Blackest Night #5 – Review

By Geoff Johns (writer), Ivan Reis (penciller), Oclair Albert & Joe Prado (inkers)

The Story: The leaders of the seven lantern corps ready themselves for an assault on the black power battery. Barry Allen and Wally West lead the DCU’s heavy hitters against the tide of black lanterns defending their own power battery in Coast City.

What’s Good: There is an epic scale going on here, more than I’ve seen in other major comic book events. It really is for all the marbles. Johns elicited the same emotions I had when I read Return of the King or Crisis on Infinite Earths. And just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, they do.

Although the scale of the action doesn’t allow very many character moments, Johns exploited the ones he does have. I loved the scene with the Flashes. Wally’s line “I’m the Nightwing to your Batman,” to Barry was revealing, almost as much as Barry’s reply “You’re the Flash to my Flash.” I can’t wait until April 2010 to see what Johns does with these characters in the new Flash series.

There’s lots of zombie slapdown if you’re more into the slugfest-apocalypse side of things. We also get to see Dove take on the black lanterns. For those who followed the Blackest Night: Titans miniseries, you’ll know what I’m talking about. And while we’re on the Titans mini, Donna Troy is now in a worse place in Blackest Night #5. I’m loving the fact that the Blackest Night minis are subplots and what happens in them affects the main book. Most events forget that.

Reis, Albert, Prado and Sinclair bring on some fine artwork. I’ve gone on and on about this art team in other BN reviews, but just to pick out a couple of the more evocative images, I really loved the bony matrix that the Atom and Mera shrank into and I loved the ropey muscle under dead the grey skin of the black guardian. The color work was ethereal in the right places and the mood dark and black in others.

What’s Not So Good: In all honesty, there’s little to complain about in Blackest Night. It’s true that writers can’t sustain tension on a high note forever, but I found some of the wise-cracking by the lantern corps a bit inauthentic for the level of tension that had already been established. Maybe those lanterns are scared and overcompensating, but to make that work, you need to lay a bit more ground work on the way the characters feel inside. That gets me to my main point about the book, which is not a flaw, but inevitability in an epic. It’s really hard to find the space to show what characters feel. I mentioned the great Flash moments above, but I couldn’t help but miss the perspectives of Superman and Wonder Woman. They’re so big that if they’re on the page, you expect much of the DCU to be turning to them for leadership and courage. All these are minor points, or results of the creative choices Johns et al had to make.

Conclusion: Another strong issue of Blackest Night. If you haven’t picked up this series yet, I’m not sure there’s help for you.

Grade: A-

-DS Arsenault