfire saves Beast Boy in time, hitting Terra with the full blast of her star bolts, completely incinerating the zombie. Kory apologizes to Gar, explaining that the creature she just blasted wasn't really Terra, and Gar actually tells Kory she did the right thing. They both then turn to help Cyborg, who is caught in a psychic trance by Omen.

In Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., Dove can only stand helplessly by as the Zombie Hawk removes Hawk's heart from her chest. Consuming the rage within that heart brings the Black Lantern power levels up to 57.03 percent. The Zombie Hawk then turns on Dove, but is unable to recognize any emotions in her. As Dove battles Hawk, a black ring flies onto Holly Granger's finger, commanding her to rise. So now Dove has two zombie Hawks to fight.

Back in the tower, Donna is pushing away her zombie son that was trying to kill her. With tears in her eyes, she begs her family to stop, saying she doesn't want to hurt them. Luckily for her, Bart and Cassie were still in the tower and hadn't gone to bed yet, and they just happened to hear Donna's screams. Bart rushes in and pulls Donna out into the hall, telling Cassie that she was being attacked by something straight out of the "I Am Legend" movie. As Bart and Cassie examine the black, festering wound on Donna's neck, the zombies see the fear in Bart, the will in Cassie and the hope in Donna.

Outside, we see that Omen has put Cyborg in a paradisiacal psychic state, where he's fully human and relaxing in the bright sun. Omen does a similar thing to Starfire, sending her back to her wedding with Dick Grayson. The Zombie Terra, meanwhile, repairs herself, quickly regaining the form she had when she began this attack. Terra opens up the earth beneath the tower and begins pulling it down. Our heroes inside the building feel like an earthquake is hitting them, but Bart says he didn't feel any early vibrations, meaning the epicenter of the quake must be directly underneath them.

Unfortunately, Bart was apparently too surprised and confused by this to get Cassie and Donna out before they become buried in the Earth. Cassie asks him to find a path out, but Bart worries about using his powers in such an unstable environment, saying he'd be like Gar in a china shop. If, you know, Gar was a bull. Donna tries to explain to Cassie and Bart what happened, struggling to convince herself that her zombie family members aren't actually her family. But as she talks, the spreading black infection on her neck and face causes her to collapse in pain and her eyes to turn into the Black Lantern symbol.

Outside, Beast Boy is trying in vain to free Starfire and Cyborg from Omen's illusions. And as Terra gloats over finally being able to kill the Titans, she's joined by zombie versions of Aqualad, Aquagirl, Dolphin, Pantha and Wildebeest. Garth's appearance is especially troubling, as he was alive and well when this whole Blackest Night thing began.




I really don't have much to say about this issue. The horror story is continuing, but I don't have a particularly strong emotional connection to most of these characters. And there really didn't seem like there's any reason for Bart to be here. And frankly, I am kind of mixed on the bit of Bart we did get here. On one hand, I do like using Bart to show us how scary all this is. Zombie babies are downright creepy. But on the other hand, I feel like Krul just does not have a great handle on Bart as a character. Being able to feel approaching earthquakes is an odd ability that I've never seen brought up before. And in the time it took Bart to explain that, he could have — and should have — pulled Cassie and Donna out of the building. It was an odd moment.

Well, let's check out the new ads:

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The dead have risen! ... And no one is safe! Blackest Night. (Gotta love ads for the very thing you're reading.)

On the DC Nation page, Ian Sattler promotes the Superman/Batman: Public Enemies movie.

Next time, in case you haven't got enough horror, we'll check out a special Kid Flash story in DC's Halloween Special '09.

Blackest Night: Titans #1

When Death Comes Knocking

Written by: J.T. Krul
Pencils: Ed Benes
Inks: Rob Hunter, Jon Sibal & JP Mayer
Colors: Hi-Fi Design
Letters: Rob Clark Jr.
Cover by: Benes, Hunter, & Rod Reis
Variant Cover by: Brian Haberlin
Assoc. Editor: Adam Schlagman
Asst. Editor: Rex Ogle
Editors: Eddie Berganza & Brian Cunningham

Our main cover shows Beast Boy grotesquely making out with his deceased girlfriend, Terra. It's disturbing. It's creepy. It's perfect for this story. It's the kind of horrific cover that you can't bear to look at, but you also can't pull away from.

I took this image of the variant cover from dc.fandom.com. It's another creepy closeup of Terra, but without the perverse kissing of Beast Boy, it lacks the impact of the main cover. And just to clear things up, this is the original version of Terra — not the Terra that Bart hung out with for a little bit during his brief stay with the New Titans way back when. This Terra betrayed the Teen Titans and then died in a big fight with Deathstroke. But Garfield Logan genuinely loved her and refused to believe she was actually evil, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Blackest Night was a massive event. Not only did it have its own eight-part main series, and nearly every monthly title at DC had one or two issues tie into this event, but there were also a smattering of three-part miniseries like this. For better and worse, this event will dive deep into every major character's death in the DC Universe.

