The only thing worse than running zombies – zombie Superman
The only thing worse than running zombies – zombie Superman
Aug 19I’m here to say, I don’t know that I like Blackest Night, in principle. Obviously, something is going to save the day – this is unlikely to be some massive DC corporate meltdown, years in planning, and devastating in the way it consumes intellectual properties and franchises.
And yes, there’s a message brewing on the nature of death in the DC universe, and I await that with anticipation.
But zombie Superman. Well, that’s game over – or at least, it should be. Certainly a reanimated, rubber detective and his wife tore through two martial powerhouses in short order. And it’s only gotten worse from there.
I guess I don’t know that I’m willing to invest (intellectually – financially, I’m spending like a madman) in the idea that this is a plague that can somehow be beaten. I think perhaps, as part of the generation that was out of gradeschool when Doomsday kicked the shit out of Superman, I’m just burnt out on The Borg Effect in DC comics.
Allow me to explain.
The Borg Effect is when you take an established universe and having run out of ideas, you pit it against an unstoppable foe. Only, it has to be stopped, or the universe (and the money) can’t go on. So, they are stopped, at a terrible cost. And then the next time, they’re stopped with Magi-science! And then the next time, ho-hum, just hit their off switch. Eventually, it gets to the point where the terrible foe has donned a boobalicious jumpsuit and is dating the crew.
And so it was in the DCU – Doomsday kills Superman. Superman comes back. Doomsday comes back, Superman kicks his ass. Etc. Etc. There lies the reason why I’m not following the Death of Batman storyline and its related arcs – I was there for the Death of Superman. Bought the commemorative issue of The Daily Planet. Been there, done that.
And here we are again with Blackest Night. An ever growing league of the undead, who at best wield power-rings. At worst, they wield power-rings and they’re also Superman. And when they kill, just as with regular zombies, another is added to their numbers.
There are a lot of dead people in the universe. I’m just saying…
As juvenile as it was, as disrespectful/cheeky as it was, at least Marvel Zombies had the commonsense to let them run out to a logical conclusion – All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and then they head out into the stars to look for more. And never was the Marvel Universe in danger, as it wasn’t the main dimension. Handy. Though in fairness, even Marvel has flirted with the idea of letting it spill out en masse into the main continuity.
I am enjoying parts of Blackest Night – for example, in today’s release of Superman #1 (as an aside, holy cow, did that cover ever change, eh?) I like the expansion of the idea that all the undead see the emotions and their corresponding colours. I really liked the shot of Superman (the un-undead one) awash in all of them at once. Because, dammit, he’s Superman and while we’ve seen him in action, we’ve heard his thoughts, we’ve never before, in a visual manner, seen just how special and unique the man’s character is. Now we have and I must own that page.
But broadly, I’m just wishing these new unstoppable foes would spit out the message (and that mouthful of meat), get their heads lopped off, and leave us in peace.
