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I needed to write a brief Blackest Night catch up for my review of JLA #39, but there was so much stuff to cover that I’ve decided to move it to a post all of its own. The following concentrates on the Justice League and on the Earth-bound heroes, I’ll leave the majority of the Green Lantern Corps stuff for other folks or another time.
Blackest Night #1
Across the United States heroes and villains are gathering together on the anniversary of Superman’s death. This day has become a day to remember those who died fighting for the cause of justice. In Smallville Superboy and Superman visit the grave of Jonathan Kent, in Pittsburgh Jason Rusch visits the grave of Ronnie Raymond (the original Firestorm), the Titans gather at their memorial in San Francisco, and in Chicago the Blue Beetle’s friends gather to remember him. However, the largest gathering is at the Valhalla Cemetery in Metropolis where the heroes with public identities are buried.
Later, Green Lantern Hal Jordan explains to the recently resurrected Flash (Barry Allen) that a huge number of their friends and enemies died in time between Barry’s own death and resurrection. Sometime before Batman’s murder by Darkseid, Nightwing busted a criminal enterprise building Frankenstein like super-soldiers out of meta-human corpses. It was decided that the remains of powerful meta-humans were too dangerous to be left unguarded so a secure morgue was set up three stories beneath the JLA’s meeting room. The League could not keep an eye on the villains remains to guard against any more thefts or inadvertent resurrections.
An unfolding web of horror begins when Alfred Pennyworth discovers that somebody has stolen the Batman’s skull from his grave. Simultaneously a swarm of Black Rings spread out across the universe, they seeking out and invade the tombs and graves of great heroes. The rings bond with the corpses within animating them as vicious, undead perversions called Black Lanterns.
The Black Lantern Martian Manhunter attacks Hal and Barry at Batman’s grave side when they investigate the theft of Batman’s skull. In St Roch, the Black Lantern Elongated Man and Black Lantern Sue Dibny attack Hawkman and Hawkgirl. The Black Lanterns rip out the Hawk’s hearts releasing emotional power that is channelled elsewhere. Each death is accompanied by a mysterious voice from the Black Rings that enumerates how much emotional energy has been collected so far… 0.01%, 0.02%.
Blackest Night #2
The assault of the Black Lanterns is beginning. After their hearts are ripped out Hawkman and Hawkgirl are reanimated as Black Lanterns. The Black Lantern Hawks then lure their friend Ray Palmer to St Roch. In Amnesty Bay, Mera and Tempest arrive to exhume the body of Aquaman for reburial in Atlantis, but they find that it had already left its grave as a Black Lantern. Mera barely escapes, but Tempest is captured, killed, and raised as a Black Lantern. Zatanna and other magic users investigate the gave of Boston Brand, but are horrified to see the Spectre – one of the most powerful entities in creation – taken over by one of the Black Rings.
Black Lantern Martian Manhunter’s battle with Green Lantern and the Flash rages across Gotham City. For a moment it seems that they’re able to defeat him by dropping an exploding police car on him, but things get a lot worse when an entire undead Justice League emerges from the smoke.
Blackest Night #3
Mera managed to escape Black Lantern Aquaman and made her way to the Justice League’s Hall of Justice. She activates the League’s emergency signal, but Firestorm (Jason Rusch) is the only Leaguer to arrive.
The Atom (Ray Palmer) had escaped Black Lantern Hawkman by shrinking and hiding within the Black Ring. He emerges as they battle the Flash and Green Lantern and reports that the rings are channeling the emotional energy released when a Black Lantern rips out a person’s heart. The Black Lanterns prove almost unstoppable and regenerate any injury whilst connected to their Black Ring.
The heroes are suddenly helped by the arrival of Indigo-1, leader of the Indigo Tribe. By combining her indigo light of compassion with Hal Jordan’s green light of willpower she is able to destroy one of the Black Lanterns. Indigo-1 then teleports Hal Jordan, the Flash, and the Atom to the Hall of Justice where they meet Mera and Firestorm. Indigo-1 explains the difference between the various lantern corps and reveals that only by combining light from different corps can the Black Lantern’s be destroyed.
Their brief respite does not last and the Black Lantern Justice League bursts into the Hall. Indigo-1 and her ally Loro teleport away with Hal Jordan. She seeks to unite the leaders of the different corps into a single team and cannot become bogged down fighting Black Lanterns on Earth. The Flash, Mera, Ray, and Firestorm are left to fight the Black Lanterns on their own.
The two Firestorms fight each other, but the unique nature of their powers causes them to merge and Jason Rusch becomes a passenger inside Ronnie Raymond’s undead head. Rusch pleads to Raymond to leave Gen, his girlfriend, alone. He cries and screams inside Raymond’s head, but can do nothing to stop Gen being turned into a salt statue. A flurry of new Black Rings stream into the Justice League’s morgue creating new Black Lanterns out of the dead villains stored within.
The unrelenting accumulation of emotional energy continues… 56.67%, 56.58%, 56.59%…
Can I just say that Black Lantern Firestorm’s murder of Gen whilst Jason Rusch screams inside his head has to be one of the sickest, heart ponding moments I’ve ever read. It’s one of those times where you don’t want to turn the page because you just know that it’s going to get worse.
Blackest Night #4
The unleashed Black Lantern villains include Copperhead, Maxwell Lord, Alexander Luthor of Earth-Three, and Doctor Light. They are like a tidal wave against the Flash, Atom, and Mera. Jason manages to momentarily regain control of Firestorm and warns the Flash that they must evacuate the Earth. When Jason looses control again, the Atom dials 911 and transports the Flash and Mera down the telephone line with him. The Black Lanterns are left behind in the Hall of Justice.
The heroes split again. The Flash leaves on a superspeed mission to alert as many people as possible to the threat of the Black Lanterns while the Atom and Mera travel to Manhattan to help the Justice Society fight off their own Black Lanterns. The Atom stops Black Lantern Al Pratt, his predecessor, from killing Damage, but he is unable to stop Black Lantern Jean Loring – his own deceased wife – from ripping out Damage’s heart.
The emotion released by Damage’s murder tips the Black Lantern’s accumulated energy to 100%. The emotional power is being directed to a giant Black Lantern Battery on the planet Ryut in Space Sector 666. Now full, it teleports to Coast City on Earth where it is met by Black Hand – the herald of the Battery’s owner, the undead lord Nekron.
The Flash finds himself drawn to Coast City and arrives in time to see Nekron emerge into this dimension. Black Rings begin raining from the sky around him and plunge into the ground. The ground where seven million victims of Coast City’s destruction are buried.
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