BLACKEST NIGHT: Midpoint

So now we're halfway through Blackest Night, and have everything in hand that was on the original checklist, which only covered the event to this midpoint (is there a new official checklist for the next half?--I'd sure like to see one). Looking back over that list, and at the stack of comics corresponding to it, what's most astounding to me is how little ground it's actually covered, story-wise.

We're no doubt meant to experience Nekron's appearance at the end of BN #4 as the grand culmination of the event to this point, but I didn't, and apparently neither did many other reviewers I've read. I've seen a fair amount of grousing about how the Big Reveal was spoiled months ago, but I don't think that has anything to do with it. It really doesn't matter whether they successfully kept Nekron under wraps until now, or called the event Nekron Night from the beginning.

The problem is that the story feels like it's been marking time until his appearance, rather than building up to it. None of the preceding action rises; it only dramatizes and demonstrates the basic situation established in BN #1. That situation is, Black Lanterns rise and kill people! Writer Geoff Johns could have built in some plot-beats--if nothing else, he could have given the Black Lanterns a few more plot coupons to collect before they could raise their master Nekron. But no--all they had to do was power up to 100%, and they could only do that by killing people. Since Black Lanterns killing people was the original situation, that situation remained static, and no matter how much spectacular violence unfolded on the page, the story budged not an inch. Nekron's appearance, then, doesn't come off as an ominous climax so much as a long-overdue lurch out of a rut.

As an aside, one extremely disappointing consequence of this approach has been the total squandering of Black Hand, whose (re-)introduction in Green Lantern #43 impressed me tremendously and gave me high hopes for the event. I expected to see a lot more of him actually doing scary stuff to prepare the way for the Big Bad, acting the part of an unholy John the Baptist, but since Nekron's rise hinged on nothing more than Black Lanterns slaughtering enough people to power up to 100%, there really wasn't anything for him to do except wait for them to accomplish that. Will he take a more active part now? It's hard to see how or why he would, except for the fact that he couldn't possibly play a less active part.

Exacerbating my impression of a static plot has been the response of the heroes, which to this point has been strictly defensive and disorganized. We now have Flash rallying the troops on Earth, and Hal Jordan offworld trying to put together a coalition of the color corps, but again, my feeling is that we've just been marking time until this turning point could neatly (I might even say mechanically) coincide with Nekron's rise and the transition to the latter half of the event.

As for the tie-in miniseries (I've discussed Batman and Superman, and would make essentially the same arguments on behalf of Titans now that I've read it), most of the criticisms that could be leveled against them are really the main story's fault. Sean Collins has said of the tie-ins, "they're basically like the 'here's what's going on with so-and-so' sequences we've seen in the main miniseries, only extracted and expanded," and I'd agree. They track the main story quite faithfully--the problem is, it's just been sitting there. I've seen a lot of complaints that they're just more of the same of what we see in the main title, but all we've seen in the main title has been more of the same of itself. That's not to say I don't think they contribute anything--as I mention in the post linked above, they genuinely help the event feel bigger. Perhaps even more significantly, when Green Lantern abruptly switches focus to the War of Light in outer space, they help anchor the horror mood that could have been dissipated by all those pretty colors of the spectrum. Why not just go ahead and say it?--Tomasi, Robinson, and Krul did a much better job on the horror end of things than Johns has, so far. He doesn't seem to have the interest or instincts for it.

While I'm picking on Johns, I know much of the whole point of superheroes is that they're awesome, but really, come on. J. Caleb Mozzocco:

When I first noticed Geoff Johns’ tendency to lionize the character of Hal Jordan, it was kind of eye-rolling (No way he punches Batman out like he did in Rebirth!) Then it got pretty annoying. Then it got kind of hilarious. Now I think it may be moving beyond hilarious and into embarrassing.

Tucker Stone more simply and scathingly characterizes this tendency as "jacking off into a longbox," and Cal Cleary just calls it "Halwankery." "Fansturbation" might be a more apt term in this case (has that been coined yet?--I just made it up, but I'm sure I can't be the first), since Johns directs plenty of it at Barry Allen, too. Whatever you call it, it reached a revolting new intensity in BN #4, and I wish Johns would just stop it.

I hate to put it this way, but I'm afraid the best thing I can say for Johns's writing so far is that it gives artists Reis and Mahnke tons of cool shit to draw. And they magnificently rise to the occasion. Props to the whole art team, for that matter--way back in this post, I remarked how eye-popping the coloring was, and that's worth reiterating here. Seriously, if the art weren't so strong, I probably would have ditched the event by now.

But I'm still here, and now that we're over the hump, hopefully the worst is behind us and stuff will really start to happen.