Blackest Night/Nightmare Fuel

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Where to begin...

  • Let's start with the resurrection of a recently-killed DC character widely known as one of the nicest guys around. Zombie Ralph Dibny's first appearance occurs when he caves in Hawkman's skull with his own mace and taunts Hawkgirl with "I smell a mystery". Chilling.
  • In Blackest Night #4, Ray Palmer (the Atom) is trying to talk to Damage and Atom Smasher, who are related to the original Golden Age Atom (who all three are trying to fight). Just as Ray gets through to Damage about letting go of his past, Black Lantern Jean Loring rips out Damage's heart as it was filled with hope. I don't think we need to talk about what happened the last time Jean saw Ray.
    • And this one is very meaningful to the storyline. Power Levels 100%. Oh Crap.
  • Black Lantern Batman. And what he was used for... See Kick the Dog at the main page.
  • For this Troper, Black Lantern Wonder Woman. Specifically, her lasso, which was turned into a garrote.
  • Dunno how this managed to be avoided, but Black Lantern Firestorm turning Gehenna, the girlfriend of the current Firestorm, into table salt and tearing her heart out slooowwwwwly in the process. Oh, did I mention that the current Firestorm was bonded with BL Firestorm the whole while this was happening, and we got to see Gehenna's horror as she was turned into salt? For a Crisis Crossover filled with High Octane Nightmare Fuel, that moment has given this troper nightmares...... Oh, did I mention that Black Lantern Dr. Light finds the salt pillared Gehenna and LICKS her, telling the OTHER Dr. Light just how she tastes?? Yeah....
    • Even worse is that Black Lantern Firestorm didn't know the formula for salt and the current Firestorm couldn't help but give it to him?
    • Oh no, he knew. He just forced Jason to give it to him to torture him even more. It's one thing to kill the guy's girlfriend, but another to make him feel partially responsible for it.
    • BL Firestorm, or Deathstorm as he later calls himself, is High Octane Nightmare Fuel all around. While most Black Lanterns are perfectly content being manipulative bastards, Deathstorm instead decides to screw around with his targets. As mentioned above, he forces the living Firestorm into an And I Must Scream state, forcing him to kill his girlfriend. While the majority of Black Lanterns are truly emotionless, it's pretty damn clear that Deathstorm's a sadistic fuck and a Complete Monster to boot. He's still darkly entertaining, making it all the worse.
  • Black Mask coming back as a Black Lantern in the Catwoman tie-in issue. He was already a Complete Monster in life. In death, he's somehow even worse.
  • The very concept of a Black Lantern. Imagine someone you cared for in life, loved or just plain hated comes back. Except it's not them, even though they have all the memories, knowledge and abilities of who they were in life. They're omnicidal husks, who want to tear your heart out. Specifically, they want to feed on your feelings. And they will do anything and everything to get a rise out of you. It doesn't matter what emotion it is-you can be confident, hopeful or even glad, and you're still screwed. And you join them. No, you can't kill them. You can't destroy them. With a few exceptions, they cannot be destroyed.
    • To quote the series itself, "The rings are wearing the dead."

Back to Blackest Night