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Once again a massive blockbusting plot line finishes and we’ve all got to be careful of spoilers for Blackest Night #8. News about Brightest Day continues after the skip/spoiler space…
Tag: Blackest Night
1 CommentJames Robinson interview at iFanboy
The iFanboy Talksplode podcast hosted by Ron Richards recently talked to writer James Robinson (Justice League of America and Superman) about reviving his seminal Starman series for a one-last Blackest Night issue. Robinson talks about how respectful DC had been about his Starman legacy and how he approached the issue more as a Shade/Opal City story about one of the Starmen. The show is only16-minutes long so is nice and focused.
Mikel, blue-alien ex-Starman, is currently appearing in Justice League: Cry For Justice. Robinson reveals that Mikel will be sticking around for the full JLA series and will actually start using the codename Starman again.
The latter-half of the podcast is revealing as James gives a surprisingly frank assessment of his work load during the Blackest Night even. After saying that the he over committed himself and that he’s scaling back, he says the following:
Coming into the Justice League when I did was probably the worst thing I could have done in that I couldn’t get a really good head of steam. The Blackest Night stuff was coming up. I’m not sure if that was my best work or the best depiction of the Justice League I’ve ever read. I’m sure a lot of readers felt the same way.
He sounds really down on himself when commenting (Bleeding Cool said he almost sounded like a James-Robinson-Hater). His first three issues on JLA have been Blackest Night or preamble so I’m not sure if its fair to consider them representative anyway. I really wish JLA writers found writing the book fun.
Finally, slightly tounge-in-cheek, Robinson comments:
By the way, for the record everybody listening to this: I don’t enjoy killing off characters and I’m not going to do it any more. It’s a much nicer James Robinson that’ll be writing comics in the future.
Be sure to check out the full podcast for all the details about Blackest Night Starman.
[Via: Bleeding Cool]
Blackest Night dawns into Brightest Day
DC has a plan for 2010 and it’s called Brightest Day. The name is a reference to the Green Lantern Oath (“In Brightest Day, in Blackest Night”). As the Blackest Night event reaches its end DC are planning the next phase. The spine of the event will be a new 26-part bi-weekly series called Brightest Day written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi.
On Twitter, Johns cryptically summed up Brightest Day as
If anything sums up BRIGHTEST DAY it’s this…”In order for the light to shine so brightly the darkness must be present.” Francis Bacon
Later in an extensive IGN interview Geoff Johns expanded upon the idea of Brightest Day,
That’s what I’m hoping Brightest Day accomplishes in the DCU – taking characters and concepts that have been around for a long time and reintroducing them in big ways and with new elements. That’s a lot of why, in Blackest Night, you’ll see a lot of characters confronting the past, because it’s time for us and them to put the past to bed so characters like Ray Palmer can move on to the next adventure and next step.
DC Universe Rebirth anybody?
The Brightest Day banner will be attached to other books that tie into the year-long event (52 weeks = 26 x 2 weeks). This includes Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, and the new Flash series, the Titans, and Justice League of America. However, we don’t yet know what the real event will be about, just that it exists.
The JLA will pick up the Brightest Day banner with the April issue (JLA #44). The released cover for JLA #44 (above) shows a mysterious blanked out woman surrounded by members of the Justice League and Justice Society All-Stars. All that DC Executive Editor Dan Didio would say on the Source Blog was,
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA will also feature the [Brightest Day] banner, starting with April’s #44, but the characters that will be joining the team are still very much under wraps. Sorry, I’m usually not this secretive in the afternoon. Hope you understand.
Which is interesting considering we thought we’d already had the big announcement about the new League’s roster.
I was amused by the cartoon on Bleeding Cool claiming that the new star of Brightest Day will be the villainous Dr Light. I’m kinda wondering if the woman in the middle of the JLA #44 issue isn’t Kimiyo, the heroic Doctor Light.
