A little insight into the Black Lanterns?

[thormonger.insanejournal.com]

Blackest Night: Batman #1 comes out on Wednesday, and I thought this was of particular interest.

Deadman hears the voice of the black ring calling to him. Or rather, to his body, one Boston Brand. He tries to possess his own body, only to find out he can't.



So it appears that the Black Lanterns do have their memories, but not their souls. There could be some very interesting ramifications to this, considering the Dibnys' souls are running around as ghosts, and the Halls tend to be reincarnated with great regularity.

IGN has the rest of the preview here.

Comments

[thandrak.insanejournal.com]

Oh, good. That's MUCH better.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Can't wait for this book.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Ummm, given the fact these guys are a threat to all life and emotion in the universe, did anyone actually think they actually HAD the orignal souls?

I've been assuming that they can't have the souls otherwise there would be a lot of hero Black Lanterns who would have no reason to act evilly in the first place.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

No, they're puppets of Nekron, who I believe thinks it's funny to act like the real ones. Imagine what he'll do with Katma(who the damn Blue Lantern told John he'd "see again"; hope can be very cruel).

And consider that this corpse Deadman looks a lot like Nekron, including costume. Following a similar template anyway.

[thormonger.insanejournal.com]

I was curious if the BLs just had their memories and powers, or if they also had their souls, trapped and corrupted. The preview seems to indicate only the former.

[geoffsebesta.insanejournal.com]

That makes a troubling assumption -- that only the soulless can be evil.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I've been assuming that none of them had their souls, otherwise why would revived heroes be acting in a monstrous manner?

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

GAH!! Is anyone else having chronic, and I mean CHRONIC problems with Firefox since the last upgrade or so? Mine keeps playing silly buggers with login cookies, deleting them between one page and the next. Driving me NUTS!!

[thormonger.insanejournal.com]

It could have been possible they could have been trapped on the inside looking out, much like Kyle Rayner was when Parallax took over them, trying in vain to stop the atrocities their Black Lantern forms were committing. Even so, the heroes' souls don't look they're going to have an easy time stopping their old bodies.

[dreamreaver.insanejournal.com]

No doubt many people had this train of thought since the soliciations were posted (I know I did), but it's nice to have confirmation.

[neotoma.insanejournal.com]

So the Black Lanterns are just the bodies and minds of the dead, not their souls? That's... interesting.

I don't know that this will make it better for anyone who has to confront a Black Lantern, or worse, actually.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Why would it make it worse, as long as the hero knows it's an empty shell with nothing of the genuine original occupant, it makes it a whole lot easier to deal with. It's not a person you're dealing with, it's a construct.

[katzedecimal.insanejournal.com]

I figured that out when we saw the Dibneys. We've seen the Dibneys in the afterlife previously, and they weren't all ebil and resenty. This is why I'm making popcorn for Black Lantern: Flash. I know they won't really be our boys (and girl), so I can sit back and let my 'only hurt the ones you love' genes be massively entertained by the angstnado they're going to create.

[queenanthai.insanejournal.com]

So the Black Lanterns work on Whedon Vampire Theory, then.

Good to know. (Not sarcasm.)

[sailorlibra.insanejournal.com]

Somebody break out the gypsy curses!

[kirayoshi1.insanejournal.com]

I just had this mental image of Sue Dibny's ghost looking at her Black Lantern corpse and saying, "But I'm so evil and skanky. And I think I'm kinda gay."

I KNEW IT!

[silverzeo.insanejournal.com]

I hope this means we can Ghost Sue Dibny will somehow fight agianist Bl Sue... that would be AWWWWWWESOME....

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

I wonder why Boston Brand is a skeleton. I wonder if that means a lot of them are going to be skeletons.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

Presumably it's because Boston's been, well, dead longer than most. If you look at some of the other Black Lanterns that have been shown so far, it seems the likes of Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, E2 Supes - They all have rotting flesh on their bones, whereas Katma Tui's body has dwindling flesh.

So I think it depends purely on how long they've been dead.

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

The whole Deadman sequence was awesome, but that he got kicked out of his own body us amazing and interesting. It certainly implies something about either Deadman's possession ability, or the nature of the Black Lanterns. Or both.

Like, remember The Quiver? Why didn't Boston possess Ollie give the explanation of what a "quiver" is? Just to reduce the amount of exposition telephone? After all, he possesses Blood/Etrigan, the only one who actually knows what's going on. Or . . . maybe he couldn't. Maybe he can't possess a body that doesn't have a soul?

[goblinthebamf.insanejournal.com]

yeah, I was thinking about posting some bits from Quiver, because I think some of that will be coming into play. also, because Quiver is a great story and I'm not sure we've had any posts of it since the move.

[leikomgwtfbbq.insanejournal.com]

Yay Deadman! He's one of my favorites, and I was slightly worried about his status in this event.

I hope he goes and visits P.S. while he's borrowing somebody's body.

[comicoz.insanejournal.com]

VERY happy with this - plus it means the Dibneys may play a bigger part!

[comicoz.insanejournal.com]

Ha, if you read the whole preview, you'll see the BatSkull has EARS!

[kd_the_movie.insanejournal.com]

I thought the rings were bringing back ALL the dead on earth, not just superheroes and those affiliated with them. I hope the rings are taking their sweet time resurrecting everyone (tho given that Dick and Damian are bringing the Wayne's bodies back to the cave sets up a fight there).

[sir_razorback.insanejournal.com]

This takes losing your house keys to a whole new level.

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

Yay Deadman.

And somehow it's fitting for a Bat to meet his grandparents as rotted corpses.

Of course it's raining when you visit the Wayne's grave.

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

Though the Waynes' clothes are in surprisingly good state. I'm thinking it might be more charitable for Damian if someone were to take him to the side and explain to him, in a few careful words, how the Bats have something of a special relationship with death. (Damian. Honey. How do you think you got the Robin suit?)

I'm liking the idea that he'd wibble over wrapping his cloak around one of them.

Of course it's raining. When isn't it raining in Gotham? :D