Blackest Night

I'd been looking forward to this one for a long time. There seems to be near universal agreement that Blackest Night was a rousing success but is it immune to criticism? Nah. As `Big Events' go I actually enjoyed Geoff Johns other effort `Infinite Crisis' better and even the `Sinestro Wars' ranks higher in my estimation (not that coming up behind those two achievements is any shame). The main issue for me is with the pacing. The book opens on `Heroes Day' where all the deceased heroes are being honored for their ultimate sacrifice. Meanwhile, Barry Allen, having recently returned during the events of Final Crisis, is just now being told about all his acquaintances that have died in the last couple of decades. And oh sweet irony; it's on this day when the Black Lanterns launch their assault using an army of dead in order to conquer the universe. They select anyone with any tangential relationship to the heroes of Earth. Deceased wives, friends, villains you name it are rising from their graves with super powers (if they have any) intact. From this point on the series is one long struggle against the Black Lantern Corps. As if things couldn't get any worse when a hero dies he of she becomes available as a new footsoldier in Black Lantern Corps.As I said my main issue is with the pacing of the story. There is little in the way of buildup and then it's just one long battle of an indefinite amount of time. It might have been as little as several hours or possibly as long as a day but I can't imagine much more. There is pretty much no downtime; it's just go go go until the conclusion. Battles rage all over the planet (and in tie-ins galore) but the focus of this story is Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, The Atom and Aquaman's wife Mera. The fun of the series, if it can be called that, is seeing popular and obscure DC characters rising from the dead to battle the living but these aren't just mindless zombies. The Black Lantern rings are able to use the memories of the deceased to verbally assault their prey along with the obvious physical attacks. The goal is to elicit responses from the entire emotional spectrum (hate, empathy, love, avarice etc) and use these emotions to power up the Black Lantern Corps. Once the Corps reaches 100%, well, I certainly won't spoil that here. The Black Lanterns taunt the living in the cruelest ways possible and it's here that Geoff Johns is probably most successful. There are a lot of hearts being pulled from chests and one particular death that is probably the most sickening I have ever seen in a comic and this was a character I had never heard before. In the director's commentary Geoff Johns wrote, "This was the hardest death scene I ever wrote". It was particularly hard for me to read for reasons I won't get into.This is a story that will leave an impression. The art is spectacular and the dialogue is hard hitting, particularly the cruelty of the undead heroes. I just wish the reader could have been eased into the story slower and then given some rest periods once the battle kicked in. The main problem might be that the stories can't be presented chronologically. This book contains just the stories from the core Blackest Night mini series while another book contains the stories from the Green Lantern series and another the Green Lantern Corps series and another the tie-in stories with several books by James Robinson and Peter Tomasi. If you only read this book you are missing the lead up and the back stories. Here it's just a steady battle with little in the way of a crescendo (or perhaps too many crescendo's) and then the end.To really enjoy The Blackest Night you need to invest in at least a few of the other books and that's a shame because it means that spending more money is practically mandatory. With all that being said The Blackest Night is a huge comic event and should be in every DC fans collection. If you have the time and money you should at least get the other Geoff Johns Blackest Night books to fill in the details. Infinite Crisis was a 5, Sinestro Wars was a 4 ½ and this one I'm giving a 4. Not to imply that Geoff Johns is losing it. I actually loved the book `Agent Orange' and gave it 5 stars. I just think there is enough room for improvement here that I can't justify the full 5 stars.

The Blackest Night saga is probably one of the most epic & intense DC Universe books I've read. The implications from this event has irrevocably changed reality as it was known, and it fundamentally showed how each aspect of light is essential for the essence of life in the known universe to exist. While the story begins and ends in this book, other volumes cross-over & delve deeper into the side stories. This book serves as a primer for Blackest Night, and collects Blackest Night #0-8. While the saga is understood with this book, the other volumes aren't needed to understand what's going on. This book changed the DC Universe forever for me. This is a must-read for any Green Lantern fan. Two thumbs up!

Blackest Night is the third part in a trilogy that also consists of Green Lantern: Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War. It is much like the Lord of the Ring trilogy, with the scale and quality increasing with each installment; Blackest Night would be Return of the King. That being said, it is not necessary to read Rebirth and SCW before coming into this, but it is highly recommended to fully understand and enjoy the story.The story itself reads great with Green Lantern: Blackest Night, I read them both together, going back and fourth between them and it really read like one epic story that was entirely self-contained; there were snippets of what else was going on in the big crossover but none of it seemed necessary to the main story.At the beginning of the story, the different Corps are still warring with each other but slowly but surely, they discover the new threat by the Black Lantern Corps is too dire to face alone, so they have to form an alliance. It really reads like a Star Wars story with the intergalactic fighting and alliances. The alliance is uneasy, Sinestro hates the Green Lantern Corps, as does Attrocitus' Red Lantern Corps, while you have Larfleeze only looking out for himself, being the incarnation of avarice with his Orange Lantern Corps.Meanwhile, back on Earth, a second story is going on with the Atom, Mera (Aquman's wife) and the Flash. On Earth, every dead superhero and villain are coming back to life in the form of Black Lanterns and they wreak havoc, desecrating the memories of those who loved them. Atom, Mera and Flash basically have to hold off all of the dead Black Lanterns while the Green Lantern Corps deals with shutting down their source. It's interesting to note that this story lacks DC's Trinity (Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman) and the aforementioned heroes take their place as the main heroes on Earth. It's a breath of fresh air to not have the Trinity at the center of everything.That is the essential premise of the story, it's full amazing splash pages and cool moments. There's an awesome fight between Mongul and Sinestro, tons of great moments with Larfleeze, Scarecrow joins the Sinestro Corps, we see Parallax again, Black Lantern Batman makes a brief but eery appearance, and the big reveal at end about what's buried underneath the Earth explains why Earth is always at the center of everything in the DCU. Johns' even goes as far as to say each emotion has its origins on Earth.The art is quite simply astounding, Ivan Reis knocks it out the park with each splash page; he draws so many characters and his range is amazing. Anyone who's been following on his run on Green Lantern or read Rann/Thanagar War knows the quality of an artist he is, and he surpasses all of that. I highly recommend Blackest Night.

