The Blackest Night


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From Newsarama:

January's BLACKEST NIGHT Break Brings Back Dead DC TITLES

By Vaneta Rogers

Dead characters aren't the only thing rising in Blackest Night.

Now, dead comic book series are coming back to life.

As announced at the Diamond Retailer's Summit in Baltimore this evening, the Blackest Night storyline and all its tie-ins are taking a month-long break in January, but eight one-shots will taking their place while also bringing back some fan-favorite canceled series.

"We've decided to expand what rises from the dead by bringing eight titles back from the dead," DiDio told Newsarama during his 10 Answers and 1 Question interview.

The eight one-shots will be:

- The Power of Shazam! #48 by Eric Wallace

- The Question #37 by Greg Rucka

- Suicide Squad #67 by John Ostrander

- Phantom Stranger #42 by Peter Tomasi

- Catwoman #83 by Fabian Nicieza

- The Atom and Hawkman #46 by Geoff Johns

- Weird Western Tales #71 by Dan DiDio

- Starman #81 by James Robinson

While artists were not announced, DiDio told Newsarama one is associated with the series he/she is drawing.

Each of the one-shots will take place in current continuity and will tie into Blackest Night by featuring at least one Black Lantern interacting with the title characters. However, DiDio indicated Starman will be a special issue where Robinson will "pick up some threads" from the end of the writer's critically acclaimed series.

For more information on the Black Lanterns who will return in each of the one-shots, check out today's 10 Answers and a Question.

Very interesting marketing ploy!

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:bowdown:

So long as Question isn't Montoya!Question and centers on BL!Vic, I'll be happy.

Just looked at 10 Answers and a Question, and here's what Didio has to say about the Question book:

The Question is about two Questions. They meet face to face, or at least as much face-to-face as two Questions can meet.

...Tear her face off, BL!Vic?

And plus the Suicide Squad is running into the Secret Six, so yeah, definitely picking that one up.

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On one hand, I adore Vic returning. On the other, adding a 37th issue to what I consider the tightest run in comics history seems a little blasphemous to me.

So does adding a 81st issue to Starman. I mean, the character that run was based around has been off limits since that run ended, and in my opinion he got one of the best send-off's ever. Not that I wouldn't love to see Jack Knight back as long as he's well written but I'm betting that Robinson isn't even going to use him, he's refused several times recently. A shame really, it would make sense to have him featured if they decided to bring in a BL Ted Knight and David Knight. Half of what Starman did was about making peace with his family, most of whom are now dead.

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From Newsarama interview with DiDio

Emerson_Nickerson wrote: With January getting closer, what can you talk about and reveal for the titles filling in during the Blackest Night skip?

DiDio: We're having a lot fun seeing the fans reacting so intensely to how, in Blackest Night, we're bringing all these lost characters back from the dead. So we've decided to expand what rises from the dead by bringing eight titles back from the dead.

In the month of January, you're going to see eight old series come back for one more issue, picking up the next number following that cancellation.

And the books that we'll be seeing are The Power of Shazam! #48, The Question #37, Suicide Squad #67, Phantom Stranger #42, Catwoman #83, The Atom and Hawkman #46, Weird Western Tales #71, and a very special Starman #81.

Even though these stories are picking up from a numbering of a canceled series, are actually taking place right now in today's continuity, and are completely tied to Blackest Night. They are our Blackest Night event books, but we're just returning the titles from the dead. So, we're not exactly picking up where the stories left off; we're actually picking up right in the middle of the action of Blackest Night.

Nrama: Oh, wow. Do I get to guess the creators on each of these?

DiDio: You might guess a couple of them.

Nrama: Greg Rucka is writing The Question?

DiDio: Of course Greg Rucka is writing it. The list of writers is The Power of Shazam! #18 is being written by Eric Wallace. Catwoman #83 is going to be written by Fabian Nicieza, Suicide Squad #67 is being written by John Ostrander. The Question #37 is Greg Rucka. Phantom Stranger #42 is Peter Tomasi. Weird Western Tales #71 is Dan DiDio. The Atom and Hawkman #46 is Geoff Johns. And Starman #81 is James Robinson.

