Blackest Night #5 (DC – Johns / Reis / Albert )
The moment you’ve hungered for finally arrives! Who controls death in the DC Universe? NEKRON – Lord of the Undead! The dark being behind the undead Black Lanterns makes his presence and purpose known, and our heroes discover they’re not only fighting for their lives, but their after-lives as well. Don’t miss this game-changing issue from superstar writer Geoff Johns and stellar artist Ivan Reis!
First I want to say that I liked this issue. We get all the good guys together and it seems like they have a battle plan. That begin stated, this issue held no surprises for anyone who’s been keeping up with Blackest Night.
Geoff Johns is DC Comics golden boy, and in being so has been able to build his story for the past few years. In past reviews of Johns’ work I have made the used this term “slow burn” to describe his writing style. I still believe that, but the downside of his slow burn method is felt in this issue.
As the various Corps of light gather their champions and head to Earth, the Black Lanterns are taking out DC’s metahumans by the masses. Just when the hero’s big guns show up, Nekron plays his trump cards. One being the skull of Bruce Wayne (I guess that answers the question if he’s dead) and the other being the heroes that have died and come back. Petty much every heavy hitter of the DCU have died at one point or another. So Nekron has new minions, but that’s not a surprise. The Black Hand as much as spilled those plans very early on in this “Blackest Night”
Which brings me to the next piece, and this is more of a prediction. Nekron says that the Guardians lie is about to be exposed. This comes as the champions of the various corps are pouring their energy on the black lantern. Black Hand then states “It’s making Nekron stronger.” and this is supposed to be shocking. As any elementary school art student can tell you: Black is not the absence of light, it is the collection of every color in the spectrum. Hence, pouring every corps colors into the Black Lantern Power Battery is only going to charge that mother all the more.
As I said before, it’s really good, but not so surprising.
Overall this is still a great issue and worth the money you pay for it.
Grade: A-