Sunday, December 27, 2009

Blackest Night: JSA #1 (of 3)

The Blackest Night spin-offs that I've read have all taken the same basic angle: deceased friend or teammate rises as a Black Lantern, attacks the star(s) of the comic and is ultimately defeated by some trick or another.

So does this Justice Society of America comic follow suit? So far, yes (except for that last line).

But it has the advantage of being written by James Robinson, who certainly knows his way around Golden Age characters, and he has wisely here focused on three specific deceased members of the team - the original versions of Sandman, Dr. Mid-Nite and Mr. Terrific.

It's interesting to follow those characters and the efforts by the modern-day JSA to fight back, but this issue is overloaded with characters frantically fighting for their lives (or to take lives), and I can't imagine a new reader being able to pick this issue up and understand it.

I have to say I'm not crazy about the art by Eddy Barrows and Marcos Marz - at least when the focus is on the battle raging in the streets. The art is dark and frenetic and it's difficult to tell what's happening. One the other hand, the quiet scenes work very well.

So this is a book I would only recommend to big-time JSA fans or Blackest Night completists. There's still time for this story to redeem itself, but so far it just looks like more of the same.

Grade: B-

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