What Happened: The two Guardians of the Blue Light as well as(ROLL CALL!)Hal Jordan of the Green Lantern Corps, Sinestro of the Sinestro Corps, Atrocitus of the Red Lanterns, Saint Walker of the Blue Lanterns, Carol Ferris of the Star Sapphires, Indigo-1 of the Indigo Lanterns and Larfleeze the only Orange Lantern arrive in Space Sector 666, expecting to find the Black Power Battery that is powering the Black Lanterns. Instead they are met by a big, empty hole. The 7 Lanterns power up and Ganthet(one of the two Blue Guardians)tells the unlikely allies that he can teleport them to where ever the Black Power Battery has gone. So, where is the Black Power Battery? On Earth, more specifically, in Coast City. Nekron(the leader of the Black Lanterns), Black Hand(Nekron's herald)and Scar(Nekron's Guardian)are confronted by Barry Allen and Wally West. Barry realizes that the skull BH is holding must have come from Bruce Wayne's grave in Gotham City, so he makes a bee-line for it, but is unable to wrest it from Black Hand's hands(heh...). By this point, Wally is able to call in some serious reinforcements, including Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and Black Canary, as well as several others. The heroes take the fight to the thousands of zombies Nekron has summoned from Coast City, with the heroes utilizing their secret weapon, Dove, against the army of Black Lanterns. Wally, Barry and Kid Flash(Bart Allen)try to free the captive Guardians of the Universe from their prison around the Black Power Battery, but they are halted by Scar. Before Scar can do any real damage to the Flashes, Ganthet and the contingent of Lanterns arrive and immediately attack Scar. The combined light from the 7 different Lanterns actually manages to destroy Scar. With Scar gone(but not forgotten)the 7 Lanterns decide to attack and destroy the Black Power Battery, reasoning that if they could destroy that, the Black Lanterns would fall. The Lanterns soon come to the startling realization that they aren't damaging the Black Power Battery at all, and according to Black Hand, they're only serving to make Nekron even more powerful. From there, a single Black Ring shoots out of the Black Power battery and heads right towards the skull Black Hand has been holding since the beginning of this mini-series. The ring affixes to the skull and Bruce Wayne(!!!)rises! Black Lantern Batman leaps into the air to the shock and horror of the assembled heroes and begins to regurgitate Black Power rings from his mouth. The Black Rings affix themselves to every living hero in the DCU who had ever died(and that's like practically all of them!)and with a single word, Nekron kills them all, bringing them back as Black Lanterns. With that, Nekron disposes of BL Batman and this issue ends with Hal Jordan and Barry Allen desperately trying to avoid the two Black Rings headed their way.
What I Thought: I have to admit that this issue kind of shocked me a bit, and not for any reason one might expect. In one fell swoop, Geoff pretty much told us that the events of this comic were not going to have any sort of lasting affect on the DCU. What do I mean? Well, let's face it, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and the rest of the heroes who were turned into Black Lanterns this issue are obviously not going to remain dead after Blackest Night concludes. I was pretty surprised that Geoff would pull this card out with 3 issues to go in this mini. Besides that, I enjoyed this issue. Not as much as I've been enjoying the past few issues, but this was still a VERY good read. I think the main reason I didn't enjoy this issue as much as I've enjoyed some of the earlier issues of this mini is because nothing really memorable happened. There were no real big deaths, battles or reappearances and no, I don't believe for a second that the Bruce Wayne who made a quick return in this issue is the real, honest to goodness Bruce Wayne, I think that was simply a matter of Nekron messing with the heads of the heroes who were present. The art was brilliant(as usual)and the story was good, but to me, this issue was missing any really special moments to make it truly memorable.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
Oh Scar... You deserved better then the lousy death you suffered here. Rest in Peace beloved...
I sure hope you read Green Lantern #48 before Blackest Night #5, lol.
