Blackest Night/Awesome

The dead rise, the Corps unite, the war between Death and Life rages, and we see at least Seven different types of Awesome.

• Crowning Moment of Awesome for the entire Green Lantern mythos.
• Barry Allen and Hal Jordan are being chased by Black Lantern rings. What does Barry Allen do? He tells Hal to tie himself to him with his ring and runs so fast they travel A FEW SECONDS into the future, hence they are out of sync with the rings in the "present" and the rings just drop inert. "And they're fast. But I'm faster." BAD. ASS.
• After Barry and Hal outrun the black rings, Ganthet makes Hal's ring duplicate itself again, and makes himself a Green Lantern. "Then I will join this fight not as a leader removed, but as another living being fighting for his life." "I am Ganthet of Oa. I welcome myself to the Green Lantern Corps."
• In Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #1, Wonder Woman tracks Black Lantern Maxwell Lord to the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. Two regular, nameless soldiers are standing guard next to the tomb. Wonder Woman tells them to leave for their safety, but they refuse, because they have a duty to guard that tomb. Yes, even if superpowered zombies are attacking, they're still going to stand guard and even help Wonder Woman fight the newly-risen Black Lanterns that Maxwell just created by reviving the entire cemetery. If that isn't awesome, I don't know what is. Also doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, considering those soldiers' dedication to duty.
• In Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #1, Wonder Woman faces off against Black Lantern Max Lord. Lord wants to make her really, really angry, but when we see her through his eyes (which show people filled with emotion), she's filled with love. And then she cuts his head off with an axe.
  • And when an army of dead soldiers are used against her? She uses her lasso to consecrate the ground surrounding herself, reducing all the black lantern soldiers to ash.
• In Blackest Night: The Flash #1, the entire DCU is panicking, the dead are rising, former friends and enemies are trying to kill everyone, and a sense of dread is slowly creeping across the universe. When told that previously deceased Rogues are invading Iron Heights Prison, Captain Cold gathers the still living Rogues, teleports them to the prison, and simply states "Let's go shoot some zombies."
  • To add on to this, Heat Wave pumping out enough fire to MELT Rainbow Raider's Black Lantern ring. "Everything has a melting point."
• Blue Lantern Flash! Star Sapphire Wonder Woman! Red Lantern Mera! Yellow Lantern Scarecrow! Indigo Lantern Atom! Orange Lantern Lex Luthor! ^{[dead link]}
• Bizarro destroying Black Lantern Solomon Grundy by sending him into the sun.
• Salaak standing up to the Alpha Lanterns with a rather epic speech and taking command of the GLC in the absence of the Guardians. Especially when he starts quoting Guy Gardner.
• Superboy stealing Black Lantern Psycho Pirate's Medusa Mask with his telekinesis and using it to destroy Black Lanterns Psycho Pirate and Kal-L.
• Kon-El freeing himself from the Black Lantern ring with the help of Cassie and some clever use (no, not like that) of his corpse. (yes, time travel hurts my brain. Go along with it).
  • And finally mastering freeze breath at the same time, becoming - as Wonder Girl puts it - the "guy who can do everything Superman can do."
• The entirety of Sinestro vs. Mongul for the control of the Sinestro Corps. Especially the end when Sinestro traps Mongul in the Yellow Central Power Battery to prevent Mongul from rising as a Black Lantern.
• Guy Gardner becoming a Red Lantern and ploughing through the hordes of Black Lanterns with ease.
  • It was rapidly turning into a Crowning Moment of Dread when Guy ran out of Black Lanterns and started on Greens.
  • Guy is now a Green and a Red Lantern? Oh Crap from both sides of the battle.
• "Jordan's not here anymore, Sinestro. It's just me. So... Spectre... Where were we?"
• All seven Corps leaders showing up to blast the crap out of Scar before she can kill Wally. Especially Sinestro saying "You have no idea how much I've been looking forward to this."
• "I demand your power, Entity! And I will finally prove to the universe... I am the greatest Lantern of them ALL!"
  • Still trembling from the above entry! DESTINY AWAITS.
• The united Lantern Corps (plus Dove) vs Black Lantern Anti-Monitor: Boom! Headshot!
• "Long live the Cor-"
• "If anyone's a part of a White Lantern Corps, IT'S US! That entire two page spread. Holy. Shit.
• " Let there be light." Plus the fold-out, two FOUR page spread of all the revived heroes
• Pretty much any moment with Scarecrow but especially ones like this.
  • Scarecrow joining in attacking Black Hand, two evil beings battling each other, Death and Fear, and Scarecrow saying why. "Is this the one who wants death and silence? I want screams!"
• Black Lantern Azrael (the guy who temporarily took over from Batman after Bruce Wayne got his back broken, in case you don't remember) is carving a swathe of destruction through Gotham City when the Scarecrow turns up. Although everybody else is terrified and shows up in "emoti-o-vision" as bright yellow as a result, Scarecrow registers no emotion at all.

Scarecrow: I want to feel the terror, but I'm immune to it, you see. I used my fear gas, oh, one too many times.
Azrael roars in his face.
Scarecrow: I scare people, but nothing can scare me. Nothing... nothing but the Batman.

• • Surprisingly badass.

Sinestro Corps Power Ring: Jonathan Crane of Earth. You have the ability to instill great fear. Welcome to the Sinestro Corps.

