An Honest Opinion Of Blackest Night

[Guest Close HarshR13]

I know that I'm the proverbial newbie and I hope that I'm not looked down upon etc over it...
Views On Blackest Night

I know that I'll be in the minority in this and I dot mind. This is a forum to air ones views and that's exactly what I'll attempt to do without seeming to be personally abusive or insulting. If at any point it feels that I am I apologize, it's completely unintentional

All Right, I am not a Geoff Johns Fan. Hell you could say I'm nearly a hater. I didnt like Green Lantern : Rebirth very much, for the childish move to punch Batman etc. But otherwise I enjoyed the event a lot. Infinite Crisis shouldve been called Infinite Nonsense. There were tok many plots which were unrealated and the story fell under it's weight of expectation promises and build

Soon I was told of The Green Lantern Monthly and how cool it was. I read No Fear, Dark Side of Green, Wanted: Hal Jordan etc and was excited for Sinestro Corps War.*

SCW blew my mind and soon becNe one of my favorite crossovers not billed as an event. This is why it become so cool. The story was great. So was the idea execution and build. Sure it ended with a cliffhanger promising somethig dark and menacing in the background that would soon come in the Future

Rage Of Tne Red Lanterns and Agent Orange were good builds. ROTRL was amazing, AO not so much, it was above average but below my lofty expectations. After all, the event building for 6 Years was coming to a head ( Paging Marvel: Siege :P )*

Now. During the Buildup to Blackest Night. We saw Black Hand at Bruce Wayne's grave in GL43 and BN0. We were teased continuously. Our greater heroes' demonic returns, from Aquaman, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter etc. There were rumors of WHITE Lanterns etc. It was comic book speculation at it's finest*

Soon Blackest Night rolled in and all the buildup seemed pointless. We got boring Crossovers and Boring Zombies in the main story. An event spanning a day ( maximum 2 ) stretched over 10 Months. We saw The Guardians fall too easily. The rainbow corps have hardly been build too much. The number of the members are low. There is hardly any role for The Blue Lanterns besides saying " All Will Be Well "

Scar was built as a big villain and was taken down in ease. The whole event has been predictable from Nekron to White Lantern Sinestro. Has there been anything surprising so far in BN ? Besides weird GeoffCons like Earth being the origin of Life and The Life Entity ?? Where is the important and teased War Of Light ? I know it's on but it's hardly on the scale promised to
us so far.*

The Teaser for Blackest Night 7 said " Black Hand Unleashed " what exactly did he do there of too much value that anyone else couldn't do ? What has Nekron done that makes him any more feared than a Lex Luthor or Joker ? He doesn't seem to be on The Scale of Terror as Darkseid and Mandrakk

Sure it's good to see characters revitalized like Mera and Atom. However what about Superman ? The greatest DC hero just out so easily to put the spotlight on Green Lantern and Flash ? That is just sad, convenient and most ufortunate.*

Batman's big tease and appearance in BN5 was of importance, sure. But was it how it was built. It was predictable and was hardly explained in story as to who the body belonged too. Us Batman fans knew the answers long ago and to me this just seems that Batman was used for the sake of selling a few more books. Batman after all can sell anything. He is The Comic Book Hero

To Conclude, Blackest Night is big on build, promises, Art and Size but low on Story quality, Depth, Character Analysis and point. It's just about scale and less about the people in it. It's mee about Groups and less about the people in it. I enjoy personal stories.*

It is obvious that once it ends it won't answer most questions like

1. Why is Nekron's Black Lantern Symbol same as Black Hand's and why does Nekron wear that symbol too ? Is Nekron Dead too ? Isn't he the Guardian of Death ? Backstory of Nekron is mostly negligible

2. What the hell with the stupid explaination of the Nekrotic Eight ? Is Nekron retarded ? Would it not be easy to raise the dead like Martian Manhunter and Aquaman were than to resurrect those 8. Once resurrected they can break the Black Ring Control. When dead they can't. If Nekron hadn't let them live he wouldve easily taken over the Universe. How stupid

3. History of The Guardians and Nekron ?? Why did the Guardians lie so much ?will Nekron do anything this event*

Think about the above guys. The story in most probability be continued into Brightest Day and be a neverending event Till Eternity.*

Blackest Night will and should be remembered well below a Crisis event. Way below COIE, Final Crisis and Infinite Crisis. It's below Geoff's own Sinestro Corps War. It doesn't hold a candle to Grant's Batman, Jla, Invisibles etc, Bendis' overly blown Avengers, Dark Phoenix Saga etc *

To Be Honest I am enjoying Siege more than BN now but maybe that's just event faitigue in The GL-verse. I love Hal and Sinestro but this event doesn't do anyone justice except talkative zombies and marketing. Nekron said it himself in the variant of Blackest Night 6, he is Offering you the rings. Take them, take them all and waste your time and money*

Sorry if I am too long and little ranty. Not my intention

[Mycroft unable to translate Find all posts View Profile Close Mycroft]

Totally agree!

