Zombies with Power Rings

To be blunt, I have some mixed feelings about Blackest Night # 1.

On the one hand, I think the premise had a lot of promise - mixing space opera, essentially, with zombies. Everyone knew it was coming (hence the promo shot to the left) and no one could be surprised that it featured - hey, zombies. With power rings.

And story-wise, it was a pretty good release after the plethora of lead-in issues. We know about the War of Light, and the first few pages on Earth - Hal Jordan's ruminations on death, the fact that it happens on a day when a superhero died - and came back. There's a real strong sense of foreboding, some really good exposition....

...but the book takes itself a little too seriously.

For a comic that, in one panel, revives a character complete with bow tie, it tends to get a little too self-important. (I also agree with Mr. Sterling's Twitter sentiment) Maybe it's the fact that it is being released right after Final Crisis (and I may be burned out a little on multi-character arcs), but the book - although it's strongly written - has a few too many moments that are too overly dramatic and self important....as well as one incident of questionable taste, which I'll mask via Spoiler Space:

(Swipe for spoiler: I was a little taken aback with the "dead Ralph & Sue" portrayal, most especially Sue. Dead Elongated Man taunting Hawkman...seemed a little too much, but Sue's relative inactivity - given how she died in Identity Crisis - seemed in poor taste, IMHO).

But all in all, mixed feelings...enough to check out another issue or two and keep an open mind, but just.

After all, a series about zombies with power rings....should be much more enjoyable.