Wow! Wow!! And Wow!!!

DC Comics is about a month into their 2009 event, Blackest Night. The tag line for this one is, "The Dead Shall Rise" and so far they're... uh, "living" up to that billing! Some evil being is responsible for sending Black Lantern rings out in search of key, dead individuals who can be brought back to some form of undead life in order to wage a war of attrition against the forces of good in the DCU (such as Green Lantern, Superman, Flash and so on). I was a bit leery about Blackest Night, going in, but I'm quickly becoming a believer. With two issues of the main series published (and six more to come), we've seen the Hawks (Hawkman and Hawkgirl) killed by, of all folks, the Elongated Man and his wife Sue (both of them corpses on a rampage), Green Lantern and Flash being tormented by a risen-from-the-dead Martian Manhunter, and a reanimated Aquaman (and who knew he was even dead?) promising to not only kill his wife, Mera, but also bring their deceased infant son back to commit atrocities.
Over in one of the three initial spin-off mini-series, Blackest Night: Batman, we have the new Dynamic Duo (Dick Grayson as Batman and Wayne-bastard Damian as Robin) discovering that both the Grayson parents (killed when Dick was just a boy) and the 3rd Robin's folks (that would be the mother and father of Tim Drake, who's currently operating as "Red Robin" and... oh jeez, this is getting complicated!) have been bodysnatched and may be showing up as Black Lanterns any moment now. I had waffled about buying this particular 3-issue mini-series because I wasn't sure it would be anything beyond a "Look! Here's what Batman and Robin are up to over here while the main action's over there!" sort of thing, but whoa! it's off to a great start! The writer (Peter Tomasi) even brought Deadman into it, with the superhero's (dead) body being made into a Black Lantern while his ghostly self is still around to inhabit living bodies. This is like a tour de force through the DC Universe!
And today, Blackest Night: Superman # 1 came out, kicking off another 3-issue spin-off. This time it's Earth-2's Superman and Lois Lane Kent (both killed off in Infinite Crisis, just a couple years ago) wearing the Black Lantern uniforms and wielding the rings, making for a very bad situation for the town of Smallville, Martha Kent, Superman and Superboy (the latter of whom is only just very recently returned from the dead himself... I know!!) Even Supergirl, up on New Krypton with her mother Alura, isn't spared, as Zor-El pops up out of his coffin to bedevil his wife and daughter who are still grieving over his recent demise! Whew! That's a lot of recent continuity that's being woven seamlessly into the current goings-on, and I'm extremely impressed so far.

As you can see, there's so much happening across the breadth of this major event that it may just end up being responsible for a heart attack or two! And if that happens, then we'll just end up being brought back as Black Lanterns...