Blackest Night #0 (Free Comic Book Day Edition)

Back to the stack of random unread comics. Here's one of DC's Free Comic Book Day offerings from 2009, and the start of one of their big multi-book crossovers.

Title: Blackest Night
Issue: #0 (FCBD Edition)
Date: June, 2009
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Ivan Reis
Inker: Oclair Albert, Rob Hunter
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Nick J. Napolitano
Editor: Eddie Berganza, Adam Schlagman

Blackest Night was one of those crossovers that felt like it had a ton of potential in the beginning, but (for me anyway) failed to hold interest as it stretched on and on. Since this is the #0 issue, this is still in that stage were the story intrigued me.

Most of this issue is a discussion between Hal Jordan and Barry Allen as they visit the Wayne family plot and talk about the nature of life, death, and resurrection as they have experienced it.

At this particular moment in the continuity, Bruce Wayne is dead at the hands of Darkseid and his Omega Beams (or, as I like to call it, the "dis that don't miss"). This would be a death that did not last long. Aquaman and Martian Manhunter are also apparently spending some time "dead in the DC Universe", so there is a lot of death to discuss between two individuals both fairly recently resurrected themselves.

Given all of the overarching silliness of this, the dialogue is actually quite good. There are some nice insights into both characters and into their relationship with the Justice League.

The dialogue ends and we segue into a tease of what is to come in Blackest Night, including a very awesome Black Lantern Oath.

Backup feature is a handy guide to all the different colors of lantern corps, featuring lovely illustrations and some basic info on each set of ring-followers.

This was very heavily invested in DC Universe continuity, but still managed to be enjoyable, if a bit on the grim side.

Rating: 6/10

30 Day Comic Challenge Day 22

Day 22 - A Series That You Liked But Stopped Reading

After the mess that was Infinite/Final Crisis (which got to the point that the only way it would possibly have been cool was if it were actually, you know, FINAL), I had pretty much sworn off the DC Universe. Then along came the next big crossover. I flipped through it in a store an said to myself, hey, this is actually kinda cool. Like a zombie apocalypse in the DC Universe. That series, of course, was Blackest Night. And it started out really good.



By about the fourth issue I was done. Though well-written, the story fell into the same old pattern of contrived deaths of minor characters (and the occasional major one just to get the fans worked up into a tizzy) that were cruel, sadistic, and ultimately meaningless as it was obvious that the universe was headed for yet another cosmic-scale reset button, so nothing that happened in the story was really going to have any meaning in a long-term sense. It's too bad, because the execution (pun intended) on this one was decent. If they had done JUST this, and not Identity Crisis/Infinite Crisis/Final Crisis/52/One Year Later (and if they hadn't followed this with Brightest Day/Flashpoint with another huge reboot heading our way this September), then I might have kept reading.

Sorry, though. Only going to be fooled so many times.

From My Creations

I'll take this from the point of view of projects that I liked but that we never finished publishing.

Years ago I started a zine called Caravan. It began life as a standalone zine, although it resembled a newsletter more than what most people think of when they think zine. For several years, it was published as part of Phoenix, a longstanding APA. Currently, we're publishing a steampunk version of Caravan as a freebie to give out at the more steampunk-oriented shows we attend.

In the original Caravan, I wrote a comic strip called The Hearth, which was conceived as a comedic soap opera set in a fantasy world. Gynn drew it, and it ran infrequently for many years. It doesn't have a home in the new version of Caravan, so it's back on indefinite hiatus.

Here are a couple of sample strips:




The 30 Day Comic Challenge Page on Facebook is here. Here is the complete list of daily topics:

30 Day Comic Challenge
Day 01 - Your first comic book.
Day 02 - Your favorite character.
Day 03 - A comic that is underrated.
Day 04 - Your guilty pleasure comic or character.
Day 05 - Comic character you feel you are most like (or wish you were).
Day 06 - Most annoying character.
Day 07 - Favorite comic couple.
Day 08 - Best series being published right now.
Day 09 - Most touching comic book/comic book scene.
Day 10 - Dream versus match.
Day 11 - Favorite comic book cartoon series.
Day 12 - A comic everyone should read.
Day 13 - A book you’ve read more than five times.
Day 14 – Most awesome single comic book image
Day 15 - A Picture from the comic you’re reading right now.
Day 16 - Funniest comic book/comic book scene.
Day 17 - Most useless Villain.
Day 18 - Favorite B-list character.
Day 19 - Comic book city/universe you wish you lived in.
Day 20 - Favorite super power or skill.
Day 21 - Favorite writer.
Day 22 - A series that you liked but stopped reading
Day 23 - Your favorite artist.
Day 24 - Dream character team up.
Day 25 - A book you plan on reading.
Day 26 - A comic you wish they would make into a movie.
Day 27 - Favorite comic book movie.
Day 28 - Favorite comic publisher.
Day 29 - A comic you thought you wouldn’t like, but ended up loving.
Day 30 - Your favorite run or series of all time.