Thursday 7 February 2008

Black Hand = Black Lantern?

Apologies to non Green Lantern fans. L L C is about to get nerdy on the current run...

The Black Hand is a dude. He knows that dullards who insist on making tedious small talk on long haul flights are a pain in the arse, and he knows how to shut them up...







No more boring anecdotes from Jerry on that flight. Which gives the Black Hand plenty of time to contemplate revenge. He moves to Coast City purely to be close to Hal Jordan so that he can have multiple cracks at taking his revenge on the man who cut off his hand.

Augmented by alien experments which give him the power to regrow his severed hand by sucking the life force out of the living, this fella is pretty mean. Sadly he can't kill people when he's grown that limb back, and is no match for Green Lantern Jordan who severs his hand again and buries him alive before he has the chance to start growing a new one...

But The Black Hand isn't bothered. As the grave is filled in and the light dims he utters a grim warning...




Black Hand welcomes death. Which is kind of interesting, given that Green Lantern and the DC Universe will soon be building up to 2009's zombieriffic event...


Nice power ring that....

The logo looks familiar...

Seems like Black Hand is going to have a big role to play in The Blackest Night. Will he be the boss Black Lantern? Will his powers to drain the life out of the living be amplified by a battery powered by the imprisoned anti monitor? Looks increasingly likely.

I only started considering all of this because I'm rereading Geoff Johns' run on Green Lantern from the beginning. The motif stood out like a sore thumb the second time round and coupled with Black Hand's obsession with death really hints at a future for the character.

It's all testament to the skills of Geoff Johns. The panels featuring Black Hand which I've scanned in are from issues 5 and 6. He was laying the groundwork for the Sinestro Corps war back in those early issues, but it looks like he was also mapping things out well beyond that as well.

It's a run that definitely rewards another look.

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