Comics Bulletin logo
Search
  • Columns
    Random
    • All The Rage: Seven Week Itch

      Jason Jeffords Jr.
      October 19, 2002
      All the Rage
    Recent
    • Revisiting the Witchblade/Fathom/Tomb Raider Crossover

      Daniel Gehen
      February 8, 2021
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 2

      Daniel Gehen
      December 4, 2020
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 1

      Daniel Gehen
      October 30, 2020
    • What Looks Good
    • Comics Bulletin Soapbox
    • The Full Run
    • Leading Question
    • Top 10
    • The Long-Form
    • Jumping On
    • Comics in Color
    • Slouches Towards Comics
  • Big Two
    Random
    • Ten Forgotten Gems of The New 52

      Jason Jeffords Jr.
      January 17, 2020
      Big Two, Columns, DC Comics, Top 10
    Recent
    • 3.0

      Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia

      Daniel Gehen
      February 22, 2021
    • 4.5

      DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)

      Daniel Gehen
      January 22, 2021
    • Retro Review: Detective Comics #826 Remains a Holiday Classic

      Daniel Gehen
      December 3, 2020
    • DC Comics
    • Big Two Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
  • Indie
    Random
    • Review: 'Mae' #1 by Gene Ha is an Intriguing First Chapter

      Jason Jeffords Jr.
      April 25, 2016
      Dark Horse, Indie
    Recent
    • 4.5

      Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • Image Comics and TMP Announces SPAWN’S UNIVERSE

      Daniel Gehen
      February 18, 2021
    • Reviews
    • Archie Comics
    • Boom! Studios
    • Dark Horse
    • IDW
    • Image
    • Oni Press
    • Valiant
  • Reviews
    Random
    • 4.5

      Review - DC Collectibles Batman: Arkham Asylum: Poison Ivy Statue

      Jason Jeffords Jr.
      November 17, 2014
      Collectibles, Reviews
    Recent
    • 3.0

      Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia

      Daniel Gehen
      February 22, 2021
    • 4.5

      Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • 2.3

      Review: SAVAGE #1 Needs Taming

      Daniel Gehen
      February 16, 2021
    • Singles Going Steady
    • Slugfest
    • Manga
      • Reviews
    • Small Press
      • Reviews
      • ICYMI
      • Tiny Pages Made of Ashes
  • Interviews
    Random
    • Ryan Claytor Delves Deep Into Autobiographical Theory

      Jason Jeffords Jr.
      June 18, 2013
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview: Jon Davis-Hunt Talks SHADOWMAN

      Daniel Gehen
      June 8, 2020
    • Interview: Becky Cloonan talks DARK AGNES and Her Personal Influences

      Mike Nickells
      March 4, 2020
    • Simon Roy

      Interview: Simon Roy on His Inspirations and Collaborations on PROTECTOR

      Mike Nickells
      January 29, 2020
    • Audio Interview
    • Video Interview
  • Classic Comics
    Random
    • Werewolf By Night #1

      Jason Jeffords Jr.
      May 4, 2012
      Classic Comics Cavalcade, Columns
    Recent
    • Countdown to the King: Marvel’s Godzilla

      Daniel Gehen
      May 29, 2019
    • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics

      Daniel Gehen
      February 15, 2019
    • Reliving the Craziest Decade in Comics History: An interview with Jason Sacks

      Mark Stack
      January 2, 2019
    • Classic Comics Cavalcade
    • Classic Interviews
  • News
    Random
    • Exclusive Marvel Preview: Age of Apocalypse #5

      Jason Jeffords Jr.
      October 15, 2015
      Big Two, Marvel Comics, Previews
    Recent
    • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • Image Comics and TMP Announces SPAWN’S UNIVERSE

      Daniel Gehen
      February 18, 2021
    • SAVAGE DRAGON IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 17, 2021
    • Press Release
    • Kickstarter Spotlight
  • Books
    Random
    • 5.0

      RED ROSA: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg

      Jason Jeffords Jr.
      October 26, 2015
      Books, Reviews
    Recent
    • Collecting Profile: Disney Frozen

      CB Staff
      November 22, 2019
    • Collecting Profile: NFL Superpro

      CB Staff
      August 31, 2019
    • “THE BEST OF WITZEND” is a Wonderful Celebration of Artistic Freedom

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2018
    • Review: ‘Machete Squad’ is a Disappointing Afghan Memoir

      Jason Sacks
      July 31, 2018
    • Review: ‘Out of Nothing’ is the Antidote to Our Sick Times

      Jason Sacks
      July 23, 2018
    • Review: ‘Bizarre Romance’ Shows Rough Edges in the Early Days of a New Marriage

      Jason Sacks
      July 10, 2018
What's New
  • Collecting Profile: Blue Beetle
  • Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia
  • Collecting Profile: Kraven the Hunter
  • Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good
  • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY
  • Image Comics and TMP Announces SPAWN'S UNIVERSE
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Contact Us
  • Write for us!
  • Visit Video Game Break!
Home
Big Two

Comictober 2018: Blackest Night, Superhero Fright

Jason Jeffords Jr.
October 16, 2018
Big Two, Columns, DC Comics

The word zombie was first recorded in 1819, so we can say that zombies have been around for a while, with the first movie being White Zombie in 1932. But it wasn’t until 1968’s George A. Romero’s Night of The Living Dead that these undead creatures crawled out of the grave into the public view. Ever since then we’ve had dozens of zombie movies, game, novels, and comics, oh so many comics. With any good idea/concept it could easily become dead and brainless like the rotting creatures themselves.

I knew many people growing up infatuated with zombies and the cult phenomenon surrendering it, I was never part of this “group”, instead my cup of cult tea was skin-tight action packed american superheroes, mixed in with some Shonen Jump. It wasn’t until May of 2009 (Free Comic Day) where one of my favorite genres and one of my least combined to make one hell of an epic comic, that comic was Blackest Night written by Geoff Johns and  art by Ivan Reis.

