"I smell a mystery."
Where to begin...
RISE.
- The very concept of a Black Lantern. Imagine someone you cared for in life, loved or just plain hated comes back. Except it's not them, even though they have all the memories, knowledge and abilities of who they were in life. They're omnicidal husks who want to tear your heart out. Specifically, they want to feed on your feelings. And they will do anything and everything to get a rise out of you. It doesn't matter what emotion it is -you can be confident, hopeful, angry, fearful or even glad, and you're still screwed. And you join them. No, you can't kill them. You can't destroy them. With a few precise exceptions, they cannot be destroyed.Ring: (Person) of (Planet): RISE.
- To quote the series itself, "The rings are wearing the dead."
- Then there are the resurrected heroes, who end up becoming Black Lanterns while still fully aware and helpless, trapped in their own minds while the ring uses their bodies to emotionally and physically shatter their loved ones through Break Them by Talking before gruesome disembowelments. The worst part is that all the horrible things they say and do are based in truth— the ring brings out their darkest thoughts and deeds to use against the people they care about most.
Ring: (Person) of (Planet): DIE. - The resurrection of a recently-killed DC character widely known as one of the nicest guys around. Zombie Ralph Dibny's first appearance occurs when he caves in Hawkman's skull with his own mace and taunts Hawkgirl with "I smell a mystery". Chilling.
- In Blackest Night #4, Ray Palmer (the Atom) is trying to talk to Damage and Atom Smasher, who are related to the original Golden Age Atom (who all three are trying to fight). Just as Ray gets through to Damage about letting go of his past, Black Lantern Jean Loring rips out Damage's heart as it was filled with hope. I don't think we need to talk about what happened the last time Jean saw Ray.
- And this one is very meaningful to the storyline. Power Levels 100%. Oh, Crap!.
- Black Lantern Batman. And what he was used for... See Kick the Dog at the main page.
- Black Lantern Wonder Woman. Specifically, her lasso, which was turned into a garrote. Even worse is she's aware of what she's doing and can't stop herself from trying to murder her family and friends to the point she ends up begging someone to kill her to make her stop.
- Black Lantern Firestorm turning Gehenna, the girlfriend of the current Firestorm, into table salt and tearing her heart out slooowwwwwly in the process, while the current Firestorm was bonded with BL Firestorm the whole time. Oh, and Black Lantern Dr. Light finds the salt pillared Gehenna and LICKS her, telling the OTHER Dr. Light just how she tastes?? Yeah....
- Even worse is that Black Lantern Firestorm didn't know the formula for salt and the current Firestorm couldn't help but give it to him?
- Oh no, he knew. He just forced Jason to give it to him to torture him even more. It's one thing to kill the guy's girlfriend, but another to make him feel partially responsible for it.
- BL Firestorm, or Deathstorm as he later calls himself, is horrific all around. While most Black Lanterns are perfectly content being Manipulative Bastards, Deathstorm instead decides to screw around with his targets. As mentioned above, he forces the living Firestorm into an And I Must Scream state, forcing him to kill his girlfriend. While the majority of Black Lanterns are truly emotionless, it's pretty clear that Deathstorm's a sadist. He's still darkly entertaining, making it all the worse.
- Black Mask coming back as a Black Lantern in the Catwoman tie-in issue. In death, he's somehow even worse.
- The same applies to the first Doctor Light coming back as a Black Lantern in the Justice League of America tie-in issues. Not only is he the same old monstrous rapist he was in life, but he's become a nearly unkillable monster as well. He delivers a particularly horrible "Reason You Suck" Speech to the new Doctor Light while attempting to strip and rape her before killing her and promises to do the same to her children.
- Black Lantern Hank Hall rips out Hawk's heart in front of her sister Dove, then turns on her. What's even worse, once Hank is returned to life, they team up like it NEVER EVEN HAPPENED.
- Dove does at least understand that it wasn't Hank's fault that the Black Lantern killed her sister. It took most of Brightest Day for Jason to realize the same about Ronnie.
- In the Teen Titans crossover, featuring the Deathstroke family, Deathstroke is forced to confront all his mistakes in the forms of two dead Ravagers, plus Jericho's mom and Wintergreen, the last being his loyal friend that he killed while being possessed by his son Jericho. Wade is wandering around with a huge hole in his skull, which he got by Rose shooting him after Deathstroke hired him to try and kill her, just so he could reconnect with his daughter and point her down the path of becoming the new Ravager. At one point his kids show up, which just makes it worse by showing them as a sick little family.
- Donna's baby as a Black Lantern. Whom she later tries to kill again by crushing his skull with her bare hands because she thinks it's the only way to stop him. Just, dear God, that look on her face as the blood splatters on her cheek. And it didn't work. Not to mention her dead husband Terry mocking her about her Parental Neglect and poor mothering skills that led to both their deaths. Suffice to say the whole scenario permanently traumatized Donna.
- Black Lantern Psycho-Pirate using his powers to Mind Rape all of Smallville.
- The complete and utter nonchalance with which Black Lantern Ted Kord kills people. Small wonder Booster's deeply insulted and disgusted by the thing: it takes the remains and memory of his best friend and turns them into an abomination that keeps parroting jokes between murders.
