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.