ReplyDeleteHa! Now you tell me! ;)
ReplyDeleteOnce I read the first page of this one I gave myself the old palm smack to the forehead as I realized I goofed with the reading order... You'd think DC would have put a caption somewhere in the beginning of this comic telling us fans to read GL #48 before digging into this one!
I too think that's not our old boy Bruce, I mean they even said his name it quotations, I'm curious to see how it plays out though.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the quotation thing was petty much a dead giveaway that the Batman who showed up here wasn't the real Bruce Wayne. I think that when Barry touched "Bruce's" skull early on in this one, he somehow caused it to take on Bruce's personality, or something like that. Since that wasn't Bruce though, that just proves that he is indeed still among nthe living... Somewhere!
ReplyDeleteYeah now we just gotta find out who that is. I do like your explanation though with Wally, that could be true.
ReplyDeleteYeah, if you check out the page when Barry makes contact with the skull, a caption pops up that says something like, "emotional tether established", or something like that, I don't have my copy of BN #5 handy right now. Still though, what's up with that skull?!? I'm dying to know.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah I saw that, it was like he moved it there so Barry would touch it or something...man this story is getting better each month. Kinda upset there wont be a BN main book issue in January.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, no BN #7 in Jan. sucks big time. At least DC seems ready to flood the market with tons of BN related books in Jan. Hopefully that will keep us satisfied until BN #7 finally hits the stands.
ReplyDeleteYeah plus isn't Starman coming back or something? Speaking of which, I picked up a the first ten issues of his series in a tpb yesterday when I grabbed BN WW and BN Flash.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, whoa, whoa... Back up there! Did you say you've managed to pick up the first Starman trade?!? AWESOME! Like I've always said, Starman is THE greatest comic book series I've ever read. Hopefully you'll enjoy it, I know it's not a series everybody can get into, because it's written in a slightly different fashion then most CB's. If you do get into it though, you'll def thank me!
ReplyDeleteYep, Starman #76 is going to be coming out in Jan. I def can't wait to dig into that one.
Yeah, I grabbed it, I believe it's called Omnibus. I'm too lazy to get up and check, but I still gotta read Crisis of Conscience and a ton more stuff.
ReplyDeleteYeah I know you're very interested to see the return of your Starman even if he is a Black lantern.
The Starman Omnibus is an awesome book. I don't own it, I have the small, softcover trades instead, but from what I've read about the Omnibus, it's a great piece of work.
ReplyDeleteI won't say anything about the Starman BN comic until I actually read it, just in case you really get into the Starman series. I wouldn't want to inadvertently give away what happens/who dies.
I'll probably commit to reading a buncha stuff tomorrow as my PS3 crapped out on me and got a red error screen. Literally a hour and a half after I stopped playing to grab something to eat.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll let ya know this time tomorrow if I cracked open my Starman yet, but I'm going in with high expectations!
Ouch, that doesn't sound good... A few years back my PS3 froze up and after I reset it, it wouldn't read any discs I put in it. I wound up having to send it to Sony for service. It was right around this time of year too, I think 2 years ago. Definite sucktitude.
ReplyDeleteWell, hopefully you'll like it. I figure you'll either really like Starman, or you'll hate it, I doubt there's any middle ground.
Yeah Basically I gotta send it in, and couldnt find my receipt. Almost had to pay 150, but I called the Gamestop Corp. and they looked up my Serial Number and are gonna send it to Sony. Man I was gonna be SO pissed.
ReplyDeleteSo I got sidetracked today with some tv and I read WW BN 1, Flash Rebirth 5 and Crisis of Conscience. Btw thanks for recommending that because it was pretty awesome. Well I'll get to The supposed Awesomeness that is Starman soon enough. :P
I feel for you man. Like I said, it was around this time of year 2 years ago the same thing happened to me. The really sucky thing was the fact that I had just gone on vacation from school, and when my PS3 came back, it was almost time to go back to school!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you like Crisis of Conscience. BN: WW is in my next comic order, which I'll prob be placing next Wed, so I've got a few weeks before I get my mitts on that one.
