Muppet’s lampooning the Green Lantern buzz – and remember that the Muppets are now owned by Disney who also own Marvel Comics.

And while everybody is at it here is the Onion’s take:

[via: BC ]

Kirby Krackle are a fantastic nerdrock group who sing about the pain of being sent back to the beginning of a Mario Kart level and of only ever being a henchmen. The thing about them is their songs, as well as being amusing, are also great to listen. I’d heard “Ring Capacity” before, but I’d never seen this amazing video until recently. These guys have to be on the Green Lantern soundtrack.

Issue Credits

Quotes

Green Lantern: “You and your sister melded into one hybrid male/female creature? Bad which way, Todd? Bad as in super-duper creepy? Then I’d give that a big fat check in the “yes” column.

Synopsis “Emerald City. A Dark Things Epilogue”

The JLA and JSA have freed Green Lantern (Alan Scott) from possession by the magical Starheart. For years Alan had controlled the small fragment of the Starheart which gave him his Green Lantern powers. Now he finds himself custodian of its entirety. The cost is that his twin children (Obsidian and Jade) must stay fore ever apart. They are the personifications of light and shadow within the Starheart. If they come within a 1/3 of mile of each other the power of the Starheart overwhelms them and fuses them together into a single being. The danger is that this will break Alan’s control of the Starheart and sets free once more.

Alan tries to console Obsidian by showing him the magical city that the Starheart has created on the Moon. This Emerald City has become a beacon for magical creatures, peoples, and elementals with many of them arriving there via portals from Earth. As the “Sentinel of the Starheart” Alan has become the City’s Governor and has had to become use to dealing with Fae Vice-Ambassadors and making treaties with Sorcerer’s World. The buildings and roads magically grow to accommodate any number of new migrants.

Obsidian questions that with all Alan’s new power he can’t prevent himself and Jade merging again (as shown in JLA #48). However, Doctor Fate and Alan divined the future to see what would happen if Alan Scott lost control of the Starheart. Potential scenarios include the Fae becoming crazed maniacs and declaring war on the Vampires, the Earth being torn apart by geomancers, and Jade/Obsidian being killed trying to kill Alan. Obsidian is suffering as he only learnt that Jade was alive on the same day they he also learnt they had to say apart. Alan has struggled to find the language to console him and hoped the colour and sceptical of the new Emerald City would lift Obsidian’s spirits.

Continuity

• The Starheart’s Fortress on the Moon’s surface remains as an Emerald City. It is now inhabited by an assortment of Fae, elements, and magical creatures.
• The Fae, otherwise known as Elves or Pixies, speak English, but “apparently anything less than superfluously poetic phrase is a sign of weakness and insult.” The can also have a nasty flip side according to Alan Scott.

Opinion

One of the main draws of James Robinson on Starman was his ability to mine obscure DC characters and to give them weight and personality. There was a plot device that once a year Starman (Jack Knight)would receive a visit from the ghost of his brother, an early very-temporary Starman. It was an excuse to chew the fat and deconstruct recent events in the series. This Justice League issue is very much in that vein – albeit with two living characters. This entire issue is a conversion between Alan Scott and Todd Rice. There are no subplots, no scene breaks, just a single two-person conversation.

I think I may like this epilogue issue more that any of the regular parts of the crossover is follows. The difference in the personalities between the older, more reserved Alan Scott and his younger, depressive son are interesting. Remember that Alan Scott should be in his late 90s (he was already a professionally engineer in 1939 and had to be born 25-30 years before that). Alan is genuinely trying to reach out to Todd (Obsidian), but he’s old enough to be Todd’s great-grandfather and there are many aspects of Todd’s life and sexuality that he finds “difficult”. An interesting distinction is made here – it’s not that Alan disapproves of Todd’s homosexuality, he clearly doesn’t – it is that Alan is finding it hard to articulate the concepts and issues involved. (He’s like your grandmother who loves her DVD player or ipod, but she doesn’t really understand how it works).

The aforementioned generation gap also came up with the “cured” joke from Bill Willingham’s last issue. That created a lot of comment online, but I think its a genuine insight into their relationship. With the “cured” joke Todd was gently making fun of his father’s obvious discomfort about discussing sex and sexuality and in this issue Alan actually says that explicitly. Obsidian’s boyfriend (Damon Matthews) was name checked towards the end, it’s good his the character isn’t being completely forgotten. It’s too easy (safe?) to have a “gay” character who is effectively celibate so appearances or at least acknowledgement of their partners  is important.

(After I’d written the above a short Todd Rice/Damon Matthews story appeared Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant 2010. It was about Todd and Damon applying to adopt a child together. It was an interesting recap of Obsidian’s backstory and was written by Marc Andreyko, the writer who paired them up originally. They got turned down which isn’t surprising given Todd’s mental health history – borderline manic/depressive, suicidal episodes, psychopathic episodes, and an unhealthy obsession with his sister. )

This is penciller Jesus Merino’s last issue on JSA and it’s a pity he’s leaving. He may not have done the main crossover, but his work on the title has been one of the main draws. What could have been a very boring talking heads issue is elevated into wonder by the sheer beautiful and grandeur of their surroundings. I do agree with Greg @ CBR who suspects that “all writers not named James Robinson” will probably ignore the new setting. I hope that doesn’t happen and we at least know from the Brightest Day commandment and James Robinson’s comments at NYCC that these plot-lines will be followed up next year Justice League.