Prior to the release of this #0 issue, I wasn’t that big of a fan of Green Lantern. Plus, I wasn’t up to date on the current comic events, so reading this I was as behind of recent deaths and other plot points just like the recently resurrected Barry Allen. Luckily for both of us, Hal Jordan gave a brief summary of the events, with even more summaries following in the issues afterwards.

With most comic epics or events – whichever you want to call them – you must have a good understanding of prior events and shell out a ton of money for tie-ins. Most times these tie-ins are more cash grab fillers or so crucial to the plot you wonder why the issue was a tie-in and not just a numbered entry of the event. With the ongoing Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps tying into the story and another nine separate three issue mini-series there was a lot of stories that tied into the overall plot. Having read all of them and enjoying most of them I personally felt the only ones that mattered some was the two on-going, the mini-series focused on specific characters and the dead coming back to life around them, the big contribution from these nine mini-series was the Black Lanterns Battery filling up with the more people dead. So this meant that there was no real need to read all of the issues unless it featured characters you loved or you where interested in the charging of the Black Lantern battery.

The story line was first teased in Green Lantern (VOL 4) #25 two years prior to the events start, then teased further in more preludes including Green Lantern: Secret Origins (VOL 4, #29-#35) which reintroduced William Hand who would later become Black Hand laying the foundation of things to come.

When the first issue hit shelves and the reviews came in, it was getting ratings of 4 and 5 out of 5, praising it for the story and art, and after doing a recent re-read I would still agree to those scores having instantly fallen back in love. With it being eight issues (nine if we count the zero issue) that gave it a lot of breathing room to flesh out plots, motivation, resurrections, reactions and character moments. The pace was quick which helped propel the story forward and not feel drowned out which would have been easy if not for Geoff Johns understanding of all the characters and motivations, taking time between large battles to show us just how hard some heroes were reacting to their loved ones coming back to life. As I previously mentioned there were times we broke away from the action for a history lesson on recent events, which really helped if you weren’t super ingrained in the recent events of the DC Universe. This event could have easily been a cash grab zombie story, but with amazing story telling and some of the best art it turned into something beautiful that helped change the history of the DC Universe and the things to follow.

Blackest Night came off the heels of the huge and inappropriately named Final Crisis, because we all knew it wasn’t the final DC crisis story. In Final Crisis we saw the brutal death of Martian Manhunter and alleged death of Batman, then only three months later at the end of the zero issue we are shown the Black Hand desecrating Bruce Wayne’s grave to grab his skull, with a quick panel of Ralph (Elongated Man) and Sue Dibny’s grave and another panel of Ronnie Raymond’s (Firestorm) grave.  Then after another few months we had Martian Manhunter resurrected in the first issue of Blackest Night. Since I wasn’t in tune with all that was going on this never bothered me, but there is bound to be a few fans that felt this was pouring salt into the fresh cut from months prior. To add lemon to that salty wound they added in Ralph (died in 52)and Sue Dibny who had died years earlier in Identity Crisis, seeing these two fan favorite brought back had a lot of negative feedback due to many not being a fan of Identity Crisis. One of the characters that had an impact on me was one on my favorite heroes, Ted Kord A.K.A. Blue Beetle. I had read a good amount of  his antics with Booster Gold, and his death in Countdown To Infinite Crisis hit hard, but seeing him brought back to life and Booster’s reaction to this hit me even harder.

I can’t finish without gushing about the art, which was so great many of the pages could be made into posters. The double page spreads by Ivan Ries are still some of my favorite pages to date showcasing Ries’s attention to detail and how he can have dozens of characters on screen without losing said detail or making the art feel to cramped. His human models look great showing emotion in movements and facial activity, and the aliens strike a certain terrifying feel like they could be real. Then there are the zombified heroes and villains, whose costumes are changed slightly to reflect the control of the Black Lantern, with small logo changes and now in black suits it changes them in a slight but noticeable way. When the zombie heroes get injured or destroyed the details are beautiful in a horrifying way. This event also introduces a new design for the old Green Lantern villain Nekron. Making him more grim reaper like with his scythe and skellington like body sporting a hole in his chest revealing what one is to believe is a heart, this whole design was so awe-inspiring to me I went out and bought the action figure.

Some may say this comic is not Halloween themed, but what is more Halloween then a horror event about dead heroes and villains coming back to life?

 

Blackest NightComictober 2018Geoff JohnsIvan ReisZombies

Share On:
Tweet
Comictober 2018: Amazing Spider-Man: Hooky by Putney and Wrightson
Review: Exorsisters #1 Is Different But Familiar

About The Author

Jason Jeffords Jr.
Contributor

Jason resides in the cold crime-ridden town of Anchorage, Alaska. When he isn't running away from murderers he "chills" at home reading comics/books, watching films/TV, and playing games with his three-legged cat Lucky. Oh, he has also written for websites such as Monkeys Fighting Robots, Comicbookyeti, Multiversity.

Related Posts

  • Comictober 2020: WITCHBLADE #67 is Unnerving

    Daniel Gehen
    October 9, 2020
  • The Full Run: Final Crisis Tie-in – Rogues Revenge

    Daniel Gehen, Jason Jeffords Jr.
    August 22, 2019

Support Us!

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Friends of the Site

  • SOLRAD
  • Your Chicken Enemy
  • Psycho Drive-In
  • Women Write About Comics
  • The Beat
  • Loser City
RSSTwitterFacebookgoogleplusinstagramtumblr

Comics Bulletin is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, Comics Bulletin earns from qualifying purchases.

All content on this site (c) 2018 The Respective Copyright Holders