In spite of having been corrected by many, many readers who say that Nekron is the presumptive winner here, I’m going to present the second five of my list of “suspects for the Black Lantern Guardian” and the reasons for why I think they could be in the running. To be honest, some of the candidates have changed in my brain as a result of talking with fans (I’d forgotten completely about the Mad God of Sector 3600) but I’m going to present the ones originally written and let y’all discuss them along with some of your admittedly cleverer ideas!
Cyborg-Superman
As last depicted (in Johns’ own Sinestro Corps War), Henshaw is obsessed with death, craving it although it can never come for him. The Anti-Monitor (who is the power source for the black battery) had association with another guy kinda like that—Pariah—and he forced Pariah to live a life full of pain and misery for years. Were Henshaw to learn of Pariah—and of the character’s eventual (short-lived) death—it would stand to reason that he might use the Anti-Monitor himself to bring about his own ending.
Why not him? Henshaw isn’t in any position to have much interest in the seven million dead of Coast City rising from the ashes with power rings.
Darkseid
Anti-Life has always been his obsession, and bringing about death on a broad scale one of his methods. So is it a stretch to think that the despot of Apokolips might be serving Death with a Big D in some capacity? Also, he was last seen as being on his way to transitioning into the Fifth World, living as sort of ambient energy after his body was killed, so it’s a fair guess that he could be the disembodied voice that Black Hand is hearing…AND that would speak to the hints that we’d start to get some Bruce Wayne clues during Blackest Night.
Why not him? Aside from just having been shot by the Bat-God-Killing-Gun at the end of Final Crisis, there’s the fact that…well, he was the VILLAIN in Final Crisis. Using him again so soon would seem a little uninspired.
John Stewart
Most folks don’t remember it, but at the end of Green Lantern: Mosaic, John Stewart was at least briefly imbued with the powers of a Guardian of the Universe. I was never entirely clear on when that power was taken away (maybe a reader can tell me), but my position is that, first of all, when Appa Ali Apsa started taking on human characteristics, it drove him mad—so what might happen when a human gets Guardian-powers? I wonder if subconsciously some part of his mind and some fraction of the powers he was granted have been working on this for years. This would be a serious twist AND fit Johns’ bill of a very, very dangerous badguy.
Why not him? It’d seem pretty random and arbitrary. Plus, he’s one of DC’s few reasonably popular African-American heroes and was “The Black Guy” on Justice League Unlimited, so at a time where the company is looking for diversity, it’s hard to imagine DiDio signing off on making Stewart a mass-murderer.
Hector Hammond
As mentioned by a reader in the previous installment of the list, Hammond is a classic Green Lantern villain who has made brief, menacing appearances in Johns’ current run and who has mind-control capabilities. While he’s never undertaken anything on this scale, it’s safe to say that anyone who turns out to be this story’s villain, will never have attempted anything so big before.
Why not him? Apparently Johns has made convention comments fingering Hammond as the first post-Blackest Night bad guy. Also, the scope of his power has never been great enough that Hal couldn’t overcome it with time and/or a little help—so the notion of his controlling a Martian Manhunter with even a portion of his original memories and powers seems a little preposterous.
Blackguard
Seriously? Come on—“Blackguard, the Black Guardian?” How cool would that look on a business card? And he’s got beef with Booster Gold and the JLI, so raising Beetle would be a natural. He was last seen in one of the Giffen-DeMatteis JLI miniseries (which apparently are non-canonical to some extent anyway) as part-owner of a bar with Guy Gardner, giving him a connection to the GLs.
Why not him? He’s a putz with little or no power, who really had no business putting up a fight against Booster twenty years ago. Also, he was last seen in one of the Giffen-DeMatteis JLI miniseries (which apparently are non-canonical to some extent anyway) as part-owner of a bar with Guy Gardner.
August 11th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I’m just saying… He may not be the big bad but I think Hammond’s involved. He seemed to know this was coming way back in Rebirth and… wait why is he even IN Rebirth? He seemed to have had nothing to do with that story and yet there he is teasing someone’s RETURN.
Plus why is Johns saying Hammond is in the NEXT story any less of a possible misdirection then him saying Nekron isn’t in the story at all?
August 11th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
@Tuckenie – I don’t think it is. I was just letting it be taken as read that “Johns may be lying” is a generally-applicable answer for “Why not him?”. If I said every single time it came up, “Johns could be lying,” or “something could have been retconned by now,” that would be a lot of extra words in the stories.
August 11th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
My guess was the longshot good-guy-turned-bad teased in the comments of the previous post would be Mandrakk.
August 11th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I’m still hoping for Nekron. The story of the dead coming back to battle the living was one of my favorites growing up. I still remember Nekron’s hand trying to open up the hole to the living universe with the it getting bigger and bigger with each lantern’s death.
That was a little different than the Black Lanterns trying to reclaim those who have cheated death. That’s the only thing that would make me think it’s not him.
August 11th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I agree that Hammond could be involved here.
But John Stewart? Not likely. Getting into the meta-story here, it would be a terrible idea for DC to turn its most prominent black hero–across multiple media–into a villain. And I’m sure Didio and Johns understand that.
August 11th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I’m curious if the mystery villain will tie in with the Krotoleans [the gremlin-like ETs) that experimented on Black Hand and The Shark in the early issues of the most recent Green Lantern series.
August 11th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
On second thought…didn’t Nekron create rings powered by death for dead green lanterns in Green Lantern Annual #7?!!? Anyone with a better memory than I on that?
August 11th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Evil Star. Just sayin.
August 11th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
hiker – Mandrakk wasn’t really a good guy, though.
And the second half of this list (this post) was really mostly for my own purely speculative entertainment. I don’t think any of these five are NEARLY as likely to be involved as the previous five, with Stewart and Blackguard being basically impossible.
August 11th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
in john stewarts very first appearance he called himself black lantern
August 11th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Blackguard’s dead now. He was killed not too long ago.
August 11th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
So Blackguard could be a Black Lantern then!
August 12th, 2009 at 3:39 am
its more likely to be mordru again than any of them and its not mordru
August 12th, 2009 at 5:27 am
“so at a time where the company is looking for diversity, it’s hard to imagine DiDio signing off on making Stewart a mass-murderer.”
Why? This is Dan “THE RAPE PAGES ARE IN!” Didio you’re talking about.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:34 am
I thought Hammond would be an Orange Lantern, maybe he kills Larfleeze and takes it for himself
August 12th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Weren’t the Krotoleans revealed as Evil Star’s ‘Starlings’? Maybe he’s the big bad here, although I have no idea where death/Evil Star come into play together.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
@Mike – I don’t know if they were ever revealed as such, but I know that I always wanted to make that connection. If so, it definitely suggests we’ll see ES sooner than later!
August 13th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8154/nekronrises.jpg
Well, that solves that.
August 15th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Russ,
Sorry to be late to the game, but who were your first 5? I can’t find any article you wrote that still shows these.
August 16th, 2009 at 8:49 am
@Superdad: http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/08/07/whos-behind-the-black-lanterns/
August 17th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
For anyone that wants the reveal ruined, IGN posted the cover for Blackest Night #5 complete with a short article/interview with Mr. Johns himself.
January 17th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Have you consider starting an monthly news letter. It would take your site to its potential.