The Verdict

	Site	Reviewer	Original Score	%
Reviews Portal	Comic Book Resources	Greg McElthatton	2/5	40
Community Reviews	Comics Vine User Reviews	Ave of 2 review/s	3.5/5	70
Community Reviews	iFanboy	211 pulls	3.4/5	68
Character Site	Supergirl Comic Book Commentary	Anj	B+	70
Reviews Blog	Comic Book Bin	Koppy McFad	2/10	20
Reviews Blog	Comics Per Day Reviews	Timbotron	Average	40
This Site	Captain’s JLA Blog	Jason Kirk		80%
		Grand Average		55%

Characters

Feature Characters

The Justice Society of America

• Green Lantern (Alan Scott, last appeared in Justice League of America (vol 2.) #48)
• Obsidian (Todd Rice, last appeared in Justice League of America (vol 2.) #48, next appears in Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant 2010)

Other Characters:

• Gyln Droilx (Vice-Ambassador of the Fae, first appearance)

Cameos

• JSA and JSA-All Stars visiting the Emerald City (King Chimera, Citizen Steel, Cyclone, Doctor Fate, Doctor Midnite III, Flash I, Hourman, Jesse Quick, Judomaster, Lightning, Mister America III, Mister Terrific II, Power Girl, Sand, Stargirl, Tomcat, Wildcat)
• Future 1 – Andrew Bennett, Manbat
• Future 2 – Terra III, Sand, Geoforce, Geomancer
• Future 3 – Jade

Annotations

Cover – This issue does not have a variant cover. Its a minor point, but this is the first review (full index, not that short reviews I do of Power Girl/Booster Gold) for a loonnnggg time where there has only been a single cover.

Page 2-3 – The Starheart is talked about and can be seen as the crystal hovering above the City.

Page 4 – The Emerald City is filled with many fabulous people and creatures – some of them recognisable, most of them may just be brilliant scene-setting. In the first panel here we see some Winged Monkeys which are undoubtedly a reference to the Wicked Witch of the West’s minions from the Wonderful Wizard of OZ (from which the original Emerald City comes). The city is referenced as being on the “dark side of the moon” and DC Women Kicking Ass have pointed out that Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon famously synchronises with the pictures from The Wizard of Oz.

The Fae appear to be based on the Faeries from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Their manner of speaking is similar to a Shakespearian character and their manner of dress is like that of an Elizabethan or Venetian Nobel man. Vice-Ambassador Glyn Droilx is a new character, but we aren’t told which King or Queen he represents. Given the look and styling of his people it’s very possible that Droilx is representing Queen Titania from Neil Gaiman’s Books of Magic and Sandman series. She is, after all, meant to be the real character from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Page 6 –

• As mentioned by the text box Mordru’s conquest of Sorcerer’s World took place during the Captain Atom backup in Action Comics. That backup was written by James Robinson. The present day Sorcerer’s World is a planet in a dimension that sits at the intersection of many alternative magical worlds. Sometime during the next thousand years the world will shift into normal space and will be part of the background for the Legion of Superheroes.
• The Nightmaster, is Jim Rook, a rock star who gets transported to the fantasy world of Myraa and becomes its heroes — I always think that writers miss a beat with Myraa. Rook’s a Heavy Metal singer and there is so much that could be done paralleling old Album covers. In that vein there is a one-shot appearing in November 2010 called Nightmaster: Monsters of Rock by Adam Beechen and Kieron Dwyer.
• The 5th Dimension is the home plane of the trickster Mister Mxyzptlk. There was a story from Grant Morrison’s JLA run that unified the backgrounds of the various trickster imps (Mxyzptlk, Quisp, etc) and the Thunderbolt Princes like Johnny Thunder’s old Thunderbolt. That story introduced Jakeem Thunder from Kingdom Come into the normal DC Universe and set him up for future membership of the Justice Society.
• Gemworld is another of this legion of fantasy/sword-and-sorcery worlds that litter the edges of the DC Universe.
• The Monolith was created by writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti and penciller Phil Winslade. The Monolith was a Golem created in the 1930s to defend a young woman. Its found decades later by her grand-daughter and becomes a superhero of sorts.
• Zara‘s presence on the Moon is strange as she’s a fraud. She used gadgetry to make people believe in her “Crimson Flame” cult, but was defeated by Wonder Woman.
• Naiad is the water elemental that Batman (Dick Grayson) and Supergirl were fighting in the opening chapter of the “The Dark Things”.

Page 7, 8 - Alan Scott has received greater power from the Starheart before. In that instance he internalized its magical power and no longer needed his power ring. It was part of DC’s attempt to streamline the Green Lantern brand to just a single character (Kyle Rayner) without killing off Scott. During the time he didn’t need his ring Scott used the codename Sentinel and become a senior and powerful figure in the magical community. The forerunners of the Shadowpact (i.e. a magical justice league) were also called the Sentinels of Magic. They were brought together by Sentinel/Scott to watch over the new Spectre (at the time Hal Jordan).

Page 14-5 - Andrew Bennett of “I, Vampire” fame is a rather tragic figure. He is your archetypical “good” vampire – a bit like  Angel, but with a far higher Dracula quotient. I love the idea of a war between the Lord of Rings Elves and Shlock Vampires with Frankenstein’s monster and a Vampire Mister Terrific running around in the middle. The split between the two sides is interesting – Batman is on the side of the Elves (pointy ears and all that). There is a woman in black on the far-left that I don’t recognise, but if that costume was red and she’s a vampire you’d mistake her for Vampirella. Marvel Comics is currently running a major vampire campaign.

Page 16 – All these character have the ability to shape/manipulate rock/earth. Geo-Force is a member of the Outsiders and is Crown Prince of a country called Markovia. The Terra shown here isn’t the original (who was Geoforce’s delinquent younger sister), this one is a friend of Power Girl and is from an underground civilisation. Sand is the former Sandy, The Golden Boy  – the sidekick of the original Sandman. There was an accident that transformed him into a rock-like monster, but he recovered and by degrees has become able to sense the rock beneath him and move through it at will. The Geomancer is mercenary who has cross paths with Sand and the JSA a couple of times.

