Archive for November 29th, 2009

Blackest Night Casualties: The Hall of Fallen Heroes

With characters dropping fast I thought these casualties in the War of Light deserved a place of recognition for their premature (though not necessarily final we hope) fates. Welcome to the Hall of the Fallen. I’ll amend and bump the gallery as more heroes are taken from us in subsequent chapters of Blackest Night.

Over the decades that DC has been publishing comics, many heroes have been killed off only to return to life. At first many thought Blackest Night was happening because death wasn’t happy about all the resurrections, but now Nekron claims that the heroes to returned to life only because he allowed it. And unfortunately for our heroes, it seems what Nekron gives, he can take away… He’s already transformed Wonder Woman, Conner Kent, Animal Man, Kid Flash, Green Arrow, Donna Troy, Ice and Superman into Black Lanterns and told Flash and Green Lantern to drop dead too – but they haven’t succumbed… yet.

Nekron's newest allies... Black Lantern Wonder Woman, Conner Kent, Animal Man, Kid Flash, Green Arrow, Donna Troy, Ice and Superman
Wonder Woman - Diana died and was resurrected as the Goddess of truth by the Olympian Gods. Superboy - Conner Kent was killed by Superboy Prime and later ressurected in the future during Final Crisis. Animal Man - Buddy Baker was ressurected by the aliens who originally granted his powers after being killed in space during 52. Kid Flash - Bart Allen was killed by the Flash Rogues and later ressurected in the future during Final Crisis Green Arrow gave his life to stop eco terrorists but was resurrected by Hal Jordan during the Final Night
Donna Troy - was killed by a rogue Superman robot and ressurected by the Titans of myth. Ice - Tora Olafsdotter was killed by the Overmaster and later ressurected in Birds of Prey. Superman - Clark Kent was killed by Doomsday and later ressurected by the power of the yellow sun. Will Hal Jordan survive? He was originally gave his life as Paralax during The Final Night and returned in Green Lantern: Rebirth. will Barry Allen survive? Barry Allen gave his life during Infinite Crisis and returned during Final Crisis.

The following fallen heroes died during Blackest Night and either have or are likely to show up as Black Lanterns.

Green Lantern: Ash - taken by the Black Power battery at the start of Blackest Night Green Lantern: Saarek - taken by the Black Power battery at the start of Blackest Night Hawkman - Carter Hall: afer being rejected by Kendra who he believed was his true love reincarnated, she had finally accepted their destined love before Black Lanterns Ralph and Sue Dibny ripped out his heart Hawkgirl - Kendra Saunders: After pushing him away since taking on the mantle of Hawkgirl, Kendra Saunders had finally acknowledged her destined love for Hawkman before Black Lanterns Ralph and Sue Dibny ripped out her heart Tempest - Garth: The purple-eyed outcast ward of Aquaman grew up in speedos as Aqualad but graduated to long pants as Tempest only to have his heart ripped from his body by his dead wife - Black Lantern Dolphin
Hawk - Holly Granger: The formerly estranged and aggressive sister of Dawn Granger became Hawk (an agent of Chaos)after she found out he sister Dawn (Dove) was alive. When facing a Black Lantern Hank Hall he plunged his hand in her chest to pull out her heart - we haven't seen the outcome yet, but it doesn't look good for Holly Gehenna: the Asian-American girlfriend of the new Firestorm. She claimed to only be six actual years old but her body and mind had been matured somehow to that of a teenager. She had the powers of teleportation and telepathy before she was turned to salt and the Black Lantern Firestorm ripper her heart out Damage: Grant Emerson - son of the original Atom was killed by a Black Lantern version of Ray Palmer's deranged ex-wife Jean Loring. Green Lantern: Chaselon - killed defending the Green Lantern Central Power Battery Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner- killed defending the Green Lantern Central Power Battery, but was resurrected when a Star Sapphire Miri Riam used her ring's power as the Green Lantern Corps defended Rayner's body from a swarm of Black Lantern Rings. She connected Soranik's heart to Kyle's and combined their power of will together with her power of love, successfully restoring Kyle to life. For now. But could Nekron do what he did to the rest of the recently fallen?

Although the heroes aren’t the only ones being targeted, their casualty list is a lot longer than the list of villains who have been killed to join the ranks of the Black Lanterns…

Black Hand Red Lantern: Vice Solomon Grundy Red Lantern: Veon Doctor Polaris II

Now the final fate of these characters will likely be up in the air until the conclusion of Blackest Night. As I see it there are 3 possible outcomes… #1 The dead stay dead and all Black Lanterns end up with their “connection severed.” #2 The Black Lanterns are all somehow reunited with their souls and return to life. #3 Some combination of 1 and 2 with some characters rejoining continuity and others going willingly (or unwillingly as the case may be) back to their graves. THOUGHTS?

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