Blackest Night discussion (Spoilers!)

E said:
It doesn't, at all, but holding it to a higher standard is kind of pointless. Why criticize it based on criteria for something it's not?
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I agree, plus I think if they added too much it would have ruined the flow of the main book's narrative. I think the themes, concepts, etc should have been explored in tie ins. I also wished that the would be say a Justice League tie in that elaborates on Superman and co becoming black lanterns and then white lanterns. Basically deleted scenes of the major event.

I also loved how this event was handled, It was basically a green lantern event and most effects with be felt in the green lantern niche and you get a few cool stories of other heroes during this event. But it wasn't a "DC universe will forever be changed!... until the next event..." deal. Very self contained and a fun story.
Ultimate Houde said:
Did anyone else notice Deadman wearing a white lantern ring right before he took off his mask?
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I didn't catch that at first, interesting.
 
E said:
It doesn't, at all, but holding it to a higher standard is kind of pointless. Why criticize it based on criteria for something it's not?
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Blackest Night has been repeatedly described as a series that puts emotion and death under a microscope. You may think I'm overanalyzing it, but my only point is that it doesn't do any of these things effectively. I don't know what you mean when you say that I'm criticizing it as "something it's not". The only criteria I'm using is solid, consistent writing under the umbrella of the author's own descriptions. If you guys disagree with what I've said, that's one thing, but it seems like everyone's just telling me that I'm thinking too much about it.

And literary analysis is never pointless. :wink:
 
Actually, I agreed with you. If Johns went, "This is an fun Sly Stone type summer action story" then we wouldn't be analyzing it like this. But instead he said it suppose to another type of story, and it wasn't.
 
Random said:
I also loved how this event was handled, It was basically a green lantern event and most effects with be felt in the green lantern niche and you get a few cool stories of other heroes during this event. But it wasn't a "DC universe will forever be changed!... until the next event..." deal. Very self contained and a fun story.
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I agree. It was pretty refreshing.

Ultimate Houde said:
Actually, I agreed with you. If Johns went, "This is an fun Sly Stone type summer action story" then we wouldn't be analyzing it like this. But instead he said it suppose to another type of story, and it wasn't.
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That I agree with. It was a mistake for him to try and make it something deeper than what it was. There's nothing wrong with "mindless" fun and action if it's done right, and this was.
 
As a big concept story, I think we can all agree it failed. But, even on a fundamental narrative level, just as a story, I think it was deeply flawed. I'm re-reading it again before I make any absolute judgements, though.
 
Zombipanda said:
As a big concept story, I think we can all agree it failed.
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I don't think I agree with that. As a deep philosophical story, at least as Johns seems to have indicated he intended it to be, yes. But it brought some pretty important changes (especially big picture-wise including the stuff that happened in Sinestro Corps War).
 
I haven't read any of it yet (I'm still on rage of the red lanterns), but I'm wondering if you guys think this fell short because it should have been told as a Green Lantern/GLC story and DC turned it into a HUGE event with all kinds of needless and poorly written tie-ins?
 
E said:
I don't think I agree with that. As a deep philosophical story, at least as Johns seems to have indicated he intended it to be, yes. But it brought some pretty important changes (especially big picture-wise including the stuff that happened in Sinestro Corps War).
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The fact that it ushered in a few changes to the status quo doesn't make it a quality story, though. Try reading all of the Blackest Night stories in chronological order, or even just the main series, in one bout. It's disjointed, confused and building toward singular cliffhangers that destroy any notion of narrative cohesion. Contingent with the fundamentally shallow nature of the story (which I mentioned before), if you ask me, it just falls apart.
 
Gideon Stargrave said:
The fact that it ushered in a few changes to the status quo doesn't make it a quality story, though.
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You're right and I didn't mean that it did..what I meant is that the changes that were made were good and interesting (removal of lethal force, etc.) and the the groundwork for some interesting ideas and directions.
 
A mite off topic, but...

[video=youtube;5t_S8eIOrP4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t_S8eIOrP4&feature=player_embedded[/video]
 
I'm just sitting down to read this all through, i can never keep up with things as they come out. I just got to BN#4 where the Black Lanterns reach 100%, and now GLC#42. They're all saying "100% exceeded, devour will" in a particularly ominous way and there's a splash of them all heading toward the Green Lantern Power Battery.....but i thought that was destroyed in Emerald Eclipse....or was that just the shell or some such? Totally enjoying it.
 
no i meant the last arc, GLC 38. I've checked back and answered my own question it was just the "shell" (when the red lantern is set free). Tho the damage looks pretty monumental, and it's not obvious that there's a 'battery' left.
 
Ninja4peace said:
no i meant the last arc, GLC 38. I've checked back and answered my own question it was just the "shell" (when the red lantern is set free). Tho the damage looks pretty monumental, and it's not obvious that there's a 'battery' left.
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i believe the shell they are referencing is the outer shell of oa...they basically armored up the entire planet
 
I'm reading through all 80+ issues of the crossover...I think I'm about 60 issues in. I've had to skip over a few issues, but they were all third-rate tie-ins.

The further I get into it, the more it is apparent that you really can read just the main series along with the Green Lantern and Lantern Corps tie-ins and get the good parts of the story. Most of the rest is just filler and is dismissable.

I did like the Black Lantern Jonah Hex though.
 
I think the Atom & Hawkman one-shot was reasonably important as it's where the indigo tribeswoman sends a message to the GLC group. Also the Phantom Stranger was a bit of a prelude to the Spectres return, tho it still seemed to come from nowhere.

The more i think about it the more the indigo tribe remind me of Asimov's second foundation - only intervening at certain times.

And actually the new guardians are a great new pantheon, the fact that they're not all virtuous just strong and quite morallly diverse. Reminds me of Authority or even the Endless.

Also I really wanna get some water taps with the Red & Blue symbols where the hot/cold should be...that would be sweet
 
Ninja4peace said:
I think the Atom & Hawkman one-shot was reasonably important as it's where the indigo tribeswoman sends a message to the GLC group. Also the Phantom Stranger was a bit of a prelude to the Spectres return, tho it still seemed to come from nowhere.

The more i think about it the more the indigo tribe remind me of Asimov's second foundation - only intervening at certain times.

And actually the new guardians are a great new pantheon, the fact that they're not all virtuous just strong and quite morallly diverse. Reminds me of Authority or even the Endless.

Also I really wanna get some water taps with the Red & Blue symbols where the hot/cold should be...that would be sweet
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There are definitely important moments, but on the other hand any moment important to the main story should be in the main story, not a tie-in.
 
E said:
There are definitely important moments, but on the other hand any moment important to the main story should be in the main story, not a tie-in.
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Which is also why most tie-ins feel like superfluous cash-ins. I think that there should be some sort of balance.
 
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