Page 17 – The merging of Jade/Obsidian into a single entity took place in Justice League of America (vol 2.) #48.

Page 18 - Polar Bears in Armour with Wings. Well Armoured Polar Bears are from Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. The Wings? I’m not so sure about.

Page 19 – Kid Karnevil is a teenage supervillain who has fought the Shadowpact and Justice Society. He infiltrated the JSA as they were expanding and pretended to be the descendant of the original Mister America’s sidekick. However, he was actually working for a neo-nazi group. They captured Obsidian and turned him into a “shadow egg” which they intended to use as the power source for a machine they called the Darkness Engine. They were defeated with help from Mister Terrific who had a deathbed vision of a future where Karnevil had become an American Fuhrer. Obsidian was restored, but the dialogue here implies the “The Darkness Engine” and “The Dark Things” occur immediately one after the other.

Page 20 – Damon Matthews is Obsidian’s boyfriend. He was introduced as a supporting character in Manhunter as a federal prosecutor who worked with the lead character Kate Spencer. When they started dating he didn’t know about Todd’s secret identity although they stayed together after he learn the truth. See the Opinion section for my comments on this section.

Credits

Writer

James Robinson

Penciller

Pow Rodrix, Robson Rocha

Inker

Rob Hunter, Norm Rapmund, Don Ho, Derek Fridolfs, Rich Perrotta

Colourist

Ulises Arreola, Zarathus

Letterer

Rob Leigh

Assistant Editor

Rex Ogle

Associate Editor

Adam Schlagman

Editor

Eddie Berganza

Cover Penciller

Mark Bagley

Cover Inker

Jesus Merino

Cover Colourist

Nei Ruffino

Variant Cover Artist

Ryan Sook, Fernando Pasarin, Joel Gomez

Variant Cover Colourist

Randy Mayor, Carrie Strachnan

Quotes

The JSA All-Star’s Tomcat to the JSA’s Wildcat after seeing the JLA’s Congorilla: Dad, does very team have a talking animal?

Congorilla: I’ve looked at some of the Charlies who’ve been in the J.L.A. before us and you know what?… we’re not so bad.

Synopsis “The Dark Things Part Five”

The Starheart’s possession of Green Lantern Alan Scott and his children Jade and Obsidian has brought the massed forces of the JLA, JSA, and JSA All-Star’s to the Starheart’s lunar fortress. Even together they are hard pressed to counter the sheer power and multitude of the Starheart’s constructs. Now the siblings Jade and Obsidian have merged into a gestalt entity that expresses the Starheart’s unique power of darkness and light.

Mister Terrific recalls Supergirl and Power Girl to the Hall of Justice. He has deduced that the Starheart must be broadcasting a frequency of light that is photosynthetically corrupting susceptible individuals. He now needs Power Girl’s scientific expertese and super speed to assemble a device to block that frequency and allow her, Supergirl, Congorilla, and Lightning to return to the battle on the moon. The Starheart’s own return to that battle prompts a furious counter attack by the heroes. Jesse Quick almost overwhelms the possessed Alan Scott while Donna Troy and Green Lantern Kyle Rayner try to figure how to separate Jade/Obsidian. Hourman and the All-Star’s weight in against Starheart/Alan, but he throws them aside.

Doctor Fate tries to contain Jade/Obsidian, but they torn apart when the energy of the Entity pours through Jade temporary transforming her into a White Lantern. Jade hears the Entity’s voice tell her “Balance the darkness. Your brother will save your friends.” The siblings are lucid for a brief moment, but Obsidian is overcome again. Kyle captures Obsidian in an energy globe and hauls him away before he can rejoin with Jade. Batman then takes Jade to oneside and tells her that he thinks she’s the clue to freeing her father. The Starheart hasn’t been able to dominate her so she might be able to weaken it enough for her father to reassert his control. She taps into the chaotic side of the Starheart’s power and drains more of it into herself. It weakens the Starheart just enough for Alan Scott’s mind to assert itself and wrestle the Starheart under his control.

As the heroes go their separate ways Batman approaches Jesse Quick and asks her to join the Justice League. She agrees. However, not everything is so simple. Alan Scott has regained control of the Starheart, but his mastery is tenuous at best. A ripple of discord would be enough for him to lose control again. Jade and Obsidian must remain apart in order to stop them reforming into a hybrid least their merger overturns Scott’s control and releases the Starheart. Supergirl has left for her own patrol, but there is a hint that her own dark side still exists.

Continuity

• Jesse Quick leaves the Justice Society and joins the Justice League.
• Jade can use her power to charge a Green Lantern ring.
• Alan Scott is now in control of the entire mass of the Starheart and not just the fragment that formed his original battery. This makes his significantly more powerful, but his control is tenuous at best.
• If Jade and Obsidian were to touch each other they’d merge into the hybrid gestalt again.

Opinion

A mammoth seven-part story comes to end with a bang and a staccato series of twists and revelations. The conclusion comes rapidly and surprisingly briefly given the leisurely pace taken to get here (“a little too quick, a little too easy, and a little too fast” as Doug at CBR puts it).  I’m afraid a lot of the details get lost along the way. Exactly where are they keeping the honking great Starheart – is Alan going to have it floating around after him like some sort of puppy dog or have they stashed it in storage somewhere. Maybe we’ll get answers in the post game wrap-up issues. Ralph at the Superman Homepage mulls over the questions thrown by by this issue. I must admit I was confused by which point Jade was meant to have “balanced the darkness” message as the gets the “Life returned” message before she’d syphoned the darkness from the Starheart.