[Raker616 Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close Raker616]

Maybe you should re-title this thread a personal fans opinion on Blackest Night, because right off the bat when you talk about how you don't like Geoff Johns and then go on and on about BN's fault's the honest opinion part is kind of laughable. I'll also try to ignore how you claim to be enjoying Siege more yet turn around and cry about even fatigue with GL. Seriously do yourself a favor drop GL and continue to follow the books you do enjoy and everyone will be better off in the end it's not really that hard.

[Guest Close The Deadpool]

I was enjoying BN at first but then I lost all interest.

[chivalrous Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close chivalrous]

Maybe you should re-title this thread a personal fans opinion on Blackest Night, because right off the bat when you talk about how you don't like Geoff Johns and then go on and on about BN's fault's the honest opinion part is kind of laughable. I'll also try to ignore how you claim to be enjoying Siege more yet turn around and cry about even fatigue with GL. Seriously do yourself a favor drop GL and continue to follow the books you do enjoy and everyone will be better off in the end it's not really that hard.

I think you're mixing up 'honest' and 'objective'.

The original post is HarshR13 expressing his honest opinions about BN uninfluenced by bias other than his own.
What you're complaining about is that his opinions aren't objective which no opinion can be; an objective opinion is an oxymoron inasmuch as an opinion is always subjective to the authors bias.

[Morph Green Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Morph]

nice breakdown, and good questions. I've enjoyed GL and Blackest Night started out great... but I agree in the past month of so it seems to be dwindling and has left me wondering... what happened?

nice job though.

[W.West Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close W.West]

Maybe you should re-title this thread a personal fans opinion on Blackest Night, because right off the bat when you talk about how you don't like Geoff Johns and then go on and on about BN's fault's the honest opinion part is kind of laughable. I'll also try to ignore how you claim to be enjoying Siege more yet turn around and cry about even fatigue with GL. Seriously do yourself a favor drop GL and continue to follow the books you do enjoy and everyone will be better off in the end it's not really that hard.

I think you're mixing up 'honest' and 'objective'.

The original post is HarshR13 expressing his honest opinions about BN uninfluenced by bias other than his own.
What you're complaining about is that his opinions aren't objective which no opinion can be; an objective opinion is an oxymoron inasmuch as an opinion is always subjective to the authors bias.

thank you.

[Dr. Naysay Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Dr. Naysay]

Seriously do yourself a favor drop GL and continue to follow the books you do enjoy and everyone will be better off in the end it's not really that hard.

Seriously do yourself a favor and drop the GLCMB and continue to follow the message boards you do enjoy and everyone will be better off in the end it's not really that hard.

[Guest Close HarshR13]

Hey Raker616 there is absolutely no reason to behave like a rude prick. Now I do inderstad you are a huge Geoff Johns fan. I wanted to start off saying I didn't like him. Did you even begin reading the rest where I hugely praised him for No Fear, Wanted SCW and ROTRL ? Reading is the key friend

West and Naysay, big fan of both yr posts and West's blogs. You'll are really awesome. Naysay, would love to have some crazy chats with you on Qward !*

Some more questions towards Blackest Night including a little clarity on Nekron allowing the heroes to return et al

Am sorry if I was unclear in a few places. I'll hopefully be more coherent and articulate now.*

Some questions for you along with some observations thrown in. Hope I don't go onto too many tangents and technicalities

1. An explaination for the Black Hand Symbol is that it's in the Black that is Billy ? The Hand Mortuary symbol surely has been around before William Hand was born. So how exactly dis the symbol get there ?*

2. I must say that Batman is The Super Hero. He was totally used. Bruce Wayne's grave was in Green Lantern 43 and 44. The grave wasn't even mentioned in GL43, His skull was the cover of BN1 right ? Blackest Night 0 was The Brave and Bold at his grave. The event opened up at his Grave. It would be blind not to see Batman in Blackest Night. References to Batman nearly plagued issue 4 and 5 too. His skull ( technically the Clone's ) created the Black Rings by the power of the Black. The Batman Blackest Night Tie In was the highest selling mini.*

3. What is the exact relationship between The Guardians and Nekron. I know Nekron's backstory from The GL Annuals. Have been Reading books going back to the 50's*

4. Did Blackest Night have to be 8 Issues with a month gap. That's 9 Months ! Issue One to Three was epic filler. It was zombie action. Issue 4 and 5 were very good. Issue 6 was just a freaking travesty. Predictable and cliched. Everything we expected. Nekron and Hand have done nearly nothing this event. To Be Honest, Nekron is the least developed Big Bad of an event by the big 2 in forever !*

Final Crisis surely deserved 12 Issues or at least 9. Blackest Night couldve been done and finished in 6 Issues without a skip month. I'm very happy that DC has made so much money out of BN and is kicking Marvel butt finally ! I'm glad that so many series that tied in got a huge boost in sales and are not cancelled.