Justice League of America (vol. 2) #40
Issue Credits
- Writer: James Robinson
- Penciller: Mark Bagley
- Inker: Rob Hunter, Scott Hanna, and Marlo Alquiza
- Colours: Pete Pantazis
- Letters: John J. Hill
- Associate Editor: Adam Schlagman
- Editor: Eddie Berganza
- Cover: Mark Bagley, Rob Hunter, and Pete Pantazis
Ulises Farinas draws LEGO Blackest Night
This is an impressive piece by Ulises Farinas, the hoards of Blackest Night rendered as LEGO mini-figs. I love the floating Bruce Wayne skull-brick and the way that he’s even got Krypto in there from the Blackest Night: Superman issues.
[Via: Forbidden Planet]
Site info: I’ve added an Art Showcase tab in the Galleries that shows these posts in a gallery like format with links back to the blog posts and the original websites.
Justice League of America (vol. 2) #39
Issue Credits
- Writer: James Robinson
- Penciller: Mark Bagley
- Inker: Rob Hunter
- Colours: Pete Pantazis
- Letters: Rob Leigh
- Associate Editor: Adam Schlagman
- Editor: Eddie Berganza
- Cover: Mark Bagley, Rob Hunter, and Pete Pantazis
Characters
Featuring
- Doctor Light IV (Kimiyo Hoshi, appeared last issue)
- Plastic Man (Eel O’Brien, appeared last issue)
- Red Tornado (John Smith, appeared last issue)
- Vixen (Mari Jiwe McCabe, appeared last issue)
- Zatanna Zatara (appeared last issue)
Guest-Stars
- Gypsy (Cindy Reynolds, appeared last issue)
Villains
- Black Lantern Doctor Light III (Arthur Light, cameoed last issue)
- Black Lantern Giovanni Zatara (first appearance as a Black Lantern)
- Black Lantern Steel (Hank Heywood, first appearance as a Black Lantern, this the grandson of the WWII Commander Steel and the cousin of the JSA’s Citizen Steel)
- Black Lantern Vibe (Paco Ramone, first appearance as a Black Lantern)
Supporting Cast
- Gehenna’s corpse (Firestorm’s girlfriend, killed in Blackest Night #3)
Synopsis
Blackest Night Catch-Up
On the anniversary of Superman’s death, mysterious black rings descended from the sky. The rings reanimate dead bodies turning them into Black Lanterns – cunning and vicious perversions of the corpses’ original identities. These are not created at random, each Black Lantern is chosen to create the greatest emotional distress in a targeted person or group. The Black Lanterns taunt you until they elicit a strong emotional response (fear, hate, love, anger, etc) and then they rip out your heart. Each heart adds incrementally to the power that the Nekron, Lord of the Dead, needs to enter the living world (Blackest Night #1-4).
More more details see my Blackest Night #1-4 catch-up.
Last Issue
In Justice League of America #38: At the time of the attack on the Hall of Justice, the current roster of the Justice League had been meeting in the Secret Sanctuary, the League’s original headquarters. They had suffered a series of crises that had depleted their roster and left them dangerously under resourced. Furthermore, attacks by the villain Promethius had left bones and wills broken. Their deliberations were cut short by a sudden attack by Despero, but he vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared. Zatanna arrived to alert Vixen and the League of the threat of the Black Lanterns and to bring them back to the Hall of Justice.
Reunion Part One: By My Black Hand The Dead Shall Rise (30-page)
The convention that DC uses when introducing Black Lanterns – particularly old, obscure characters that newer readers won’t have heard of – is to include a prologue wherein that character’s memories are downloaded into the Black Lantern. In this issue we see the life story of Vibe – a nineteen-year old Hispanic meta-human wannabe-gangbanger/superhero who was inducted into the Justice League after Aquaman just happened to move the League’s headquarters into his neighbourhood. Vibe ran with the League for a while, but ended up dead on the streets of Brooklyn, strangled by a pair of disembodied robotic hands. With the command of “Paco Ramone of Earth. Rise!”, Black Lantern Vibe bursts out of his grave.