Jim on IGN delivers an amusing, if sarky, summary of the entire crossover including the quip that “then 700 characters punched ill-defined green constructs for several issues”. Personally I thought the multitude of characters in this story was handled quite well and didn’t get too confusing – it’s like the Kingdom Come factor, you focus on the Generals and don’t worry about the background mob. However, the flocks of little thought boxes are getting a little confusion. Doug at CBR comments that,

This gives Robinson one more chance to go nuts with the chorus of thought boxes as the collection of costumed do-gooders gathers to reflect on what happened while planning out how to deal with it.

The problem with that chorus is that those obsure little logos are getting a bit blurry – still it’s better than some Brad Meltzer issues where we had to trace who was who based on foreground/background colour alone.

I had assumed that we’d get some sort of light show and scene of Jade and Obsidian separating, but ping there is Jade with only the dialogue to carry the details. The other White Lanterns seem to have had a more extreme experience during their vision, but Jade’s was almost gentle. The same thing happens with Alan Scott and the Starheart – a little struggling on his part and just ping he’s back. Not that I mind the return of Alan Scott, but it was a little anti-climatic – especially when we then rush into the Epilogue mid-page. They’d have been better off finishing the Cyborg/Red Tornado backup an issue early and using the extra-space for his concluding part.

You can tell we’re in the final part of a big story by the number of inkers on this issue. The normal duo are supported by three contemporaries. Luckily Mark Bagley’s bold style shines through and the effect is not as jarring as it could have been with a more delicate penciller (e.g. Ed Benes towards the end of his JLA run). A couple of reviewers commented that the art looked rushed this issue which may have something to do with the five inkers.

Overall a good, if muddled ending to a good, if muddled crossover.

The Verdict

	Site	Reviewer	Original Score	%
Reviews Portal	Comic Book Resources	Doug Zawisza	3/5	60
Community Reviews	Comics Vine User Reviews	Ave of 4 review/s	3.125/5	63
Community Reviews	iFanboy	312 pulls	3.3/5	66
Character Site	Supergirl Comic Book Commentary	Anj	B+/A	80
Character Site	Superman Homepage	Ralph Silver	4 (story) & 4 (art)/5	80
Reviews Blog	A Comic Book Blog	Wayland	70/100	70
Reviews Blog	Comics Per Day Reviews	Timbotron	Fair	60
Reviews Blog	Major Spoilers	Scott Hunter	1/5	20
This Site	Captain’s JLA Blog	Jason Kirk		70%
		Grand Average		63%

Characters

Feature Characters

The Justice League of America

• Batman (Dick Grayson, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Congorilla (William “Congo Bill” Glenmorgan,  appeared last issue)
• Donna Troy (last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Jesse Quick (Jesse Chambers, joins the JLA this issue, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Starman (Mikaal Tomas, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Supergirl (Karen Zor-El/Linda Lang, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)

Guest Stars

• Jade (Jennifer Lynn-Hayden, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Green Lantern Kyle Rayner (last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Sebastian Faust (last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)

The Justice Society of America

• Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Doctor Mid-Nite II (Pieter Cross, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Flash I (Jay Garrick, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Green Lantern I (Alan Scott, freed from the Starheart, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Lightning (Jennifer Pierce, appeared last issue)
• Mister America III (Jeffery Grave, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Mister Terrific II (Michael Holt, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Obsidian (Todd Rice, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Wildcat I (Ted Grant, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)

The JSA All-Stars

• Atom Smasher (Albert Rothstein, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Citizen Steel (Nathan Heywood, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Hourman II (Rick Tyler, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Judomaster (Sonia Sato, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Power Girl (Kara Zor-L/Karen Starr, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Star Girl (Courtney Whitmore, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)
• Tomcat (Tom Bronson, last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)

Villains

• Starheart (last appeared in Justice Society of America v2 #42)

Other Characters

• The White Lantern Entity (behind-the-scenes, simultaneously with Brightest Day #7)

Cameos

• Eclipso
• Dark Supergirl

Annotations

Page 2 – The upper most tower of the Starheart’s green fortress it topped by a large glowing crystal – this is the physical body of the Starheart. It’s never been entirely obvious whether the Starheart that has possessed Alan Scott was a purely mystical/energy entity of whether it had a physical body. The crystal on top of the castle would suggest that it still retains its physical presence.

Page 3 – Jesse is calling for Rick. That’s Rick Tyler (Hourman), her husband.

Page 4 – Kryptonians have quite a complex relationship with sunlight. They evolved under the light from a dull red star and have no more powers under that light than you or I do under our own sun. However, when Kryptonians are transplanted to Earth the intense sunlight of our yellow star supercharges them granting them extreme superpowers. Their cells operate like miniature solar batteries storing and processing the yellow sunlight. A superpowered kryptonian exposed to red star sunlight will immediately lose their powers or will slowly exhaust their stored yellow sunlight energy (it varies from story to story).

Whatever cellular process allows Kyptonians to absorb sunlight also makes them vulnerable to kryptonite radiation which weakens rather than strengthens them. Lex Luthor has even gone so far as to create a satellite which he used to direct very specific frequencies of sunlight at Superman. That allowed him to trigger or cut off Superman’s individual superpowers, but he has since abandoned that particular technology. Amid all this we now learn that the radiation of the Starheart is having a mild red kryptonite like effect on Power Girl. Odd, but as we see not without precedent. It doesn’t seem to have affected Supergirl.

