Blackest Night Detective: GL Rebirth 1-3

We're still a couple of months away from this summer's biggest comic event, "Blackest Night." Still, Free Comic Book Day's "Blackest Night #0" got me impatient. And since writer Geoff Johns and artist Ethan Van Sciver said they've been laying the groundwork for this event, with little hints and clues, all along, I decided it was time to play Sherlock Holmes and re-read every issue looking for foreshadowing.

So, as I go along, I'll be posting what I find.

Rebirth #1 — Surprisingly, I found very little to report in the first issue of Johns' run, except, of course, for the fact that Black Hand gets his right hand burned off by Spectre Hal Jordan. The Spectre tells him his hand will now match his charcoal heart ... though I don't know if that means anything.

Also, I had forgotten ... the title of this first issue was "Blackest Night."

Rebirth #2 — A theme is introduced when Hal explains to Carol Ferris that watching his Dad taught him to question authority. And while this is a central part of Hal's character, and a part of his "Rebirth" story arc, it still should be noted for "Blackest Night" purposes that Johns' Hal Jordan surely doesn't mind bucking authority.

Another moment with Hal and Carol saw Hal telling her, "If anyone could've made me settle down, it would've been you." Could this mean Violet Lantern Carol Ferris will play a part in stopping Hal from doing something?

But the biggest "Blackest Night" clue of the issue: Batman says to Superman, "Hoping is what you do best, Clark." Blue Lantern Supes, anyone?

Rebirth #3 — Ganthet (who is still a GL Guardian here) tells Kyle, "Hope is meaningless against fear ... Willpower is our only weapon." This smells to me like it was foreshadowing to the stengths and weaknesses of both blue and yellow light.

This issue also gave us all an enormous clue that there would be Lanterns of other colors and emotions. Kyle Rayner explains to Oliver Queen, "The power that flows through our rings — it's not just light, Oliver. The Central Battery the Guardians made, it collects willpower from every living being in the universe. Raw emotional willpower converted into energy. Amplified by our own a million times over. There's an emotional electromagnetic spectrum out there that can be harnessed and used. Green willpower is the most pure..." Which is where Ollie cuts Kyle off. If he doesn't, Kyle likely goes on to say other colors, other emotions, blah blah blah.

Kyle also explains Parallax's goals: "Fear leads to violence, Violence leads to fear. Like an endless loop of destruction that would keep feeding parallax." Now, I know this idea was central to "Rebirth," but given we'll soon have Zombie Heroes running around everywhere, is it crazy to think this quote could mean all that fear of Black Lanterns will make Yellow Lanterns that much stronger?


That's all I have for now (give me a break, I only thought this idea up at 2 a.m. last night!), but tune in again VERY soon for more detective work.