Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Blackest Night


I've mentioned Blackest Night before, and I even went so far as to highlight the characters that appeared in issue 1 when Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan and Barry (the Flash) Allen were talking. In November, Doom Patrol #4 will be a Blackest Night crossover issue. Evidently #5 will tie-in as well. Read on for more details.

Set to release on November 4, here's the solicitation copy for Doom Patrol #4:

Written by Keith Giffen; Co-feature written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis; Art by Justiniano and Livesay; Co-feature art by Kevin Maguire; Cover by Justiniano and Andrew Mangum

When BLACKEST NIGHT falls, skeletons start coming out of the closets — and no one has more skeletons in his closet than Niles Caulder, founder of the Doom Patrol. Caulder has been playing god for years, and the time for a reckoning has come. The Doom Patrol thought they knew darkness. Find out how wrong they were in this BLACKEST NIGHT tie-in issue!

Meanwhile, in the Metal Men co-feature, trendy meets grotesque when the robots battle a group of living mannequins.
DC Universe
40pg.
Color
$3.99 US


So over on the DC message boards (why Giffen stomps around over there and not here is beyond me ;-P ) he mentions that there will be some Black Lanterns making an appearance herein. His post is from August 14 at 9:26 am.

First of all, thanks. Thanks for the feedback and most of all thanks for the support. Even if you hated it, thanks for caring enough to sound off. Now, about this whole Blackest Night thing... We've got four, count 'em, four Black Lanterns showing up. You may guess the first three, but the fourth... Well, you may guess that one too but I'm hoping not. Oh... and Rita's eye color? Yeah, there's a reason her eyes are no longer brown. K-



Only four? I can think of a few more than that. . . Of course in the image Hal projects, there are only three characters shown: Josh Clay, Val Vostok, and Arani Caulder. Those three would give us the "three" Giffen mentions, but who's the fourth? Did Giffen give us a clue above? Anyone else have any guesses?


On a mildly related note, retailers will be getting bags of rings when they order copies of Doom Patrol. Evil yellow Sinestro Corps rings. Retailers order 25 copies of Doom Patrol #4 and they can order a bag of Sinestro rings. Bleeding Cool has so much more to the story.


Continuing on with Blackest Night info, Elisabeth Gehrlein, editor of Doom Patrol gave us a few sneak peeks over at The Source, including this beautifully haunting and hauntingly beautiful cover by Justiniano for issue #5.
Giffen's commentary about this cover is priceless. You should click the link above and check it out. Too lazy to scroll back up? Try this one.

I love Matt Clark's work, but I'm glad they have Justiniano around to spell Matt every now and again so Matt can stay fresh. Next to Doug Mahnke and Ivan Reis, I think Justiniano is best suited to render the undead DC characters. In the timeshare that Gehrlein has employed for DP, it truly the best of both worlds.

2 comments:

  1. Well, a really left field choice might be a villain who died during a DP adventure and there are plenty to choose from, but the only logical choice among team-mates would be Scott Fischer.
    I don't read everything DC publishes, so if anyone reading can correct my memory...
    ... Original team presumed dead in 1968; turns out not so much.
    ... Steve Dayton (Mento): failed super-hero, successful Teen Titans plot device. Inactive but not dead?.
    ... Garfield Logan (Beast Boy): Now Changeling. Depressed but not dead.
    ... Arani Caulder (Celsius): Killed herself during "Invasion!"; Confirmed.
    ... Joshua Clay (Tempest): Murdered by Caulder in 1992; Confirmed.
    ... Valentina Vostok (Negative Woman): I thought she joined the reformed Checkmate after "Infinite Crisis", but it seems she must have died when I wasn't looking because she's...; Confirmed.
    ... Matthew Cable : Not a member but assigned by Feds to retrieve defected Val and wound up fighting KGB assassins alongside them in SHOWCASE #94-96; died while dreaming and was became Dream's familiar. Now with Daniel?
    ... Rhea Jones (Lodestone): Entered coma after "Invasion!" and later emerged as the chrysalis of a new species. Last seen 'pursuing a star' in 1991. Somebody should check issues of 'Rann/Thanagar', et al, to see if she's still in space.
    ... Wayne Hawkins (Karma): Left the group to evade an arrest in 1988, reemerged in 'Suicide Squad' in 1992. That sounds deadish but I can't confirm it.
    ... Scott Fischer (no code name; called "Blaze" by letter-writer Charles J Sperling): Scott's leukemia was in remission when he joined the group but escalated right before "Invasion!". He died when the Gene Bomb went off but no one knew for certain which was the true cause of death; Strongest contender for fourth.
    ... Dorothy Spinner : I haven't read the Arcudi stories since they were published. Wasn't she taken off life support while comatose? I'm gonna haveta dig those out of storage...
    ... Kay Challis : Brain damaged by ECT on Earth-Prime, rescued by Cliff and living on Danny; may be returning alive later.
    ... Eleanor Poole (combined with Larry Trainor and the Negative Being as Rebis): Rebis laid an egg to give birth to a new body when the Trainor/Poole body corroded. It transfered its conciousness to the new body and left with Danny. Now Larry and the NB are back; where's Eleanor...?
    ... Danny the Street : While healing himself after an attack he figured, "Why stop there?" and extrapolated himself into a full planet; Still a planet, n'est ce pas?
    ... Flex Mentallo (Hero of the Beach): Fictional character brought to life; (not applicable)
    ... Will Magnus : occupado
    ... Willoughby Kipling: don't ask
    ... George and Marion: The Bandage people may have never been alive in a human sense; (not applicable?)
    ... Charlie (The Inner Child): Actually the Rabbi Isaac either entered the Supreme Light or Heaven, and in any event his body was destroyed ages before the DP even formed; (not applicable?)
    ... The Sexually Remaindered Spirits: Aaahh... this is tricky. Dozens of ghosts of people who died... um, 'a la Carradine'. One, Alice-Wired-For-Sound, was attatched to Caulder's head (or vice versa) when they entered the Tree of Hashem in 1995. Byrne rebooted Caulder, but not Alice;(not applicable?)
    ... Kate Godwin (Coagula): May have been on hand for the last Dorothy story in the Arcudi run. For that matter, I can't remember if any of that team were killed. Oh man, now I have to dig those up.
    ... Does anyone remember the name of that Confederate soldier in the Byrne period?
    ... And of course the most recent stone in the ever widening DP cemetary (see the recent #1)
    I'd like to say everyone's accounted for one way or the other but most of the Arcudi run is a blur, especially since I remember something about parts of it retroactively not having happened.

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  2. ...

    Wow, you know your Doom Patrol continuity, pb.

    I'm on the opposite end, going in this totally tabula rasa, I think as Giffen expects us to be. And after two issues, I have to say that this quirky book certainly has my interest!

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