Sunday, February 14, 2010

Blackest Night - The Week of 02/03/2010


BLACKEST NIGHT: WONDER WOMAN #3 - I have a LOT of problems with this comic. I think this is easily the worst part of this mini. And I know that's something considering how much I ripped on Part One and Part Two.

Okay. I can forgive the fact that Max Lord is being written badly out of character, even by the standards of what happened to him in the build up to Infinite Crisis. The Black Lanterns are, after all, a gross imitation of the beings they resemble. This has been explained.

I can forgive the fact that Carol Ferris and Diana are apparently chummy. It doesn't fit in with anything in any story I've ever read but I doesn't majorly conflict with any story I've ever read either.

But there are a lot of things that I can't forgive.

I can't forgive that this story doesn't synch up with the events of Blackest Night Six or Green Lantern #50 AT ALL.

I can't forgive the fact that there are wandering hordes of civilian Black Lantern zombies here, when at no point in the whole of Blackest Night have we seen Nekron raising dead people who weren't close to a superhero.

I can't forgive that Carol is made to look horribly ineffectual in comparison to Diana regarding using the ring, when Carol has been using a Star Sapphire for over a decade and is one of the few strong-willed enough to use the Power of Love without being consumed by it.

I especially can't forgive how bad THIS scene looks...








Even in the context of a Green Lantern's energy being needed to mix with the energy of another Corps in order to disable a Black Lantern ring... it just looks BAD for two allegedly capable heroines to be presented as being basically helpless and one of them going away so that a man can save them.

But perhaps the most unforgivable aspect of this is the final battle, in which Diana is trying to bring sense to a raging-out Mera and she discovers the long-hidden dark secret that is the source of Mera's rage.

What is it? Damned if I know. It never is explained. I have some idea after Green Lantern #50 but I can't say for sure. And in a crossover where everything else has been explained so well, I find that inexcusable.

Don't waste any money on this if you haven't already.


THE QUESTION #37 - This book is fittingly named. All I have after reading it are questions. How does Shiva know Vic Sage's Black Lantern is going to show up where it does? Are we really supposed to believe that in all her years in battle, Shiva has never been shot ONCE?! How does any of this relate to what is happening elsewhere in Blackest Night? But perhaps the biggest question of all is how Greg Rucka can manage to screw up a book while co-writing with Denny O'Neil.

2 comments:

  1. Actually you're wrong about civilian Black Lanterns. When Nekron first shows up in issue 4 his first command is "Coast City- RISE!"

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