DC Reveals Plans for Blackest Night in January

By Jesse Schedeen

The folks at DC were surprisingly forthcoming about the early months of Blackest Night. Well before the mini-series began shipping, fans already had months' worth of solicits to read through. Many of the major Black Lanterns had already been revealed.

Since then, however, information regarding the later months has slowed to a trickle. Everyone likes a good mystery, we suppose. One of the things that has been in question is the scheduling of the event itself. Last week DC revealed that the series would be skipping January (to allow artist Ivan Reis more time to prepare the final two issues) and that it had something planned in place of Blackest Night #7. However, at the Diamond Retailer's Summit today, DC did shed some light on their plans for the beginning of 2010.

Blackest Night architect Geoff Johns and DC editorial team have scoured DC's back catalog dating all the way back to the Silver Age, selecting eight different series to resurrect for a single month. These are books that were either canceled or reached their natural conclusion at some point in the last 40 years. Each book will continue with its original numbering but feature a story set firmly during the events of Blackest Night.

The eight series returning in January are listed below with their respective writers:

• The Power of Shazam #48 - Eric Wallace
• Catwoman #83 - Fabian Nicieza
• Suicide Squad #67 - Gail Simone & John Ostrander
• The Question #37 - Greg Rucka
• Phantom Stranger #42 - Peter Tomasi
• Weird Western Tales #71 - Dan DiDio
• Atom and Hawkman #46 - Geoff Johns
• Starman #81 - James Robinson

Though available story details are minimal, each issue will feature current heroes confronting the rise of Black Lanterns tied to their personal histories. For instance, The Question #37 sees a confrontation between original Question Vic Sage and current Question Renee Montoya, while Catwoman #83 features Selina Kyle meeting the original Black Mask once more. You can check out DC's The Source blog for brief descriptions on all eight books.

Geoff Johns offered his thoughts on these returning series, saying, "I wanted to create something tied to Blackest Night that would not only let us spotlight characters and explore ramifications from the main series, but also push the idea of raising the dead beyond comics. And have some fun doing it. I thought literally raising 'dead' titles would be different, fun and actually give me and the other writers a chance to explore the next level of Blackest Night.

"Who thought we'd see another issue of James Robinson's Starman (which is brilliantly written) or John Ostrander's Suicide Squad with John and Gail Simone? Greg Rucka on Vic and Renee with The Question and Peter Tomasi tackling The Phantom Stranger. And everyone else in involved. Since the Atom has played, and will continue to play, a major role in Blackest Night, along with Black Lanterns Hawkman and Hawkgirl, I immediately was drawn to The Atom and Hawkman. But the real joy of this is being able to work with the amazing Ryan Sook. He's an artist who I've wanted to work with for a long, long time. It's going to be a fun January."

James Robinson also sent IGN his quick thoughts on returning to his acclaimed Starman series - albeit for just one issue:

"I, like everyone else, have been really enjoying Geoff and Ivan's work on Blackest Night. It's a fantastic concept that Geoff has hatched over many years and now it's finally out, I don't think any reader could ask for a better execution. I had a blast doing the Blackest Night Superman mini and I'm excited by my work on the BN JSA mini to come. I love Geoff's concept and it's been a honor and pleasure to be a part of it. It's also been exciting to work with Eddy Barrows, as well as with Mark Bagley my partner in crime on Justice League of America, as we enter that shadowy world for JLA #39 and 40.

"I was wary at first of the notion of doing Starman #81 because with all due respect to the wonderful epic that Geoff's Blackest Night series is, I felt that if Jack Knight was to return it should be in something more than a single issue and be more of an event. Therefore, let me say now, that this issue is not the return of Jack Knight. Instead you'll get many of the denizens of Opal City that readers of the series will know well by now, fighting a Black Lantern Starman for the fate of their city. And I will be definitely picking up strands of those characters' lives from the original series so this isn't some half-hearted throwaway affair. I'm very proud of the script and I hope fans of the original series will enjoy their return to a place called Opal City."

We also talked to Gail Simone about her thoughts on the the skip-month and Blackest Night in general. She said "I'm pretty excited about Blackest Night. That might not actually cover it - I think it's the most interesting and compelling company crossover since the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. I'm a sucker for crossovers, but there is a predictability about a lot of them, where marketing sort of trumps creativity. I don't get that vibe from Blackest Night at all. They've made a huge effort to keep the integrity of Geoff's story intact, and that's impressive. It's the first big event comic I've been looking forward to every issue in quite some time."

Regarding the return of the Suicide Squad and her collaboration with John Ostrander, Simone said "Ah, this is a dream come true. Since the Secret Six first appeared, people have noticed the spiritual connection between the Six and the Squad, and John Ostrander is a comics legend and a real hero of mine. I am normally very solitary in my writing – this is the first extended project I've ever co-written, and it's just a blast to see a master like John work. Besides, it's such a natural... wait until you see some of the match-ups! HA!

"It's the two meanest teams in DC history and it has the dead rising from their graves. People who don't want to see that are clearly missing something vital in their brains. I just saw the first two covers and they are jaw-dropping. Daniel LaVisi is going to be a huge star, and soon.

"On top of that, I have to give credit to Geoff Johns who has been amazingly gracious and helpful. It's a bit of a dream gig for me, working with all these people and two of my favorite teams ever."

When asked which Black Lanterns might be appearing in this issue, Simone said "Well, let's just say that this particular Black Lantern died at Deadshot's hand, and payback is definitely a bitch."

The artists for these issues haven't been announced yet. Keep in mind that the teaser image above displays the previous final issue cover art for each series and not the covers that will be appearing on these new issues.

There's no word yet on whether the Green Lantern books will be affected by the shift of Blackest Night #7. The January solicits will be out a little later this month, so check back soon to see just what Blackest Night tie-ins you can expect to ship that month.