IT'S JUST A THRILLER.
So with all the craziness, all the undead psychos running around our dear soon-to-be-rebooted Earth, what could Issue 3 possibly start off with?
Jason Rusch and his girlfriend talking about being Firestorm! *gasp*
Yeah, enough about that. Back in Gotham, the Flash and Green Lantern try to ward off the onslaught of the Blank Lanterns and their innuendos. Seriously, Black Lantern Hawkgirl says seeing Green Lantern use his ring gets her going. Is that even possible? Ew.
Barry tries to take Black Lantern Ronnie Raymond's ring off but finds that the rings have latched onto their prey and damage to the host only brings up their power level. Hence the black lantern box with the power percentage. It's fleeting but probably important to notice.
Help comes in the form of Ray Palmer, who, in a ripped up Atom suit, arrives and informs Green Lantern about how the ring appears on the inside, since he was able to shrink down to size.
Firestorm, with Jason and Gen, go to JLA headquarters and meet up with Mera, both squads looking for some allies. Green Lantern and the Flash, along with an unconscious Ray Palmer, are about to be crushed when the mysterious Indigo Tribe arrives, severs the connection of some Black Lanterns to their rings, mysteriously using willpower (the Green Lantern power) and their leader brings those three to Firestorm and Mera at JLA headquarters.
The leader of the Indigo Tribe decides to spin us a tale on a pretty sweet turn-on-the-side-double-page-splash-page (how many hyphens can I use?) tale about the origins of the universe as well as the meaning of the different Lantern colors, finally telling us that the Indigo Tribe is that of compassion. So they're always forgotten.
Shots fired.
Thus, the Black Lanterns have arrived to bring forth the darkness that once dominated the universe, seeking to snuff out all splinters of the original white light. Ray deducts that the rings are merely using the super heroes as a way of having their own bodies to kill all other loved one of the Lantern Corps, and that they use the memories of those bodies to incite hate.
And just as Barry and Hal are about to kiss and make up after Hal wants to be stupid and run into space, the Black Lanterns attack. Man, what buzzkills.
The real buzzkill of the issue is where Black Lantern Ronnie Raymond manages to separate Gen and Jason, and ultimately gets Jason stuck inside his Firestorm Matrix and kills Gen as Jason is watching, The more Jason gets angry, the stronger Ronnie becomes.
Basically, the point of this issue was to point out the fact that our heroes are ultimately doomed in this fight against basically the undead. The villains that were in that super morgue have been unleashed on top of all the other now-baddies that are running wild, and it would seem that Earth's sole line of defense is Mera, the Atom, and the Flash, since Hal Jordan has been teleported away by the Indigo Tribe.
Jumping into the fourth issue makes it feel like a lot has happened when really it starts off right where Issue 3 left off. The reason I say that is because when Issue 3 ended, the "power level" of the Black Lantern rings was only at 56.68. At the start of Issue 4, it's at 93.88. Unless there was a lot of undead super-folk brought back, even more than at the morgue, I feel like we're missing something.
And obviously, we are. Green Lantern all but vanishes from the main book for quite some time and when he returns you're left questioning what the heck happened. There are also some Black Lanterns that appear fresh out of nowhere that you wonder how that happened. Well, I mean, they obviously got the Black Lantern rings, but how they died is another question.
This issue in particular brings back several heroes we haven't seen for a while, and even some not in the book. While it's not necessarily important to the overall narrative what happened to them, it'd still be nice to see how or why Black Lanterns wound up in Star City.
Jason manages to temporarily get control of Firestorm, telling the Flash that they have fused, but Ronnie takes control again and reinforcements for the Black Lanterns come, Black Lantern Aquaman leading the charge. Ray Palmer, using his shrinking abilities, manages to get the three of them out of there before they can be killed.
In a cool little detour, we go back to Gotham and see Black Lantern Azrael trying to attack the Scarecrow, but the Black Lanterns have no affect on him because he's used his fear gas too many times on himself and is immune to fear except for one thing...
THE BATMAN.
Boom, great way to end a page. Go Scarecrow (?)
In Metropolis, Lex Luthor claims he is done with his little squad of villains and decides to take on the dead with his own bare hands. And by bare hands I mean using his green suit or armor.
Ray and Mera are unsure about fighting the undead, seeing it as a lost cause, but good old Barry manages to rally them to fight. He even tells them that since they can't contact Superman or Wonder Woman, that they are now Superman and Wonder Woman. If that's not motivation--or pressure--I don't know what is.
So does that make Barry Batman?
Nope! Mera asks what makes Barry if they're Superman and Wonder Woman, and instead of the obvious, Ray turns and simply says,"The Flash."
THE HYPE is real right now, ladies and gentlemen.
The three split up, with Ray and Mera going to find Mr. Terrific and consequently Alan Scott--one of the few people left to wield a ring of light--while Barry heads off to find more people to stand with him. Ray and Mera manage to find him, along with some other heroes, kicking some butt. Barry manages to run around basically the world to deliver a message to other JLA members, and the Teen Titans, about how to defeat the Black Lanterns.
Back in Coast City--wait, I thought he was in Gotham?--Black Hand exposits some villain speech about how the heroes are in a futile fight and blah blah blah.
Alan Scott finds his powers pretty ineffective against the Black Hands and our heroes are overwhelmed once again. Until Ray Palmer shrinks down and then enlarges himself inside the body of one of the Black Lanterns, splitting him in two. Again: ew.
Jean Loring appears in front of the Atom, killing Damage and stunning Ray, while Barry races toward Coast City, telling Wally and Bart (the two other Flashs) to get there as soon as possible, but finds it too late, as the Black Lantern, literally, like the battery containing all their power, has arrived. It comes complete with Black Hand, the Black Lantern Guardians, and it's own personal Black Lantern ruler!
Nekron.
Man, talk about a villain name. Guess that's one thing about this, it's got a pretty obvious villain name. Nekron isn't much of a hero name. Though, that is part of the point.
And the fact that he is obviously drawn to be of some semblance to the Grim Reaper is no step away from that. I do like that he is basically death incarnate, since the Black Lanterns are all about that. It's also cool to see the main bad guy halfway through the series and have him show off most of his powers immediately, as to end the issue he raises the dead of Coast City, even those who have no emotional connection to the heroes.
The zombie apocalypse has begun!
Again, these two issues really serve to show who the real enemy of all this is, culminating with the reveal of who we've been leading up to this whole time: Nekron. With this dude now in play, you know it's all going to get super real super fast. And the best part is that the only one there is Barry Allen. Not to knock him, but...I'd rather have Superman there to be quite honest. Still, things are looking pretty dismal for Earth.
Can Hal Jordan make it back in time to save the Earth along with the other Lantern Corps? Can our heroes of Earth hold out much longer? And will Batman make an appearance in this? Tune in next week to find out!
Or, you know, read the book. Then see my thoughts. Because I really like the series and think you would too.
If you want to stay up to date on when I post, be sure to follow me on Twitter @seanovan13 and on Instagram @seanovan10. Thanks for reading!
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