The Dead Shall... not stay dead much longer...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or your name is Robby Musso) you’re probably aware that DC Comics is about to publish a little thing called Blackest Night.

I pretty much wet myself when I saw the above promo for it at the end of the geekgasm that was Sinestro Corps War.   And it’s only gotten bigger as time has passed on, what with the announcement of the 7 color Corps and the current Agent Orange arc.

Agent Orange needs a hug.

Blackest Night promises to redefine the landscape of the DC Universe in a way that the previous event, Final Crisis did not.

The question is, will it re-establish DC for the better, or the worse?

Let me state definitively that there is no doubt in my mind that Blackest Night will be so good that I won’t be able to walk straight for two days after reading it.    Geoff Johns is arguably the best writer working in comics today. Just last night I was practically frothing at the mouth whilst reading him twitter back and forth with Jim “I could have your wife and child if I wanted” Lee about doing Red Bee: Rebirth together.  Johns’ ability to weave back and forth through complicated and often contradictory continuity is nothing short of mind-boggling.   I honestly believe he could fix both Hawkman AND the Summers/ Grey X-Men history.

So my problem isn’t with Blackest Night itself.  Buy it. It will be good.

The problem is the fallout.  Blackest Night’s weakest link will undoubtedly be it’s ability to resurrect fallen heroes and characters.   For some time now there has been a growing trend in comics to bring back characters whose deaths were considered Sacro-sanct.   We’ve seen the rebirths of Bucky, Jason Todd, Barry Allen, and even Uncle Ben (sort of-).

DC has continued this trend with a voracious appetite.  Most recently there were two rebirths in Legion of 3 Worlds.  You probably know of poor Bart Allen.  The second one, I won’t give away.  But as to Bart, its really rather pathetic how they’ve handled this once-great character.   It was maybe two years ago he became the Flash after DC killed Wally.  Then they killed Bart and brought Wally back.  Now they’ve tossed Wally aside and brought back Barry Allen.  Then they brought back Bart only to drape him in Barry’s shadow.  Don’t get me wrong, Legion of 3 Worlds is tremendous– its one of Johns’ best books.  But now we have four generations of Flashes, and that doesn’t even count all the Runners laying about in the fringe.

Then there was the resurrection of Kandor, the return of Kingdom Come Superman, Powergirl,  Supergirl, Superwoman and on and on and on.  There’s an entire planet of Supermen.   Good stories?  Yes.  But the point of Superman is that he was the greatest hero in history. By making hundreds of thousands of copies of him, you take away a part of what makes him special.

Four generations of Wonder Women are back.  (I’m counting Hypolita.)  And I’m betting they’ll resurrect Artemis and bring it up to five.

And Batman.  There’s a Battle for the Cowl.  Again, cool story, but there’s all kinds of guys running around in Bruce Wayne’s drause.   And that might be fine except for two things:

• No one believes Bruce will stay dead.  He is one of the most famous fictional characters in history. More kids know about Batman than Tom Sawyer.  This is not permanent.
• No one will be satisfied with the new Batman.  The only barely acceptable character is Nightwing.  We’ll be interested for the first year in how DIck Grayson handles the mantle this second time, but honestly, we’ll want Nightwing back.  We like him as the voice of the next generation of heroes, but don’t quite know where he fits next to Clark and Diana.

The point is, DC is diluting the water.  They’re poisoning their own franchises by giving each hero 50,000 copies.  And Blackest Night, for all its brilliance, may just be the final nail in the coffin.  (I know, I know…)

At some point, someone in DC editorial needs to just say STOP.  ENOUGH.  Let’s reign it back in.   It’s too much.

Some 20-odd years ago, Marv Wolfman and George Perez started a little comic no one believed in and ended up redefining DC Comics for a new generation of readers.  They simplified the structure of their world.   Somehow DC has gotten away from that thought and reacted like an outstretched rubberband, snapping in the opposite direction.  It’s time to simplify again.  Eliminate the extraneous and convoluted.

Will Blackest Night do that?  Or will it open the floodgates?  I suppose we’ll find out in July.

—Adam Relayson is a blogger and Awesome Dude.  He’s known for his sharp tongue and his devastating ability to get jiggy with the ladies. Hus work can be found primarily at #mce_temp_url# <—well, there.