Free Imagine Blogs

Well, I guess I needed another day after all. Sorry about that folks.

So: Blackest Night #6. Everybody who reads this blog knows I spend a lot of time talking about Blackest Night. It's not that I have an obsession with Green Lantern or even Geoff Johns. For me, the appeal of Blackest Night is the incredible importance it has for the entire DC Universe.

Most of you know that I studied history in my undergraduate years and am working on my M. A. now in a similar subject. I love history. Japan is my chosen field of study, but it only takes second place on my list of histories I'd most like to study. If I could really study anything it would be the history of the DC Universe.

Yes, I'm that big of a geek.

Blackest Night is a history making event in the DCU. It's the first time in a very long time that DC has consistently outsold Marvel by pretty much every metric. Blackest Night is also tackling the issue of death in the DCU -- that's been an elephant in the room for a long time.

When publishers hype their events they always like to talk about how "nothing will be the same." Usually that really is just hype. Admittedly, I still buy into it almost every time. Maybe I'm buying into this time as well. But I truly think that Blackest Night is going to reshape the DC Universe for a long time to come. Here's why:

1. Blackest Night will significantly alter the the meaning of "death" in the DCU. There really is no way around this. For Blackest Night Geoff Johns has tied the villain Nekron significantly to almost every major death and resurrection in the DCU. Nekron is now the canonical reason why characters were able to come back to life. With his probable defeat at the end of Blackest Night the landscape changes. Without the stated reason for resurrections, how can further resurrections happen?

Obviously there are ways around this. After all, a character can "die" like Stephanie Brown or Bruce Wayne. Since they aren't really dead they have no connection to Nekron. But I still think Blackest Night alters the status quo as far as death and resurrection. Will this mean fewer deaths or simply fewer resurrections? I don't really know. But I do know things won't be the way they are now.

2. The fall of the Guardians of the Universe. Those cosmic smurfs have been trying to run the "universe" their way for a very long time. They've constantly screwed up. The Manhunters. Parallax. Sinestro. They have failed at every turn, but have managed to hold onto their positions (or regain them) and keep trying.

They won't get to do that this time. Blackest Night is, in my opinion, the swan song of the Guardians. They've failed one too many times. This time, there's no coming back. Geoff Johns has in some ways said as much: apparently one of the first new arcs coming out of Blackest Night will be titled "The New Guardians." The Guardians have had their chance and failed. Now somebody else is going to be in charge of the Green Lantern Corps. Whoever it is will shape the future of the DC Universe.

3. The resurrection and the life. Character are going to come back to life. There's no question of that. A lot of characters who have died before and during Blackest Night can't stay dead. Too many of them have been slaughtered for that. And after Blackest Night when resurrections get locked down they won't be able to come back as easily. So they'll all come back before it's over. That will be a big shift in the population of the DCU for both heroes and villains.

And even if I'm wrong it's a huge deal. A DCU lacking important figures like Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, and others will be significantly altered. We've had this for a while, no question. But with little prospect for resurrection (in universe if not out) how will that change the tenor of the DCU? How will it affect the way heroes and villains live out their lives?

4. The Corps. That's corps plural. The seven ring slinging corps have been painstakingly created by Geoff Johns over the past few years. Do you really think they are going away? Some people hate the concept, I know. But it's here to stay. And the presence of so many different corps has the potential to have an effect not just on a cosmic scale but on Earth as well. In Blackest Night we see natives of Earth acquiring rings. Will that really be the end of it?

Blackest Night is comic history in action. If we lived in a world where I could study the history of a fictional universe then this is the sort of event people would relate to their grandchildren. "I remember where I was when I read Blackest Night #6. I'll never forget how I felt when I saw Lex Luthor get his orange ring."

Yes, I'm overstating it. But for the characters in the DCU the event really is that big. And though we may come for the explosions, the undead, and the rainbow colored rings... We stay for the characters. And Blackest Night is going to change them all.