2.2.11
Ok I know this is probably a little... after the fact, heh but I tend to play catch up.... plus y'know it's probably safe to litter the place with SPOILERS! by now.
Anyway, onwards!
Recently I have been assembling the Blackest Night event for my collection of stupidly expensive hardbacks.
Anyway, onwards!
Recently I have been assembling the Blackest Night event for my collection of stupidly expensive hardbacks.
I'm not going to get them all as they are a little pricey and I feel you don't need every single page ever printed in the event to get a complete understandable picture.
So I've purchased Blackest Night, BN: Green Lantern and BN: Black Lantern Corps volumes 1&2.
These four books take you from the beginning to the end of the entire event in a coherant narrative.
I also heard BN: Tales of the Corps was actually not great tbh but I'm sure it'll end up in my hands eventually anyway. >.>.
They are pretty nice editions as I've come to expect from DC and they smell very nice too.
I'm still shuffling books into correct order after Battle for the Cowl (namely Batman Reborn hardbacks and the superb Batman & Robin deluxe hardbacks) as I tend to stack new stuff in big piles and wait for about 6 months before actually getting around to putting them on shelves.
I digress.Anyway I really enjoyed Blackest Night, it was epic and sweeping, an apocalyptic event that I felt was more grounded than Final Crisis... Everyone can understand superhuman zombies that want to kill EVERYTHING.
It had some standout moments, small scenes perhaps in the great scheme of things but for me they were special.
One that comes to mind is John Stewart creating an entire army of marines out of power ring constructs to battle the whole population of an undead planet... That is the definition of epic and increased my respect for Stewart considerably.
| Beats the hell out of a giant egg beater doesn't it? |
| Mr. Terrific: "up up and away you undead piece of -- " *BEWM!* |
Power Girl shone in this scene and I became sufficiently interested in the character (after years of dismissing her as a pair of breasts for fanboys to salivate over) to see what collected editions existed.
That's how I came across Amanda Conner's work on PG and how I now find myself on the lookout for two Power Girl books: A New Beginning and Aliens & Apes... with total intent to purchase... I know... I can scarcely believe it myself, but just look at this...
| She has a cat... and she washes him in the sink! |
| Just another day in the JSA |
The tone is light and positive and fun, you could eat your dinner off Amanda Conner's art it's so clean... I'm so getting these.
I digress, back to the zombies...
Blackest Night also gave me the chance to appreciate characters who I usually overlooked or only considered in the context of the League like the Flash and Wonder Woman with spotlights on both in the BN hardback that were excellent, I even gained a new found respect for the Flash's rogues gallery and in particular Captain Cold who I had only ever viewed as a one dimensional disposable villain until now.
Cold and the Rogues were faced with the resurrection of the old rogues and Cold's sister. They pulled it together and did their part battling the Black Lanterns and I learned a lot about this group of "villains".
Cold's leadership, the close bonds they share as a team, their code of honour (the Rogues don't kill women or children, the Rogues don't accept sex offenders into their ranks) all helped to flesh out these characters for me and make them more than just gimmicked goons for Flash to smack around.
I was so happy with Blackest Night as a whole
I treated myself to the first Eaglemoss lead
figure in the collectible DC magazine run
dedicated to the event.
Black Hand holding "Bruce Wayne's" skull,
(SPOILER: IT WAS A CLONE!!! HAH!).
| He licks that skull at one point... |
The magazine itself was actually pretty cool and gives a pretty detailed account of the characters origins history and motivations. A costume made of body bags and an unhealthy appreciation of the "beauty" of corpses... They dance around it but the obvious allusions are there. These dark mature themes give the character an edge and cast a shadow of insanity over Black Hand that is far more powerful than anything a black cape and an evil laugh could do.
Of course Black Hand is just a stooge for the real threat, the Anti-Monitor and ultimately that sneaky asshole Nekron using a black battery on some planet half a universe away so he can start vomiting out black power rings to raise an army of dead superheroes from the grave under his will.
Every dead superhero... ever.
The Black Lantern Corps.
He didn't get Batman though.
I digress.
Anyway so that's Blackest Night, I won't go further into it because hey, maybe you might want to read it sometime. It's as good as they say it is and I can assure you that this post barely scratches the surface of the epicness contained therein... I didn't even mention Dick and Damian dealing with Dick's zombie parents in Gotham! Ah well, I've lost my momentum anyway so here's a picture of the boys torching a few undead.
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