I wanted to read Blackest Night because I have an uncommon soft spot for DC's big crossover events and I had heard this was a good one. In that I was not disappointed.Blackest Night is, as the cover would suggest, very much a Green Lantern story, despite the involvement of a huge cast of characters from across the DCU. Personally, I've never really been into the Lantern Corps stories so the lore was mostly new to me. Kudos must be given to Geoff Johns for presenting such dense lore in an easily understood way without being reductive or hurting the story.The premise here is basically that the Black Lantern corps, who are fuelled by death, are trying to kill everything in the universe and are recruiting dead heroes and villains to aid them in that goal. As with all crossover events, the deeper your knowledge of the DCU continuity, the more value you'll get from Blackest Night, with numerous references to other stories and some relatively minor characters given important roles in the story. That said, the central thread of the plot is easier to follow and I found it enjoyable. I also enjoyed the colourful and detailed artwork.Unfortunately and again, as with all crossover events, the greatest detractor from the story is the pacing, as the story moves at breakneck pace in order to give as much of the huge cast as possible something relevant to do. I also found it odd how some major players in the DCU barely make an appearance. It's good that not all stories revolve around the same characters time and again but it's strange to see huge figures like Superman and Wonder Woman almost anonymous in the story, seemingly only present to add raw power to proceedings.Overall, I enjoyed Blackest Night. It's one of the better crossovers I've read, with some great moments, both small and big, and a plot that holds together despite its many strings. Worth the price of admission.

This is what Green Lantern has been leading to since writer Geoff Johns first revitalised/brought back former fan favourite Hal Jordan!All too often these types of stories have a great "shadowing"/ lead up - but have little pay off, I thought that Geoff Johns successfully avoided this trap as each chapter ramps up the action.Although this is a Green Lantern cross over, this is really a DC Universe event - with many other heroes & villains caught up in events when the Black Rings begin falling & the dead arise!This unfortunately marked the end of my ongoing collection, as I've been fed up with the constant tales of heroes & villains returning from the dead, but at least here there is some explanation for this in the DC Universe as such resurrected heroes as Superman, Wonder Woman & Green Arrow are soon possessed by the Black Rings as well.What a great bookend & the end of the DC saga for me,( I still collect the "old" stories though, to back fill my library).So this one really does have it all - zombie heroes & villains, most of the DC cast, personal events & army like battles & outstanding art work which is always a joy to look at, as is it makes me feel that I can enjoy the book twice, having read it & then looking back at the action panels.A must buy recommendation!Cheers

I am quite new to green lantern and this was my first full graphic novel that I read about him. I found it a bit confusing at times but with Google by my side to look up things that had happened within dc books, GL storylines prior to this and characters I didn't know this was a very enjoyable book. Amazing art and constant surprises within the story to keep you engaged. My only criticism is that id heard this was great but assumed this would stand on it's own (which I guess it does) but it must help to read stuff before this. Also I found it slow and repetitive at moments.Overall definitely worth a read!

I've always had a bit of a soft-spot for GL, and always thought that he's been criminally under-used by DC in the last 10-or-so years. So, this book then - I could spend the next fifteen minutes writing and gushing about this collection of comics - I could say how Geoff Johns has literally picked me up by the scruff of my neck and smacked me round the face with what he's had the balls to do to the DC universe with this storyline. I could also rave about Ivan Reis' pencils, and about how, when you see the first two-page spread you think 'That is possibly the most awesome panel I have ever seen in all the comics I've read', you are then taken aback when, seven pages later, you say EXACTLY the same thing again, then again, and again!!!!The obligatory cover collection in the back is also there, along with some artwork and possibly the best bit - the 'directors commentary' - where Geoff, Ivan and the letterer (can't remember his name, and my hardback is now with the fourth person I've lent it to!) go over their favorite bits, in order. Top-tip - BUY THE HARDCOVER. This collection deserves nothing less.Johns has spectacularly repositioned GL as one of DC's main characters through this piece of work, and what a bloody great job he's done of it, too. Welcome back, Hal Jordan!

Geoff John's always manages to present great, bold, succinct characterizations of often well known characters, and this story gives that in spades. while featuring some of his common favourites there are a few different and sometimes obscure characters but Johns manages to present them so well you become attached quickly. Reis brings strong, defined cinematic artwork, which is perfectly suited the story, balancing emotion and action with appropriately placed eye popping splashes. The story does a great job of wrapping dark goth tones to a galaxy wide superhero event.The only problems with this issue is sometimes it becomes a bit too blockbuster with the amount of colours on page becoming a bit painful to look at, and the story feeling a bit squashed in. Also for people unfamiliar with the characters and comics history attached it may become bewildering as some of the story heavily involves past character threads and plots. These are all explained within the book but sometimes a bit difficult to understand and may then lack the desired emotional impact.Overall an exciting and interesting character filled, horror tinted adventure!