Blackest Night #2 Review

Blackest Night #2

The issue starts right where it left off, at the Stonechat Museum in St. Roch, Louisiana, the city Hawkman and Hawkgirl call home. In the last issue, a visitor by the name of Black Hand came to the museum with the intention’s of making Hawkgirl and Hawkman his newest Black Lantern recruits. We now see that he has succeeded, and we are given the first glimpse of the two as Black Lantern’s. The story then picks up where Green Lantern #44 left us, with Flash and Green Lantern battling BL Martian Manhunter, then proceeds to show the most recent events concerning the Aqua family, Oracle and her father, Commissioner Gordan, Deadman, Don and Hank Hall, the former Hawk and Dove, The Spectre, Blue Devil, Zatanna, and Phantom Stranger, who encounter the newly resurrected as a BL Pariah, the person responsible for the release of the Anti-Monitor back in Crisis On Infinite Earths, as well as a visit by Black Hand, who resurrects the current host of The Spectre, Crispus Allen, and The Spectre proclaims a rather unusual demand, and I quote:”I WANT HAL JORDAN BACK”. I wonder where that will lead….. The issue also has an extra feature, taken right out of The Book Of The Black, but for more on that, read the last paragraph.

This issue is excellently scripted by Geoff Johns, with enough emotion to make The Guardians cry. So much effort has been put into Blackest Night, and that makes me confident enough in Johns’ ability to keep up the standard for the entire event. The story is driven immensely on the fact that all living beings feel emotion, and sometimes unbridled emotion can lead to horrible mistakes.

The pencils were done by Ivan Reis, with inks by Oclair Albert & Julio Ferrera, and Alex Sinclair as colorist. Let me tell ya, Ivan Reis continues to amaze me with his art, especially in this event where grotesque characters are featured, which is sometimes hard to pull off. The inks are phenomenal, especially when you take into account that the BL’s are supposed to have a certain creepy, disgusting look to them, and the inks only enhance this even more. The colors fit well with the inks and pencils, providing enough contrast to the darkness the tone of the series gives off.

Ok so, here’s where it gets pretty interesting. This issues feature at the back of the book is an excerpt from The Book Of The Black, the book used by Scar to record the events of Blackest Night, and pertains to love, an undying, never-ending love that had evaded death for thousand of years, a love that called the city of St. Roch, Louisiana its home. The feature tells of two rulers of a desert kingdom who fell in love, and their love mirrored the fossilized devotion within the Star Sapphire’s Power Battery. The love of these two are betrayed, and they are murdered, only to be reborn, then murdered again as soon as these two ever confess their love, over and over again. The two lovers who ruled an ancient desert land, and the two lovers known as Hawkman and Hawkgirl are one and the same. But the excerpt doesn’t end there, instead it tells of a new plague enveloping the earth. Then the book tells us that love will soon be dead, and rage is next. Wow. I thought that this feature was excellent, and could be expanded upon tenfold. I even see the potential of this story reaching a level where a one-shot, or perhaps even a mini-series would be fitting. Definitely worth finding out more.

Tags: Blackest Night Geoff Johns Green Lantern Ivan Reis