HE'S BAAAACK!

I'd just like to say, to all the haters of the KING of the Seven Seas, HE'S BACK!

It appears that there's no more tentacle beard. No more crappy magic water hand. No more gladiator movie armor. No more King Arthur, Lady of the Lake sorcery silliness. Just plain old fish-controlling, Silver Age style, clean cut Aquaman. It's about time. The whole harpoon hand experiment had some high points. However, I'm glad he's back in the original orange and green duds where I personally think he belongs. Thank you Geoff Johns.

IN BLACKEST NIGHT - PART 1

Fittingly, as I'm bringing my blog posting back from the dead, I'll be talking about the DC Comics event that I've been raving about for most of the last year or so - Blackest Night. Rather than bore you with lots of wordiness I figure I'll let the pictures tell the tale as I give you some of my favorite moments from what is happening in Month 2 of this awesome comics crossover!

We'll start off with the linchpin book Blackest Night #2:



It's no secret that I think Aquaman is awesome. I've taken shit for it from all you fellow comics-reading geeks for years. However, I think even you can admit that making Aquaman a super-strong messed up zombie King of the Seven Seas was the key to making him even more awesome. No more faux metal hair, no more harpoon hand (was kinda dope how he got it though), no more Arthurian legend and magic water under the water stupidity, just gravebait Silver Age Aquaman on an undead giant seahorse!



Continuing on, something kinda nerdy but utterly cool also happened in this issue as we discover that the Black Lantern Rings cannot force Don Hall aka Dove of Hawk & Dove to "RISE!" because he is "at peace". Interesting, totally in character, and I think significant for future events. Keep an eye on this.



Jumping back to Zombie Aquaman, one of his main powers has always been to control sea life with his telepathic calls. So it's totally diesel that his undead summoning ability is to call forth all the dead and rotting sea life from the ocean floor to pimpslap his enemies (aka the heroes). Dope. Maybe a zombie Megaladon is in the works?



Changing books to Green Lantern #45, it seems that the only Orange Lantern Larfleeze is about to get dealt with by his own orange greed energy constructs as the corpses he collects to make them each get a Black Lantern ring and prepare to give him a Reservoir Dogs-style beatdown. Hope you've got a medical kit in that lantern muppet boy.



Over in Green Lantern Corps #39, the Lanterns on Oa have their hands full as a swarm of BL rings dive down into the crypt of Fallen Lanterns and bring back all of the dead goodies to rip hearts and seek flesh for the Black Lantern. They even brought back the little fly Green Lantern (I think his name is Bzzt - how adorable) to get unliving vengeance in the name of swatted insects everywhere. Crucial.



Blackest Night Batman #1, gives us the return of Dick Grayson's (the original Robin and now Batman) circus aerialist parents - The Flying Graysons. It works but it's definitely one of those "He's Batman, this is not gonna make him crap his pants." moments. Interesting and a good read/buy but lame reveal in my opinion. The mystery as to whether the real Batman is dead or not continues.



It's a well known fact that nothing happens in the DC universe that does not involve Superman in some way, so Blackest Night Superman #1 gives us some insight as to how the Man of Steel is handling all of this. He, Superboy, and Krypto get slapped around for most of the issue but the neatest thing is that since the Black Lanterns "see" where you fall on the emotional spectrum, it's unsurprising that Superman seems to encompass all emotions except for Greed and Compassion. Always have to be head of the class don't you Clarkie?



Finishing up, Blackest Night Titans #1 was a pleasant surprise. Not only was it drawn very well (like all the Blackest Night books so far) but it picked up on the Hawk and Dove storyline I mentioned earlier. Since the Black Lanterns couldn't get to Dove (which honestly would have been more terrifying since he was gentle in life), of course they brought back his war-like brother Hawk. Death has not made him any more pleasant as he tended toward ultra right-wing assholery most of the time.

All in all the Blackest Night series has more than fulfilled my expectations so far and DC really seems to be putting some good effort into making this an easy to read and fun story. If you like zombies, seeing DC heroes getting the crap kicked out of them by former good guys (with lots of unexpected heart rips), and really nice art, get it now or in the trades when it is inevitably available in 5 different versions. FLESH!

COACH'S STAR PLAYER OF THE WEEK - GREEN LANTERN #38

Over the last 5 years or so my consumption of DC Comics has gone from occasional to die-hard. There are certain books which I look forward to each month, but none of them have been able to hold a candle to the absolute guaranteed good reads of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.

I have never been a Hal Jordan/Green Lantern fan. He was always just one of many of a corps intergalactic police officers with a green ring who banged around the DCU and made big hammers and hands out of light. However, all of this changed when DC came up with the Sinestro Corps War. Written by Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons and drawn by Ethan Van Sciver and Ivan Reis. It set a new standard for great artwork, big time action, and excellent writing in the book. Which brings us to my pick of the week, Green Lantern #38.

Throughout the last year or so the running theme in both Green Lantern books has been a prelude to the upcoming "War of Light" which is then going to bring about the dreaded "Darkest Night" and the birth of the Black Lanterns. Oooooo - Scary! From all of the preview stuff so far, it's a good bet that the Black Lantern has the ability to raise the dead so we're looking at an interstellar zombie war in the DCU. Oh boy!!!

Aside from having great artwork by Ivan Reis throughout the book, this issue brings to a close to the Rage of the Red Lanterns storyline (Red Lanterns are consumed by rage and can vomit red corrosive blood/light from their mouths to destroy their enemies). The recently revealed spectrum of emotion/light-based power rings is a great idea and so far we've seen Green (Willpower), Yellow (Fear), Blue (Hope), Red (Rage), Orange (Avarice), Violet (Love), and Indigo (Compassion) get into the act. As Hal Jordan - Green Lantern gets consumed by the power of the red ring, the Blue Lantern Saint Walker slips a new blue ring onto his hand and turns him into... something new. You have to read it to see but there's lotsa action, Sinestro getting his big pink ass fried, and best of all, the Red Lantern alien space kitty Dex-Star who spits flaming blood on everyone in sight (this gives a whole new meaning to the expression "angry pussy").

The backup feature is just as cool as it contains an episode of the Origins and Omens story which is running through most mainline DC books in February 2009. Needless to say, the banged up female guardian Scar dripping black blood from her eyes to write the book of the Black Lanterns makes this comic more than worth the $2.99 price of admission.

If you haven't been reading Green Lantern, do yourself a favor and pick up the trades for Green Lantern: Rebirth, The Sinestro Corps War and get caught up with the latest stories via the back-issue bins. You won't be sorry and you'll be prepared for all the badassery which will be coming with the Darkest Night.