BLACKEST NIGHT: Fan Dumberer

It's okay if comics suck, even when they cost $3.99, as long as they come with crappy bits of plastic.

GAoH Sketchbook: Scott Brothers

Damn, I have some awesome readers who know what I love! Thanks Scott! Check out his website here.

(Here's the Sketchbook flickr set, and here's how to contribute, if you're so inclined!)

GAoH Sketchbook: Ash Lamont

I'm thrilled to post this brand new sketch from Ash Lamont (illustrator, animator of strangeness and doctor of balloon twisting)! Thanks, Ash!

(Here's the Sketchbook flickr set, and here's how to contribute, if you're so inclined!)

Musical Interlude

When I was young, my parents often listened to records in the evenings, and they usually didn't stop just because it was my bedtime. Songs by Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez, Cat Stevens, etc. were my lullabies--even the faster songs were beautiful and soothing. Among the most lulling of the albums was Colors of the Day by Judy Collins, which featured these two songs. Enjoy!

BLACKEST NIGHT: Diminishing Returns

So the tie-in miniseries from the first half of the event wrapped up last month, and a fresh wave of tie-in miniseries for the second half begins next month--apparently, they'll be Flash, Wonder Woman, and JSA.

What we get this month and continuing into next month is a batch of tie-in issues in various ongoing series. What I have in hand so far are Doom Patrol, Booster Gold, and R.E.B.E.L.S. I'm sorry to say, I have a lot of problems with them. (Any jaded fans inclined to pose the cynical question what I expected from tie-ins can just STFU. What I expected were strong, interesting stories that contribute something to the crossover experience.)

These issues all begin with a couple pages of flashback infodump to catch new readers up on what the series is about, through the device of a Black Lantern ring "downloading" the memories of the most important dead character to be raised as a Black Lantern. That's fine as far as it goes--as a new reader, I appreciate "new reader friendliness"--but the third time in a row, it really seemed stale. We've still got JLA, Superman/Batman, Teen Titans, Adventure Comics, and Outsiders to go. All I can say is, I hope they don't trot this device out every frikkin' time.

My biggest beef with these issues is the point in the crossover at which they take place. It's actually hard for me to imagine a worse point for these stories to have any impact. They coincide with that brief span in Blackest Night #4 between Flash notifying all the other heroes that the Black Lanterns aren't really zombie versions of the people they care about, and the 100% point at which Nekron arises--which, even more significantly, is also the point in Green Lantern Corps #42 at which the Black Lanterns start behaving differently.

So immediately following the infodumps, we see the protagonists getting Flash's warning, and then they face the Black Lanterns, who are all still behaving exactly as they have in every issue prior to GLC 42, only nobody cares, because everyone now knows what the deal is, so they aren't even surprised, let alone scared by the Black Lanterns. More of the same with none of the punch--now there's a winning formula.

The Booster Gold issue got some positive reviews (comiXtreme, J. Caleb Mozzocco, CBR, Weekly Crisis), mainly because of the extended sequence where Booster revisits Ted Kord's funeral. I can see how Booster Gold and Blue Beetle fans would find that moving, but since I'm not one of them, I didn't.

Only the R.E.B.E.L.S. issue contributed anything to my enjoyment of the crossover. I liked the outer-space setting. The promise of cosmic and interplanetary action is part of what lured me into checking out Blackest Night, and this is one of the few tie-ins so far to deliver anything of the sort. That hasn't been too much of a problem up to now, since the more earthbound tie-in miniseries have nicely balanced the straight-up outer-spaciness of Green Lantern Corps and (starting with issue #45) Green Lantern. Now that we're getting a whole slew of tie-in issues, though, more outer-spaciness is called for to maintain an optimal balance.

That also made it possible to bring the Sinestro Corps into the picture, for the first time in a non-core title--a nice touch that makes this feel much more a part of what's going on with the event as a whole.

And then, of course, there's Vril Dox getting that Sinestro Corps ring. From this issue and the Green Lanterns, I've learned just enough about Vril and Sinestro to think that would make an interesting confrontation--and it would be a confrontation, given both of their egos. I hope it happens.

More tie-ins hit tomorrow. I'll probably post my thoughts before the weekend. Stay tuned, and stay groovy!

