Blackest Night

Green Lantern Corps 27-38

Peter Tomasi proves himself to be a worthy successor to Dave Gibbons.  He didn’t create Kryb, but he’s the one who builds enough on her character to make her truly creepy.

Even creepier now that I have a baby.

Tomasi ratchets up the tension as each new Law of Oa further breaks down the moral foundation of the Corps bit by bit. 

Beautiful and chilling depiction of all the paired Lantern resignations.

And with the Emerald Eclipse arc, he adds to the list of satisfying action set pieces in the title with the sciencell breakout, invasion of the Red Lanterns, and destruction of the Central Battery shell.

Some other things of note:

In my head, the words "diplomatic mission to" should always be followed by "Alderaan."

Lantern fetus construct!!!

I have no words.

Patrick Gleason couldn't have drawn a creepier face.

Heading into Blackest Night, this is still the superior GL title.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Green Lantern 39-43

I like Geoff Johns’ concept for the orange lantern; instead of a sustaining physical corps, it generates a virtual one comprised of the victims the sole living Lantern’s killed.  A fun little twist for the color of avarice.  

There's no way Geoff Johns wasn't thinking Finding Nemo, right?

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Blackest Night 0-4

Green Lantern 44-47

Green Lantern Corps 39-41

Cons: It’s zombies, and it’s really hard to make zombies interesting.  Blackest Night falls into the massive crossover trap where the main title can’t possibly cover all the interesting bits, while still burdening the reader with a bunch of dead weight spinoffs.  

Pros: The GL titles are still lots of fun.  There’s a very GI Joe-MASS Device feel to the “Collect one of each color Lantern” quest that I dig, and GLC continues to entertain in a cosmic grand melee kind of way.

Hard not to see this coming, but the execution by Doug Mahnke still had me laughing.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice for Blackest Night, Pretty good for the GL titles

Blackest Night: Superman 1-3

Blackest Night: Batman 1-3

Blackest Night: Titans 1-3

The worst kind of useless filler.  I’m so sick of the “hero faces their fears when confronted by dead friends/family but fight through their emotions to prevail” plot, especially when they’re done so by-the-numbers in these three titles.  I expect better from James Robinson (Superman) and Peter Tomasi (Batman), and I’m surprised that it’s the JT Krul-written Titans that I might keep around.  Not that it’s much better, but the Dove story might actually mean something to the main title.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Boring  (Cutting Superman and Batman, Titans will depend on how Blackest Night turns out.)

Oh, I also saw an ad for this- Lee Garbett did Batgirl???  I need to check this out.

Sinestro Corps War, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps

Sinestro Corps Special 1

Green Lantern 21-25

Green Lantern Corps 14-18

Superman-Prime 1

The Sinestro Corps War!  This is as good as I remembered, especially the Battle of Mogo that ran through the GLC issues.  Dave Gibbons and Patrick Gleason are a spectacular team, and this was their last hurrah on the title.  The whole thing feels special-event-worthy in a way that few comic events do anymore - Every issue serves a purpose without feeling like filler, and taken as a whole, tells the whole story without relying on any crossover issues.  (Superman-Prime being the forgivable exception.)    

This is why I went back and bought the beginning of the runs of these two titles.  When this story came to an end, I wanted more.  I’ll let the art make the rest of my argument.

I mean.  Dude.  Seriously.

So many splashes in this story.  So fun.

Nice shadows on his face.  Very Tony Harris.

Great setup for an epic showdown.

So.  Many.  Splashes.

It's like the end of a Marvel movie, but feels a lot more meaningful.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good for GLC and the Sinestro Special, Pretty good for GL, Nice for Superman-Prime

Green Lantern 26-35

Mostly filler to get to Rage of the Red Lanterns.  The Secret Origins arc rehashes a bunch of scenes Geoff Johns has already given to us in flashbacks.  Its primary purpose is to introduce us to Atrocitus.  

