So I have been wondering — which is more interesting: Blackest Night aka DC Zombies or the return of Black Mask to Gotham and through-out the Batbooks (okay well not Grant Morrison’s Batman & Robin ’cause well.. I don’t know why)? Seems that Black Mask is building up various parts of a new criminal organization in Gotham while the Black Lanterns are rising from dead heroes & villains to torment and kill for their zombie king, Nekron. *yawn* Which is more interesting & why? Blackest Night has the big question behind Nekron and why all the Black Lantern mythos all from a single panel Alan Moore wrote years ago while the return of Black Mask is the question itself. Who is Black Mask and why is he back?
Why NEKRON & the Blackest Night? Must Nekron be the undead king of the Black Lanterns for the evil, corrupt Guardian Scar’s vision of the universe? Are the Black Lanterns there to ensure that they can eliminate all sentient life & emotion from the universe (which would, I am assuming also include Guardian Scar’s life)? If so — won’t that get boring and pointless? I guess no more than the Red Lanterns of Rage or the Blue Lanterns of Hope. I still find that raising the new Black Power Battery from the ashes of Coast City is so obvious and boring plus considering that the Black Lanterns want to eliminate all emotion from the UNIVERSE — last I checked, Coast City is the tiniest fraction of the bloody universe. I do I get it — tug on the fucking heart strings of Hal Jordan and the heroes of Earth ’cause the DC fucking Universe obviously centers directly around Earth and their heroes. Fuck the rest of the Universe is what that says (so why BOTHER with the rest of the universe, Black Lanterns?). This is another point in the BN saga that doesn’t make sense to me, well that and the Indigo Lanterns are from everywhere BUT Earth which may be more a nod to the center of the universe bit. More on Blackest Night here on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lantern_Corps
Who the Fuck is Black Mask? Why is this more appealing — Well, that’s very simple… he is the Black FUCKING Mask! If The Joker is the The Clown Prince of Crime, Two-Face is the duel sides (Bad Sheriff) of Gotham & The Penguin is Gotham’s embodiment of greed (Evil Baron) than Roman Sionis aka Black Mask is the true King of Gotham’s criminal underworld. The Black Mask has returned to the Bat-books and the DCU. Of recent Black Mask has been able to reign in a great many of the dark (hehe) baddies of Gotham under his control, broken up the power war between Two-Face & Penguin onto leading himself to being the new boss of Gotham. In the latest issue of Batman #692, the issue reminded the readers of the Maroni mobster family that Jeph Loeb wrote about in Batman: The Long Halloween (just got that it came out in time for Halloween – NICE) & that Mario Falcone is back in Gotham. A nice red herring that Mario could be Black Mask. I do like the tie into the current criminal mess that is happening in Gotham for Batman & Friends to deal with. Sadly Black Mask gave an offer to Two-Face and Dent decided to leave Gotham than joining Black Mask. I am sure that Two-Face will come back to haunt Black Mask (I am assuming in a team-up with Bats down the road, especially if it is still Dick under the cowl). More on Black Mask here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mask_%28comics%29
So to add more fuel to the fires of the mystery behind Black Mask, I am going to mix in the whole Blackest Night concept: If this version of Black Mask is indeed the second Black Mask then why hasn’t original DEAD corpse of the first Black Mask risen as a Black Lantern and gone after Catwoman for killing him?! Hell, I would have settled for Roman’s parents returning from the dead and going after the current Bruce Wayne running around Gotham (Yes Batman is dead but a villain known as Hush is posing as Bruce Wayne right now), I mean if both Dick & Tim’s parents can return from the dead to come after their children, why not Black Mask’s parents? My bet is no one really thought that one through OR This is not the second Black Mask & Roman managed to not only survive but also somehow to hide his parents when Blackest Night begins, being a criminal mastermind that he is.
Is Roman back from the dead OR could there be much more beneath the surface of this mystery? One statement that even I wondered about from the Batman: R. I. P. storyline — at one point, Black Mask refers to himself as “we” to which makes me wonder if there are more than one person(s) running around as Black Mask OR more than one generation.
This is my big prediction — Black Mask is an descendant from Bruce Wayne himself. To become the Black Mask at exactly this time for reasons that only Bruce really knows but obviously to have the villain you know than one you do not. This could be a way for Bruce to control things — control the villains and you control Gotham? Wait… how is my idea possible? What kinda crack am I smoking? No way, Robert — give your head a shake. Okay let me remind those of you all that are reading along with the DCU — Batman is DEAD & Not DEAD as he has been SENT BACK TO THE PAST to live out his lives again and again from DARKSEID’s Omega Sanction blasts. Now if you accept the craziness of that then why couldn’t Batman ensure that a descendant of his becomes the Black Mask after his apparent “death” to have more control over Gotham?
I am more excited about who is Black Mask than I care what happens with Blackest Night. I am sure Geoff Johns will kill lots of characters in the DCU so other writers can get a shot of remaking them but the only one I care about is Black Mask. I mean Blackest Night lost me when they indicated that both The original Sandman & The Question are back from the dead. Give me Black Mask in a battle for control over Gotham any day.
UPDATED: I just found out who is Black MASK! Check it out…
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Arggghh… another reason to dislike Barry Allen. Fuck!
This blog has a history that was tied to a certain comic book store in Vancouver, Canada (You know, where the 2010 Winter Olympics were) called ELFSAR COLLECTION COMICS & TOYS. Sadly Elfsar had to close down in May so in many ways, it’s closing has also put the final nail into the coffin of this blog. If I had ANY thought of returning and sparking this sucker up, it’s all gone now. Elfsar was the spark that had me start REALLY bad reviews over on Happy Harbor Comics website. That went on for a while until I thought, why not just start my own blog doing the same thing and ranting about whatever else I wanted. So I did and BtS was born. It went through many looks & feel until finding the latest incarnation. Now don’t get me wrong, I do miss it at times but overall I think running this blog took a great deal out of me in ways I haven’t still realized. I managed this blog almost as much or more than working 8 hours a day and that got to be too much in general. That and I feel my appreciation for comic books lately has been at an all time low so I have little to talk about.