5. Isn't Blackest Night the ultimate comic cliche ? I don't think there was anything surprising in it whatsoever. If anyone even dares to argue and say the same for Final Crisis, I'll lay a few ones

i. Orions death in the Opening
ii. Batman getting taken down by Granny Goodness
iii. Darkseid's easy takeover of The Earth
iv. Wonder Woman's Fall
v. The Heart Rendering transformation of Dan Turpin into The Darkside
vi. Darkseid's speech at the end of Issue 5
vii. Batman using a gun to take down a god ( yeah we kinda called that but that was better than anything in BN so far )
viii. Batman chilling at the beginning of time. I dare anyone to say they called that. Anyone ? It was the most badass end to a Crisis !

Finally, as to what I mean about the dead resurrection angle. I'll try to be clear below.*

Nekron let those 8 Heroes he "took" at the end of BN5 to come back to realm of the living right ? Now why would he do that? If he let those heroes stay dead, there would Hardly be any worthy protectors of Earth. He couldve easily taken over. Also, I say this because A "Dead" Black Lantern hasn't registered a fight against the Black Ring, whereas a "Living" Black Lantern Has. Am I clear ? If so, the only thing I have to say to Geoff is " Lazy storytelling ? "

[JohnnyV Pictionary Master Find all posts View Profile Close JohnnyV]

To me Blackest Night can be summed up like this - Derivative? Yes...Entertaining? Yes

BN to me has been like a Chuck Norris movie. Very few surprises, yet I still enjoy it. I can get my intellectual stimulating reads elsewhere.

[Guest Close lokeinlyesmith]

Okay, first of all, your original post was a little hard to follow due to all the typos. I'm not usually harsh on typos, but you had some doozies. Like, I have no idea how you could have possibly mixed up those letters, but that was epic.

Also, what the hell is up with all the *? I feel like it's secret code for something I'm missing out on. Does that mean there's an editorial note at the bottom? 'cause I didn't see one.

And I didn't think anyone a rude prick, I think you need to calm down. He was no harsher to you than you're being about BN.

Finally! About your post! I don't think BN is all that bad. I think they did some necessary things to tell the story they were wanting to tell. Did you see it coming? Probably. But a lot of it was necessary to the story. Geoff Johns isn't just telling his own story here, he's completing other stories and explaining some things. He's using the War of Light, which wasn't originally his idea, to create some awesome characters that I think will be around for a long long time. That, and I think (hope) they're creating a reason for characters to not die, or at least not come back as easily. Even if it doesn't last, making the characters that have come back from the dead answer for that I think is BRILLIANT.

To tell a story this massive and stay within the confines of the characters, while still making the story interesting, I think is a difficult thing to do.


Last, I think we shouldn't judge BN until it's really said and done with and we're well into Brightest Day. This is story isn't over, the effects of this story haven't really begun to hit yet, and I think BN will continue to effect things for a little while. There are things I didn't like about BN too. (Kyle coming back from the dead? Broke my heart.) But I'm still holding out until I'm willing to say "this is crap."

[Sylent_Asassin Black Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Sylent_Asassin]

I thought BN was great until they started deputizing other DCU characters. That's where the bottom fell out for me. Just about everything after that moment made me shake my head. From that point on, the story seemed less about GL and good storytelling and more about marketing for other characters that I don't give a damn about.

[Dr. Naysay Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Dr. Naysay]

And I didn't think anyone a rude prick, I think you need to calm down. He was no harsher to you than you're being about BN.

Oh well... that's fair.

[Guest Close Bucky7588]

I think Seige and BN are incredibly different events, and are approached way too differently to compare. The fact is, some people just don't like certain comics, and although I love BN I get what you're saying. Siege has been great too though.

[Darth_Primus Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Darth_Primus]

I like Blackest Night. I think the storyline was to appeal to the general comic book readers, like myself. It's a major cross-over event, and I'm sure they wanted to include as many of the popular characters of the DC Universe, as it's an opportunity to bring new readers into the GL world. From what I've read on other forums, many GL fans jumped on the bangwagon during the Sinestro Corps storyline. I believe Blackest Night has done the same.

I believe the main objective of Blackest Night was to bring in new readers, and I think it succeeded.

Blackest Night reminds me of the Star Trek reboot. It's going to upset a lot of hardcore fans in an attempt to bring in a new audience.

Siege, although a different on so many levels, can be compare to Blackest Night in the sense they are cross-over events and it consists of the heroes being underdogs and struggling to regain the upper hand. I find both story enjoyable and worth reading.