These two women are actually the same person. It’s often forgotten – like Power Girl’s day job which surprisingly gets a reference here – but PG is actually an older version of Supergirl from a parallel universe. Power Girl’s alter ego is Karen Starr owner, as it states here, of Starrware Industries. That side of her life has been explored in her own series and is now tying into Generation Lost. Power Girl #13 showed Karen having to fight for control of her company after her accountant disappeared with the content’s of her company’s bank accounts. Her human alter-ego is an Anglicization of her Kryptonian name – Kara Zor-L – the family name is “L” (or “El” on Earth-0) meaning star and Kara becomes Karen.

Page 5 – This is an odd statement – “You and Charles on the team” – the only Charles on the JSA would have been Charles McNider, the original Doctor Mid-Nite, but he died before Michael Holt (Mister Terrific II) joined the JSA so they can’t have been on the team at the sametime. Its probably that she meant Pieter Cross, the current Doctor Mid-Nite.

Supergirl’s mother was Alura, the wife of Zor-El. They survived the destruction of Krypton and were captured by Brainiac and placed in the Bottle City of Kandor. Zor-El became the leader of Kandor during its time in the Bottle, but he was killed by a human terrorist shortly after the city was enlarged again. Alura took over leadership of the city and proved to be a stronger, harder leader than her husband. She was killed when Kandor was destroyed by a human suicide bomber.

Adult Kryptonians belong to one or other of the vocational Guilds  – art, science, military, religious, worker. Zor-El was from the Artist Guild, Jor-El and Alura were part of the Science Guild, Kal-El (Superman) was made to serve in the Military Guild by Alura, and Kara Zor-El (Supergirl) choose followed her mother into the Science Guild.

Page 7 – It’s never explained what the Starheart wanted with Starman’s gem, but comparing it to the Crystal on page two and you can believe why it was attracted to it.

Page 8 – Kyle and Jade left each other in a sense. They’d been in space together, but she returned to Earth first. His absence or refusal to follow her can be seen as him abandoning her, conversely she took up with another man after refusing to wait any longer. He says. She says.

Pages 10-12 – White Lantern Jade. This scene takes place simultaneously with the White Lantern sequence in Brightest Day #7. I discuss the origins of the White Lantern here whilst talking about Maxwell Lord and Magog, but we’ve been waiting for Jade to have the same encounter. White Lantern Jade is shown on the variant cover for his issue by Ryan Sook.

The panel from Brightest Day #7 that matches this one is:

The figure shown behind Jade and Obsidian is Eclipso, an old villain who gains power from a cursed black diamond. He can only exist in the dark – or at least out of sunlight.

Page 13 – Kyle Rayner: “This is getting too Luke and Leia” is of course a reference to the twins from Star Wars who didn’t actually realise they are siblings until the final film.

Page 14 – Batman: “Helix Again” – The Helix first appeared in part three when Mister Miracle was guiding the JLA and JSA through the Starheart’s defences. It was part of the set-up that allowed Jade to deduce that her father’s mind was still at work creating order within the Fortress. Jesse’s thought box is a goof – her husband’s name is Rick not Rex – Rex is her father-in-law.

Page 17 – The Starheart Crystal upon the top of the Fortress, as shown on Page 2.

Page 20-21 – Alan Scott’s power levels have swung up and down over the years as his connection with the Starheart and waxed and waned. The Flash seems to be implying that he’s now back to the top of his game. How, when, or if, that gets played out will be interesting to see.

Page 24 – The Black Supergirl that is hinted about here relates back to something that happened immediately prior to the Infinite Crisis in Supergirl #3-5. Lex Luthor used a sample of black kryptonite to split Supergirl into two people. Black kryptonite is the youngest form in the comicbooks, but it relates back to the scene in Superman III where synthetic kryptonite splits the Christopher Reeves’ Superman into the good Clark Kent and the evil Superman. Black Kryptonite has the same effect on comic book kryptonians. It’s shown up in Smallville as well.

Ralph at the Superman Homepage spotted that Mark Bagley was having a joke with the readers – the Daily Planet globe reads Daily Bugle (the newspaper from Marvel’s Spider-Man) as Supergirl flies past.

[Via: Geek Speak]

There is, however, another phenomena that has appeared – the fan trailer. This is distinct from a true fan-film or a fan-film made to look like a trailer, as a fan-trailer doesn’t usually contain any new footage. It’s creator takes existing footage from a TV show, movie or cartoon and re-edits it to create their own brand new cinema-style trailer for that show. Sometimes fans will even take footage from multiple movies and blend them together with their own captions to create a fantasy trailer for a project that never actually existed. These are 5 of my favourites.

1. Justice League

Youtube user facoloco11 put together a fan trailer for a Justice League trailer for a course in Entertainment Marketing that he was taking at university. He and his class took the characters outlined for the George Miller’s Justice League: Mortal film, recast them, and then used clips from a range of different movies to create a trailer for a story where 7 retired heroes reunite to save from the world from a robot invasion. What interested me was the use of Common as Green Lantern, he had been cast in that role in Miller’s film and this trailer shows how good he could have been. The Superman Return and Batman Begins shots are easily enough to spot and I believe the robots are from I Robot.

2. & 3. Green Lantern

We all know that there is a Green Lantern film in production, but that hasn’t stopped Mike Afford putting a considerable amount of effort into creating his own trailer. This one should probably be called a full fan-film because of the amount of original cgi.

3D modelling in Cinema 4D, some artworking in Photoshop, post production in After Effects CS3, grading with Magic Bullet ‘Looks’ which I do rate very highly.  Movie uploaded as 320×240 FLV (25fps, 350kbps, audio 192kbps stereo – but it still gets re-compressed right – is there any way of avoiding this I wonder??)

