Blackest Night #0 was released this past Saturday as part of FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. I hope you had a chance to pick it up. It was rumored that Ronnie Raymond/Firestorm would make an appearance in the book. Well, he did… sort of.
You could see the original Firestorm’s back in a flashback of Barry Allen’s funeral. Then at the end, while the Black Hand was reciting the Black Lantern Oath, we saw this…
“The better of two minds”. Love that. Since Professor Stein wasn’t around when Ronnie died, I wonder who arranged for the headstone. And since it wasn’t Professor Stein who arranged for the headstone, should the Professor consider the epitaph to be a slam against him? Probably not. I’m sure its just a kind message for the much-loved Ronnie. Sorry, these are the kind of random thoughts that go through my head.
Later in the book, they did a feature page on the Black Lanterns:
Most web sites are assuming (and I agree) that the red puffy sleeve is the arm of Ronnie Raymond/Firestorm. However, it appears there may have been an error in the coloring. I believe the artist intended for Ronnie to be wearing a glove, rather than having his zombie hand exposed. If you look closely at Ronnie’s hand (pictured below left), you can see stitching and no thumbnail. It looks like that was supposed to be a glove. Just to see what it would look like in yellow, I took the liberty of recoloring the hand (pictured below right). I’m no comic book colorist, but I believe this is closer to what the artist intended.
Even if it turns out that the hand belongs to someone else, Geoff Johns has confirmed that Ronnie Raymond will be a Black Lantern. So regardless, we’re one step closer to seeing Ronnie again! July 15th can’t get here soon enough!
Support Firestorm! Fan the flame!
Finally, Zombies in a comic book! It’s about time!
Nice job with the coloring, btw.
This comment has SPOILERS!
I liked the headstone for Ronnie. Very amusing.
I was less enthused with the Dibney’s tombs, since I liked what Chuck Dixon did with them in Batman And The Outsiders.
And I was intrigued by the panel of Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and The Atom, of course!
. . . but there wasn’t a body for Ronnie. . . . .
Latest promo image for Blackest Night is up at Newsarama, and it is FIRESTORM