Blackest Night # 4

I’m so fking pissed off right now… This will be my fourth time trying to write a review for this god damned issue. The last three times I’ve watched my review be eaten by some kind of page error…

Most men would have given up by this point… But I’m so irritated and dead set on posting a review now that I cannot stop myself. If my life is to go on I need to post this.

And what really pisses me off is that all three reviews were pretty funny and fair.

But I don’t even give a shit now. I just want to post something.

What’s hilarious is that I wasn’t initially going to post a review. I was just feeling lazy and didn’t want to type. How lazy does someone need to be so that typing is a chore? Pretty fking lazy… And the irony is that now I’ve typed over four times over what I would have if I wasn’t such a lazy ass when I first read it.

Anyway… 
The Actual Review:
The issue overall wasn't bad. There were some really neat character moments that occur which makes this event very special for me. There are two scenes, one involving Lex Luthor and the other involving the Scarecrow, which I loved particularly. There's another scene between the Atom and Mera that I had a fondness for as well.

By the end of this issue we see the Black Lantern power levels reach 100% which causes the Black Lantern power battery to teleport to Earth… And what occurs during this entire scene is just terrifying to me…

When you see the Black Lantern power battery burst through the Earth like a coffin and all the Guardians strewn about it…

It’s terrifying.

And when Nekron pulls himself out some sort of inky blackness and his scythe arcs around him and he tells the dead of Coast City to RISE…

It’s terrifying.

And when I see your mother…

It’s terrifying.

But seriously it was actually creepy to read Nekron say “Barry Allen. You owe me your life. You all do.”

Here's some honesty: when I first saw Nekron in that image from Previews I thought he was the lamest looking villain in years. He looked like some sort of black latex bondage fairy wearing a dog collar and missing a nose. How scary is that??? All I could think of is that this "bad guy" is bound to be the weakest reveal during this event...  But when he wields his scythe in this issue, his own lethal and private power battery to raise the dead, and he chokes out some words commanding an entire necropolis to RISE it ends up being very effective and very chilling...

Mera - " If I'm Wonder Woman and you're Superman, what's that make him? " 
Atom - " The Flash " 
 
It was a fantasitc moment. One of my favourites in the whole comic, but then again I am a massive Flash fan. Barry Allen kicks major Black Lantern butt in this issue.  
In issue three we saw resident ring slinger Hal Jordan whisked off world by Indigo-1. Now the rest of Earth's heroes are left to defend against the rising dead. Flash takes it upon himself to warn everyone by running around, literally, he is the Flash after all, and telling tem face to face. This was a nice touch as we get to see how other heroes and teams are dealing with the Blackest Night. We see the Titans aswell as the JSA and other heroes like Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and Black Canary. Unfortunately thats about it.  
Taking Hal Jordan, the main character may I remind you, from Earth means the action is else where meaning Blackest Night four plays second to Green Lantern forty six, which is where Hal Jordan is to be found and where the action/plot/storyline of the Blackest Night continues. I find this fundamentally wrong and a very silly mistake for Johns to have made. This is basically a filler issue which yes, widens the scope of the Blackest Night to the rest of  Earth's heroes but also fails to progress the Blackest Night in anyway. Well only one, which is seen at the very end. Nekron is the mastermind behind the Black Lanterns, Coast City is now where the Black Lantern battery is and thus Earth is now, again, the center of the story. I imagine the effect Johns is looking for is to have Hal return to Earth to see the destroyed Coast City, Hals greatest failure, full of Black Lanterns and this will put Hal off his game making it harder for him to beat the baddy in the end.
It just doesnt strike me as fair to be buying a comic at an increased price due to its Blackest Night label and have only one significant moment happen which furthers the story in anyway. 
Its like I siad at the start, this issue is about the Flash and how he deals with the Crisis while the Green Lantern has been taken to another title. It really annoyed me. Green Lantern forty six is a great issue which I greatly enjoyed but thats because it continues the story of the Blackest Night. To read the Blackest Night and not be reading the Green Lantern title is hard to imagine as the two are so closely linked that they share the same protagenist. Unfortunately Hal Jordan cant be in two places at once meaning one title had to suffer and suffer Blackest Night issue four did.  
There are some fantastic moments, most centred around the Flash and The Atom, while other moments like the bit with Atom smasher and Damage come across as cheesy and over emphasized. Why have have such a deep three page conversation with a character whos going to be killed in the fourth? Its "an enjoyable" read but in no way should you fell like you have to pick this up if you want to know whats going on,
Two stars for not delivering what it  should have. Very dissapointing.