I love all the other Lanterns and the sense of scale he creates.

The second Green Lantern trailer I like actually features a lot of Mike’s work. Jason Pitts created his own Green Lantern trailer by using a large range of film clips (everything from Firefly to Iron Man) and some stuff from Mike’s trailer. It’s not quite as cool as Mike’s trailer, but I think it does a better job at suggesting a possible storyline.

4. Superman Vs. Superman

This trailer by Youtube user Silver Lightsaber asks the question:

Who is the true Man of Steel? As good of a job Brandon Routh did in Superman Returns, many fans revere Christopher Reeve as the true Superman. When these two collide in one place, who will come out as the victor? It’s the ultimate showdown of Reeve vs Routh.

It works surprisingly well – I particularly like the banter back and forth between the two Lex Luthors.

5. Batman: The Dark Knight (1966)

What would the Dark Knight have been like if it had been made in 1966 with Adam West and Cesar Romero. This clever edit takes the sound track of the 2008 movie and syncs it with footage from the 1966 Batman movie.

Issue Credits

Synopsis “Prelude to the Dark Things”

Previously in the Justice League of America #44: The four remaining members of the Justice League (Batman, Donna Troy, Starman, and Congorilla) are responding to an unusual emerald meteorite that has crashed into the German Black Forest. The League  had to fight Etrigan for possession of the meteorite before they could rid him of its baneful influence. Inside the meteorite they discover the unconscious body of Jade. Meanwhile her father, Alan Scott the Golden Age Green Lantern, has fallen into a coma and his skin is radiating an unearthly green light. Sebastian Faust warns the JSA that Alan’s condition and the meteorite’s arrival are both portents of a chaotic and dangerous future.

The emerald light intensifies around Alan Scott and he begins levitating. An angry Obsidian (Alan’s son and Jade’s brother) orders Faust to tell them what is going on, but this new development confounds him. Jade, having regained consciousness, is angry that the German Rakete-Auslese’s Commander wants to take her in for questioning about the injuries to his men and the damage to the Black Forest caused by her arrival. Things have just about calmed down by the time that Alan Scott and the JSA appear over the horizon. However, their arrival is preempted by Power Girl who smashes through the JSA’s Star Rocket Racer aircraft. Jesse Quick and the Flash manage to save the other JSA heroes, but Obsidian has fallen into the same glowing zombie state as his father.

Supergirl intercepts Power Girl as she arcs around for another pass. Congo Bill contacted Supergirl as the League were leaving the JLA Watchtower, but she didn’t arrive until moments after Power Girl and the JSA . Power Girl throws off Supergirl and scatters the JLA, JSA, and Rakete-Auslese before she recovers. Their fight’s violence shakes the ground below. Dick Grayson realises that both women are vulnerable to magic and has Donna pull Supergirl free while Jade blasts Power Girl unconscious. Jade creates an energy bubble around the JLA and JSA to stop the Rakete-Auslese arresting them. Supergirl is also trapped inside so she accepts Batman’s offer to join the team.

Jade recites what she knows about the events that have occurred. The Starheart was a vessel created by the Guardians of the Universe to contain all the wild and chaotic elements of the universe. A fragment of it became the green railway lantern that Alan Scott derives his powers from. Batman picks up reports of other heroes and villains acting chaotically. The common elements are magic and elemental. Faust says that the same thing happened to his father and that the League’s earlier fights with Etrigan (JLA #44) and Atlas (JLA #42) are related. Mister Terrific also notes that weather systems are swing chaotically around the world. Jade theorizes that her resurrection “shook” the larger bulk of the Starheart that had remained out in space. It overtook her and absorbed her wish to return to Earth.

The comatose Alan Scott suddenly addresses Jade. She is ecstatic that Scott appears to have recovered, but it is actually the Starheart addressing her. The light around Scott suddenly solidifies into a suit of green armour.

Continuity

• Die Rakete-Auslese gets an official translation by the Batman as The Rocket Elite. They are German equals to the Russian Rocket Red Brigade and even share some of the same technology. Their “Uber-Komandant” is Karl Zorn.
• The JSA’s transport is the Star Rocket Rider Mark 8. It would seem they now need a Mark 9.
• Congo Bill’s summons of Supergirl led to Batman offering her JLA membership – all very informal.
• The Guardian’s tamed the Starheart by imprinting on it the desire to be controlled.

Opinion

This issue is ramping into the JLA/JSA crossover with the arrival of both teams in the German Black Forest. There is a lot to like here if you like the JSA (given that it’s a plot-line that derives from one of the core JSA members). But if, like Robert at Comic Bulletin, you “couldn’t give two squats about” the JSA you’ll probably hate this issue. And for that matter you’ll probably hate the preceding one and the next three. If, however, you like the JSA you’ll like this issue… probably. It’s a pity that Black Lightning is no longer in the Justice League as I’d have enjoyed him interacting with his daughter, the JSA’s Lightning, during this crossover.

While we’re on the subject of the JSA: I’m all for the them fighting Nazis – it’s what they formed to do and they are good at it – but, I’m rather uncomfortable with the JLA/JSA acting like dicks around the German Rocket Elite. Okay, they’re rather authoritarian, but they the good guys here and its their jurisdiction. It’s the JSA and JLA who have invaded their country and are refusing to cooperate.

