Product Description
Comics hottest writer Geoff Johns (GREEN LANTERN: SINESTRO CORPS WAR, THE FLASH, ACTION COMICS, JSA) and superstar artist Doug Mahnke (JLA, BATMAN, SUPERMAN) raise the dead in this must-read tie-in to the most anticipated comics event of the year, BLACKEST NIGHT. This hardcover collection starring Hal Jordan expands on the War of the Light as the evil Black Lanterns descend on all of the Corps throughout the universe, explains villain Black Hand’s connection to dea… More >>
$14.98
Green Lantern: Blackest Night
I love Geoff Johns’ work on Green Lantern, he really understands the character and is a master of storytelling. My three stars is for the fact that this series is based on consecutive issues of the GL series, however the story itself is culled from the other various spinoffs that Blackest Night was told in. Each chapter begins recapping events that have NOT been told in this hardcover series. Why can’t they just have a series of hardcovers in chronological, or at least sequential order, that tells the whole story. Sinestro Corps War was the perfect example of that. Once Wonder Woman showed up toward the end of the book as a Star Sapphire, I was lost.
Get a grip DC, you should know better than this. Don’t try to milk us for more money and weave this story among too many titles just to get us to buy it. I’m glad I am buying from amazon at a discounted price, otherwise I would never pay these high cover prices for an editing job my 15 month niece could have done.
Rating: 3 / 5
As a long time DC fan, it has been an absolute joy to follow Geoff Johns’s work with Hal Jordan / Green Lantern. Like the best creative minds, Johns has succeeded in taking the core of a myth — will made manifest in green light, an intergalactic police force, old loves and enemies, what it means to be frearless — and stretch the boundaries of the core to unexpected, but not too unfamiliar territories.
Blackest Night expands on an already expanded Green Lantern mythos. The green light of will actually coexists with the other sentient emotions in the universe; red for rage, orange for avarice, yellow for fear, blue for hope, indigo for compassion, and violet for love. And as emotions do, they go to war with each other through their various lantern corps for control and dominance. In the midst of the war, emotionlessness, the black emerges to restore the universe into its original lifeless and lightless state. It then falls to Hal Jordan to rally his worst enemies (Sinestro, Atrocitus) and his best friends (Barry Allen) to go all out, restore the light and defeat the black.
In comic book form, Johns has succeeded in
(1) recasting the entire DC universe for the next 10+ years (no one in the DC pantheon has been spared)
(2) touching on numerous philosophical traditions
(3) delving into the nature of the superhero
(4) giving death and life their due
(5) throwing the mundane and the divine at the reader in a form as “juvenile” as a comic book
Suffice to say that there are too many revelations to mention here (deputy lanterns, shattered batteries, Spectre’s fears, the stench of orange). Much more fun to just buy all of the TPB’s, some brews and pizzas, and enjoy through a weekend. The mainstream comic book artform does not get any better than this.
Rating: 5 / 5
If you’re getting “Blackest Night,” this should be a must-have collection as well as it enhances the experience with the focus on Hal Jordan and the heads of the various Lantern Corps. Dough Mahnke is a great choice for pencils, giving his raw edge to the amazing battles while Geoff Johns supplies his usual ability to make you care for these characters, even the “bad guys” like Sinestro and Atrocitus. Among the highlights:
*Hal and Barry Allen face off against Black Lantern Martian Manhunter.
*Larfleeze’s hysterical self-absorbed dialouge providing some nice comic relief.
*Hal and ex-girlfriend Carol Ferris tangling with Sinestro.
*Sinestro finally facing off against upstart Mongul.
*John Stewart coming to grips with his failure to save a planet long ago when the entire population targets him.
*Sinestro facing the Black Lanterns of old friend Abin Sur and his former love.
*The arrival of the mysterious Indigo Tribe.
*Hal once more becoming Parallax in order to take on the Black Lantern Spectre.
The power of these battles is amazing but the push is the character moments with Hal and Carol talking their unique relationship while Sinestro continues to shine as a man who could have been a true hero had things gone another way but getting his chance here. Overall, if you want the full “BL” experience, add this to the collection as well as it showcases Green Lantern and comics in general, at their utter best.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is Geoff Johns Masterwork in my opinion. Please do yourself a favor and read this book. But if you really want to “get it”, start at Green Lantern: Rebirth and work your way to it. Then read BOTH Black Night and Black Night: Green Lantern side by side. There are many layers to this story, all great and worth your time. This made up for the disaster that was Final Crisis and even used a nice literary eraser to make up for some of the mis-steps that were in that “event”.
Rating: 5 / 5
The “Blackest Night” storyline shares many similarities with Marvel Comics’ “Secret Invasion” from 2008. Both stories grew out of a popular, re-launched franchise and said franchise continued to tie-in and support the main mini-series once underway. Whereas “Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps” focused on the Battle for Oa, “Blackest Night: Green Lantern” focused upon the War of Light and the perspective of the other Corps during this zombie apocalypse.
The book collects Green Lantern# 43-52 and opens with a look at the origin of key antagonist Black Hand. Similar to the Rogue Profiles that marked Geoff Johns’ original tenure on the Flash, the story picks up on elements introduced in “Green Lantern: Secret Origin” and leads directly into the opening pages of “Blackest Night”. From here, we delve full on into the War of Light and the action picks up where “Green Lantern: Agent Orange” left off. It is essential to read this in tandem with the main “Blackest Night” book because it weaves in and out of the main narrative. Story beats shown only briefly in “Blackest Night” get a full showcase here, from Hal Jordan and Barry Allen’s fight with the Black Lantern Martian Manhunter to the quest to unite the 7 Corps against the Black Lanterns.
As the architect of the event, Geoff Johns ties this book to the main narrative, bringing a number of long-running subplots to a head while setting the stage for 2010′s stories. Doug Mahnke offers a fantastic take on the Black Lanterns and this epic fight for survival.
Rating: 5 / 5