Friday, April 9, 2010

Finally, Blackest Night #8(of 8)!

My copy of Blackest Night #8 FINALLY arrived today, and needless to say, I'm pretty psyched to give it a read. I've actually managed to avoid almost all of the spoilers for this comic(which was no easy task!), so going in, I have no idea how things end. Well, almost no idea. I do know that Nekron loses(duh!)and that Aquaman comes back. Other then that, I can happily report that I am blissfully ignorant of everything else that happens between these pages. I see no reason to continue to drag this introduction out, since I REALLY want to read this comic, so that's what I'm going to do! A word to the wise, this promises to be a LONG post!

Blackest Night #8(of 8): Writer: Geoff Johns. Pencils: Ivan Reis.
Last Issue: 9 out of 10.

We begin with Sinestro(who now wields the power of life itself)battling against Nekron, the embodiment of death. Sinestro tears into Nekron, and after a brief struggle, Sinestro simply tears out Nekron's heart... Well that was easy! Unfortunately for Sinestro and the gathered heroes, Nekron simply resurrects himself and continues the battle. While Sinestro and Nekron fight, Nekron summons his army of powered zombies, and they attack Hal Jordan and his New Guardians. Before Hal and the New Guardians are overwhelmed, all of the other color corps members finally arrive on Earth and join the New Guardians as they launch their counter-offensive against the zombies. On Hal's orders, every member of all of the other corps combine their power and attack Nekron, but they are still unable to faze him. It's during this last ditch assault on Nekron that Deadman possesses Guy Gardner and tells Hal that during his travels through the black rings, he discovered that the key to defeating Nekron is actually Black Hand, since Hand's death began this entire macabre ordeal. After giving Hal that helpful hint, Deadman leaves Guy's body, and Nekron finally separates Sinestro from the White Light Entity. With Sinestro no longer controlling the Entity, Hal rushes over to it and combines with it(glory hound!), using its power to destroy the black rings that had latched onto the resurrected heroes, and transforming them into all into White Lanterns. The White Lanterns all combine their attack on Black Hand and use their powers to return Black Hand to life, which finally serves to weaken Nekron. Black Hand vomits a white ring out and it shatters Nekron's Black Power Battery, returning the Anti-Monitor to life, further weakening Nekron, since the captive Anti-Monitor was powering Nekron's Power battery. The Anti-Monitor immediately attacks Nekron, and Nekron simply sends the Anti-Monitor back to his own dimension. With Nekron irreparably damaged now, the Entity hits Nekron with one final blast, destroying him completely and sending several white rings spewing from out of Nekron. These white rings travel around the battlefield and return some(but not all)of the heroes and villains to life. From there all the heroes happily mill about talking to their formerly dead friends, while the resurrected villains either escape(like Maxwell Lord and Prof. Zoom)or get put down, like Capt. Boomerang. After the shock of everything settles down, the heroes begin to wonder where Black Hand snuck off to and where the Indigo Lanterns had gotten off to... That question is soon answered when we discover that the Indigo Lanterns had taken Black Hand and apparently were forcing him to be a member of their Corps as a mindless slave... Wow, how compassionate of them... This issue and x-over finally ends with SAINT Barry Allen and Hal Jordan standing at the gravesite of Bruce Wayne's parents with the realization that Bruce was never dead, and that he had to be alive out there somewhere(what a brilliant deduction!). The final scene is that of a huge crater in a small town with a single White Lantern Power Battery sitting at the bottom of the pit.

Annnnnd that's a wrap. Hmm, hmm, hmm... What to say here... First off, I've got to say, I'm not with the rest of the free world here... I thought there were A LOT of things that were wrong with this comic... Sorry. Sure, there WAS a lot of good here as well, especially the artwork... I don't know HOW Ivan managed to fit so many characters on these pages, so my hat is definitely off to him, because he's definitely the MVP of this mini-series. I was also pleased to see many of my favorites come back to life in this comic, although that in and of itself was one of my main gripes here. Why were only certain characters allowed to return to life? I mean seriously? We get the old Captain Boomerang, but not the younger one back? Well, I guess that one doesn't REALLY surprise me, considering Geoff's obvious obsession with Silver Age Flash characters, but it still annoyed me. And the excuse for why some characters came back but not others was, “there's a bigger picture to it all” or my personal favorite, “I don't know.” Ha! The “dead means dead from here on out” line also provided me with a few laughs, because I'll eat my frigging laptop if THAT proclamation sticks for more then a years time! Dead means dead in a comic book... HA!!! The easy defeat of Nekron was another mild disappointment for me... I mean, the guy was running roughshod over the DCU for months, and then boom, he explodes? OK I guess... I will admit to liking the fact that the isolationist Indigo Lanterns took Black Hand and were safeguarding him, probably from himself... Let's face it, since it was Hand who was able to open the door for Nekron(so to speak), what's stopping him from killing himself again and giving us Blackest Night II? Keeping him lobotomized and hidden away actually was one of the few things here that made perfect sense. To be honest, I really expected better from Geoff Johns. I know we're heading straight into Brightest Day(yay, ANOTHER x-over...), but there just wasn't a sense of closure here... After such a long, drawn out x-over, I just felt there should have been a little bit of closure. It was like, Nekron dies, some random heroes get returned to life, we don't know why, and that's it. Instead of saving everything for Brightest Day, it would have been nice for some of the story threads to get wrapped up here. Eh, maybe I'm just being too nit-picky... I guess I just expected more from a writer of Geoff's caliber, then again, maybe Geoff isn't the writer I thought he was...

