Evil Star on the Horizon

The more I dig through Geoff Johns' run on Green Lantern readying a summary of the generalities (a post I'd thought I'd get around to five days ago), the more I end up latching onto specifics.

Swollengoat on the DC Message Boards called my attention to the unnamed figure sitting behind the gremlins in GL #43. As others have noted already, the word "starlings" (not likely to be the bird) plus the shape of his mask is a giveaway that it's Evil Star, a villain who hasn't otherwise been seen in recent continuity. Edit: Evil Star is mentioned in Green Lantern: Rebirth #1. Guy Gardner makes a disparaging remark about his worthiness as a villain. John Stewart does not disagree with that comment. To stay true to Johns' methodology, Evil Star will probably be the subject of some retcons.

So, two topics: Is he going to figure huge into Blackest Night? What's up with him, generally? Given that the Kroloteans (gremlins) are looking inside Black Hand and according to William Hand, they don't find what they're looking for, it seems very unlikely that he is the Big Bad. Scar tells us that the Big Bad will rise as events move on. Evil Star is obviously already "up" and doesn't need to rise. It seems like contact with the Big Bad is what they were looking for. Evil Star is also mentioned in #42 by Blue Lantern Sister Sercy as an oppressor of her people.

When the Kroloteans first surface (GL #4) Hector Hammond tells us that they took apart "planes in the war". This, combined with the label "gremlin" and their damage to Cowgirl's plane is very interesting. Because "gremlin" was a term that pilots actually used to label unknown causes of damage to planes. As though little mischievous beings were responsible.

Why do I think this is interesting? Was there an important event in Hal Jordan's life that pertained to mysterious damage to an airplane?

Green Lantern #29:

Martin Jordan: "I'm having some problems up here, Ferris. Oil's gettin' eaten up quick. I think the last of my torque pins just failed. I thought this was sent to I-level for repair."

Carl Ferris: "It was."

Looking down the road, I think we're going to be surprised in a future story to learn that Evil Star is basically the murderer of Martin Jordan. That's bound to set Hal off. Atrocitus has prophesied (in GL #37) that Hal will go renegade again... maybe when he finds out about this?

Blackest Night: Quotes

Yesterday, I posted my guess as to who is the leader of the Black Lanterns. Because the San Diego Comic Con is ongoing, new information comes out by the day. In this post, I wanted to compile a humble collection of brief, but telling, quotations about where the series is going, particularly regarding the identity of the "big bad" -- or, if it's a more appropriate label, the big "dead". In addition, some facts from the comics that seem to point to that entity's identity:

Quotations from Comic Book Resources:

"Fans will learn a lot about the nature of the universe in Blackest Night as well as the big villain behind everything and much more."

Religion/deity based characters play a role? "The characters discuss it in #2. There's a very specific thing about the Black Rings that I don't want to reveal," Johns said. "You'll see something very interesting in issue 3."

Is there going to be an ultimate entity behind the rings? "You'll have to read and see, I know there's a lot of speculation but I think it's not what people are expecting."

Johns described the black energy as "not necessarily having a good component, but it's not necessarily evil."

Is a villain called Nekron involved in Blackest Night? Berganza: "Who's that?" Johns: "I can't talk about that."

Geoff Johns

"... I wanted to explore – why death is the way it is in the DC Universe. Or why it has been."

Facts from the comics:

The Anti-Monitor is spoken to by the villain and told to rise. Therefore, it seems very unlikely that the Anti-Monitor would be the villain.

Scar says upon Black Hand's death, apparently of the villain, "This pleases him", indicating that the villain is a male, and not her.

The modus operandi of the villain matches very well that of Nekron. But is this too obvious?

All sources of information regarding Blackest Night began with the entities on Ysmault. Qull and Atrocitus spread this information to others.

Who leads the Black Lanterns?

The Black Lantern Corps has made life very difficult for anything living. We got the first inkling of their arrival way back in Green Lantern #6, when Black Hand dropped mention of the Blackest Night. It sounded like he was spouting off. But it was promised on the final page of the Sinestro Corps War event that a Blackest Night was indeed coming. We saw the scene in which a mysterious voice ordered the dead Anti-Monitor to rise and become the battery for the Black Lantern Corps. But who is behind all of this? It's not the Anti-Monitor himself -- the voice ordering him to rise was speaking when he was dead. And the splash page in Blackest Night #0 says that the Black Lantern's "ultimate purpose and its creator are unknown."

I love a good mystery. In this case, there are perhaps no clues in the usual sense. We're not going to see a muddy footprint and match it with the villain. I think, however, that Geoff Johns has made some decisions in his narration that make more sense if a particular (and fairly obscure) character is filling that particular role. I think the leader of the Black Lanterns is the brilliant creation seen in one Alan Moore story which has undoubtedly inspired the story that Johns has woven. My guess is that the leader of the Black Lanterns is the demon known as Qull.

We know through Atrocitus that the Five Inversions were the ones to realize that Blackest Night was going to happen. Atrocitus found William Hand on the basis of that prophecy. And the Guardians know of it via Abin Sur, who was told of it by Qull. Qull was obviously the smart one of the bunch. Because of what Qull says, Atrocitus (who is obviously not the smart one of the bunch) kills him. Would Qull not have seen that coming? Qull had eerie prophetic accuracy in at least a couple of ways in dooming Abin Sur and foreseeing the Green Lantern careers of Hal Jordan and Sodam Yat. If there's any logic to it, Qull wouldn't have set that path in motion if he didn't stand something to gain.

Qull dies in a flashback that opens Green Lantern #28. This event is dated to the time that Hal Jordan was a rookie. A series of questions:

Why, if you're Johns, kill the one interesting character from the Five Inversions, and make up a new one to represent them?

Why put Qull's death on-panel? Why, when the plot coming up is about dead characters coming back to life... Why open #28 with a panel staring right into Qull's eyes?

Why include the detail that Qull's "recklessness" left the Five Inversions on Ysmault instead of being imprisoned in science cells on Oa? How can a prophet be so reckless?

Why include Qull telling Atrocitus that he (Atrocitus) is a greater fool than Abin Sur?  The splash page defining the Red Lanterns says that Atrocitus's prophetic rituals were "primitive". Whose prophetic rituals were advanced?

It's not just that Qull's actions are illogical for such a sage, but that Johns seems to include details that would have no other role unless this was a crucial part of the story. More so than just giving us the leader of the Red Lanterns in Atrocitus. And notice that in Green Lantern #43, William Hand hears the black-ballooned voice giving him orders immediately after first coming upon the weapon that came from Ysmault.

I'll throw down my guess now that Qull, he of the 19-week laughs, set this up as his bid to get out of captivity. By killing him, Atrocitus made himself the leader of the Red Lanterns. If my guess is right, it also made Qull the leader of the Black. Knowing that the Black will "win" the color wars, he sees his eventual victory and domination of the universe, and now his bid for that role has started the Blackest Night underway.

Edit: The suspense is over, and I missed the obvious. Geoff Johns has given us the answer in an interview way before the story gets there: Nekron is the Big Bad. Did Qull have some ace up his sleeve when he died? It seems not.

By giving us the answer now, Johns tells us first and foremost that the story is not a whodunit. Nekron was more ugly than scary in his earlier appearances. Johns is going to have to ramp the character up to make Nekron deserve this kind of role. And that's exactly what we should expect.