Our story begins on Heroes Day during Blackest Night #1. We see that Deathstroke is mourning the death of his oldest son, Grant, by tracking down and killing members of H.I.V.E., who hired Grant to take down the Titans, which led to Grant's death. Red Star is mourning his wife, Pantha, and their son, Wildebeest, by drinking a bottle of vodka. And Ravager is celebrating Heroes Day by having sex with a random man and kicking him out of the room immediately by threatening him with her sword.

At Titans Tower in San Francisco, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire, Dove, Hawk, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Donna Troy and Geo-Force have gathered to commemorate all the fallen Titans. We get a repeat of Bart's conversation with Cassie about him wishing to take down all the statues, and Cassie responds by saying the return of Bart and Conner is a good start for the Titans. She admits she used to think death was the end, but after looking into Conner's eyes, she now believes that anything is possible. Donna points out that she also has cheated death several times, but laments how the "normal" people never come back, mentioning her toddler son, who was killed in a car crash.

Starfire wonders aloud why they have a statue of Terra the traitor, and as expected, Beast Boy protests this. He argues that Terra's mind was poisoned by Deathstroke, just like Ravager's was. Cyborg says Terra wasn't drugged, but Gar refuses to listen to him and walks away. Hawk and Dove are having a similar debate over the original Hawk, who technically died a villain. As they talk, we see a bunch of Black Lantern rings are trying, but failing, to resurrect the original Dove. However, the grave of the original Hawk is empty.

Hawk and Dove return to Washington, D.C., but are quickly led into a trap by the zombie Hawk. Bart is the last to leave the Titans' hall of statues, taking time to gaze at the statue of Omen, whom he saw die in that terrible Graduation Day story. Donna returns to her room to look at photos of her deceased family. Beast Boy takes a long, solitary walk out by the bay, while Starfire and Cyborg creepily watch him on the security monitors. And Cyborg has the gall to place all the blame on Starfire for upsetting Gar.

Suddenly, Beat Boy is approached by Terra. She looks alive and well, and is eager to give him a big hug. She explains that she faked her death all those years ago and chose to stay away from the team because they suspected her as a traitor. The stunned Gar asks why she chose to come back now, and she mentions the return of Conner and Bart. Terra then pulls Gar in for a kiss, while another zombie watches from the bushes, identifying the emotion of love in Gar's heart.

Turns out, it was a good thing Starfire and Cyborg were spying on their friend, as they were able to see what was happening and swoop in quickly before anything too bad happened. The zombie hiding in the bushes was Omen, who was using her psychic powers to make Gar see Terra as healthy and alive, instead of the rotting corpse we saw on both covers. But even when the zombie Omen is attacked and her mirage fades, Gar is still hesitant to pull away from the zombie Terra, who is now saying she's here to collect Gar's heart.

Donna is awoken from her sleep by the sudden appearance of a baby carriage in her room and the voice of her dead son calling out to her. And after a lengthy battle with Hawk and Dove, the zombie Hawk manages to thrust his hand into Hawk's chest to pull out her heart.




This was a pretty interesting comic. I don't have a very strong connection to all these characters, beyond the tenuous relationship they had to Bart. But I do like the idea of people being attacked by the zombies of people they care deeply about on the very day they were thinking most about those people. As for Bart, he still doesn't have too much to do in this story, beyond feeling a little survivor's guilt and wondering about the nature of death and rebirth. While we ponder on those metaphysical questions, let's check out the new ads:

The battle begins! Smallville Season 8 on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Batgirl. A new ongoing series by Bryan Q. Miller and Lee Garbett.

Magog. Exploding from the pages of Justice Society of America. A new monthly series by Keith Giffen and Howard Porter.

The Brave and the Bold by J. Michael Straczynski and Jesus Saiz.

The DC Nation page shows a blond man lounging on a beach chair under an umbrella, on top of a massive pile of skulls and bones. The caption reads, "On vacation! Be back soon!" I don't know who the blond man is supposed to be.

Next issue ... Black Lantern Hawks!