• Mogo showing up to defend Oa, and managing to finally nullify an army of Black Lanterns that had put the entire rest of the Corps on the ropes by increasing its gravity, making lots of quicksand, and trapping all of them in its core to burn as fast as they could regenerate. Mogo states the imprisoned Lanterns will burn for all eternity.
• LIVE
• Black Lantern Ralph Dibny serving up a Curb Stomp Battle on Hawkman with his own mace, and punctuating it with "I smell a MYSTERY."
• Black Lantern Martian Manhunter, while tearing a building from its foundations and hurling it into another building, lamenting "I'm as powerful as Superman. Why does everyone FORGET that?"
• Black Lantern Aquaman talks to everybody who thinks he's a loser (in-universe and out of it) and summons what appear to be zombified sea creatures, including a seal that bites off somebody's face.
• When fighting Black Lantern Martian Manhunter, the Flash distracts J'onn and sprints around him, collecting a bunch of odd chemicals for what appears to be no reason. Then Hal Jordan pokes his head in:

Flash: Do you know what carbon disulfide, hexane and methanol all have in common?
Green Lantern (off-panel): I do.
Panel of Green Lantern, holding Jim Gordon's squad car
Green Lantern: They're all flammable. Flash fact.

• • At which point, he hurls the car, everything explodes and the Flash keeps the flames from spreading by running in a circle.
• When Nekron rises, he uses the skull of Bruce Wayne to create a Black Lantern Batman. Don't shit yourself yet, the world is still alive... however, he uses the sight of it to create an emotional tether between him and heroes who were brought back from the dead, who he then kills with the word "DIE!". And then brings them back to life. The shot on the following pages is of Black Lantern Wonder Woman, Superboy, Kid Flash, Superman, Ice, Donna Troy, Animal Man and Green Arrow... with black rings heading towards Green Lantern and the Flash. Awesome.
  • No. No it isn't.
• Adventure Comics #7: Superboy defeats his Black Lantern incarnation from the inside through a mixture of willpower, anti-mind control training, and his own corpse. He also displays freeze breath, the last Superman power he had yet to show. That's right - Superboy can do everything Superman can.
• Blackest Night #7. It's finally revealed that the Guardians' big lie which Nekron, Scar, and Black Hand have been hinting at for the entire story, is that life started on Earth, not Oa. At this point, Sinestro's rage towards the Guardians and their lies goes out of control, and he stabs Ganthet with an spike construct. When Hal Jordan points out that the Life Entity is like the other emotional manifestations in that it needs someone to pilot it, Sinestro generates a massive yellow construct as himself in his Green Lantern uniform and knocks Jordan out of the way before flying to the entity himself.

Sinestro: NO! You had your chance with Parallax! This is my duty! This is why I am alive! I am alive to lead us out of the Blackest Night! I demand your POWER, ENTITY! AND I WILL FINALLY PROVE TO THE UNIVERSE... I AM THE GREATEST LANTERN OF THEM ALL!

• • White Lantern Ring: Thaal Sinestro of Korugar. Destiny awaits.
• Turns out that Atrocitus is so damn filled with rage, if you rip out his heart, he doesn't die. Or care.

"Atrocitus of Ryut. Ri-"
RAGE
Atrocitus' heartbeat continues until...
Atrocitus: "You THINGS may slaughter the other corps, but the Red Lanterns will not FALL so easily!"

• Did you ever think you'd be cheering for a Sinestro Corps member? Well their sniper, Bedovian, probably had people cheering when he fires DOVE, who is inside a Green Lantern bullet, through various panels of emotional spectrum energy, and using her charged white light, GOES THROUGH THE BLACK LANTERN ANTI-MONITOR'S HEAD!
• Shortly before that, Guy organizes hundreds of Lanterns from five corps to pull off a massive energy-net maneuver and take out hundreds of Black Lanterns at once. And then he tells Kyle he got the idea from Star Trek, even naming the exact episode it's from.
• In the aftermath, Kyle, Guy and Arisia telling off the Guardians for their idiocy in Green Lantern Corps #47.
  • Not to mention Arisia punches one of them in the face. Then Salaak tells the Guardians that, from here on out, he's going to be watching them closely so they don't let a disaster like Blackest Night happen again.
• The recently-widowed Ma Kent is alone on her farm with Krypto the Superdog. Black Lantern Lois Lane shows up and starts taunting and trying to kill Ma Kent. So what does Ma Kent do? She sets Black Lantern Lois on fire and then sics Krypto on her. She also figures out that the Black Lantern ring itself is the weak point and orders Krypto to tear it off... making them among (if not the very first) beings on the planet Earth to disable a Black Lantern. And then Krypto uses his heat vision to laser Black Lantern Lois to keep her away from the ring. And this is MA KENT--the sweet midwestern housewife--and Krypto the Superdog. This troper thinks that Ma Kent and Krypto need their own series now. Link, for awesomeness: http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/1117915.html
• The creative team of Adventure Comics #4 get one for successfully making Superboy-Prime into someone you can root for. How? By having Black Lantern Alexander Luthor, who's bypassed the fourth wall with his powers, simply beat him over the head with all the reasons the fans hate him! This troper wouldn't wish that on any fictional character. This issue also contains numerous Crowning Moments of Funny and, yes even Heartwarming.