My problems with Blackest Night

[incredibledave]

Hey Guys

Been chatting to the guy who runs the Gametavern twitter account (who is he anyway?) and he suggested I put my thoughts/complaints about Blackest Night on this website rather than in a million separate tweets. Just to clarify, this will be a review of the main mini-series only (writer Geoff Johns claimed that it could stand alone without any tie-ins), is written before the release of issue 7 and I'm a relative newcomer to the DCU. Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and I encourage you to comment

SPOILER WARNINGS ON

My main complaints around Blackest Night revolve around Plot, Protagonists and Antagonists.

**Plot**
My problem with the Blackest Night plot is that stuff just happens in it. For no reason.
Issue 1 is zombies attacking, why now? Who knows.

Issue 3 is Indigo arriving, why now? Who knows. And she tells the heroes that the zombies are weak to Green Lantern Light + other colour light, why? Who knows.

Issue 5 is Nekron rising "Bruce Wayne" so he can establish an emotional connection to the heroes and instantly kill them. Why does that work? Who knows.

Issue 6 is Barry running through time by 2 seconds to severe the connection to those Black rings. Why does that work? Who knows. And then Ganthet shows up to deputize a bunch of people. Why? Who knows.

There is no possible way anyone could have seen any of those things coming (sept maybe the first zombie one if you read solicitations). Thats not a good thing. I'm all for a twist coming and surprising me but there has to be a few hints leading up to it otherwise it just feels like the author is making shit up as he goes along.

Also, Issue 4 is completely without any Green Lanterns, ie; the only guys who can kill the zombies.

**Protagonists**
The main protagonists for this title are Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Mera and Ray Palmer.
Hal is the head strong one.
Barry Allen is inspiring/shouts exposition at people (I think inspiring is what they were going for)
Mera is the tough as nails angry one.
And Ray is kinda spineless.
Each of these characters remain like this for the entire series. Hal will still be just as head strong. Barry will still love to make speeches. And Mera and Ray may get snazzy new costumes but they will fundamentally be the same.

None of the characters seem to have the time for a major character arc because of the constant cutting back and forward between other characters who only show up for a couple of panels.

Now this may just be the result of the event comic format. But Barry, Mera and Ray don't have ongoings at the moment so a shift in character wouldnt ruin any other series. And this is being written by the Geoff Johns, the writer of Green Lantern (Hal's series) and intertwines with that title. There seems to be little reason why he couldnt just pick one person and give them a character arc in the main title.

**Antagonists**
Alright, the baddies! They're likely only going to be around for this series so there is no excuse to hold back anything with these guys. Lets look at who we have:

Black Hand: despite Green Lantern #43 (which is not a part of this mini-series) Blackest hand has done nothing but skulk around and look creepy. He also occasionally has a line of dialogue in an issue. This simply isn't enough to care about the villain.

Black Lanterns: evil zombies version of past heroes. But they just act like dicks. Thats all there is too them, occasionally (mostly in tie-ins) they will take on a few verbal ticks of the old characters but for the most part they just act like dicks. Not enough to carry an 8 issue mini-series.

Nekron: besides randomly kill all the heroes instantly in #5, he hasnt DONE anything! Hes just STANDING AROUND!

**Summary**
Blackest Night has been a series of unpredictable random events involving unchanging fairly simplistic characters fighting simplistic bad guys. On one hand its beautifully drawn by Ivan Reis and has cameos from just about every single DC character. On the other hand its not that different to a child playing with action figures.