Blackest Night #6 (spoilers)

I think there will be a lot of posts in the blogosphere doing a panel by panel recap of this issue, so I shan't bother.  If you need a summary, go check out SallyP's review.  This issue was quite short on story as we were given 8 pages of preview covers instead.  This works very well as an advert, but I'm not sure I wouldn't have wanted more story.  And now we move on to discuss the events and happenings of this latest installment.

I think this whole overarching story is about teamwork as much as anything else and this issue really emphasised this.  Last month we saw Sinestro, Atrocitus, Larfleeze, Saint Walker, Indigo, Hal and Carol work together to destroy the Black Lantern Power Battery.   They failed, because they represent only a fraction of the whole light.

Ganthet realises this, inducts himself into the Green Lantern Corps (thereby formally and obviously leaving the ineffectual team of Guardians and defecting to where he can do the most good).  He instructs each of the above listed individual's power rings to replicate themselves and deputize someone another into their Corps.  And so, the core team is expanded and more people will be forced to put aside their differences and work together.  We now have Blue Lantern Barry Allen, Yellow Lantern Scarecrow, Orange Lantern Lex Luthor (I cannot see how this will end well), Red Lantern Mera, Indigo Lantern Ray Palmer and Star Sapphire Diana Prince.  To join the Sapphires, Diana had to reject membership of the Black Lantern Corps and accept the love of the Sapphires.

The importance of teamwork is also show elsewhere within the story.  We have two black power rings chasing Barry Allen and Hal Jordan.  Barry uses a green contruct in the form of a chain to keep Hal with him and outrun the black rings.  It is illustrative of the deep friendship and trust in each other that Barry acts as he does.  It mirrors the events of Flash: Rebirth where Hal fetched Barry as the Black Flash away from the other spedsters, to protect them from Barry's deadly touch.  Incidentally, this mini and the Flash: Rebirth mini has demonstrated to me why Barry is such a well loved character.  I am now glad he is back in the DCU.

In other examples of teamwork, we have the Atom, Ray Palmer, and Mera inside the Black Lantern rings.  Mera has the power and emotional control to fight the Black Lanterns and Ray has the tech to get them out.  Once out, Mera continues to act as the muscle and takes on Wonder Woman, enabling Ray to get to the Flash and tell him Deadman's news.

So, now we've gont through all these examples of teamwork you're probably wondering why I bothered.  I have always loved team up stories: the trust that gets built, the reliance on others, the knowledge and camaraderie you get with a well functioning team is something that really resonates with me.  It makes for an interesting read, and I suppose I am a little envious as well.  If only life was that simple, eh?  As I cannot be a member of a superpowered team I shall have to settle for reading about them.