Comments on: Back, in black

By: stealthwise

stealthwise — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:17:33 +0000

The thing I find the most disturbing about this series is that, hyper-violence or not, it wasn’t compelling in the slightest. There’s “set-up” and then there’s wasting a ton of time yakking about death.

By: Shamus

Shamus — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:40:52 +0000

superhero stories have violence at their heart. The scene with the Hawks and the undead Ralph and Sue was shocking, upsetting and even blasphemous in tone, but that’s what the story is about. It’s not called Archie Comics it’s “The Blackest Night”. It’s fearsome. The tone is horrific. In that regard it’s not gratuitous at all. Sickening aye, but it should be when you’re dealing with twisted dark things.

By: logomatic

logomatic — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:15:03 +0000

But EJ likes violence and is anti-drug! I bet he’s a blast at parties.

By: Sean B

Sean B — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:30:06 +0000

“…and most importantly wasn’t written by a guy who took too many illegal drugs and actually believed all his fanboys hype about how he’s such a genius.”

I liked Final Crisis. I liked Blackest Night, too. It is possible to enjoy both.
I do not like people who make personal attacks against a writer/artist because they wrote a book I didn’t like.
In my part of the world, they call that being a douchebag.

By: DanLarkin

DanLarkin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:25:54 +0000

I thought Ralph and Sue were ghost detectives now? Not gory enough, I guess. Blah. I’m glad I’m not wasting my money on this shit.

By: EJ

EJ — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:40:54 +0000

I really find some of the complaints about Blackest Night kind of funny it’s like even after 2 years of build up people still have no idea what this book is about. It’s called Blackest Night, where the dead super heroes will rise and try and kill their counterparts and people want to cry about too much violence honestly you could have saved you $4 if you’d actually read anything related to it.

Things are only going to get more gory and over the top and anyone who is squemish needs to drop the book now, me this was exactly what I wanted from a big event. This book had it all and most importantly wasn’t written by a guy who took too many illegal drugs and actually believed all his fanboys hype about how he’s such a genius.

By: Rolando

Rolando — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:55:18 +0000

Amen, Tom. I had thoughts on this book but why write them when you sum everything up for me? This is why I read your column regularly. Time to share it on facebook, etc. Thank you!

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:41:21 +0000

Yeah, but SUPER HERO zombies haven’t been done before, right?

Wait, what’s that?

I see.

By: Chris Jones

Chris Jones — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:55:48 +0000

We’re all missing the biggest problem with Blackest Night:

Zombies are PLAYED. OUT.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:41:29 +0000

Forgot to say: so now the “punching someone’s heart out of their chest” move will occur every issue of Blackest Night? What the heck?

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:39:28 +0000

Chris S: I agree with you. Not only is the violence super gratuitous, it doesn’t have much lasting effect. I think realistic, horrific violence is a good tool, but it should be used sparingly for maximum shock effect, so people think: “wow, this is serious.” The violence in this book is kind of cartoonish because it is just so constant and that makes me unable to take it seriously. Last year around this time, I remember a month where there were three depictions of somebody punching another person’s heart out (Final Crisis #2, Immortal Iron Fist #18, and Captain Britain #10, for the record). I enjoyed all those books, but that’s a bit much even by comic book standards.

By: Chris S

Chris S — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:44:53 +0000

I guess I’m the only one who sees a distinction between “super hero violence” and someone being clubbed to death, impaling, and then hearts being torn out. Oh well.

By: Adam Kirby

Adam Kirby — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:41:13 +0000

” That sounds like just about the least appealing thing to see in a superhero comic I can imagine.”

Over-the-top and ridiculous violence in a book about people that fly and have power rings is the least appealing thing you can imagine?

Really?

Would you prefer that they all just sit around in a coffee shop and talk about their problems?

By: Aaron Poehler

Aaron Poehler — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:13:54 +0000

Then you cheat only yourself. This is hardly gratuitous violence, it’s called for by the nature of the story. Look it up.

By: Chris S

Chris S — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:07:27 +0000

“Ralph clubs Hawkman senseless with the latter’s mace, while Sue spears Hawkgirl. Ralph and Sue then perform what I presume is the signature Black Lantern move: ripping the victims’ hearts out in order to charge up their rings with the emotions the hearts once held.”

That sentence has basically killed what little interest I had to begin with in this series. That sounds like just about the least appealing thing to see in a superhero comic I can imagine. I am so very, very tired of all the gratuitous violence from the big two right now.