Terra-fying!

If nothing else, DC’s Blackest Night series has hammered home the point that the undead are disgusting. In the hands of a skilled artist like Ivan Reis or Rodolfo Migliari, who did the variant cover for BN #4, the Black Lanterns are some nasty, grotesque customers — and by nasty and grotesque, I mean awesome. It’s a tough assignment to make a character somewhat recognizable underneath all that rotting flesh, though a distinctive costume helps.

Of course, the art quality of the BN tie-ins has been all over the map. The images of Black Lantern Terra from The Outsiders #24 certainly haunted me, but for all the wrong reasons:

Really? A corpse rises from the dead with a perfectly preserved, golden Farrah flip? I know this is a nod to Terra’s signature ‘do from her New Teen Titans days, but the sight of that buttery coif on top of a decaying body was equal parts distracting (Did BL Terra get a weave?) and unintentionally hilarious. I can only assume that ROFL isn’t the reaction DC was going for with the unveiling of Black Lanterns. Then again, I have the photos to prove that ’80s hair can be terrifying in its own way.