The Four Color Media Monitor

The Ventura County Star provides more perfectly awful news coverage of Blackest Night:

At DC Comics, the dead are rising. And so are sales.

Really? I thought they began to drop after the first issue.

Meanwhile, sales are surging. "Blackest Night" No. 2 was the biggest seller in August, according to Diamond Comic Distributors Inc., and "Green Lantern" has more than doubled its sales from this time last year. That makes retailers very happy.

"I have yet to hear a bad thing about this story," said Ron Jacoby of Secret Headquarters in Tallahassee, Fla. "I think it's one of the best 'event' comics ever done. The story is tightly plotted, with lots of 'Holy Moly!' moments, some stunning visuals, and it's obviously being done with love and respect for the characters. DC has hit a home run with this event in a way I've never seen before."

Sometimes I really get disgusted at these store owners for paying lip service to these time-wasting, vulgar events, and how they sugarcoat the misuse of the DCU's cast of characters, all at the expense of us the customers.

What's so cool about "Blackest Night"? Well, as I write this, Martha Kent is being chased through a corn field by her dead husband, Jonathan. Batman is fighting off his dead parents. All the dead members of the Justice League have arisen, from Aquaman to Martian Manhunter to the Elongated Man, and have already killed two more members -- who promptly joined the Black Lanterns. And at the center of the storm, on the planet that serves as the headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps, all the dead Green Lanterns -- of which there are jillions -- are trying to "recruit" their living counterparts.

What in the eyes of those comic store managers and the reporters wrting this horrid propaganda is so loving and respectable about seeing the dead turned into violent zombies going after their loved ones? And doesn't bringing Batman's parents back, even as zombies, trivialize the significance of his origins?

Spooky? Yes. Because, says DC editor Dan DiDio, "Blackest Night" isn't a superhero story -- it's a horror movie. In explaining the concept, he refers to "Alien," "The Exorcist" and other famous, frightening fare.

"You can see how the stories develop, in the earliest issues of 'Blackest Night,' they play out like horror movies," he said. "We were laughing as No. 3 was being created, because you have the moment between the two young lovers (a hero and his girlfriend) at the beginning ... and you're like, as soon as you see the scene, you go, 'This is going to go horribly, horribly bad.' And sure enough, it fulfilled those expectations."

Spoiler: The girlfriend was turned into a pillar of salt! Since most "Blackest Night" victims get their hearts pulled from their chests, she got off easy.

I don't think this is funny. Not at all. And for any victims in Blackest Night to get their hearts ripped out is repulsive. This article even makes it sound more disgusting than it is.

What's next? Well, October brings "Blackest Night" No. 4, titled "100 percent," and refers to the power levels of the Black Lantern rings. Readers have noticed that the more the Black Lanterns kill, the higher their power-ring levels.

"The fact of the characters being reanimated from the dead is just a means to an end," DiDio said, "and what the end is we'll start to reveal more of as we hit No. 4." He added, chillingly, that the dead people aren't wearing power rings, but that the rings are alive, and "wearing the dead people."

I'm sure I won't want to see how that turns out. The examples already given here in this sensationalized report are tasteless enough as it is.

Labels: bad editors, crossoverloading, dc comics, Green Lantern, msm propaganda, violence