BLACKEST NIGHT RISE OF THE BLACK LANTERNS TP

Rise of the Black Lanterns is much like The Black Lantern Corps books: pure tie-in filler that further expands on the awesome Blackest Night event. If you don't want to read the filler, you don't have to; it isn't a necessary read to understand the main event but it is excellent none the less. This volume mostly focuses on members of the Justice League who get conscripted into the Black Lantern Corps based on their previous deaths and resurrections (Green Arrow and Superboy) as well as some characters who don't fit into the main arc like Catwoman and The Question. The Green Arrow and Catwoman arcs are the stand outs for me as the latter is once again faced with her arch-enemy Black Mask and Green Arrow is forced to watch his Black Lantern self attack and torture his loved ones. Overall a great collection although some of the C-List characters who show up aren't the most interesting.

For years, the Green Lantern titles have been on fire! The stories are great. Blackest Night is one of the best. The sense of dread and urgency was palpable. "Rise of the Black Lanterns" is required reading.

This isn't a book I would have normally purchased. Generally I avoid single issue tie-ins like the plague but I bought this one on a whim since I'm a fan of the DC western heroes. I thought it might be a neat to see Bat Lash come back from the dead. My expectations were set low for this collection so I'm pleased to say that many of the stories are actually quite decent. As a tie-in to Blackest Night it's completely unnecessary but it does add a new facet to the events. If you've read Blackest Night you'll know that the Black Rings not only raise the dead they are also capable of controlling any DC character who has ever died and returned which includes almost every member of the JLA. It wasn't mentioned in the core Blackest Night story but apparently the minds of the heroes (and sometimes villains), under the control of the Black Rings, are still fully active, essentially captive audiences to the events around them as their bodies physically attack and verbally assault their most cherished friends.The book starts off with a story by Geoff Johns featuring the Atom that was ok but I didn't understand the ending. This was followed by a Deadman tale that again didn't really make much of an impression on me. The first story in the collection that stood out for me was Green Arrow by J.T. Krul and Diogenes Neves. Black Lantern GA's cruelty as he attacks his closest friends and allies is acutely painful knowing that within the rotting husk the mind of Oliver Queen is able to perceive everything even as he has almost no ability to control what's going on. I haven't been much of a fan of GA mostly because I don't like the way he's generally written but I was rather impressed with the story here. The art is extremely sharp, bold and clean and good lord Black Canary's breasts are huge. Poor Canary must find it so difficult in hand to hand combat encumbered by those two mountainous protrusions. I would love to see more of Neves art (and no not just because of the way he drew Black Canary dimensions).The Superboy story was similar to the one with GA as the reader gets to see Conner Kent's horrified thoughts as his Black Ring controlled body assaults Wonder Girl and Krypto. I wasn't a fan of the rough art style in the Starman/Shade story but I was impressed by the writing of James Robinson in particular his ability to create compelling characters that feel more realistic than the often cookie cutter personalities in the DCU. The Questions story was rather forgettable including the sub par artwork. In that issue we discover a new weakness of the Black Rings (a weakness which seems rather unlikely) but this defect never carries over into the main storyline. Apparently it took four artists to produce the Catwoman story and it is pretty slick if uneven but the story is bland while at the same time being a bit more grotesque than I might prefer.It only took one artist and one writer to produce the Jonah Hex story but this one stands out if for nothing else than the villains are attacked by heroes. Simon Stagg (whose villainy is apparent even as he works with heroes) and Joshua Turnbull the great great grandson of Quentin Turnbull come into possession of one of the Black Rings and are beset upon by the DC Western heroes returned from the dead. Besides the awesomeness of getting Jonah Hex, Scalphunter, Bat Lash and Super-Chief this story also has the best ending of any of the stories. The final story in the collection sees the return of Osiris and Sobek who died during the 52 series. I think the writer misunderstood the directive in writing the tie-in because the undead Osiris is fully in control of his actions (I know there was an explanation but it makes no sense).I'm undecided as to whether or not I regret getting this collection. On the one hand the stories are repetitive with the dead rising and the heroes fighting against them and ultimately winning. It also makes the Black Lanterns look a bit weak by continually losing. On the other hand some of the stories and art are quite nice and it gave me the opportunity to sample some issues that would normally pass me by. I also got my brief but awesome appearance by Black Lantern Bat Lash. Fifteen dollars seems like a fair price for what you get here and you really don't want to miss Diogenes Neves' rendering of Black Canary.

There are a slew of companion TPBs for the Blackest Night event, some are more essential than others. This one is not so much essential, but more like icing on the cake. A little more detail about the Black Lanterns and a collection of short stories about them. If you want everything related to the Blackest Night then this is for you, but if you are prioritizing essential stories to save a bit more in your wallet, this one can be skipped.

This tie-in book turns out to be pretty fun to read. It might not be terribly important in order to understand the main book (Blackest Night) but it does carry a lot of tips of informarion that might be relevant for future books. For example Green Arrow. What the Black Lanterns do in order to get emotional responses from people close to them is spill out their most darkest secrets.This book give a good look to Green Arrow, Superboy, Shazam, Catwoman, The Question and some other minor characters.Like I said, this is a fun book, and most of the art is very good. At least way better than some of the chapters on Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps anyway.A piece of advice: if you wish to have only the main story then don't lose your time with this one. Is not important nor very relevant for the story. These are just backstories, so don't waste your money in vane. Get it only if you don't get enough of BN.

The Story was great. The only thing that I did not like about it was the way that it was layed out by DC in Graphic Novel format. I think such a great story deserves to be gathered into one or two giant volumes, not 7 smaller graphic novels. I found it confusing not being able to read through a whole book and then move on to the next one. For it to "flow" you have to read one or two stories from a book, then one or two stories from another book and then back to the original book...... I know there is probably no real way to make a perfect ordering of the books, but I believe it still could have been layed out better.

BLACKEST NIGHT, although it came a little too close to the "zombie" motif, which I detest, was nevertheless a superb and universe-spanning story that was largely the last major epic before "Flashpoint" and the end of the DC Universe as we knew it, leading into the abhorrent and repugnant "New 52". For fans of the TRUE DC Universe, there is only trade paperbacks and other reprints at this point. BLACKEST NIGHT is one of the more impressive. Definitely recommended!

Great stories. Touches on a little bit of everyone that was affected by the Black Lanterns. I'f you don't know the DC universe very well some of them can be a little hard to understand because every issue has different characters, but if you have a decent knowledge of it everything makes perfect sense. It's a great perspective for a lot of the minor heroes.

Blackest Night tie-ins that don’t affect the central story but adds layers and develops characters in a way that adds to their mythos nonetheless. Even these ‘lesser’ characters have time to shine in these tales that occur during the Blackest Night.

Good quality but cover on the edges was slightly bent . Overall great book for comic fans .