Amph [GLC] Blackest Night (spoilers, but please read first post before posting spoilers)

Pre-Earth or pre-human? Plus, there's also the little bit about the Guardians covering up the secret basically since the universe came into existence. They are the oldest sapient beings in the universe.

JediBen, perhaps I don't feel as disappointed by the conclusion to Blackest Night because I don't have the history of having followed Johns' GL work since Rebirth through the Sinestro Corps War to Blackest Night. I thought it was sufficiently climactic, and a fitting set-up for Brightest Day. Moreover, it only makes sense for Blackest Night to be a sort of first half to a complete duology as the yin to the yang of Brightest Day. It's in the GL Oath even. We'll see what happens with Brightest Day, but I really enjoyed the Blackest Night ride. Especially as I went back and got caught up on the GL happenings.

Also, as far as supposed gratuitous violence... it's essentially a zombie story. I don't really see how or why one should expect there to be less violence. I also thought the point of Sinestro as White Lantern was to show that Sinestro's fascism makes him incompatible with the Entity and the White Light. That's certainly what Hal says in the story.

 

In #8 the Gaurdians said "Life started on Earth" which I assumed meant the first life form in the universe came from Earth. So if the Guardians are the oldest, they are originally from Earth?

 

That may well be a big part of it Dawud, in a way it feels to me like Blackest Night has become DC's equivelent of Marvel's Secret Invasion - both big supposedly climatic arcs that ended up setting up the next arc and greatly irritating some due to how they had been marketed as being something conclusive.

Another part of it is that, for me, the colour spectrum and Black Lantern concepts really didn't have enough gas in the tank for the mileage DC tried to get out of them, that said DC weren't that far off getting it right, 6 issues probably would have been fine. It's in the last 2 months I've really noticed it flagging.

I'd disagree Black Lanterns are zombies - zombies are stupid - but regardless, it's more, for me, the tone and execution. I've several zombie stories in the collection that are way more violent than Blackest Night but neither are those stories DC Comic superheroes, it's a question of categories and what is appropriate for them. Johns has been very good at upping the violence and sense of danger, but he's also balanced out that with restraint which he's lost on Blackest Night.

Still, as to your point about Sinestro, I'll have to take another look - may have missed a subtlety there.

One thing I will say about Blackest Night: If DC haven't already chained Reis up with an exclusive they better do so fast or Marvel'll poach him!

 

Underwhelming finale. It's like Secret Invasion all over again: the event is just an overpriced teaser for future storylines. Bah.

 

Heh, nice to see it's not just me then Schwarz.

 

I liked blackest night as a series. The last issue was a good issue, but there was no closure. I agree with what everyone else is saying, it's just a setup for somethiung else. I think that's just the way comics are going these days.

 

Hmm, I suppose it was a bit, but I wasn't too bothered. I would have liked if it had been more of a personal conclusion for Hal. He didn't really seem as personally involved as in the previous two big GL series. There were also many threads from the buildup towards BN that weren't addressed, Sinestro's daughter anyone?

But hey, I wouldn't say it's cheap to not close off every new story point and charactor. Personally I want to see more from the likes of Saint Walker, and co. But yeah, on a few points I was a bit disappointed certain things were just dropped once BN started.

 

It didn't bother me so much about life begining on earth. They never said the Oans were the first lifeforms, just the first intelligent life.
What does kind of bug me (even though it's a nit pick) is that Earth would have even been around back then. The comics go with our best guess that the universe is 15 or so billion years old, and the Guardians were birthed fairly far back towards the begining. Kinda hard to swallow a 15 billion year old earth.
(Kay, feeling like a nerd)