Zatanna returns to the Hall of Justice with Vixen, Gypsy, Doctor Light, Plastic Man, and the Red Tornado. They find the Hall in darkness, the power out, the doors broken open, and wreckage strewn through the corridors. Their biggest concern is the Morgue buried beneath the central Meeting Room. It contained the bodies of deceased supervillains whose remains had been moved there after Nightwing discovered an illegal laboratory that was using meta-human remains to create Frankenstein-like super soldiers.
Doctor Light illuminates the darkness as the heroes make their way deeper into the Hall. They fully expect to meet the villains resurrected as Black Lanterns, but it’s Black Lantern Zatara – Zatanna’s father – who actually blocks their way. Zatanna rejects BL Zatara’s assertion that he is her father (she witnessed the destruction of the real Zatara’s immortal soul). He keeps up a steady stream of offensive spells which lock Zatanna into a magical duel. He almost tears out her heart before she manages to repel him. A weakened Zatanna then teleports herself and BL Zatara away from the Hall.
Doctor Light races a head of her team-mates, leaving them on their own. As the remaining heroes pass through the Trophy Room they discuss how the Black Lanterns are emotionally tied to their victims. Vixen and Gypsy are about to mention Vibe and Steel’s names when Black Lantern Vibe reveals himself. The Red Tornado and Plastic Man immediately attack. The Tornado’s winds rips BL Vibe’s corpse to pieces, but the Black Lantern ring almost instantly pulls its pieces back together again. BL Vibe lunges at Plastic Man ripping out his heart while simultaneously shattering the Tornado with a blast of solid sound. With the Tornado and Plastic Man dead Vixen and Gypsy are cornered by Black Lantern Vibe and the newly arrived Black Lantern Steel.
Doctor Light (Kimiyo) had raced away from the other heroes as she had sensed the presence of a particular Black Lantern – the villainous Doctor Light (Arthur Light). She finds him hunched over the remains of Firestorm’s girlfriend licking the salt. He then turns his attention on Kimiyo knocking her back with a blast of darkness.
Commentary
Annotations: Vibe’s Flashback
Numbers count for page dot panel.
- 1.1-1.2: I have a hard time believing that Vibe was ever the Los Lobos’s actual leader. The only note of him previously running the gang is a line from an elderly supporting character who says “I remember as you ran those Lobos all the time you should’ve been schoolin’ yourself.” Seems fairly conclusive, but his older brother, Armando, was presented as the gang’s leader in their original appearance in Justice League of America vol. 1 #233 (Dec 1984). Paco could have run the gang before Armando, but I just can’t imagine the an older brother being part of his younger brother’s gang.
- 1.2, 2.1: Vibe – in his original costume – and the Detroit Justice League saving Superman, the Flash, and Wonder Woman from the Maestro. This is from Justice League of America vol 1. #237-238 (April-May 1985).
- 3.1: The Detroit League fought Amazo in Justice League of America vol 1. #241-243 (Aug-Oct 1985). This particular scene is a recreation of the cover of #241 which featured Vibe’s original costume (yellow pants), but the interior art of that issue featured the début of Vibe’s second costume (black pants).
- 3.2: This is really how Vibe died in Justice League of America vol. 1 #258 (Jan 1987). He thought he’d defeated one of Professor Ivo’s androids, but he let his guard down and it strangled him with its detachable hands.
- Missing fuzz: When Vibe was drawn by Chuck Patton, the original Detroit League artist, he had one of those tiny, tufty soul patch beards, but its missing in this flashback. George Tuska, the second regular penciler on the Detroit League, doesn’t seem to have bothered with it or he eliminated it when he redesigned Vibe’s costume.
Annotations: The rest of the book
- 8-9.4: Gypsy says her people bury their dead upright. This is probably an allusion to a Gypsy proverb which states “Bury me standing, as I’ve been on my knees my whole life.” It gave title to the book “Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey” by Isabel Fonseca.