The colors by Dave McCaig are beautiful on this set of covers.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Rage of the Red Lantern 1

Green Lantern 36-38

Geoff Johns inches closer and closer to Blackest Night with the introduction of the Red and Blue Lanterns.  The oaths are getting a little forced, but he’s got some neat ideas - The blue rings boosts green rings, but don’t work w/out one in close proximity, for example.  Things are ramping up nicely, but let’s see what’s been going on in GLC…

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Green Lantern Corps 19-26

Peter Tomasi takes over for the amazing Dave Gibbons, and does a pretty good job of maintaining the awesomeness.  Yellow-ringed Mongul is a worthy threat for a team of Green Lanterns, and Gleason draws an amazing Mercy planet, rendering a hellish landscape with a ring of dead bodies.  This is a fun arc, and Tomasi accomplishes the improbable by making me feel sad about the death of a fly. No joke.

Guest artist Nelson is a total Tom Grummett clone.

Love Grummett.

Heh, love snoozing Guy getting dragged along.

Kyle's freezer reference threw me for a loop.  Apparently DC felt the same way, they changed it in the reprint.

This got a sniffle out of me.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps

Green Lantern: Rebirth 1-6

Here we go, the start of Geoff Johns’ epic GL run.  Taken in conjunction with Green Lantern Corps (which he didn’t write beyond the Recharge miniseries), it’s completely mindblowing in its ambition, starting with the resurrection and redemption of Hal Jordan, the return of the Corps, the introduction of the Sinestro Corps, the revelation of an entire spectrum of ringed corps, then deciding that wasn’t enough and adding black and white rings on top of it all.  I remember it all being batshit crazy and wonderful, and it all begins with this mini-series.

I love the Parallax retcon, explaining both Jordan’s original heel turn and the reason behind the green rings’ seemingly ridiculous weakness to yellow, a decades-old contrivance that never made sense to me.  Everything Johns proposes works for me, and the beautiful art really helps to sell it.  

I love how he draws Stewart's energy signature.

You can always count on a well-timed GL oath recitation

Johns’ description of each Lantern’s powers as an extension of their personalities is evocative and a great piece of character work.  And it looks great.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

Green Lantern Secret Files 2005

Darwyn Cooke drawing a nice little Rule of Threes story by Johns is an automatic win in my book.

Cooke is magic.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Really good

Green Lantern 1-20

Not bad at all, but as with his Flash run, Johns can’t quite make the main character as interesting to me as his supporting cast.  The various personalities over in GLC make for a much more entertaining read than the main title here, but that doesn’t diminish some really fun plotting.

Grotesquely beautiful

Petty Batman is the best Batman.

The first appearance of the yellow ring, with its twist on the traditional summons, gives me chills:

So good.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good, Nice by the end.

Green Lantern Corps: Recharge 1-5
Green Lantern Corps 1-13

I always forget that Dave Gibbons isn’t just the legendary artist of Watchmen; he’s a writer too, and a damn good one, as these issues just reminded me.  Recharge is a glorious action movie with humor and a touch of mystery, and the act three set piece is frankly better than most MCU final battles.  

What'd I say about the oath?

Patrick Gleason is the perfect artist for this cosmic title, mixing gritty energy with the spectacle of multiple alien worlds.

The GLC is often characterized as a galactic police force, and Gibbons adroitly accomplishes the same thing as Greg Rucka and Ed Brubraker on Gotham Central - He juggles a massive ensemble cast where each member of the squad feels like a fully-realized character who could easily drive a story arc on their own.  It’s no small feat, and it’s partly why I like this series better than Green Lantern. 

Up next is the Sinestro Corps War, and I can’t wait.  In fact, that crossover was my introduction to these two titles; the name alone was fairly exploding with possibility when I first heard it, and I couldn’t resist.  It’s because of the awesomeness of the upcoming issues that I originally went back and bought all of the issues that I reviewed today.  (First time around, I stopped after Rebirth.  Like I said, Hal Jordan didn’t do it for me.)

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good for Recharge, Pretty good for the rest