BLACKEST NIGHT: 100%

If I've been mostly underwhelmed by the Blackest Night crossover in general up to now, Green Lantern Corps has struck me as by far the weakest and most disappointing of the titles--and that includes the tie-in minis. It has no characters I care about or relate to, just a bunch of GLs who aren't Hal Jordan (I mean, I'm not Geoff Johns or anything, but come on). That don't-give-a-fuck factor has only exacerbated my sense that Tomasi's writing here has been a rote slog through the formula that so obtrusively dominated the first half of the event. As for the art, Gleason's work has struck me as jarringly not-ready-for-prime-time, compared to what Reis and Mahnke achieved on the other core titles--again, even the tie-in minis had a lot more visual appeal.

Well, I'm glad I stuck with it, because the latest issue, GCL #42, the earliest-released issue of consequence in the second half of the event, delivers some of the strongest story beats and most affecting images of the crossover so far. I'm not alone in thinking that--other reviewers who have heaped such positive superlatives on it include both Ryan the Iowan and Kirk Warren at Weekly Crisis, Jesse Schedeen at IGN, and Rokk. Not everyone was so adulatory, of course. Timothy Callahan at CBR, Alex Evans at Weekly Comic Book Review, and Kiani at Coreburner had a number of criticisms. As for Tucker Stone . . . does that guy even like comics?

What I like about this issue is the way the Black Lanterns finally stop doing the exact same thing they've been doing every single issue of the event since the beginning, and start doing something different. At this point, any change of that sort counts for something. I know that sounds like a ridiculously low bar to clear, but the new line of attack turns out to be pretty cool--an all-out assault on the main Green Lantern battery. In both writing and art, this is rendered with a very nice blend of horror and superhero sci-fi. The image above of them converging on the battery is both haunting and spectacular. There have been a lot of nifty spreads in Blackest Night so far, but this is certainly among the best.

Then, they pool their rings:

. . . to create a giant demonic construct that looks like something out of Urotsukidoji. It's like they're using black magic to conjure the thing:

This demon-construct then proceeds to rip the battery up from the ground:

Ha! SKRRRAAKKK! I love it. You know, this is exactly the sort of thing I tuned in to Blackest Night hoping to see. Since the "price of admission" stands now at a hundred bucks and counting, we'll need a lot more of this to add up to an entertainment experience worth that kind of investment, but hey, it could happen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more consistent payoffs like this from here on out, now that the story is actually developing.

Anyway, this moment is nicely foreshadowed by the Indigo Lantern's warning on the first page that the Star Sapphire battery has been destroyed. That also connects this event to one we've seen elsewhere--specifically, Green Lantern #46. For a crossover event like this that tries to manage multiple plotlines across numerous titles, some sense of big-picture cohesion is important, and an occasional line of expository dialogue to connect the dots can serve that purpose efficiently and effectively.

Things unfold pretty quickly, then, leading up to Kyle Rayner's Climactic Heroic Ultimate Sacrifice, in which he DIES, just so we're clear about that (oh, spoiler warning, by the way). For obvious reasons, this is the part that has most people talking. For myself, I enjoyed the build-up action, like fateful dominoes falling (i.e. a Red Lantern dumped into the midst of the Black Lanterns, Chaselon's intervention, Chaselon's internal battery getting ripped out), but the death itself made little impact on me, partly because the only thing I knew about Kyle Rayner coming into this was that he notoriously found his girlfriend in the refrigerator, and partly because it just smacked so much of a bullshit gimmick death soon to be undone. I mean, I went ahead and reveled in the melodrama of the moment, but it wasn't like this was any kind of gut-punch for me. dclebeau at read/RANT! devotes a whole post to a much more thoughtful take on this, from the point of view of a longtime Kyle Rayner fan.