The art continues to be strong, if at times slightly odd. I certainly agree with Superman Homepage’s Ralph Silver about Power Girl’s smash through the Star Rocket Racer Mk 8. However, Jade’s costume doesn’t seem quite right. The pattern on her chest is a star made from radiating triangles that symbolise the Starheart, but the art makes them look like rectangles. And as CBR’s Doug Zawisza observes Jade’s aura looks “more like a skunk stench wafting off of poor Jade.” The Supergirl variant cover by David Mack is beautiful and differs starkly from the normal cover with its strange “let’s stare at each other’s chests” moment (lets not mention what the Flash is looking at). It’s these odd little artistic choices that I find distracting.

A continuing element that people seem to like is James Robinson’s use of the Brad Meltzer style narration boxes. I don’t think its something I’ve remarked on before. CBR’s Doug describes it as,

Robinson’s narrational character of choice this issue is Batman, but it is pretty clear that one of Robinson’s favorites among this cast is Congorilla. Robinson does of good job of sharing the thoughts of several characters in this book, and spreads the spotlight around rather than locking in any one specific character.

They are a nice touch with just the small group of characters, but the boxes can get a little hectic with a larger group. The colouring works to a degree, but I constantly find Congorilla’s yellow boxes hard to read. I guess I’m just old-fashioned in preferring thought bubbles.

One thing that I had forgotten about until I saw the user Darman mention it on the DC Comics Message Boards was the Green Lantern: Heart of Darkness mini-series. This featured an evil version of the Starheart trying to over come Alan Scott, Jade, and Kyle Rayner. The Starheart is a great fantasy concept, but its been reused several times. Robinson is taking a very straight forward approach to it at the moment and is only really introducing what is necessary for this story. Exactly what Alan’s current relationship is to the Starheart, whether it’s part of him wholly or partially, isn’t entirely clear.

I’ve added a ranking from Comic Vine’s Babs to the table below. She loved this issue and gave it 5/5 which biases the ranking upwards to 70%. Without the new reviews the average rating of other people’s reviews would be 64%, only slightly up from 60% last issue – near enough to be equal given the lower number of reviews and the scatter in ratings. I’m inclined to agree with that mark. This was an enjoyable issue, but my concern from last issue about this being a 20-page story stretched out over 30-pages continues. I’d even go further and say that these last two 30-pages issues (JLA #44 and #45) have given us a 60-page short that could have been told more entertainingly and tightly in 20-pages.

The Verdict

	Site	Reviewer	Original Score	%
Reviews Portal	Comic Book Resources	Doug Zawisza	3/5	60
Reviews Portal	IGN	Robert Tacopina	2/5	40
Community Reviews	Comics Vine User Reviews	Ave of 3 review/s	4.5/5	90
Community Reviews	iFanboy	403 pulls	3.5/5	70
Character Site	Supergirl Comic Book Commentary	Anj	B+	70
Character Site	Superman Homepage	Ralph Silver	4 (story) & 4 (art)/5	80
Reviews Blog	Comic Book Bin	Herve St-Louis	7/10	70
Reviews Blog	A Comic Book Blog	Wayland	70/100	70
Reviews Blog	Comics Per Day Reviews	Timbotron	Fair	60
This Site	Captain’s JLA Blog	Jason Kirk		60%
		Grand Average		67%

Characters

Featuring

• The Justice League
  • Batman (Dick Grayson, appeared last issue)
  • Donna Troy (appeared last issue)
  • Congorilla (Congo Bill, appeared last issue)
  • Supergirl (Kara Zor-El, joins this issue)
  • Starman (Mikaal Tomas, appeared last issue)

Villains

• Starheart (possessing Alan Scott)

Guest Stars

• Jade (Jennifer Lynn-Hayden, appeared last issue)
• Power Girl (Karen Starr)
• The Justice Society
  • Doctor Mid-Nite (Pieter Cross, appeared last issue)
  • Flash (Jay Garrick, appeared last issue)
  • Green Lantern (Alan Scott, appeared last issue)
  • Jesse Quick (Jesse Chambers, appeared last issue)
  • Lightning (Jennifer Pierce)
  • Obsidian (Todd Rice, appeared last issue)
  • Mister America (Jeffery Graves)
  • Mister Terrific (Michael Holt, appeared last issue)
  • Wildcat (Ted Grant, appeared last issue)

Other Characters

• Sebastian Faust (sorcerer, appeared last issue)
• The Rocket Elite (German armoured battle corps, appeared last issue)
• Karl Zorn (“Uber-Komandant of the Rocker Elite, first appearance)

Flashback/Cameo

• Atlas (flashback to JLA #42)
• Felix Faust (attacked Los Aldama, Mexico, influenced by the Starheart)
• Firehawk (attacking St Petersburg, influenced by the Starheart)
• Green Lantern Hal Jordan (flashback to JLA #42)
• Guardians of the Universe (during Jade’s recap about Starheart/Alan Scott)
• Jason Woodrue (attacking Ivy Town, influenced by the Starheart, simultaneous with Titans: Villains For Hire)
• Shango (African Thunder God, influenced by the Starheart)
• Solomon Grundy (during Jade’s recap about Starheart/Alan Scott)
• Starfire (flashback to JLA #42)
• Zachary Zatara (comatose, influenced by the Starheart, last appeared in Action Comics #889)