With my bitch-fest out of the way, I'm going to take a look at each of the heroes/villains who were returned to life, and on a scale of 0-5 I'll list how glad I am to see them alive again.

Maxwell Lord: 5. I've said since he died that he has HUGE potential to be a major JLA villain, and it looks like I may be getting my wish. Awesome!

Professor Zoom: 2. I've seen enough of him during the Flash Rebirth mini-series... This is once again a case of Geoff being overly enamored by Silver Age Flash characters... Speaking of which...

Captain Boomerang: 1. Umm, why? This loser adds NOTHING to any comic book he's in. Absolutely nothing. I can't believe we've swapped the younger Captain Boomerang for this loser... This right here is Geoff Johns at his worst...

Hawk: 1. Meh.

Jade: 5. I am OVERJOYED to see Jade back again. There are SO many places she could fit in the current DCU, from the Green Lantern Corps with Kyle, to the JSA with her father and brother. She's one character who shouldn't have died, and who definitely needed to come back.

Firestorm: 3. I can see the good in bringing him back. From the few Firestorm appearances I've read, I can't say I have anything against him. Hopefully he'll be a good addition to the restructured DCU.

Martian Manhunter: 5. The guy IS the Justice League, possibly more then the Trinity itself. He immediately brings loads to the table, especially if he goes right back to the JLA, where he belongs.

Aquaman: 5. Once again, this is a character who shouldn't have died in the first place, so bringing him back here makes sense. Now all of us Aquaman fans have to unite and get others to read his adventures so he won't be killed/canceled again!

Hawkman: 5. I've always liked Hawkman, so I have no problem with his return.

Hawkgirl: 4. If not for the fact that she has all of her memories, she'd be a 5 as well... Basically it seems all of what made Kendra interesting has been washed away. Sad...

Deadman: 0! This makes NO sense!!! The guy's gimmick is that he's DEAD! Why would you bring him back?!? I really don't get it. I like Deadman... DEAD! Will he change his name to Aliveman now? This one was a real head-scratcher...

Osiris: 5. He has great potential, plus a strong bond with Black Adam, which never hurts. If he doesn't automatically join the Teen Titans, I'll be pretty distraught. Osiris, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Superboy, Static, and an extra female or two and you've got an AWESOME Teen Titans line-up.

So that's who did come back... As for who SHOULD have come back, how about Ted Kord, Damage, the younger Captain Boomerang, Tempest(!), and I'm sure a few others I'm currently blanking on.

Well, the only thing left to do now is give this comic its score and publish the post. I know I won't be giving this comic a 10, there were just too many things I didn't like about it for me to go all the way. No, I won't give it a 10, but I will give it a: Score: 9 out of 10. And to be honest, the artwork played a huge role in the score even being THAT high... Well, on to Brightest Day...You know, by the end of this x-over, Nekron had kind of grown on me... How weird is THAT?!?

20 comments:

  1. THANK YOU! Why the HELL is Ted Kord not back?! That pissed me off ENDLESSLY. I mean HAWK can come back but not Ted Kord?! Really?

    Lol @ Aliveman. Apparently he's one of the biggest secrets for Brightest Day, take that how you want it..

    "Osiris, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Superboy, Static, and an extra female or two and you've got an AWESOME Teen Titans line-up." Forgot Ravager? Really bro? Come onnnnn. Great Review X, get ready to throw out that flashlight and some shades, Brightest Day is on the horizon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lol, well sir it's about darn time you got around to reading The Finale of Blackest night!!

