Blackest Night #1: Quick reaction

[sigma7]

Embarrassing revelation time: I used to get Jeph Loeb and Geoff Johns confused. I think it was the fact that their first names were both irritating variations on the same root name, that both of their last names were short, and they both came into my awareness at about the same time. But rest assured I'll never mistake them again. Loeb's been helming the suckfest that calls itself Ultimatum, a dramatic upheaval of Marvel's Ultimate universe, while Johns unleashes the first issue of the final chapter of his Green Lantern trilogy, Blackest Night.

I'm mostly out of comics now, barring the four-color atrocity of The Boys and whenever the final issue of Planetary emerges (I like to think of myself as a patient and understanding man, but #26 came out more than two and a half years ago), but I've gone back and done some archaeology on Johns's work on GL -- and from the moment he resurrected disgraced icon Hal Jordan and sent him down a path of redemption, it's been building not just on Alan Moore's demonic prognostications (which, I have to say, I'm happy to see put to rest finally) but his own long-telegraphed contributions to the emerald mythology. Blackest Night's been murmuring in the background for so long I can't remember when it was first mentioned. And after reading the first of eight issues of it, I'm...intrigued, and sticking around.

The peril with making a planet-shattering threat is that your storytelling devolves into senseless-approaching-random carnage for the sake of shock value, desensitizing everyone involved to the point that the narrative becomes disengaged and superfluous. See also Ultimatum. I'm not sure at what point editorial mandate stops and Loeb's contributions begin, but I have to pray that even if given the spreadsheet of death that results from Ultimatum's events (Wikipedia now tracks 27 fatalities in the series or its affiliated titles after four issues), surely there is a compelling narrative thread to tie them together. It's certainly not on display in Ultimatum, which I find myself flipping through if only to remind myself why I don't indulge more often. Hell, I find the consistently over-the-top insanity of The Boys -- which revels in actions far beyond murder, dismemberment and cannibalism -- much more entertaining if only because that book knows what it is. Ultimatum carries itself as something serious and weighty and eventful but rings horribly hollow...it's a comic adaptation of Titus Andronicus written by Rob Liefeld, dialogue by Frank Miller.

Funny thing is Geoff Johns's hands are not clean in the "meaningless body-count in lieu of narrative" court -- he did bring us Infinite Crisis and Legion of Three Worlds, with plenty of empty death and dismemberment of background characters in tedious ways. But his Green Lantern work has had a very even keel about it -- there's a pretty rich field of supporting characters all emerging into positions of prominence up and down the spectrum now, and while there's been no small share of death, it's been pretty even on either side of the protagonist/antagonist equation. I'm going to credit that to Johns's handiwork in those characters -- those he's less personally invested in (I'm looking at you, Jack T. Chance), such as anyone from the other mini-series, don't fare quite as well. I'm not sure whether to credit his foresight in crafting his characters or simple favoritism, but I'm leaning toward the latter. And while the casualties in the final pages of Blackest Night #1 aren't altogether surprising, in the shape and tone of the book, they work...for a variety of reasons I won't quite explain here in spoiler-free interest.

Blackest Night I'm finding very interesting, much more so than Final Crisis. Ultimatum I find interesting only in a post-mortem sense, a look ahead to Scott McCloud's inevitable "Destroying Comics" volume and the entire chapter in it devoted to Ultimatum. I look forward to reading one series and very much toward the other simply ending.

Oh, and Nekron. It has to be Nekron.

Comments

[foenix.livejournal.com]

The funny thing about Geoff's carnage is, in a way, it can be seen as leading to this. The man has been creating his army for years!

Oh, and Planetary is said to be solicited in October's Previews, and will be on the cover.

Take the huge amount of salt needed with that, naturally. ;)

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I want to make a Duke Nukem joke in here, but that seems unfair. I just think of everything Cassady and Ellis (and for that matter, Martin) have done in the interim and it's almost funny. Thing of it is, there's few books for which I'd wait this long -- Planetary's one of 'em. Its meta-narrative will be long and fondly remembered, I think.

God, at least it's not Miracleman.

