Blackest Night heads into the final stretch!
This issue opens with a bunch of the evil black rings trying to take over the resurrected as well as the dead. That means there are even more bad guys for our heroes to deal with, like Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Animal Man, Impulse, and...Superman!
Meanwhile, The Atom and Mera have disappeared inside one of those rings, and its there we find them:
Back home, Mera and Atom find themselves in front of Zombie Wonder Woman, and Mera takes this opportunity to seemi
At this point, Ganthet of Oa gets involved, and triggers a secret safeguard hidden in all the different colored rings: the ability to deputize an individual for twenty-four hours!
The call goes out, and various beings containing what the rings are looking for are tapped for duty: The Flash, Lex Luthor, The Scarecrow, The Atom, Wonder Woman...and Mera!:
Once again, Geoff Johns give us a tough-as-nails, no-nonsense Mera, and I have to say I've really been enjoying seeing her presented so heroically. Johns seems to really like the character, something he pointed out in an interview with Newsarama earlier in the week (thanks to various F.O.A.M. members who sent me links):
Nrama: In this series, there's also been a focus on Mera. Before this series began, you had told me the character you were enjoying writing at that moment was a female character, and you gave a few hints. And at the time, nobody guessed it would be Mera. There were several other characters that were expected by the masses. How did you land upon her character above all the others as your strong female lead in this story?
Johns: The other journeys, next to Hal and Barry, are the Atom and Mera. They both go through specific journeys. The Atom's culminates in The Atom and Hawkman issue I'm doing, and it continues through Blackest Night. And Mera's goes through Blackest Night, Blackest Night: Wonder Woman and beyond. She’ll be someone I’ll be working with in 2010, 2011 and beyond. The same thing goes for the Atom. His perspective is obviously different from anybody else's. And he's been at the center of the storm of a lot of things that have gone on in the DC Universe. But it’s time for Ray to step up and move on into new emotional territory.
Mera just developed organically, because I've always found that character intriguing. A lot of people recognized that character, but nothing's been done with her in years. I wanted to put her on the stage. You know, Aquaman's not here. It's like the whole beat that Barry says to them: "We're the Justice League now. You're Superman, and you're Wonder Woman. So let's go do this."
I knew I would be introducing all these new characters, and I thought at the same time I'd like to take a couple old characters like Mera and Black Hand alongside Larfleeze and Saint Walker.
Nrama: You said you always found Mera's character "intriguing." Why?
Johns: I just always found her to be powerful and strong and unexplored. She stood apart; she wasn't Aquawoman, which I liked. She was her own character, separate from Aquaman. She had her own history. I always found her appealing and thought she could be an important character, and I believe she's going to be one of the strongest females in the coming years.
I agree wholeheartedly with Johns here regarding Mera. One of the things I always liked about her was that she was an equal, independent character from Aquaman, not just a female version designed to protect a copyright.
Part of me is a little worried of the prospect of DC having an invigorated, newly-popular Mera running around, while Aquaman gets left behind (again). We'll see. For now, I'm enjoying seeing Mera get so much to do!
Update: With all this talk of Mera, I decided to put up a new poll, finding out where all you would like to see her show up after Blackest Night. Vote early, vote often!
6 comments:
Despite the grim and grit of this series, I have to admit that I am totally liking the way Johns is handling the characters, Mera included. Her comment to Diana had me utter an audible "Whoa" as soon as I read it. I truly feel as if this series has placed Mera on the map, and now it's up to the creative staff to make sure that she stays there. Would love to see what Johns' cryptic promise unfolds into.
'To tell you the truth Princess - I always wanted to find out' Now that's an awesome line! While my copy is still a week away, hopefully we'll see more of this in BN: Wonder Woman #2!
I really really liked this book, especially the way Mera is being used. She's bloody fantastic. I predict lots of Mera costumes at 2010's comic cons.
The Atom and Mera are the breakout starts of BLACKEST NIGHT. I'm really digging it. I just wish that AQUAMAN had been one of the "resurrected" series coming out this month for one more issue. It could have featured Mera as the lead. I mean, STARMAN won't actually have Jack Knight in it, so why couldn't they have done the same with Mera and AQUAMAN? Ah, well, I see she'll be showing up in BLACKEST NIGHT: WONDER WOMAN, so that'll help!
By the way, in the new poll, I voted for Mera to get her own miniseries. That doesn't mean I wouldn't want to see Aquaman come back. I just think a short three issue mini starring Mera would be a nice way to build to Arthur's return.
All this Johns-talk about using Mera and Black Manta heavily in 2010-11... I'm begging the universe for this to mean an Aquaman series is coming and those characters won't just be guest-starring in the Justice League or something (although honestly, at this point I would settle for that).
It is the Mera we have always known was there, buried under the weight of being a wife/queen/mourning mother. Great scenes, indeed!
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