Conspicuous by their absence in Blackest Night

[Rich Lane]

Where are the New Gods?  I don't recall seeing a single one of them resurrected as a zombie, and you'd think Nekron would love to have a zombie Darkseid and a zombie Orion fighting side-by-side for him.  Has there been an in-story reason why they're absent that I've missed? 

I'm beginning to wonder if they'll pop up at the end of the story in some sort of deus ex machina role.

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

Honestly, I hadn't missed them. I'm not a Fourth World fan.

But just imagine the millions, if not billions, of parademon Black Lanterns!

[Figserello]

At the end of Final Crisis, the New Gods were subtly shown to be alive again and granted refuge in some new world, away from the DCU mainstream. They are 'resting', as actors would say...

Can Gods die in the first place? As kind of avatars of human drives and impulses, the story showed that they hadn't really died anyway. For instance, Most Excellent Superbat and friends all embodied the Tomorrow People and it was implied that Batman embodied Orion's struggle against the evil father Darkseid, - it was Orion as much as Batman who fatally wounded Darkseid. A headache for the literal-minded I know...

Out of story, of course, (which you didn't ask for, so forgive my ramble) the cack-handed management and over-exposure of them in the run up to Final Crisis probably contributed to their absence. The New Gods are a big deal in the mighty Kirby manner, and I'm sure Johns was glad not to have them grandstanding around when he wanted to keep the spotlight on Green Superjock and pals, who aren't Kirby creations.

As it's a Green Lantern story, Hal would have had to save their nigh-omnipotent asses by the end, and that would have considerably diminished their status as so-called Gods. The DCU is full of superheroes and it's a good idea to keep the New Gods as something a notch or two above them.

[ClarkKent_DC]

The New Gods are dead? When did that happen?

[The Baron]

ClarkKent_DC said:

The New Gods are dead? When did that happen?

I'm guessing it was in the Death of the New Gods series that came out before Final Crisis.

[Figserello]

They got better.

[Rich Lane]

But then they died again the next month.

Figserello said:

They got better.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

As it's a Green Lantern story, Hal would have had to save their nigh-omnipotent asses by the end, and that would have considerably diminished their status as so-called Gods. The DCU is full of superheroes and it's a good idea to keep the New Gods as something a notch or two above them.

Didn't that already happen by all of the previous times they've had their asses handed to them, or appeared generally useless?

[Figserello]

Travis Herrick said:

As it's a Green Lantern story, Hal would have had to save their nigh-omnipotent asses by the end, and that would have considerably diminished their status as so-called Gods. The DCU is full of superheroes and it's a good idea to keep the New Gods as something a notch or two above them.

Didn't that already happen by all of the previous times they've had their asses handed to them, or appeared generally useless?

Exactly.

But at the end of the day, it takes very disciplined writers and editors to present New Gods as gods.

So they will return one day in spandex, to get their asses whupped again.

[Randy Jackson]

I'm not missing them.

[Figserello]

Or you could say they all died when DC cancelled their original series and what we have seen since was their black-ring animated corpses shambling around in an offense to their memory...