Geoff Johns has teased at conventions, interviews and most recently in the pages of the Blackest Night #0 Director’s Cut (included in Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #3), that the big bad behind Scar and The Black Hand will be much, much scarier than any of the threats so far seen in the series. There’s no way I could possibly touch on all the likely candidates, but a few sprung to mind and I scribbled them on a pad of paper while waiting for a friend at a Chili’s the other day. That said, I figured a quick look down what I consider to be a list of fun possibilities for suspects is in order.
Nekron
This skull-faced lord of the underworld is powerful enough, and in the right ways, to do it. His role in the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps miniseries of the early ‘80s shows that this kind of thing is right up his alley, and of course Blackest Night #1 featured a skull on the cover for no adequately explored reason.
Why not him? Geoff Johns has flat-out denied that Nekron will be involved with Blackest Night when asked at a convention. On the other hand, Johns can’t be expected to come clean with the series’ big twist if somebody guesses it.
Krona/Entropy
He’s certainly powerful and insane enough to pull this off—the villain behind the JLA/Avengers series and the man who was integral to the rise of the Anti-Monitor is integral to the Green Lantern mythos and the instigator of an untold number of deaths in the DC Universe.
Why not him? The Avengers connection, and the fact that it’s the only place most fans will have seek Krona, makes him a potentially confusing villain for new readers.
Appa Ali Apsa (“The Mad Guardian”)
In terms of crazy bastard Guardians, there’s Krona, there’s Appa…and then somewhere way, WAY down the list is Scar. Scar ain’t got nothing on the guy who stole cities from all over the universe, planted them on Oa, and then took on the whole GL Corps and the rest of the Guardians. He’s almost as integral to GL history as Krona, certainly moreso than Nekron, but has the added bonus that he absolutely hates the Guardians and knows all their secrets (like, for example, where Larfleeze and the orange rings were).
Why not him? Geoff Johns seems to be ignoring most or all of the Gerard Jones-era Green Lantern stories, which is when the formerly amiable Appa (he’s the Guardian who went on a quest to find America with Hal and Ollie) went off his little blue nut.
Lord Malvolio
Nobody knows Malvolio’s power levels or exact capabilities, but he’s used to working in the shadows and manipulating rings—that much is clear from his only appearance in an Action Comics Weekly arc featuring Hal back in the ‘80s. Well, that much plus he hates—HATES—the Guardians of the Universe. He’s also a favorite among hardcore Hal fans, as a small segment of us expected Malvolio’s ring—worn by Hal, demonstrably different in appearance to the rest of the Lanterns’ and referenced in Gerard Jones’ Green Lantern #25 for those who weren’t sure if the Action Comics Weekly arc was canon—to be the source of Jordan’s madness in “Emerald Twilight.” While Johns has explained away the madness as a yellow cosmic fear bug, nobody has ever followed up on Malviolio’s exact plans.
The Anti-Monitor
The degree to which DC’s most powerful antagonist—ever—has been powered down on Geoff Johns’ watch is kind of absurd. To bring this character back into being during the last big event and then use him only as a non-sentient energy source for lesser villains seems bizarre, and obviously he’s the one who put a whomping onto Scar in the first place.
Why not him? At the moment, he seems to be just a power source and not actually alive. Johns has suggested that’s not changing anytime soon, and there’s little reason not to believe it.
I’ll have another handful for you next week, once I’ve actually written up a little of my logic for why they could or couldn’t be the guy…but what do you think of these choices?
August 7th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
The twist might be some good guy turned bad or something :/
August 7th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
There’s one possibility I’ll be posting about on Monday–someone for whom the probability that it’s him is somewhere south of zero, but he’s still TECHNICALLY got a backstory that would support it–and he’d fit that description.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
it’s darkseid
August 7th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Geoff Johns did not Deny Nekron was the big bad…he said he couldn’t talk about it.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Hm. I’ll have to re-read the article I read. I was sure that one of the panel discussions I read from a recent show had him saying that Nekron was not “involved with Blackest Night.”