- 15.2 Zatanna says that Giovanni Zatara’s soul was destroyed by Lobo. This was during the Reign in Hell mini-series in which Neron and Lord Satanus/Blaze battled for the kingdom of Hell. Zatara had Zatanna destroy his soul – casting it into the abyss – to make sure that it wouldn’t remain in Hell.
- 18-19.2 Vixen creates light by calling on the powers of a Hatchetfish. The Deep Sea Hatchetfishs live at a depth where no daylight reaches. In common with many species at that depth, the Hatchetfish is capable of producing light via bio-luminescence in much the same way as a Firefly. What they use this light for is not precisely known, but ideas include courtship, confusing predators, or luring prey.
- 18-19.6 Spotted in the Trophy Room: Metron’s Chair.
- 26.1 Black Lantern Steel standing in front of the Trophy Room statue of Aquaman, Vibe, and himself. The statue was shown on page 15 of Blackest Night #3 (Nov 2009) foreshadowing the return of Vibe and Steel.
- 27.1 Doctor Light: “I hear you, Curry.” Who does Doctor Light mean? The evil Doctor Light’s name is/was Arthur Light. Arthur Curry would be Aquaman.
- 28-29.2 Interesting twist to Doctor Light. Whilst alive he could control light, but now a Black Lantern he appears to control darkness instead.
Format
This issue is longer than normal and as such has a higher cover price. It has 40-pages and with a cover price of $3.99 whereas last issue had 32-pages and a cover price of $2.99. The solicitations for the next two issues show the cover price remaining, but the number of pages bouncing between 32 and 40.
Rings
DC produced a series of promotional giveaway coloured rings to tie-in to the Blackest Night event. Each ring featured the emblem on one of the multi-colour Corps from the Green Lantern comics (Green Lantern Corps, Red Lanterns, Sinestro Corps, etc). Retailers could order the different rings in numbers based on the quantity of certain issues they ordered. Justice League of America #39 was one of the issues tied to this promotion. For every 50 issues of the comic they ordered the retailer could order a bag of 50 Red Lantern rings.
People’s Opinions
This is the second issue of James Robinson and Mark Bagley’s JLA run. The first issue wasn’t anything too special. It set up a few plots and bridged a couple of stories, but otherwise wasn’t very engaging in its own right. This second issue is definitely stronger as the League actually have something to do whilst chatting. There is no disguising that this story, maybe more than most other Blackest Night tie-ins, is following the classic horror/zombie movie tropes – there is a darkened mansion illuminated by lightning, zombies in the shadows, a troop of kids who get picked off one by one, etc. It’s great fun to see the horror clichés used so unreservedly.
Doug Zawisza’s review for Comic Book Resources begins by saying that his review of Robinson and Bagley’s first issue may have “seemed a little harsh.” It’s an admission that could be at home in almost any of the reviews of this issue. The first issue wasn’t as good as people expected it to be and that led to some pretty heavily pelting from the gallery. This second issue is a lot better and is forcing people to reevaluated their earlier opinions.
There are a surprising number of Vibe fans out there – as Gerry Conway, the character’s creator, once remarked, “Vibe has fans???” – and it seems that Doug is one of them:
The issue starts off with what my cohort, Jeffrey Renaud, affectionately refers to as “Vibe: Rebirth” -– a tale very few comic fans would have requested. As a fan of the Motor City Justice League (or Justice League Detroit) from the days of fueling my comic habits with lawn-mowing money, I was quite pleased to see Vibe get some page time
Mart Gray was also impressed that Robinson is respectful of Vibe’s League,
writer James Robinson doesn’t take the opportunity to knock the Detroit League, they’re presented as nothing less than a valid incarnation of the team.
Comic Reviews by Walt comments on the Zatanna versus Black Lantern Zatara where they were both using spells announced in reverse english
Though it got incredibly annoying trying to read the backwards-speak of Zatanna and Zatarra and I was taken out of the story entirely by the thought, I had a good chuckle when I realized their battle had all but come down to a “yo mamma” spitting contest, their magic given power by what they said: “Disregard what she said!” “No, disregard what HE said!” “No, disregard what SHE said!”
