Saturday Showdown: Blackest Night at the Half

For this edition of Saturday Showdown, we have Matt and I discussing Blackest Night at the half way point. We’re now four issues in to Blackest Night proper and a lot has happened. The question is simple: has it lived up to the hype. Is it everything we thought it could be and more…or does it disappoint? Matt and I, as per usual, have diverging opinions which we gladly share with you below.

This is absolutely the hottest title on the market right now, so please share your opinion in the comments. Also, if you have any ideas on future Saturday Showdown topics that you would be interested in seeing us discuss, we’ll gladly take any advice!

Matt – Loves it: Now that we’re at the halfway point of the single most hyped DC event of all time, it’s fair enough for us to sit back and take a look at all we’ve witnessed and see how it’s panned out. There’s been a lot to look over and a lot that has happened in such a short time, and when you consider that everything you’re reading is taking place all in one night, it makes it even more intense.

The biggest concern anyone has with an event like this is, “Will it pan out to expectations?” I’d say that so far it 100% has. Blackest Night has come forward to being much more than we ever expected in the first place, and I love it.

When we first heard about the Blackest Night, we had originally assumed that it was a Lantern-centric event. We hadn’t assumed that it would go out to be so big in spectrum as to visibly effect the entirety of the DCU both in a series of 6 minis as well as tie-in issues from all your favorite books. However, now we can really see the scope of it, and it is pulling ahead with furious force. One of the biggest concerns right off the bat is that it would take so long to get to Nekron and his devious plan, especially when this central story is limited to 8 issues, but with the upcoming 5th issue, we’re going to be let into the mind of Geoff Johns and see how it is that this has been building up through the years (although I’m sure everyone and anyone has their own theories). Johns even teased us briefly with the final words of Blackest Night #4, “What Is Nekron?” Not WHO, but WHAT, and that’s clearly a huge part of the devilish nature of the tale. So as far as the central storyline goes, without going into the tie-in books, we’ve got a concise story that is easy to follow for any DC fan.

So how has the main storyline been? Well, let’s look at expectations and see what has been met. Have the dead risen? Yes, very much so. Have disastrous and shocking things happened as a result of the risen dead? Even more so. The first issue left so many people shocked and in awe, as Ralph and Sue Digby ripped out the hearts of beloved Hawkman and Hawkgirl, leaving them dead and leaving us confused as the Black Hand stood over their bodies with black rings descending from the skull of Bruce Wayne cradled in his hand. Has the story been moving at an even pace? Yes again. This is not to say that there are jumps in time, but do we all really want to see every individual death that results in the arrival of Nekron? Not really. We’ve seen some great returns and some horrific violence, and each sequence helps us learn more about the nature of our enemy. Whether it’s the horrific turn of events with Firestorm or watching Tempest being murdered and resurrected, we’re still learning. A lot of people have made assumptions about what the storyline itself will be, but in reality, we knew next to nothing coming in and we weren’t supposed to know more than that. We knew the dead would rise and that the results would be disastrous and horrifying, but other than that we were just as in the dark as anyone else. And now, with Nekron revealed, you can be sure that some of the back story to the build up will be explained as our characters begin the race to overcoming death itself.

Then we have the “second” main storyline in Green Lantern. Green Lantern is just as much a must read title as Blackest Night in order to understand the entirety of the storyline, and while some may feel that’s a bit unfair and I would occasionally agree with them, you simply need to look at it in a different way. In essence, you’re not just getting one event, you’re getting one event in two simultaneous storylines that are sure to overlap for absolutely explosive results. That’s something that really hasn’t been done before. We know Geoff Johns can write a good event — it’s called Infinite Crisis, and Infinite Crisis utilized the same buildup as Blackest Night is doing. You’ve got your confusing opening, the “end goal” reached half way, explanation and a resolve. And while you could’ve been following a number of other books at the same time, you could get a great story out of just reading Crisis. But this isn’t a Crisis. This is a Green Lantern event that was too big for just Green Lantern to handle alone. So what does Johns do? He keeps part of the story in the Green Lantern book for the fans that have been following the War of Light (because really, if a bunch of funny colored lanterns popped up out of nowhere and you for whatever reason HADN’T been following GL, would you be annoyed or what?) and then the rest of the DCU’s storyline in the main book. It really works well. There are of course moments in Green Lantern that I believe should have appeared in Blackest Night, but overall the balance between the two interlocking storylines is really magnificent.

Let’s take a look at the tie-ins. For most big crossover events, the tie-ins are hard to follow, and at their worst really don’t factor into the central storyline. A big example of this would have to have been Final Crisis, where only two/three tie-ins mattered at all. It’s also fair to say that, when originally planned, the story wasn’t even supposed to be this big. As I’ve noted, this is a “Lantern event” and was probably going to simply be handled as such. But as the hype for it built and everyone got excited for it, it became a DC event. Thus a stigma was put over it, and the dreaded tie-ins were announced. However, in each tie-in for Blackest Night, we learn just enough extra information about the Black Lanterns that I believe it justifies the dollar spent. We can’t have Superman and Batman appear on every page of the Blackest Night, but they are just as important to the events of the story as any other character, especially when you consider the recent death of Tim Drake’s father just a few short years ago in Identity Crisis (I believe that portion of the tie-in was handled extremely well). Another important thing to note is in the Blackest Night: Titans tie-in, we saw what reactions the Lanterns had to Dove, as well as the prophetic return of Don Hall. It’s wrong to assume we know everything, but the bits and pieces that we’ve come to understand, as each hero fights off their returned ghosts, reveal more about the overwhelming saga that is simply too much to be contained within one book.

