Re: The Book of Black Lantern (Ronnie Raymond) (VOTE On Deck
I mean, I think it's pretty telling you used art from the Brightest Day version of the character on the card.
Deathstorm is pretty clearly the same entity as Black Lantern Ronnie Raymond. They call him Black Lantern Firestorm before he edgily renames himself, he has the exact same personality, and one of his goals is to create more Black Lanterns. It's the same dude in basically the same outfit doing the same things.
I think one of the mistakes we're making is assuming that Black Lanterns are exactly the same person as the body they're animating. If I remember correctly, it's stated pretty clearly that the Black Lantern rings don't actually make people into zombies. Instead, the ring creates a copy personality, with all the memories, knowledge, and traits of the original individual, but y'know...eviler, and that personality takes control of the body. (This is why Deadman can still be a ghost while his body is walking around.) So Black Lantern Ronnie Raymond is never truly Ronnie Raymond at all, but both we and DC usually treat him like he is because it's simpler. Deathstorm is the BL RR personality, having found a way to survive after Blackest Night because Firestorm Matrix or whatever.
However, Ronin has stated pretty clearly from the beginning that he wants this to be specifically the Blackest Night version of the character, and that seems perfectly acceptable to me. We're allowed to do cards for specific periods of time for characters, and this is a card for the time that he was Black Lantern Ronnie Raymond, pre-Deathstorm.
An alt card would be a nice thing to have, since a Deathstorm card is likely never to happen otherwise. But also it's not really essential? I think encouraging people to break the rules and play this guy as Deathstorm or with Firestorm is healthy.
You have my
Yea either way. Cool design.