Personally I thought this was a great issue. As I said before it’s a lot stronger than the first issue. Not only that, but it has several fun moments including the reverse speak magic battle.
The Verdict
| Site | Reviewer | Original Score | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reviews Portal | Comic Book Resources | Doug Zawisza | 3/5 | 60 |
| Reviews Portal | IGN | Shawn Hill | 3/5 | 60 |
| Reviews Portal | IGN | Miguel Perez | 5.6/10 | 56 |
| Community Reviews | Comics Vine User Reviews | Ave of 6 review/s | 3.33/5 | 67 |
| Community Reviews | iFanboy | 488 pulls | 3.2/5 | 64 |
| Character Site | Superman Homepage | Michael Bailey | 3 (story) & 4 (art)/5 | 70 |
| Reviews Blog | Comic Book Bin | Herve St-Louis– | N/A | N/A |
| Reviews Blog | A Comic Book Blog | Wayland | 60/100 | 60 |
| Reviews Blog | Comics Per Day Reviews | Timbotron | Good | |
| This Site | Captain’s JLA Blog | Jason Kirk |   |
60% |
| Grand Average |   |
62% |
Blackest Night #1-4: The Earth Bound catch-up
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.
JLA Solicitations for December 2009
DC have announced the December, 2009 solicitations (copies at Newsarama & CBR) for their comic book and DC Direct lines. On the JLA front we have JLA #40, the second Robinson/Bagley issue and a tie-in to Blackest Night, and the advanced solicitation of the Alan Burnett/Dwayne McDuffie Sanctuary trade edition.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #40Written by James RobinsonArt and cover by Mark Bagley & Rob HunterThe JLA can’t escape the BLACKEST NIGHT! Faced with the continuing threat of the Black Lanterns, Zatanna, Vixen and the rest of the team confront their pasts when fallen friends and foes return for blood!On sale December 16 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: SANCTUARY TPWritten by Dwayne McDuffie and Alan BurnettArt by Ed Benes, Carlos Pacheco, Ethan Van Sciver and othersCover by Ed BenesThe Justice League face off with The Suicide Squad when a cabal of Super-Villains turn themselves over to the Super Heroes for protection – much to the chagrin of Amanda Waller and her super-team. This volume collects JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #17-21 and features a tale drawn by THE FLASH: REBIRTH artist Ethan Van Sciver!Advance-solicited; on sale January 20 • 128 pg, FC, $14.99 U
The holidays mean that Diamond have taken the unusual step of skipping a week (December 30th) giving them four rather than five shipping weeks in December. Cry For Justice #6 hasn’t been solicited, but I assume that’s because it would have been in the missing week and is being held over until January.
Blackest Night JLA Bodycount
It’s no great secret that the Blackest Night event focuses on the revolving door policy to death and resurrection in the DC Universe. After reading BN#1 its rather obvious that it is as much a JLA event as a Green Lantern event.
Consider that every single founding member of the Justice League has died at least once and has been resurrected at least once. Admittedly Batman (had his heart stopped), the Martian Manhunter (shifted his mind into a severed limb), and Aquaman (went off to fight gods) were killed off and then resurrected as part of storylines in their own titles, but they were still dead and now are dead again. This doesn’t even include the storyline from Joe Kelly’s run where an Atlantean Queen killed the entire JLA roster for a dozen of so issues.
Who's been dead in the Silver Age JLA - click to enlarge
The above picture shows the roll call of the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Justice League with a mark over a character if he/she has died at least once. There appears to be an inverse refrigerator effect at work. Out of the six female Leaguers only two (33%) have been killed off where as of the fourteen male League thirteen (93%) have been killed off.
What will be interesting to see is how those characters who have never died, never been in death’s clutches, fare in the Blackest Night compared to those characters who have previously escaped death.
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