Broken Frontier

Last issue finally saw Blackest Night gain some traction, and as a result those spinning wheels are taking us somewhere.  What with revelations of Nekron or the emotional trigger deployed by “Bruce Wayne’s” dark resurrection.  This issue sees more action and less talk as Guardians fall, various light corps begin to work together, more secret revelations are made known, and oh yeah, a whole bunch of DC characters get rings!

Seems like more happened in this issue than the first four issues combined.  It seems this way, cause that’s what has happened.  Still, there are more mysteries to be resolved and everyone keeps alluding to the Guardians knowing more than they let on.

This issue starts out with Nekron wresting for control over those heroes that have beaten the Grim Reaper.  Whether blown up in airplanes, thrown into suns or punched by Doomsday.  Wait a second... Superman didn’t die, he went into a super coma.  It merely looked like death to us.  At least that is the way I remember it happening and a quick scan of those issues of Superman and Action confirms it.

Just what is going on here?  It is possible that the Superboy punch is in play or that there is something that has not been revealed in Superman: Secret Origins, but if that is true, then this is a weak plot device, because the reader hasn’t been told yet.  There is another possibility.  In this issue, Bart explains to Barry that Nekron has a hold on the Flash because he stopped him from truly dying.  Okay, that’s a possibility with Superman, I guess, but then why explain that Krypton technology saved him?  Bart’s explanation works for Kal-El just as easily.  Does this mean that none of the DC heroes that have died have actually died?  Has Nekron just been holding them in stasis the whole time?

More than likely, it is the fault of poor editing.  It’s a shame really.  Over at Marvel where there are less editors, there seems to be a tight control over Amazing Spider-Man. There needs to be, what with rotating writers and a brain trust and an increased printing schedule. So it shouldn’t be too hard to edit one book, or a line with one writer, one architect.  Could it?  Who knows, but someone somewhere should have caught it, especially with all the hoopla not too long ago over the anniversary of the crown jewel of DC’s speculation era printing.  Did no one read that omnibus or am I the only one who ten years later wondered about the Death and Return of Superman?

It’s a slight problem in an otherwise exciting issue, with all the action, most fans probably missed it, but it just stuck out.  Johns is doing an incredible job and for years his love of the characters has seen him to the top of the writers in all of comicdom.  It just seems odd that such a mistake would come from the guy that has been dropping hints about Blackest Night since at least Green Lantern #1.  But as the event comic has become the main thrust of superhero comics, it is curious that a blunder this slight or the complete spoiling of the end of Captain America Reborn could happen.  What power can the event have if it is not as tight as it could be?  These are the publisher's showcases for the best they have to offer, errors should not be allowed.

The rest of the comic is exemplary, from amped up action in Johns’s script to the as always pitch perfect art of Ivan Reis.  It really is the kind of epic story it set out to be.  The risen dead are creepy, the various spectral colors seem to glow brighter in the dark.  The emotions are thick.  All of this is due to a creative team that is tried and tested.  Maybe more importantly, they have worked together for a considerable period of time and have come to complement each other.  This is something that often eludes the hot creative pairings in an age of attrition battling.

Blackest Night is not a perfect comic, but it is an epic and exciting comic.  It would be nice to get the best of both worlds and sometimes it is a pity to this reader that the audience doesn’t demand it more often.