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

I really like Geoff Johns work on Identity Crisis and all things Flash, and I can't STAND Jeph Loeb! Gah! He ruined Ultimates! XC Mark Millar was so much better, I didn't read past V3 because of Loeb... don't even get me started on minis like When in Rome *eye roll!* As for the Boys, I like it for what it is... and Ennis title. Ennis was so much better on Ghost Rider and Punisher Max *sigh* I'm looking forward to Blackest Night and hoping it isn't a suck fest Please don't be a suck fest! :/

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Funny thing? I really don't like Mark Millar. I thought ha completely dropped the ball on The Authority, making Jenny Sparks into Forrest Gump, to the point that I try to avoid anything he's written. Except both of his runs on The Ultimates, which I thought worked very well -- yes, it was over-the-top, but gloriously so. Ultimates 3 was just incoherent, dramatically and narratively, and showed flickers of the abysmal charlie-foxtrot Ultimatum would become. If it wasn't editorial mandate that ruined Loeb's work, it was editorial passivity that allowed it to degenerate to the point it's at now.

I at least am heading into Blackest Night with raised expectations, and I can't remember the last "event" I could say that about.

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

I so want that Deadshot lego man! XD As for raised expectations, I try not to have that at all these days :/ I'm so over all the cross over crap comics have been doing verses the old days where you could read a SINGLE comic and be happy with the story you got without having to have read 7 trillion other titles to know WTF is going on *sigh*

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

That's Hush, not Deadshot. :)

And I've been avoiding Millar since Ultimates #6, in which I felt he took a promising premise for a series and took it out behind the barn to shoot. He's one of those guys who went from "finishes the scripts of a star writer who's too busy to write his own stuff" to, inexplicably, star writer status on his own. And I never thought any of the talent from those he ghosted for rubbed off on him.

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

No, that's Deadshot, I promise you! ;) Take it from a HUGE Deadshot fan! :P

You are talking about the issue where the Pym's have their throw down? See now, I liked his Alt U as that was what I was expecting from the title. It made sense for the remainder of the story plot to make Hank a super douche. (I kind of like him that way *evil grin* It makes him... punishable *giggle* Yes, I'm a total perv! You already know this about me though ;)

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

It was Captain America kicking Bruce when he was down, actually. And generally being a dick. Making him more like a real soldier shouldn't require making him a douche. It's just lazy storytelling, "He's more realistic because he's a shallow cliche of a jerk rather than a shallow cliche of a nice guy!"

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

But you got to remember that Bruce also killed tons of people with his escapades (He needed a spanking for sure! 0o) And for Cap to only kick him in the jaw was pretty nice comparitively.

[nute.livejournal.com]

When I was reading Ultimates 3, I swore the ending was going to be a giant slugfest and then a pan-out to reveal that the entire thing was just Peter Parker and Johnny Storm playing the new licensed Ultimates video game - because that's the level of stupid that was involved in the plot.

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it! Gah! I hate you Loeb! *scratches eyes out!*

[nute.livejournal.com]

Srsly. Go back to making awesome cinema like Teen Wolf and Firestorm.

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

Oh man Teen Wolf XD

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Except that even lines like "Why should it goes well" and "You will be the one escaping" are beyond Loeb.

Reminds me of Ang Lee's Hulk -- this must be what someone who hates comics thinks comics are.

[rainfletcher.livejournal.com]

And a hearty Zomg for the Captain America and the Avengers reference.

Best of that breed I ever saw was an early Neo-Geo scroller called Magician Lord. Loved the game. Stunned by the music and visuals for its time. The dialogue? Not so much.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Loved CA&tA -- Quicksilver jogging by and dropping power-ups and evoking a hearty "Thank you, Quicksilver!" Of course, we'd always put a nicely sarcastic inflection on it: "Yes, thank you, Quicksilver, for darting by and disposing of some medicinal supplements before zipping out to wherever could possibly be more important than this."

The Neo-Geo games were fonts of entertaining Engrish, but I gotta tell you, in terms of sheer WTFery transcending simple mangled syntax and word usage, Money Idol Exchanger wins hands-down. That game weirds me the hell out.