[backmatter] Checking out Blackest Night's promotional blitz

I was fell and truly IN at this period of DC, and Blackest Night, and all the events surrounding it (up to Flashpoint, obviously) were my bread and butter. But how did DC promote it?

Blackest Night (2009) was probably the peak of DC for me. Nineteen years old. Disposable income from working at the cinema. I was entrenched in all the Green Lantern Corps mythology, the Emotional Spectrum somehow made sense to me, and all the different colours and themes popped off the page.

Variant cover of Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1 by Dave Gibbons

As the saying goes, it’s always darkest before the dawn, but hell, this event got dark.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Blackest Night involves the entity Nekron, along with his now undead follower Black Hand, raising the dead of the DC universe in an attempt to kill everything and return the universe to the darkness that existed before that first spark of life. To do this, Nekron empowered Hand to zombify our heroes’ loved ones, transforming the likes of Aquaman¹, the Dibneys², Martian Manhunter³, etc, into sadistic killers that would evoke emotion in their victims (to power the Black Lantern Power Battery!) before murdering them, all to charge up and manifest fully in reality.

The event was a grim reminder of the amount of death in the DC universe, and the main book, along with the bevvy of tie-ins, made sure to demonstrate that in as gnarly a way as possible. If a character lost a husband, wife, or child, then you can be sure they’d make an appearance. The whole point of the zombification was to elicit an emotional response, then to devour the hearts of those the zombies were sent against.

Here’s a list of all the characters who were resurrected as Black Lanterns:

• Abattoir

• Abin Sur

• Adeline Wilson

• Air Wave (Harold Jordan)

• Alexander Luthor Jr.

• Alexandra DeWitt

• Amon Sur

• Animal Man

• Aquababy (yup)

• Aquagirl (Tula)

• Aquaman

• Arin Sur

• Atom (Adam Cray)

• Atom (Al Pratt)

• Azrael (Jean-Paul Valley)

• Baby Wildebeest

• Bat Lash

• Batman (but a clone)

• Black Mask

• Blockbuster (Roland Desmond)

• Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)

• Blume

• Breach

• Bug-Eyed Bandit

• Bushido

• Bzzd

• Captain Boomerang (Digger Harkness)

• Captain Boomerang (Owen Mercer)

• Celsius

• Charaxes

• Chay-Ara

• Cliff Steele (aka Robotman)’s original body

• Copperhead

• Crispus Allen

• Damage

• Deacon Blackfire

• Deadman

• Doctor Light (Arthur Light)

• Doctor Mid-Nite (Charles McNider)

• Dolphin

• Driq

• Element Lad

• Elongated Man

• Ermey

• Fentara Rrab

• Fiddler

• Firestorm

• Geist

• Glomulus

• Golden Glider

• Harbinger

• Hawk (Hank Hall)

• Hawk (Holly Granger)

• Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders)

• Hawkman (Carter Hall)

• Ice

• Jack Drake

• Jack T. Chance

• Jade

• Janet Drake

• Jean Loring

• John and Mary Grayson

• Johnny Quick

• Jonah Hex

• Katma Tui

• Ke’Haan

• KGBeast

• Khufu

• King Snake

• Laira

• Lois Lane (Earth-Two)

• Madame Rouge

• Magpie

• Marata Rrab

• Martian Manhunter

• Maseo Yamashiro

• Maxwell Lord

• Mirror Master (Sam Scudder)

• Mister Terrific (Terry Sloane)

• Negative Woman

• Omen

• Osiris (Amon Tomaz)

• Pantha

• Pariah

• Psi

• Psycho-Pirate (Roger Hayden)

• Quentin Turnbull

• Question (Victor Szasz)

• Qull

• Rainbow Raider

• Ravager (Grant Wilson)

• Ravager (Wade LaFarge)

• Ravan

• Razorsharp

• Reiko Yamashiro

• Reverse Flash

• Robert Long

• Roxeaume

• Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

• Santara Rrab

• Scalphunter

• Sobek

• Solomon Grundy

• Solovar

• Starman (David Knight)

• Stealth

• Steel (Hank Heywood III)

• Sue Dibny

• Sun Boy

• Super-Chief

• Superman (Earth-Two)

• Tempest (Garth)

• Tempest (Joshua Clay)

• Terra (Tara Markov)

• Terry Long

• Tomar-Re

• Tony Zucco

• Top

• Trickster (James Jesse)

• Trigger Twins

• Ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker)

• Vibe

• William Wintergreen

• Xanshi (an entire planet)

• Yasemine Soze

• Yuki Yamashiro

• Zatara

• Zor-El

Don’t recognise the name? Probably a loved one of a hero. If there are too many consonants, they’re probably a dead Green Lantern. Dumb name? Batman villain.

Before we continue, here’s what I shared yesterday, in anticipation of this post going live:

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Now, let’s get to the promos.

The Main Event

Tie-Ins

Checklists

DC Nation

Action Figures

Collections

What did I do with all that inspiration? I wrote.

So, as ever, if you’re enjoying my newsletter, please consider buying my book!

1. SPOILERS! Arthur Curry / Orin (aka Aquaman) was murdered in Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #50 (2007). He has since come back.

2. SPOILERS! Sue Dibny was murdered in Identity Crisis #1 (2004), and Ralph Dibny (aka the Elongated Man) died in 52 #42 (2007). They have since come back.

3. SPOILERS! J’onn J’onzz (aka Martian MAnhunter) was murdered in Final Crisis #1 (2008). He has since come back.