    I was happy with the ending, really happy it's all over. Let's hope that Brightest Day isn't as dragging as BN was.

    One thing I will comment about issss the resurrection of Max Lord. My mouth literally dropped when I saw he was brought back to life. I mean, I even felt bad for him when Wonder Woman snapped that little neck of his. Lol, but now I love the guy he's so....so...evil. Lol. I want to see where they are going to take him in the DC/JLA world.

    Him and Lex should definitely hook up to cause some chaos. And I swear if Max Lord doesn't make an appeareance in the WW series, I'm going to flip.

    And sir, if have read WW #42 please tell me your thoughts. Because well, lets just say I was HIGHLY pissed it wasn't that exciting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha, no JT, I didn't forget Ravager, I actually typed her name in, but then deleted it, because I still SWEAR she's going to wind up working with(or against)Deathstroke and Jericho in the Titans comics. If Ravager was doing nothing, then I'd DEFINITELY have her on that team, hands down!

    "I was happy with the ending, really happy it's all over." HA! I loved that Falisha! That's pretty much how I felt too! And yeah, Max REALLY needs to appear in WW's comic book, ASAP! As for him working with Lex, that's a really interesting idea... Especially since Max knows so many of the heroes identities, if he got together with Lex and shared that knowledge... Yipes!

    I still haven't gotten the latest WW, but as soon as it arrives(it's one of my subscription books, so there's no way to predict when it will arrive), I'll DEF give it a read.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Aww. I'm glad we agree. I mean I enjoyed BN and all the mayhem that went along with it. But it spread so fast that in some comics it was just sloppily done and it was like a bad virus spreading throughout DC. Lol.

    And Max being in WW or any DC stuff in general would make my day lol.

    And X, you and JT aren't the only sweet thinking story plotter for comics. I have some nice ideas brewing in my head from time to time. I still say we bombard DC with our ideas....get some of that DC money lol.

    Well sir I'll be patiently waiting for that review or thoughts on that. *Sit chair on your blog* be sitting right here waiting sir. Lol.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hm... I don't see her teaming with Slade. I hope you're right but I just don't see it.

    Falisha lets hear some of those ideas you got.

    Oh yeah X, forgot to have you check this out.
    http://www.thejohnreport.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/WrestleMania.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  6. In some comics? You wouldn't happen to be talking about that wonderful BN WW mini, would you Falisha? :p

    Yeah, I agree with JT here Falisha, let's hear those ideas! And I promise, once I get that issue of WW, it will be sitting right on the top of my comic pile.

    I don't know if she'll team with him or be a thorn in his side, but I think they'll be connected pretty soon.

    Well, in retrospect, I guess Shawn was right to be upset...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for putting me out there JT. Lol.

    Well, like I was saying, Max and Lex teaming up would be fantastic. I think that would cause WW and Supes to collaborate along with the help of many other JLA members. Because I know Max would call in some other villains. Then I would have Max turn on Lex at some point, so he could try to become President of the US of A. lol.

    Hm...I would have a Nightwing and Donna team up and have them over look Gotham....have Donna bump heads with the sirens along the way.

    I would have Jason Todd and Sinestro team up just so Bats and Hal team up. I mean, how sweet would that be. I know them two would but heads.

    Hmm...let me think, OH Huntress and Batgirl (Steph Brown) teaming up would be some fly shit. Lol.

    Okay I'm done


    That's all I can remember for now. Yes, I know they're not full plots but I'm better at thinking about team ups. Putting some people I've never seen work together or barely worked together. I'll just leave the plots up to you guys. :D

    ReplyDelete
  8. To be honest those are really good ideas. I think Donna and Dick would work together well because of their background with the Titans but the rest of those teams have some nice conflict and seem interesting, I'd definitely like to see Steph and Huntress as well and Bruce and Hal team up again

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. So since you put me on the spot, make up a nice quick run thru plot of a Donna and Grayson mini series...

    GO! :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Grayson takes the Nightwing mantle after Bruce returns. Looking to get back into his own groove he goes out to another city to fight crime. While there he runs into the always losing Royal Flush gang, he handles them but is overpowered by their team until a passing Donna Troy lends him a hand. While hanging out afterwards she tells him that she came to look for him because she's been looking for someone to help her tackle Cheetah and her new associate and Dick was the first person she went to. Dick agrees then we later find out that Cheetah's newest associate is none other than Dick's enemy, Two-Face.

    Why are they teaming up? Um... ask X-Man. It's his turn lol.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'd be fine with a Batman/GL team-up...as long there's no more face-punching.