See, the main issue you have with a series like this is there is a LOT to be explained. Who are the Black Lanterns? What is their power? How can they be stopped? Why? When? Etc. etc. etc. To try and cram it all into one story is absolute madness, and with an event like this it’s impossible to really believe it could only be contained to one single story. There are millions of aspects to explore because there are millions of heroes in the DCU that have all been affected by the death of their loved ones. There is also the whole idea of actually defining death in the superhero universe that weighs down on Johns’ head, and that is quite a burden to bear. However, when it comes down to my dollar, I’d be willing to bet any amount of money I spent on a story by him would have an ample and wonderful pay off because the man has, time and time again, proven that he is an absolute master in DC storytelling. If he says the main story can be done in 8 issues, I’m inclined to put absolute blind faith in him because he’s never steered my wrong in the past.

So half-way through the Blackest Night, am I content? Am I satisfied? Is it living up to the hype? Yes, yes, and yes. There are very few large scale events like this with tie-ins and crossover issues where I’m satisfied as a whole and don’t feel I’ve wasted a single dollar, and the Blackest Night is a shining example of that.

David – Has his reservations: Blackest Night at the half is in a very interesting position. After 2007’s ridiculously successful Sinestro Corps War and the slow but steady build up to Night itself, creators Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis are effectively bullet proof. I cannot recall a single time in the past two years I read something that resembled a negative review about their work with this universe, and for the most part that is deserved. They are a truly exceptional team.

However, I do find it interesting while reading Blackest Night and then looking back at Marvel’s last major event comic Secret Invasion and noticing similarities aplenty in terms of pacing and plot structure. Secret Invasion was pretty much lambasted from the very beginning by major media outlets like IGN because the opening of the series was basically a four issue fight scene in their eyes. Event architect Brian Michael Bendis was frequently described as dragging down the series by making it overly talky yet also too action oriented (evidently reviewers did not appreciate Bendis’ narration methods).

The strange thing to me is that Invasion was often derided for this, yet that is effectively what Johns has given us as well. The first issue was the arrival of the Black Lanterns, second issue was fight, fight, death, third issue was fight, fight, death, etc. etc. Sure, there are fantastic character bits in there, including the ascension of Mera (of Aquaman fame) to legit elite character level and the return of Barry Allen and Ray Palmer to the DCU spotlight, but I often fail to see the difference between what it is offering that is so superb that Invasion was so obviously lacking.

This works well as a framing device — I think fans are so expectant of an absolutely brilliant series that they could be given anything and think it was gold. Sinestro Corps War conditioned us to expect that, while Invasion was awkwardly set up, so our expectations are directly related to what immediately preceded it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve greatly enjoyed Blackest Night so far (just like I also enjoyed Invasion). I’m just not ready to call it a masterpiece in the making like many others would.

I have two major issues with the series to date, which I revealed previously in my review of Blackest Night #4.

First, you have Blackest Night proper. So far, in my eyes, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps have handled the event nearly flawlessly. Given their track record, it’s completely unsurprising. What is surprising is that DC went with the idea of running this story primarily through a flagship event title given the successes Johns and GLC’ writer Peter Tomasi had in making Sinestro Corps work by alternating issues between their two titles. In my book, why recreate the wheel when you’re riding dubs with spinners (if you know, you’re a member of the Three 6 Mafia)? Yet that is what they did, and the oddest thing is that Blackest Night is almost entirely focused on this event from the perspective of the aforementioned characters of Mera, Barry Allen, and Ray Palmer.

I mean, why would you think an event that came from Green Lantern actually involved Green Lanterns? That’s foolish. So far in this series, Damage has seen more face time (bad form me, sorry Damage) then the other three Lanterns from Sector 2814, and to be perfectly honest, it just feels weird and wrong. I know this event is way larger than just the world of Green Lanterns, but effectively subtracting the primary characters from the title and replacing them with two random heroes and the returned Barry Allen was an odd decision and one that frequently haunts the title in my opinion. Realistically, you could read synopsis’ of the Blackest Night issues and only read Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps and be just fine, and that is most definitely not how an event should operate.

Then, you have the second big problem: Nekron. Or, more accurately, who the **** is Nekron? Also, why should I care? Which begets an additional question: why Nekron? Or even better, why is Nekron doing this? You name it, there is a question at every corner for the Black Hand’s new best friend, but ultimately you have to think of it like this: the ultimate villains of Sinestro Corps War were effectively a who’s who of crazy awesome villains. You had Sinestro, Superboy Prime, Cyborg Superman, Amon Sur, Parallax, and, oh yeah, the Anti-Monitor. This time you have a resurrected D-level villain with a Black Lantern ring and a villain no one has ever heard of. Needless to say, that’s a massive downgrade.

Having such an unexciting villain and such a purposeless campaign (do we even have a motive here, besides wiping out the light?) is arguably the greatest reason why Blackest Night has ended up as such a meandering storyline and basically a four issue fight scene so far. The only dramatic tension is generated by death, which Johns has given to us in spades, but I feel like I need more. He can keep “rise”ing up old heroes, villains and allies to his heart’s content, but unless Johns quickly establishes a very good reason for Nekron to be doing this and for what his point of existence is in issue number five, it’s hard for me to not consider this series to be a failure of sorts.

I do want to note though that I have very much enjoyed it so far and that Ivan Reis’ pencils on the title are truly exceptional. He really is doing career best work here and he renders these epic battles with intense energy and palpable excitement. I wouldn’t change anything of that aspect of the title; I’m just looking for something more from a story standpoint. This was built up to be the event to end all events. Well…how about you show me something Geoff Johns? Make me love it like I want to.