You know, as much as I'm personally inclined to dislike this Green Lantern event thing, I have to say that the people at the DC booth in Baltimore were so friendly, so sincere, so absolutely enthusiastic about "Blackest Night" – explaining to me both the concept of the event and the promotional strategy – that when I had left with my black ring and promo copy of "Green Lantern," it was hard for me to continue my enmity for this series. Which is really the job of anybody in promotions & advertising – to become the "face" of the product being sold, to weld that personable quality with the product in order to leave people feeling good.
That said, I haven't really read a great deal of this event, so I couldn't give a real assessment of it at this point. I heard there's a lot of dead characters in it, right? And something with colors?
I haven't read Blackest Night, but I did like the Sinestro Corps War. It was up there with the Anihilation Wave saga; that was a good year for Space Opera Comics.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed it a great deal. Green Lantern is one of those characters I've read since I started reading comic books, and the cool thing about "Blackest Night" is that it's tapped into that -- that "this is why I started reading about men in tights in the first place" reservoir. It's just a really simple idea, basically different colored lantern rings and their accompanying armies battling out with zombified version of dead heroes and villains, and for the purpose of the book, that works and is enjoyable to read. Action packed, doesn't take itself too seriously, a lot of nice visuals, and a real feeling the creators know where they're going with it.
ReplyDeleteIt's exactly what a super-hero space opera with zombies is supposed to be [heh].
I tend to avoid cross-overs, but an old friend suggested this to me and I bit.
ReplyDeleteThe Zombies are from Outer Space this time. The big hook is that the Space Zombies hurl really mean, personal insults that turn on old comic book continuity. So, it is really "Plan 9 from Outer Space" meets "Mallrats".
It is not bad, but I wish that it were funnier.
I'm glad they were so enthusiastic, but I wonder if they've actually read the book. I've found Blackest Night bleak and depressing -- who wants to watch superheroes graphically murdered and then rise from the dead to commit mass murder? Plus they killed off the Kendra Saunders Hawkgirl, probably the most underrated character in comics.
ReplyDeleteSay what you will about Marvel, but at least there's some light in the whole Dark Reign saga. Blackest Night is the worst excesses of the last five years of DC in one neat, tidy package.
That said, I will be buying the issue that comes with the free Green Lantern ring, because I really want my own Green Lantern ring.
Have a good day.
G Morrow
Surprisingly I'm really enjoying this book. I don't know if it's because I'm hoping for a mass resurrection of every dead hero at the end of it or at least everyone who's died in the event, but I feel this is honestly a "they are going to combine forces and really kick ass and be awesome" kind of endings to a book.
ReplyDeleteIf it isn't, well then expect the thing to show up on my show at some point. Also, Val - if you've got a silver sharpie, color in the black hand on the ring - it makes it look kewler and more accurate to the book. =3
To be quite honest here, the only time that Marvel and DC have ever actually had ideas is when they introduced the very first superheroes, and maybe here and there in introductions spanned throughout the timeline. I don't mean to be putting the entire Superhero Genre down (Irredeemable is probably the best thing that I have ever read), but do Marvel and DC REALLY believe that they are telling great, or even decent, stories?
ReplyDeleteI mean... Dan DiDio has been quoted as saying, post-Disney merger: "we're fine as #2".