Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ivan Reis
Now, what came out to review this week? There’s Blackest Night #6, Blackest Night #6 and Blackest Night #6. If you’re only going to release one book for the last week of the year, it might as well be your big event book.
The Story
Right from where Blackest Night #5 left off, Black Lantern Rings chase after our book’s heroes – Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Flash Barry Allen – in Nekron’s attempt to take over all previously resurrected characters for his greater goals. What better time to show off Barry as the be-all and the end-all of Flashes with a little god speed?
As we approach the end of the series, the hard questions begin to be asked. What will happen to all the resurrected characters once Nekron and presumably his influence over them are gone? The characters themselves are shown to be aware of the massive ramifications all of Blackest Night may have on the DC universe. It’s nice to see the characters getting on the same wavelengths as the readers while not dwelling on the subject too much to screw up the pacing.
Even with representatives of all the Lantern Corps are together, their combined light is worth squat. What’s their latest trump card then? Deputizing one character per color to create the “rainbow rodeo” support, of course.
Deputizing does seem like a pretty obvious ability for the universal police force, but its timing and application seem nothing more than to give characters random power ups and variant action figures. Obviously the entire Green Lantern Corps doubling even for a day wouldn’t have been helpful during the Sinestro Corps War or anything like that. There’s a plethora of super heroes and villains around, and there are already Black Lantern variant characters, so why not more chances to sell more toys? Too bad this feels even more gimmicky than turning characters into Black Lanterns.
The actual recruitment choices make sense for the most part. Some of them are perfect, like the Orange Lantern’s deputy. The Sinestro Corps deputy is probably the most obvious choice outside of Sinestro himself and ol’ Batman (sorry Dick, not you). Still, others seem less like the best choice than a lazy ring not wanting to go far. Others still could have gone multiple ways. Overall though, the deputy choices fit the characters well enough. The question is, what can seven new ring bearers do? And there’s our cliffhanger for our two-month break.
7.5/10
The Art
This book is filled with vibrant colors, as it should with all the Lantern Corps represented here. However, it still succeeds in maintaining the dark esthetic. Thanks to the dark backgrounds, heavy shadowing and panels on top of black sheets, this issue still feels like the super hero horror story it’s supposed to be.
Of course with all the shining colors of the rainbow, there would be a coloring mistake. Seems like Scarecrow found time at the end of one page to dye his hair from black to brown before the top of the next page.
One oddity I’ve noticed throughout this event is with Lanterns and their color-glowing dialog bubbles. Some have it, and some don’t. Hal’s dialog is in normal black and white. Same with Sinestro. Yet Carol as a Star Sapphire and the other “rainbow rodeo” members have their dialog bubbles outlined with their colors. The deputy members also vary on this matter, but not consistently. The Green Lantern recruit’s dialog glows green, while Hal, John and most of the Green Lanterns are normal.
While the practical reason for this is probably just to keep track of who said what, staying consistent is typically a nice thing to do.
8/10
At the end is a creepy little excerpt about Black Hand as a child in his family’s funeral home, followed by covers for the January line up of Blackest Night tie ins.
While deputizing super heroes and villains is a bit too gimmicky for my tastes, the book still holds up well. This does leave one question though. What rainbow rodeo deputies would you have picked?
The Review
Story 7.5/10
Art 8/10
Overall (Not an Average) 8/10