NEWS
IGN reviews BLACKEST NIGHT #4
October 30, 2009
I suppose the simplest way of analyzing Blackest Night #4 is to say that if you've loved what has been happening throughout the summer, your jaw will hit the floor with this fourth installment. Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis have somehow managed to up the ante with each subsequent release of this mega event, and while the pattern of each issue is becoming somewhat easy to detect, one senses that from here on out, things are really going to get messy. Despite all odds and despite previous events providing plenty of evidence to the contrary, Blackest Night is maintaining its excellent quality, and in some respects this is one of its finest outings.
By now you know what to expect from the event issues of Blackest Night. Black Lanterns attack, heroes attempt to figure out what's going on (with mixed results), more Black Lanterns attack and the chaos builds to an incredibly chilling, disturbing finish that, despite being a little formulaic at this point, still leaves you eager to see how things develop over the next month and in the next release. So to some extent that "new product" level of freshness has given away to a hint of predictability. But I think it's clear that Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis know this, and with the first three issues establishing the basic threat, this fourth chapter starts to pivot in some very interesting ways. The heroes finally have enough of an idea what's going on to mount some form of counterattack. However, without getting into too much detail, it's not as if the revelations of the Indigo Lanterns have turned the tides or necessarily made things easier. And there's always that small problem of the Black Lantern power level creeping up and up.
