Okay, I'm now up-to-date on all the
Blackest Night-related comics. Hell, I even bought
Solomon Grundy #7. (Actually, I did deliberately skip
Tales of the Corps #3, but when I saw it in the comic shop yesterday, the completist in me almost broke down and bought the damn thing. We'll see whether or how long I hold out.)
My main feeling at this point is restlessness. In
Blackest Night #1, the dead began rising as Black Lanterns, the heroes were rocked back on their heels, and some were killed to become Black Lanterns themselves. That's essentially
still where we're at, ten issues later. New Black Lanterns are still rising. The heroes are still on the defensive, still trying to cope in an
ad hoc fashion that's starting to make the story feel not so much sweeping as scattershot. If this were Zack Snyder's
Dawn of the Dead, we wouldn't even be out of the credits yet (we might as well be stuck in the pre-credit opening, for that matter). I'm ready for some new
development, and specifically I'd like to see this start to move in a more cohesive direction, where all these pocket skirmishes coalesce into a war.
I admit, that's probably a "new reader" thing. I'm just here for the story. I'm sure if I were a longtime reader with a history of emotional investment in this universe of characters, I'd be more interested in seeing how each of them individually gets drawn into the event. Also, to be fair, the creative teams have all done pretty good jobs of putting a lot of variety into this, and investing each new resurrection/confrontation with some additional meaning or relevance.
Even so, moving in the same direction this long begins to feel like a kind of standing still, and I'm definitely ready for a zig or a zag. From a horror standpoint, too, it's well past time to move on. There's no more horror to be milked from this same basic scenario of initial confrontations between superheroes and risen Black Lanterns of whatever significance to them (spouses, lovers, parents, mentors, old enemies, etc.). Whether we're talking about horror or any other emotional impact, we're deep into diminishing returns. Time to switch things up!
Okay, I'm now up-to-date on all the Blackest Night-related comics. Hell, I even bought Solomon Grundy #7. (Actually, I did deliberately skip Tales of the Corps #3, but when I saw it in the comic shop yesterday, the completist in me almost broke down and bought the damn thing. We'll see whether or how long I hold out.)
My main feeling at this point is restlessness. In Blackest Night #1, the dead began rising as Black Lanterns, the heroes were rocked back on their heels, and some were killed to become Black Lanterns themselves. That's essentially still where we're at, ten issues later. New Black Lanterns are still rising. The heroes are still on the defensive, still trying to cope in an ad hoc fashion that's starting to make the story feel not so much sweeping as scattershot. If this were Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, we wouldn't even be out of the credits yet (we might as well be stuck in the pre-credit opening, for that matter). I'm ready for some new development, and specifically I'd like to see this start to move in a more cohesive direction, where all these pocket skirmishes coalesce into a war.
I admit, that's probably a "new reader" thing. I'm just here for the story. I'm sure if I were a longtime reader with a history of emotional investment in this universe of characters, I'd be more interested in seeing how each of them individually gets drawn into the event. Also, to be fair, the creative teams have all done pretty good jobs of putting a lot of variety into this, and investing each new resurrection/confrontation with some additional meaning or relevance.
Even so, moving in the same direction this long begins to feel like a kind of standing still, and I'm definitely ready for a zig or a zag. From a horror standpoint, too, it's well past time to move on. There's no more horror to be milked from this same basic scenario of initial confrontations between superheroes and risen Black Lanterns of whatever significance to them (spouses, lovers, parents, mentors, old enemies, etc.). Whether we're talking about horror or any other emotional impact, we're deep into diminishing returns. Time to switch things up!
2 comments:
If you really wanted to be fustrated you should have read James Robinson's version of Starman when it came out. There was a writer who thought the longer the story could be dragged out the better. I mean there were storylines that took a year to finish. Yes it's worth the read but back in the day when they were coming out it was just fustration. I really felt bad for anyone who wanted ot jump inot the series. Since Robinson even stated that the whole series was just one long plot line. Now with those omnibuses coming out you can see all the seeds he planted early on. Also his actually had a satisfying ending unlike other comics series.
I didn't have the same reaction Bruce had to the Robinson STARMAN, though I did come into it late.
Leisurely though it was, I felt like in every issue of STARMAN, something interesting happened.
Looks like BN is having trouble even making things happen, period.
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