August 7th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Russ – the panel in question was SDCC’s Blackest Night panel. The Newsarama report and the CBR report vary differently, and the CBR report shows Johns as dodging the question as opposed to denying it.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I remember him saying at one con that he couldn’t discuss it and then recently at comic con he said Nekron would not be appearing. It was in the Blackest Night Panel I think.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Batdog is right: he said he wouldn’t talk about Nekron. And I can’t see why it ISN’T him from the fact that even DC reprinted it for no real reason.
But it was nice to bring up some good old Gerry Jones villains. His run is still my favorite on GL, and his GL Mosaic is a true gem that should have been revered more often.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
The skull on the cover of BLACKEST NIGHT #1 is there for “no adequately explored reason”??
Um, didja notice Black Hand’s carrying a certain someone’s skull around?
August 7th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
@Sean W: that’s true, but the cover seems to “say” that the skull is connected to the power behind the Black Lanterns, IMO that’s why Russ said “no adequately explored reason”.
Peace.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Its Superboy Prime!
August 7th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
I don’t think Krona’s Avengers connection would confuse anyone, and more to the point, JLA/Avengers was not Krona’s last major appearance; he was Trinity’s big bad.
Although I would think makes him even LESS likely to be the one behind Blackest Night, given that Trinity just ended in May.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
> Why not him? The Avengers connection, and the fact that it’s the only place most fans will have seek Krona, makes him a potentially confusing villain for new readers.
What do you mean? Krona’s been around since 1965, he was a driving force of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and he was involved in Trinity this past year.
August 7th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
I think it’s Hector Hammond. For the following reasons:
1) In Rebirth he has a teaser line about “THEY” returning. We are meant to assume it’s the GL corps he’s talking about but it comes after talking about Hal returning from the DEAD.
2) He’s made appearances in Johns’ run on GL since then but not as a real threat. Rules of writing would indicate that Johns would use a character mentioned in his story before, not a random reference such as Nekron.
3) He’s featured in Secret Origin, which was a prelude story for Blackest Night. We are meant to assume for Sinestro, Atrocitus and Abin Sur but why include Hammond in Hal’s origin?
4) Scar was injured on Earth, well within Hammond’s range of influence. Plus he at least has the POTENTIAL to be controlling the Black Lanterns.
Just saying, don’t be surprised.
August 8th, 2009 at 7:25 am
@Tuckenie: Hammond is one of the other five that I’m postulating about on Monday.
August 8th, 2009 at 10:10 am
The Hammond idea is interesting only because I wonder how the heck he could mastermind and execute this sort of cosmic-level, universe-wide threat. This doesn’t seem like his old MO at all.
August 8th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Well it can’t be Hector Hammond since Johns has said that Hammond is the villain for the arc after Blackest Night
August 8th, 2009 at 11:57 am
I would love to see Hector Hammond. He was my first villain, a smart guy who couldn’t move, yet somehow scary. Or maybe that was the way Denny wrote it, an awesome writer if ever there was one.
Will the New Gods get Black Lantern rings?
Cheers,
B
August 8th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
@brian – While that would be scary as hell, I doubt it becuase:
a) DiDio keeps saying the New Gods will get a brief break after FINAL CRISIS, and
b) it’s questionable, after the rebirth of the universe in FC or whatever the hell happened, whether there are actually bodies for the New Gods. I’m kind of assuming that off-camera, those characters are moving into the Fifth World.
August 8th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I’m hoping it’s T:D:H:D, the Mad God of Sector 3600.
August 8th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
@Yonatan When did Johns say that?
August 8th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Wild guess: Hal Jordan, from something enacted by him when he was the Spectre subconsciously wishing for his daddy to come back to life.
That, or it’s Doiby Dickles.
August 9th, 2009 at 7:18 am
Thanks for the response Russ.
Doiby Dickles and his princess running the Black Lantern Corps. Now that’s comedy!
Cheers,
B
August 9th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Doiby Dickles running the Black Lanterns would be roughly akin to Snapper Carr being the JL traitor. It might make for a good moment or two, but in the long run the fans would bitch about it.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:47 am
To me the obvious choice is Nekron…but that makes him the least likely in terms of a good reveal. Hector Hammond seems too earth-bound to make Blackest Night work. Of course, now I have no idea who the big bad could be. Damn you, Johns!
Oh, and kudos to the shout out for Gerard Jones’ GL work. Awesome stuff!
August 17th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
So, um, yeah IGN ruined/revealed it already…bummer.