Blackest Night: Send in the Ringers

From where I sit right now, DC's sci-fi horror action-adventure epic Blackest Night is a bonafide hit and a darn good yarn to boot, which illustrates precisely what I dig most about it: it's an event but at the same time a story with deeper meaning. I mean, you don't get much more popcorn flick/kids playing with action figures than "it's a bunch of armies with different colored uniforms fighting in space and some are zombies," but I know Geoff Johns has been crafting all this long enough that there's more to it than just the trapping, and each issue I've read so far has done a good job of balancing the loud explosions with the emotional nuances so to say.

However, I'm not here today to discuss the pathos of Hawkman and Hawkgirl's doomed love nor am I here to debate the placement of avarice versus hope on the emotional spectrum; no, I'm here to say what DC heroes and villains I want to see in which colored rings and Lantern jumpsuits...

Green Lantern: Dick Grayson
We got into it a bit in the comments section of my recent post on Nightwing: Year One, but I'm fairly sure that in some comic from the 80's (most likely an issue of Action Comics Weekly), it was established that Dick Grayson was a viable candidate to receive a Green Lantern ring and that had he been geographically closer to the site of Abin Sur's crash than Hal Jordan, he indeed would have. Well, here we are, the GL Corps are experiencing their Blackest Night and they need al hands on deck; at the same time, Dick is experiencing his own personal darkest hour as his mentor is gone and he's been forced to step into the cowl. Dick being given a Green Lantern ring--albeit for a very short term basis--and being a major part of saving the day during this event would be both a cool moment and also a major step in establishing his credibility as a legitimate Batman until Bruce Wayne returns. Plus, you have to know DC Direct could come up with some sort of amazing Batman/Nightwing/Green Lantern hybrid figure that would make us all lose our shit.

Sinestro Corps: Jason Todd
It's been said that fear is perhaps the most potent item in Batman's utility belt, but no member of the Bat Family would out and out admit that fact--except for Jason Todd. With Jason at a loose end following Battle for the Cowl, it could be a great scene in Blackest Night or in the Batman tie-in mini for the down and out former Robin to be visited by a little yellow ring offering him a chance for ultimate power and to police the universe through fear just as you know he had always desired deep down. And of course if we assume this is couple with my Dick Grayson-as-Green Lantern concept, you get the climactic "brother vs brother" showdown once more, this time with each slinging power rings and creating the nastiest Bat-centric constructs they can conjure.

Red Lantern: Doomsday
The caveat here is that of course Doomsday does not need a power ring any more than the Hulk needed giant guns, but that doesn't make either concept any less awesome. The fact is that Doomsday has never been as cool as he was when he was first introduced to kill Superman and as a result has fallen into that awful purgatory as a guy other characters can beat up to gain credibility (other notable residents of this realm include the Juggernaut, Captain Atom and the Rhino). But you put a red ring on one of Doomsday's bony protusions, have him vomit a bit of blood and set him up as the DC Universe's ultimate embodiment of rage as he tears through other Lanterns like toilet paper and you've got a grade-A badass monster back in the mix.

Star Sapphire: Starfire
Ever since she was introduced, a big part of Starfire's character--and a side we saw expanded whenever she traveled home to Tamarana before it was destroyed umpteen times--was how her people both fought and loved with unbridled passion, and how she could not understand why humans were so guarded with expressing their emotions, love in particular. This is the girl, remember, who planted a wet one on Robin back in New Teen Titans #2 in order to "learn the English language." Over the years, Kory has been unlucky in love, getting left at the altar after a demon disrupted her wedding and losing a husband to the Sun Eater. Of late she has been kvetching about getting ditched once more by Dick Grayson--the Green Lantern of my piece, making this all the more perfect--making her an ideal candidate to become the latest Star Sapphire (and she wouldn't even need to change her costume much).

Blue Lantern: Zauriel
One of the things Geoff has impressed me most with during this saga, especially in the first issue of Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps, is how maturely and astutely he's able to write the faith/religion-based Blue Lantern Corps without coming off preachy or making it feel like he won't commit. Couple that with the fact that he was involved in a couple good peripheral Zauriel stories in JSA and that Zauriel is just an awesome, underutilized character in general, and this is a pick that makes perfect sense to me. Granted there would be the tangled explanation of how Zauriel's allegiance switches from the Judeo-Christian God to the Blue Lantern Corps (or if they switch at all), but that's the journey I want to read about.

Orange Lantern: Catwoman
Much as she has tried to be a good girl, greed is the motivating factor that always seems to drive Selina Kyle back to the dark side or at least cause her to skirt it. It's the one element in her existence that she can't seem to tame or control and make her plaything. Granted in order to become a member of the Orange Lantern Corps you need to kinda die and then be absorbed into the collective consciousness created by Larfleeze, but I think Catwoman either trying to pull off the ultimate heist and case the Orange battery or overwhelm Agent Orange with her cult of personality would make for a great, funy story.

Indigo Tribe: Raven
We don't know much about the Indigo Tribe yet (their Tales of the Corps story didn't help much), but their logline is supposed to be compassion and given that Raven possesses the super power of empathy, that's kinda her gig. Plus, it gets another New Teen Titan into the mix, so why not.

Black Lantern: Barry Allen
Too soon?