Adventure Comics #1

Superboy: The Boy of Steel Part One

Geoff Johns Writer
Francis Manapul Artist
Brian Buccellato Colorist
Steve Wands Letterer
Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato Covers
Sean Ryan Associate Editor
Elisabeth V. Gehrlein Editor

Unlike our favorite speedster, Bart, Superboy was granted the honor of having his own solo series when he was resurrected. Well, sort of. Adventure Comics was historically the home of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and that's essentially what we have here once again. So while this is ostensibly a solo Superboy title, he is sharing space with the Legion, usually as a backup story. That's why DC put a faint number 504 behind the large number 1 on the main cover. Although DC wanted the notoriety of a new first issue, they also wanted to indicate a sort of continuation of the original series that last 503 issues. Personally, I would have preferred keeping the legacy numbering and calling this Adventure Comics #504. But that's just me.

Our main cover features the beautiful art of Manapul and Buccellato. Superboy is stoically flying right between his two "fathers." Superman, looking up into the light, and Lex Luthor, gazing down into the darkness, holding a large piece of kryptonite. It's a fantastic cover, although I would have tweaked Superboy's face a little bit. But I'm a huge sucker for Manapul's style, so I still love this all the same.

I got this image of the variant cover from dc.fandom.com (formerly dc.wikia.com — same site, different name). This cover shows a bunch of different images from future storylines in this series, which is an interesting approach. I'm not sure I like it, but I do give them kudos for trying something different. Also note that this cover made the number 504 bold in front of a faint number 1. I kind of feel like DC is trying to have its cake and eat it, too, with this "double numbering," but the uniqueness of the whole situation is intriguing to me. I won't say fully it's good or bad, just ... different.

This issue recaps the first week of Superboy reclaiming his old life. He's living with Ma Kent now, still on the old Smallville farm, with faithful Krypto now a constant presence. Conner is so happy to be alive, he eagerly completes all the daily chores — plowing the fields, taking out the trash, doing the dishes, etc. On Monday, he re-enrolls at Smallville High. On Tuesday, he reunites with the Teen Titans, choosing to destroy the large golden statue of himself in front of the San Francisco tower.

Bart Allen also wants to destroy his own statue, asking Conner to melt it with heat vision, before changing his mind and requesting him to freeze and then shatter the monument. Conner sadly reports he doesn't have freeze breath, so Bart hypothesizes that he just needs to visualize something cold, like the bathroom floor in the tower in the morning (which is why Bart wears his boots to bed, he says). And that's all the Bart we get in this issue. The main takeaway from this story is that even though Conner is thrilled to be alive again, he is secretly worried about becoming like Lex Luthor again. But we're not too concerned about that or the backup of Starman recounting the history of the Legion of Super-Heroes.




Obviously this story takes place before Blackest Night and after Flash: Rebirth. But we're mostly following the publication order on this blog, so we get to re-experience this frustrating era of DC. No wonder they'd try to blow everything up in just two years. Anyway, Bart's back, but we still don't know anything beyond that. He's been seen hanging out with the Teen Titans, but he still hasn't officially shown up in the pages of Teen Titans. And we have no idea where Bart's living now. Max Mercury is back ... right? So has Bart returned to Max and Helen and everyone in Manchester, Alabama, or is he with Jay and Joan Garrick in Denver, or perhaps Keystone? How much of his old life does he remember? Is he now essentially an adult trapped in the body of a teenager? Bart really needed his own solo series to answer these questions, because we sadly know that Geoff Johns isn't going to take the time to answer them in his stories about Barry Allen.

As for this issue, in particular, it was a nice, calm, relaxing change of pace from the frantic pace of Flash: Rebirth and Blackest Night. The highlight of this issue was the artwork, utilizing large panels to let the work breathe and show off the beautiful coloring of sunsets, swamps and schools. I did think it a bit odd that Superboy visited the Teen Titans on a Tuesday, when Johns had previously emphasized the fact of that group being strictly a weekend venture. But I did like Bart and Conner's desire to destroy the monuments of their death to signal their return to the world. Now let's check out the new ads:

got milk? with Danica Patrick.

Get 10% off the strategy guide when you buy it with Batman: Arkham Asylum from GameStop.

DewTour Summer 2009.

Blackest Night action figures.

Batman and Robin by Frank Quitely and Grant Morrison.

The world's strangest super heroes are back ... and they brought those robot guys with 'em! Doom Patrol.

Heroes reimagined by comics superstar J. Michael Straczynski. The Red Circle.

The DC Nation page is Ian Sattler advertising Batman: The Widening Gyre.

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go by Dale E. Basye.

No safe haven. Only asylum. Batman: Arkham Asylum for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This game changed the video game world, inspiring tons of sequels, prequels and even a Spider-Man game almost 10 years later. I'm not a gamer by any means, but even I played this one.

Next time, we'll get an expanded look at those two panels of Bart from Blackest Night in Blackest Night: Titans #1.