Even with so many big beats crammed into this issue, it's still surprising to me that one early sequence has provoked no comment in any of the reviews I've read (even the negative ones). It certainly raised my eyebrows--and not in a good way. Yeah, I give this issue props for all the points above, but there was also something in it that really seemed uncalled-for. It starts here:

Wow. In its own way, that's one of the perviest panels I've ever seen, and I'm counting literally hardcore stuff like fumetti and hentai. And it gets worse. Kyle and Soranik actually share a tender moment in the course of this weirdly three-way, grotesque lesbian nonconsensual oral fisting cum-shot. That moment is ruined, however, when Black Lantern Jade answers the call to attack the GL battery, and flies into the air with Soranik's fist stuck in her mouth in a tastelessly suggestive sight-gag:

To free Soranik's fist, Kyle blasts Jade's head right off, but "it" (meaning, Jade's still-animate body) just keeps flying.

I know I cover some dicey stuff here at Groovy Age (hell, I'll cop to writing dicey stuff in my novel), but something about this leaves a particularly bad taste in my mouth. It's hard for me to isolate exactly which lines it crosses that make me so uncomfortable. I think, first of all, it's the way Jade can go from having such an intense expression on her face in that first panel to just switching off and behaving like an automaton that's completely indifferent to having a fist in her mouth as she flies away. I guess it reminds me too much of disturbing porn I've seen that looked abusive to the female performer but then ended with her smiling like it was all no big deal. I didn't buy it then, don't buy it here, and don't like the way this seems to follow that script (and yes, I know I'm implicating myself in this dynamic too by my acquaintance with such fare). Blasting Jade's head off, showing her still active, and referring to her sexualized headless body as "it" underline and drive home the dehumanization and misogyny. The light and casual tone of all this also rings very discordantly to me.

Bottom line: GLC #42 hits one of the highest, most exciting, and most visually stunning points in Blackest Night so far with the Black Lantern assault on the Green Lantern battery, but it also hits one of the lowest points so far (lower even than Gen's icky death in BN #3) in the execrable Jade scene. Here's hoping for much more like the former, and no more like the latter.

Happy Jason Day!

I toldja the horror season didn't end with Halloween. ;-)

Anyway, we've all seen the movies, but Tomb It May Concern has reviewed some F13 comics. I'm swinging by a LCS today (to harvest the latest crop of Blackest Night stuff), so maybe I'll see what they have in the way of such fare.

Stay tuned, and stay groovy!

THE ANNIHILIST by Kenneth Robeson (Bantam 1968)

• Originally published in Doc Savage Magazine, December 1934
• Reprinted by Bantam as DS # 31
• Lester Dent writing as Kenneth Robeson

Solid early Doc Savage adventure pitting the mighty Man of Bronze against “The Crime Annihilist” — an altruistic opponent punishing the criminals of New York City with sudden, agonizing death. (The Spider would approve!)

A prominent physician is gunned down gangland-style in his Manhattan office, but the killer doesn’t get very far. While escaping the hitman is suddenly wracked with violent, painful convulsions — his eyeballs almost popping out of his skull — and keels over dead. This terrible “Pop-eyed Death” begins striking down criminals across the city, seemingly at random, many of them just as they are about to commit acts of violence. Merely having murderous thoughts can bring on the first spasmodic symptoms.

The assassinated physician was a colleague of the bronze man, at times working at Doc’s secret upstate “Crime College” — where criminals captured by Doc and his men are taken to have their anti-social tendencies wiped away via surgery and drugs. This heavily-guarded clinic is Doc’s biggest secret; he’s keenly aware that what he’s doing there is totally beyond the law and that its revelation to the public would be a disaster. (He also firmly believes that it’s for the good of society.) Somehow the mysterious gang leader known only as Boke has found out too much about the college and is trying to learn more, chiefly its location. But Boke has his own troubles — one by one his lieutenants are being struck down by the Pop-eyed Death. So he moves to force Doc Savage to uncover the identity of the Crime Annihilist and stop the plague that’s killing his men. All the while NYC’s toughest cop, Inspector “Hardboiled” Humbolt, is dogging Doc’s steps, convinced that Doc himself is the Crime Annihilist...

This one’s pretty violent for a Doc Savage story, replete with torture and a high body count. There aren’t any exotic locations — it all goes down in New York state — and the science behind the Crime Annihilist’s death wave is pure hooey, but Dent keeps things zipping along nicely, with plenty of action. There are two masterminds to unveil instead of the usual one (Boke and the Annihilist), and I actually failed to guess the identity of either. (A rare occurrence with these books.)

Grade: B