Blackest Night: Solomon Grundy

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

This development was predictable, but still interesting how it the story unfolds.

IGN has the preview for Solomon Grundy #7.

This must be DC's version of Hulk meeting Banner in real life. But evil.

As I hypothesized above, The current Black Lanterns may be new and improved versions of what Solomon Grundy is... evil inhabiting a shell of a mortal man. This is important on several levels because

a) Solomon Grundy must have been the prototype. Wild, unrefined, unfocused. Whatever foul black goo is reanimating Grundy, something similar must be in the Black Lantern rings and Scar herself. That ebony energy that reanimates the dead (but soul less) is harnessed and into a ring, much like the Zamarons focused the Star Sapphire crystal into rings, modeled after the GLs.

b) The reanimated dead retain their powers and knowledge, unlike the chaotic Grundy. Again, refinement in the reanimation process. And they heal like Grundy, too. That is why braining them won't work.

c) The souls of the Black Lantern may be able to act separately from the reanimated body itself, as Cyrus Gold is. The souls need to have the right conditions to return to confront the bodies.

d) The dead are rising because they still have issues left unresolved in life. The Doves are currently immune because they can be at peace with
being dead. The Doves have no issues left unresolved, no emotions left to powering their bodies. If Cyrus can resolve his issues, he will be at peace. If not, then the Black Lanterns have a permanent agent in the world of the living

Comments

[beastman12010.insanejournal.com]

Solomon Grundy is evolving!

Solomon Grundy evolved into... Black Lantern!

[vignettelante.insanejournal.com]

Explains all the upgrades; they kept pressing B so he could learn all those special moves.

[sianmink.insanejournal.com]

Solomon Grundy used Grab!

It was not very effective!

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

SOLOMON GRUNDY WANTS PANTS TOO!

It wasn't very effective!

[mcity.insanejournal.com]

Solomon Grundy tries to learn "Belt"!

He fails!

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

Does this mean Black Lanterns are plant-type? That could make dealing with them a great deal easier.

[comicoz.insanejournal.com]

Although it makes Alan a fairly ineffective choice to fight them.

"Oh no, it's wood! Ayyeeeiiii"

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

No, I am referring to the Black Goo / unknown substance that keeps regenerating Solomon Grundy. The plant stuff is just the local matter absorbed into the dead tissue to give Grundy form.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

this and 7 Soldiers: Grundy is fast becoming the Nexus of Dc Events.

[stig.insanejournal.com]

Johns loves Morrison's writing, and yet respects his need to work out his own ideas. Is his love of 7 Soldiers great enough that he will reference the space-time oddity surrounding Slaughter Swamp and tie-in the Black Goop to the foul re-animating waters taken from the sunken Cauldron of Youth within the swamp...or will he respect Morrison, as well as his own talents, and just think of his own explanation, leaving 7 Soldiers in that blissful zone of something which doesn't need to be constantly touched on?

Hurm.

[yaseen101.insanejournal.com]

I like your theory and it makes sense but considering that this is Grundy and the only relation he has with GL is Alan Scott, don't you think that Johns may have something else cooked up entirely. I mean, with the way the events being promoted as extremely new reader friendly don't you think that Grundy might not have that much of an impact on this?

[daso.insanejournal.com]

This series has been a waste of paper as well as very confusing if you didn't pick up the seemingly unrelated Faces of Evil one-shot.

[kingrockwell]

Not really. Everything in the Faces Of Evil one-shot that pertains to the mini was mostly recapped in the first issue. It was about half way done before I tracked the one-shot down, and I was never confused about it.

As far as being a waste of paper, well, your mileage may vary. I'm enjoying it, but it is pretty clearly written by an artist who's using the plot as an excuse to get to the next fight. It's certainly not high art or anything, but it's fun and I like the art. I love the way they do Bizarro!

[daso.insanejournal.com]

using the plot as an excuse to get to the next fight
uuuh, yeah.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Also, isn't Grundy more closely linked to the Parliament of Trees like Swamp Thing and co? No need to get him involved in the Black Lantern concept.

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

I used to think he was an agent for the Gray before recent developments. But after seeing how many things have been rewritten/retconned since the last Crisis, I feel it could be both.

[blake_reitz.insanejournal.com]

The Gray? Red and Green I'm familiar with, not so much this Gray.

[ian_karkull.insanejournal.com]

The Gray is a concept that was introduced in (or developed out of, not sure which) Alan Moore's Swamp Thingt run. Basically, it's the collective conciousness of Bacteria and fungal lifeforms.
It's similar to The Red and The Green, but only for microscopic lifeforms.
At least that's how I understood it.

[yaseen101.insanejournal.com]

Actually though with most of the Vertigo Universe walled off from the mainstream DCU, I think it's best to cook up something new for the readers.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

There's no reason why Grundy can't serve both. The Parliament of Trees created him, but Grundy's countless flawed resurrections have in turn created a gaping hole in the realm of the dead. Boom.

Also, I know they created Grundy, but why do they allow him constant resurrections?

[(Anonymous)]

My money is on Cyrus Gold killing himself

Then we get a whole forgiving yourself, touchy-feeling bit.

[thokstar.insanejournal.com]

At this point he's very likely his own murderer.

However, I don't think he's going to forgive himself: this is a horror comic, after all.

[cmdr_zoom.insanejournal.com]

Motto.

(Also, then the character would go away or change, and we can't have that.)

[kingrockwell]

He has ruled out just about every other possibility! And forgiving his killer is almost certainly not gonna happen, since we already have Black Lantern Grundy in November's Superman/Batman.

[nerium_oleander.insanejournal.com]

That's totally some Etrigan speech bubble font in the last panel on the last preview page.

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

Oh yeah, that is Etrigan alright.

[nymphgalatea.insanejournal.com]

Yay! Etrigan!

A little bit of Etrigan/Jason Blood makes a comicbook so much better.

[naebler.insanejournal.com]

Remember the "Grundies" in Klarion's village? The Old who rise and become the slaves of their children. I'm wondering if they will be tied into blackest night too...

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

I agree with all you points except the last one. I tihnk it would be too limiting for storytelling, and people might get upset over their favorite superheroes arising as evil monsters because they have unfinished business.

[aegof.livejournal.com (from insanejournal.com)]

It's pretty hard to tell a story without upsetting someone, though.

I kinda think it sounds like a neat thing to bust out every few years.

[cmdr_zoom.insanejournal.com]

After the last five years or so of zombie stories (movies, etc), I could do without any more for the rest of my life. So overplayed.