Ahh thats so wack. They actually shipped the box today and used 2day air so im hoping I get it back before Christmas at least.
ReplyDeleteYeah man I really liked Crisis of Conscience. One of my favorite reads in a while actually, so once again thanks for that. I had no idea that even existed. Lol
Good luck with your PS3 man... Those few weeks I was without mine was sheer torture!
ReplyDeleteGlad to be of assistance. That was one of my impluse buys. Sometimes those turn out to be really good, while other times I'm stuck with something like Dark Knight Strikes Back!
Thanks man...I know what you mean. I lost my Xbox do to the Red Rings a while back and that wait seemed like forever.
ReplyDeleteSo in other words sometimes you get Steaks and sometimes you get Celery. Man speaking of Impulse, canymore Bart Allen issues or comics you could recommend me?
"sometimes you get Steaks and sometimes you get Celery." I love that saying! You can officially consider it stolen!
ReplyDeleteHmmm, off the top of my head, no... BUT, with winter break fast approaching, I'll go through my Impulse books to see if I can find anything worth reading. Just try to remind me after next Monday, 'cause if you don't, I can guarantee I'll wind up forgetting!
Lol I so came up with that off the top of my head. Consider it yours my friend. Hopefully it makes it in an article. :P
ReplyDeleteSweet, will do. By the way, I'll be shipping my PS3 off tomorrow so hopefully I get it back before Christmas because I'm expecting DJ Hero.
Good luck with that. I remember it taking a few weeks before Sony got me my PS3 back, so hopefully they'll get yours, fix it up and have it back to you in no time.
ReplyDeleteI really hope so man...now I play the waiting game...And I got a 360 with no games lol.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know what you mean about no "lasting" deaths, but I'm at least interested to see how it's going to play out now. I'm a fan of taking Wonder Woman and Superman out of the picture as heroes in big events like this. Especially since they seemed relegated to the show up in the back of the panel to punch things types of roles they had in the Sinestro Corps War.
ReplyDeleteI thought the interactions between Hal and Barry in this issue seem so forcefully "chummy." I think Geoff Johns thinks he really writes those two well together, but it all seems so "intentional" that it comes out feeling stilted.
Oh yeah, I'm definitely interested in seeing how Geoff wraps everything up as well, and to be honest, I'm kind of glad that there probably won't be any real lasting deaths.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you know, that's kind of the problem with WW and Supes. They're SO strong that when you group them with other heroes, it's tough for the heroes not to just trounce the villains. That's the funny thing about the DCU. They seem to have an overabundance of overpowered heroes, unlike the Marvel U. If you paired Supes, WW, Martian Manhunter, Hal and Zatanna up together, they should conceivably be able to defeat ANY threat.
To be honest, I've never been a fan of the Barry/Hal friendship. Give me Hal and Ollie hanging out together over Hal and Barry anyday. But then again, I'm still a bit perturbed that Barry has usurped Wally's spot...
My guess is that everything in the DC is literally going to die, and then Johns is going to cherry pick who gets resurrected. This way all the silver age characters like Aquaman can come back in one convenient story.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Wally definitely has that "grown up sidekick" vibe now. Haha, he says "I'm the Nightwing to your Batman" to try and persuade readers that the stiuation's cool, but it's kind of sad that he's now relegated to backup feature status. It's better than nothing, though.
After this issue, I think that's about as close to what's actually going to happen as I've heard so far Kello. I can definitely see that happening, especially considering Geoff's well-known love for all things silver age. I guess that's better then having to read through a "Martian Manhunter: Rebirth" mini-series...
ReplyDeleteSee, that's the thing that I really hate. Wally hasn't been in Barry's shadow for what, 20, 25 years now? Now he goes from established super-hero to "the OTHER Flash". It's sort of like taking a sledgehammer to all of the character development Wally's been through over the past several years. I guess you're right though, it could definitely be worse. He could be stuck in a wheelchair like poor Zoom...