Halfway through Blackest Night

So. Here we all are, about halfway through Blackest Night, and the tension is ramping up to almost unendurable levels. I remember going through this with Rebirth and the Sinestro Corps War. Say what you will, but Geoff Johns is a master at creating and maintaining threat levels! And, it always ends with a bang, instead of a whimper. This time, he's got Peter Tomasi working with him, and between the two of them, they've got me in an almost constant state of emotion. I DESERVE those plastic rings, believe me!

And all of this from a comic book.

So let me recap. The Dead have risen, the Anti-Monitor is the Black Lantern battery, the Scarred Guardian is a traitor, the Guardians are out of the picture due mainly to their own rampant stupidity, and Nekron is behind everything. We think that Nekron is behind everything. There are a lot of other unresolved clues that are still swirling around after all.

On the Villain side, a number of bad guys have been given new dimension and are suddenly interesting. Black Hand was always something of a joke to me, spouting aphorisms, and waving that silly little gun around. Hal or Guy used to beat him up on a regular basis. Well...he's not a joke anymore, is he? Black Hand has become a genuine menace, and a frightening menace at that.

Sinestro is quite simply fabulous lately. He's always been a good villain, mainly because he never considered himself to be the bad guy. Why would he? He's just trying to save the universe by creating order, which really isn't that much different from what the little blue munchkins are trying to do. Sinestro just doesn't have as good a press agent as the Guardians. But lately, with all the revelations about his past, and his motivations, and his own panache...I'm really liking Sinestro. In a villainy sort of way, of course.

Do I include the Guardians in the villain category? Or are they simply misguided? They have certainly been the unwitting cause of a hell of a lot of chaos, and I'm not completely sure about that "unwitting" part. They've gone ahead and done some really really stupid things, and never were held accountable. Being immortal can be a handicap, if you keep making the same sort of mistakes over and over. The Manhunters were a BAD idea, the destruction of sector 666 was the cause of all of this, and then the Guardians go ahead and create the Alpha Lanterns, which is an even dumber idea than the creation of the Manhunters. They've been running scared, and letting their fears rule them, and you'd think that they would be beyond that sort of thing by now. Not to mention the whole hatred of emotions thing. If one thing happens at the end of Blackest Night, I hope that the Guardians FINALLY get what is coming to them, and at least understand that they have been monumental screw-ups.

Frankly, Salaak should have been running things all along.

On the hero side, well...a whole lot of heroes are now dead and bad guys. this is not a good thing for the REST of the good guys. Not to mention that they are all running around like chickens with their heads cut off, because although it has been months for us, I think that all of this has only been happening in comic book time, in a mere matter of days, if that. And since the Indigos came in and took their main weapon away...Hal...they have REALLY been screwed. So part of the fun is seeing them try and cope on their own. Being Earth's greatest Heroes, I am positive that they'll rise to the occasion.

I'm getting a tad long-winded here, so I suppose I'll wrap this up. What I am trying to say, is that in spite of all the trepidation preceeding it, and the bellyaching of various fanboys and message boards...Blackest Night has been JUST as good as Rebirth and the Sinestro Corps War, and I think that the finale is going to knock all of our colletive socks off. I also think that it is occasionally good to be positive instead of negative.

And I really want to see what Guy does as a Red Lantern.