Here is your part two of Blackest Night tie-ins. I felt it would be best to do this in two parts because January is meant to be a special time for Blackest Night and its tie-ins. And who am I to mess with special time.
Doom Patrol 4-5 *
I guess it would be best to start with the fact that I don't usually read Doom Patrol. Now that that's been said, I feel as if I lost half an hour of my life that I will likely never get back again. Usually I can pick up an issue (especially if it's a tie-in, like I have all the other issues) and get the gist of the story. This was not the case with Doom Patrol. I even looked up each of the characters and that did nothing to get me into caring about them. The writing was less than great in comparison to the rest of Blackest Night. I don't expect all the writing to be like Geoff Johns, but still. The characters were boring, the plot was confusing at best, and the art was not great. It took me three times to get through the first issue and I couldn't tell you that I understood how the second issue ended. If you must read all the Blackest Night tie-ins, an endeavor I myself have taken up, leave this till the very end.
Booster Gold 26-27 ***
I don't read Booster Gold, but I guess what is different with this one, is that I know who Booster Gold and the new Blue Beetle are, so that's something. I found this to be fairly enjoyable. For the most part, the plot was decent, the writing was a bit more than just acceptable. I found it a tad strange that there was an artist change halfway into the issue, but not in a bad way. I felt both artists were fairly good, and there was practically no distinguishable difference between the two. I thought the machine "designed to approximate the emotional spectrum" was pretty cool. The scenes at the end surrounding the death of Ted Kord, which was also touched upon in the first issue, were touching, especially because I don't have any emotional connection to Ted. I didn't particularly understand the ending, but I guess it means Cyborg Superman is back. I did however, think that Rip was kinda cool, and I liked how he "reveals" (I don't actually been touched upon in another issue) that Booster is his daddy. So, to reiterate, this was pretty good, and hey I'm pretty sure they'll be making an appearance in other tie-ins (JLA.)
Adventure Comics 4-5 **** 1/2
Blackest Night Adventure Comics gave me a glimpse as to why I felt bad for Superboy Prime. Not to say that he didn't deserve to be punished for being the cause of Superboy's death, but, like with Jason Todd, there's still that part of me that felt bad for him. Adventure Comics 4/5 takes place in an alternate dimension where Superboy Prime now lives and everything that happens in the comics that we read, happens in comics he reads. If that confused you, pick up the comic, Geoff Johns does a better job at explaining things. I liked this tie-in. The story was entertaining enough, as would is to be expected. I mean c'mon, he attacks DC headquarters, how fun is that. Damn Geoff Johns for leaving Adventure Comics after the next issue. The art was interesting, but for the most part I enjoyed it. I think the big thing to talk about would be Superboy Prime grabbing a Black Lantern Ring and putting it on. Crazy, right? What happened next you ask? Read the issue. While I did enjoy this tragically mistaken Superboy Prime plot, I gotta say that I still prefer Connor. And in the second half of Issue 5 it was a second issue which revolved on Connor. I thought the giveaway at the end was great. And the art in the that, as usual, was fabulous. Geoff Johns and Franics Manupul have just been tremendous in this series. There's also a top secret Blackest Night tie in for issue 7.
R.E.B.E.L.S. 10-11 *1/2
To be quite honest with you, this one didn't do much for me. I didn't dislike it as much as I disliked Doom Patrol, but at the same time it takes an effort to even remember this exists. This follows the R.E.B.E.L.S. and I couldn't name them all for a million dollars. This much I do know, Brainiac 5 is their leader, Brainiac 3(Brainiac 5's genius son) hates his father, and they exist eons away from Earth. The only that I can take from this series was that I didn't realize a power ring could just reject a bearer for insubordination, that was amusing. Not bad, but forgettable.
JLA 39-40 ***
I learned a couple of things from reading this. The first being that I apparently don't know the majority of the JLA and the second is that apparently they're letting just about anyone join. Apart from Zatanna and Plasticman (who was unfortunately rendered fairly useless) the rest of them appear to be useless. That being said, I very much enjoyed Zatanna's little fight (if you could call it that) as well as the growth that each of the members took within the two issues. It made me care enough to remember them but not enough to read further.
Outsiders 24-25 ** 1/2
Not the worst read of them all, as I've mentioned, but not near the greatest either. For the most part, and this is probably because I had no clue who a soul was, I wasn't excited by anything. That being said, if I knew the characters I probably would have enjoyed it more. The biggest thing that I am taking away from this is a gal named Halo, who did two things for me. One, she brought to light (no pun intended) just how many superheroes wield the power of light. (There's Halo, Dr. Light, Dove, Vixen (kind of), to name a few.) And two, at the very end (Spoiler Alert) she got absorbed into the light! What's up with that, right? It's like she was getting high, talking about how beautiful it was and what not.
Superman/Batman 66-67 ***
The way Bizarro speaks drives me crazy. It's almost as if the writers thought to themselves, how can we make reading a more difficult endeavor and as a result Bizarro was created. Regardless, I knew enough about the characters in this to not have to look anything up. for the most part I enjoyd the storyline. I felt a little bit sad for Bizarro (shocking, but he kept talking about how he was lonely with no friends), it was weird to see Frankenstein (with two hearts!) and his bride. I've always had a soft spot for Manbat (Kirk Langstrom) and his wife, Francine, and the fact that she's spent millions of dollars and her whole life attempting to fix him. All in all, not a bad tie-in, though not the greatest.
Also, I don't particularly understand what that final page was about. Is cyborg Superman coming back? I don't even know where he went.
Teen Titans 77-78 ***
I'll be the first to admit that I am not nearly as caught up with Teen Titans as I'd like to be; I'm still on issue 37. However I do know, and therefore found it strange, that there is more than just one person in the Teen Titans, hence the plurality. Not say that I don't like Sage, I just don't know her enough to understand why both issues would focus itself around just her. Now, that being said, I preferred issue 78 to 77. I felt that there was a bit more of a plot in 78, whereas 77 was more action packed. There were a couple of things that were pretty cool, the main being when Joey (who can transfer his consciousness into other bodies via eye contact) transfered himself into different Black Lantern bodies, emanated an emotion, and left the body right as the other Black Lanterns destroyed the body. This was pretty awesome actually, considering only light has been used against them in the past.
I also left Wonder Woman, the Flash, and JSA out because all three of them are a three part mini-series and as of this month only part 1 has come out in each case.
January edition of Blackest Night Tie-Ins to come.
Happy Holidays folks!
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