    ReplyDelete
  13. *applauds* Well done JT. Now that's a comic I would love to read. With penciling done by Jim Lee ( I miss his art) that would make my day!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. First of all, X-Man, it looks like you have a ton of followers now! I'm glad you're getting the recognition you deserve for slogging through so many comics.

    I felt pretty conflicted about this issue as well, because it wraps everything up so quickly, while opening such huge cans of worms for the future. I really think there is something sinister in the way Martian Manhunter says "It appears so." when Superman comments on him being alive. With the solicits for Brightest Day showing both the Black Lantern Aquaman and the Blacke Lantern Firestorm, I can't help but think we shouldn't feel too good about these heroes being back.

    As for the resurrections, I'm pretty pleased. Digger getting punched right after coming back to life was sad but funny. I mean, talk about not being able to catch a break.
    I was absolutely astonished that Damage didn't come back to life in this series. I like having J'onn back, especially since he's now wearing pants. And of course Jade, who I can go back to thinking is wrongly hot for being a ficitional comic character, and not wrongly hot for being a fictional zombie comic book character.

    Overall, there were a lot things about this story I could pick at. The biggest fanboyish detail that made me groan was that Mera was the Deputy of Rage. I just never saw her character that way, and that seemed like such a convenient thing for the story.

    But honestly, I was entertained by the main BN series, and there were enough cool moments that I felt like I got my money's worth. And hey, somebody actually made the comment that "Tim Drake is right." When Bats finally comes back everybody owes him a big apology.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hot damn, that's a lot of comments to sift through! Thanks guys! :-)

    Hey, you know guys, there actually was a Steph/Huntress team-up once, back when Steph was still Spoiler... After a quick check, yes indeed, there was! It's called Batman: Huntress and Spoiler: Blunt Trauma. It was a one shot that took place during that Cataclysm event. I don't remember much about that comic, but I think it was pretty decent.

    Oh jeez, JT, I was fine with that synopsis right up until you brought in the Royal Flush Gang! What a bunch of losers! Anyway, a reason Cheetah and Harvey are teaming up... Hmm... Well, Cheetah teamed up with Zoom for the promise of increased powers, so maybe they're teaming up to rob some Gotham museum that was showing some kind of ancient artifact. That would be Cheetah's motivation, as for Harvey, let's say that Cheetah has promised to rid him of Penguin if he helps her, and no Penguin would give Harv near complete control of the Gotham Underworld. There, how about that?

    Thanks Kello! Yeah, this blog has been a long crazy journey, but it looks like it's finally getting to the point I'd always hoped it would. A place where comic fans could get together and shoot the breeze on various comic related topics.

    I'm glad I wasn't the only one who wasn't totally overjoyed with this one, Kello. There were just too many little things that bothered me here, and after a while, those little things begin to really build up. I was really upset/annoyed that Geoff once again went into Flash's past and brought back the older Captain Boomerang, while leaving the younger one dead, and yes, the Damage thing REALLY surprised me... What a waste that is, but I guess since Damage wasn't a Silver Age Flash character, I shouldn't be THAT shocked...

    I don't know Kello, live Jade has a lot to live up to, because as we've already discussed, zombie Jade was surprisingly hot! And yes, the Mera thing was something else I've already gone off on during a prior BN post. That just seemed so unnecessary, especially considering all of the other characters out there who really ARE fueled by rage!

    I guess that best way to look at Blackest Night and decide how good it was would be to compare it to the last couple of DCU mega-events. BN was FAR superior to Final Crisis, and it was much better then Infinite Crisis. I don't believe I'd call it Identity Crisis's superior, nor would I rank it higher then the Sinestro Corps War. So although it did disappoint me a bit, I'd still place Blackest Night as the third best DC mega-event from the past 5-10 years, and that's not very bad at all.

    ReplyDelete
  16. The ONLY, and I mean ONLY reason I brought in the Royal Flush gang is because I needed a group of losers that could get beat up bi Dick, then overwhelm him with numbers then lose a five on two fight and if there's anyone that can lose, my money's on them

    ReplyDelete
  17. Lol @ getting rid Penguin. You don't like that man do ya X? lol.

    That Cheetah Zoom team up was pretty sweet. I liked Flash and WW teaming up as well. Even though she was blind they still whooped some butt. :D Wonder Woman is awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I don't know, the RFG is such a pack of losers I kind of get the feeling they could go after Dick 52 to 1 and STILL lose!

    You know me Falisha, any chance I get to kill off the Penguin, I'm taking it! ;-)

    ReplyDelete