With the dead rising across the universe, it seems these spin-off Blackest Night miniseries are really being used to their fullest, showing the impact to the players of the DC Universe not involved in the main conflict, at least not at the moment. At the same time, though, we’re getting tidbits, bits and pieces of information that may add up to the truth about the Black Lantern Corps.
Blackest Night: Superman is the second of three miniseries being launched this month, and the focus is not just on Superman himself but on the rest of his family as the black rings fall. As Superman and Superboy enjoy a rare moment at home in Smallville with Ma Kent, the black rings resurrect Kal-L, the Superman from Earth-2, along with his wife, Lois Lane. These two versions of the characters (the original versions, technically) died back in Infinite Crisis, with Kal-L dying an honored hero’s death, but as we’ve seen many times already, the Black Lanterns are adept at taking heroes and turning them into something vile. Before Clark and Conner have an inkling that there’s any danger, Smallville itself comes under siege, leaving the men of steel (and their dog of steel) to face the danger after it may be too late to save the woman that means so much to both of them. And as if that wasn’t enough, on New Krypton, one of the rings enters the crypt of Supergirl’s father. The bodies of Jor-El and Lara may have been vaporized when Krypton exploded, but there’s nothing stopping the corpse of Zor-El from rising.
Save from the main Blackest Night miniseries, this may have been my favorite crossover issue yet. James Robinson, who writes the current Superman series and co-writes the Superman: World of New Krypton maxi-series, captures the voices of these characters perfectly. What’s more, when we see our heroes through “Black Lantern” vision, there’s a degree of complexity there that we haven’t yet seen in the other books. I’m not sure what’s different about Clark and Conner — something in their Kryptonian makeup, maybe — but the Black Lanterns seem to be able to draw on more emotions, more nuanced emotions, from those two than the others we’ve seen them battle. I’m not sure if there’s anything to make of that yet, but I find it highly interesting.
Eddy Barrows‘s artwork is wonderful. His depiction of the Supermen, living and dead, of Supergirl — heck, even of Krypto all look great, and the cover of this book is dark, moody, and creepy as all hell.
Awesome book that I can’t wait to see continue.
Rating: 9/10
People are saying…