Annotations

• 1.1 The JSA, who seem to be gathering in increasing numbers over the last few issues to watch Alan Scott’s night-light act. Shown are Mister Terrific, Mister America, Jesse Quick, Lightning, Flash, Obsidian, and Wildcat. Also shown with them is Faust – the son of the JLA villain Felix Faust. I hadn’t considered it before, but seeing him standing there reminds me slightly of Jack Knight – James Robinson’s character from his Starman series.
• 4-5.1 A fairly accurate description of Jade’s history. She, Obsidian, and Power Girl (who will show up later) were originally members of a team called Infinity Inc – they were the sons and daughters of the original Justice Society members and were comparable to an Earth-Two version of the Teen Titans (albeit older). Since then the JSA has relaunched with a more multi-generational brief and a lot of Infinity Inc members have joined the JSA.
• 4-5.6 “Grun-Gehautetes Mis-” translates roughly as green-skinned girl. “Green skinned girl” would literally translate as “grüne gehäutet Mädchen”
• 6-7.4 The Star Rocket Racer was originally the souped-up convertible used by the 1940s Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy in their crime fighting days. The original Kid is dead and the current Kid is Stripesy’s step-daughter. Stripesy, now as S.T.R.I.P.E.S. assisted the new Kid for a while, but he has since taken a backseat role as the JSA’s mechanic. He was responsible for building one of their earlier transports called the Steel Eagle. It would seem that the Star Rocket Racer is an evolution of that design.
• 6-7.10 Doctor Terry Thirteen is the DCU’s arch-skeptic. He refuses to believe in the paranormal and instead searches for explanations in physics, biology and rational science. He is the father of Traci Thirteen (the current Blue Beetle’s girlfriend).
• 8-9.1 Power Girl is a version of Supergirl from a defunct parallel universe. The JSA has recently split into two teams. The original JSAers and their older allies stayed as the Justice Society of America and moved into the JLA’s old cave headquarters. The younger, edgier JSAers created a new team called the JSA All-Stars led by Magog and Power Girl.
• 10-11.3 Jesse is shown in several at places once indicating that she is moving at superspeed. Flash Fact: The visual motif of using these after-images to show where a speedster has been wasn’t invented by the artists on the Flash comics, they were a feature of his Golden Age rival Johnny Quick – Jesse’s father.
• 12.1 Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) shouldn’t really need much introduction. She is Superman’s younger-cousin (their fathers were brothers). Recent events in the Superman comics haven’t been easy on Kara. She discovered that her mother and father were still alive in Kandor only for them to be killed in separate incidents by agents working for General Lane (Lois Lane’s father).
• 13.3 In Cry For Justice it was Supergirl and Congo Bill who discovered Roy Harper after Prometheus had torn his arm off and it was Supergirl who first deduced Prometheus’s disguise as Freddy Freeman. Supergirl could be talking about that incident.
• 15.3 After Infinite Crisis Power Girl recruited Supergirl to help her infiltrate the non-Kryptonian version of Kandor (there are two Kandors, only the second is from Krypton, but both were/are bottle cities). They were hunting a version of Ultraman who was posing as Superman, but the two women didn’t really get along very well. Supergirl was going through a rebellious streak and it ended messily.
• 16.1 Two Kryptonian level superhumans  flying full speed at each other has to be an allusion to the clash between Superman and Captain Marvel from the classic JLA/JSA crossover in Justice League of America vol 1. #135 (Dec 1976).

• 19.4 Jade mentions going to Oa. This occurred in Brightest Day #0.
• 21.4 Wildcat: “The Train. The Bridge collapse. Him and the Lantern”.  A version of Alan Scott’s origin. He was a railway engineer when he first came into possession of his magic lantern. At the time he knew nothing about it except that it appeared to be a normal railwayman’s green lantern. He was holding the Lantern when a bridge collapsed beneath his train. It was only because of the Lantern that he survived. It then spoke to him and commanded him to make a ring from its metal. He used the Lantern and the new ring to become a superhero called the Green Lantern. Lightning makes a good point here. Alan Scott may be called Green Lantern, but he is not part of the Guardian’s Green Lantern Corps.
• 22-23.2 “They’re little blue immortals with supreme power and intelligence, Ted. Hello.” – I bet it never occurred to Star Trek to dispense technobabble with cheerleader sarcasm.
• 22-23.3 That fragment that fell to Earth originally arrived in ancient China and was forged into a lamp. The metal of the magic lamp has been remade several times with its final form being the railway lantern that Alan Scott happened to be holding when he first became Green Lantern.
• 22-23.6 Alan Scott is shown battling Solomon Grundy, an undead swamp zombie.
• 24.3 “Shango, the African `Thunder God` is destroying Nairobi”. Shango is a member of a pantheon of African Gods called the Orishnia who first appeared in John Ostrander’s run on Firestorm. He is based on a god from West African mythology, a storm god whose totem is a double-bladed axe. The obvious parallel would be to call him an African Thor. Shango last appeared in James Robinson’s Captain Atom backup in Action Comics #886.
• 24.4 Zachary Zatara is Zatanna’s cousin. He appeared in several Superman comics until he was kidnapped by a sorceress working for General Lane. She took him to Sorcerer’s World and kept him as a pet/slave. Zachary was freed in Action Comics #889 when Captain Atom and the rebel leader overthrew the sorceress.
• 25.2 Jason Woodrue is a plant controlling enemy of the Atom. This particular sequence, Woodrue in Ivy Town, is the opening scene to Titans: Villains for Hire which features Atom Ryan Choi fighting Woodrue just before he is attacked by Deathstroke’s Titans.
• 25.3 Firehawk is Lorraine Reilly. She was Ronnie Raymond’s girlfriend back when he was originally Firestorm, but she’s matured since then and has succeed her father as a US Senator. Her inclusion here is based on the elemental part of the Firestorm matrix.

This is quite amazing. It’s the Justice League recreated on an Etch-A-Sketch by the Etch-A-Sketch Man (alias Christoph Brown) and edited together by Nathaniel Brown. What impresses me isn’t just his skill with the device, but a lot of these are actually quite good compositions regardless of the medium.

[Via: This site]

Seth also has a running project on New York based graphic novelists which his website says will eventually be released as a book.

[Via: Robot 6 @ CBR ]

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.