Nrama: So with The Power of Shazam!, a lot of people have been asking about what's up with the Marvel family, but this is just showing these characters during Blackest Night?

DiDio: Yes, with each one of these, you'll see that there will be a returning Black Lantern. In Power of Shazam!, we'll be dealing with Osiris coming back, basically to give Freddy Freeman/Shazam a lot of trouble, but also to meet up with a very powerless Billy and Mary Batson.

The Question is about two Questions. They meet face to face, or at least as much face-to-face as two Questions can meet.

In Suicide Squad we have a very dead Suicide Squad ready to run into a very live, at least for the moment, Secret Six.

What Phantom Stranger does is pick up on some of the threads that are being set up in Pete [Tomasi]'s Blackest Night: Batman, and we're starting to look at how the rising of the dead affects characters like the Phantom Stranger.

Nrama: Will the magic characters be involved in that?

DiDio: I believe some of them are, but I'm not sure just yet. We're still in the final stages of that story.

Nrama: OK, then Catwoman?

DiDio: Catwoman gets to meet the man who, she put a bullet in his head, and that's the original Black Mask.

Nrama: OK, and Geoff on The Atom and Hawkman?

DiDio: Well in that book, there's a love story. It's the Black Lantern Hawks trying set up Ray Palmer with a very Black Lantern Jean Loring.

Nrama: Oh man, blind date so to speak?

DiDio: Exactly.

Nrama: All right, well, let's keep you for last. James Robinson on Starman? Wow, talk about returning a fan-favorite to the character he's most identified with.

DiDio: With Starman, James is actually picking up on some of the threads of the characters that he worked with, within Starman, and I don't want to give too much away on that one, but it is spectacular.

Nrama: Okay, and do we have artists on any of these?

DiDio: We do, but we aren't ready to announce them yet. We're still finalizing a bunch of them.

Nrama: Not even a hint? I could take a stab at guessing some of them.

DiDio: Well, the only thing I can give you is that one of the artists definitely has ties to one of the series.

Nrama: Then let's talk about you on – what is this? Weird Western Tales?

DiDio: [laughs] Guess who drew the short straw? No, it's going to be a lot of fun. I get a chance to reintroduce a lot of the Old West characters into the current – into the "New West," so to speak. So we get a chance to see Black Lantern interpretations of Bat Lash, Super Chief, Firehair, and of course, Jonah Hex.

Nrama: Wow. OK, then as a follow-up question, I'll just ask what a lot of people are saying about Blackest Night skipping a month. Does this mean there's something wrong with Blackest Night and you have to give the creators more time?

DiDio: Actually, the reason why there's a skip month is that we wanted to keep [artist] Ivan [Reis] on the entire series, but as the story's breaking down, the final issue is going to be an oversized issue. Blackest Night #8 is a larger issue. So because of that, we wanted to give Ivan a little more time so that he could get ahead and continue doing the outstanding work he's been doing on Blackest Night. And because we've had such a positive reaction to the way we've brought some of these Black Lanterns into the stories, we decided this would be a great thing to do during this break, to fit with rising from the dead by bringing back these series for one more issue.

The Atom being set up for a date with a Black Lantern Jean Loring already has this phrase written on the cover for me, "SOLD!"

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  • 3 weeks later...

Probably my favorite part of issue #4 were the two moments with the villains, in this case Luthor and Scarecrow. Both show it's not just the heroes that are effected by what's going on. Luthor has a head on his shoulders and knows that he needs to sit this out or else he's going to have a lot of people riding him.

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This sucks.

I'm out of the Blackest Night/Green Lantern stuff right now, I left for trades/hardcovers after Agent Orange and Emerald Eclipse, and now it would cost me so bloody much to catch up.

You'll pay for this Captain Planet.

Seriously though, this sounds awesome, I can't wait for it all to be collected for me to read.

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