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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Here it is! The culmination of almost 14 volumes of Green Lantern comics! How is it??
It's uh...its good. Yeah pretty good.
*sigh* ok Let's start with the good stuff.
Death in superhero comics is something most writers want you to forget ever happened. When a superhero "dies" its mostly because the company needs some quick cash, and think shock value is the only way to do so. Then the character is resurrected in some obtuse way and the story is swept under rug. Johns defies that approach by highlighting every one of those deaths and says "No, every time someone dies, it matters. Even if they come back." How does he do that? Every single character who's died, even if they've come back to life, becomes a zombified puppet for the new big bad, Nekron, and his Black Lantern Corp. Meaning our B-list heroes don't just have to contend with all the dead people sprouting up like weeds, they have to fight characters like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman, some of the most powerful heroes in DC's pantheon. It's not just a great use of continuity, it takes a terrible trope in superhero stories and uses it to make a great action horror story. Emphasis on the action because there isn't much here beyond that.
The first couple scenes of people's loved ones coming back and ripping their hearts out (both literally and metaphorically) are pretty shocking. But like most movie monsters, the more you see them, the less scary they are, and I think Johns knows this because eventually the book shifts from being a survival-horror story to being an action book with people shooting lots of rainbow colored laser beams at each other.
A large chunk of the story seems to be missing too. A major plot point is the heroes learning that all the different colored lantern corps have to stop fighting and work together if they want to stand a chance against the Black Lanterns, but those peace negotiations happen *entirely* off panel. Apparently that part of the story happens in an entirely different book! And after doing some digging I found that if you want to read Blackest Night in its entirety, you have to buy not 1. Not 2. Not even 3. But *7 different volumes of books*. That's asking for a lot of money from your readers and if I didn't have these books already through my DC Universe subscription I don't think I'd buy them. I don't think I'd trust DC enough not to pull the same trick twice when I buy one of the other books. If you can't tell, this really wrecked my engagement with the story and I'm surprised there still isn't an omnibus available after all these years to help rectify this problem.
So after all the hype and build-up, was it worth it? Yes and no. Blackest Night is a really good desert, but it's not the meal I was hoping for. The action and use of a trope in superhero stories that still haunts the genre is great, but all of the meaty character moments and political negotiations I was hoping for are in another book. The moment I realized that, it took me out of the story and I never really clicked with it again. Blackest Night highlights that death isn't the only harmful thing in the comics industry, greed and scummy business tactics are too. I envy the people who still have fun with this event because I don't think I'll be re-reading it any time soon.
It's uh...its good. Yeah pretty good.
*sigh* ok Let's start with the good stuff.
Death in superhero comics is something most writers want you to forget ever happened. When a superhero "dies" its mostly because the company needs some quick cash, and think shock value is the only way to do so. Then the character is resurrected in some obtuse way and the story is swept under rug. Johns defies that approach by highlighting every one of those deaths and says "No, every time someone dies, it matters. Even if they come back." How does he do that? Every single character who's died, even if they've come back to life, becomes a zombified puppet for the new big bad, Nekron, and his Black Lantern Corp. Meaning our B-list heroes don't just have to contend with all the dead people sprouting up like weeds, they have to fight characters like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman, some of the most powerful heroes in DC's pantheon. It's not just a great use of continuity, it takes a terrible trope in superhero stories and uses it to make a great action horror story. Emphasis on the action because there isn't much here beyond that.
The first couple scenes of people's loved ones coming back and ripping their hearts out (both literally and metaphorically) are pretty shocking. But like most movie monsters, the more you see them, the less scary they are, and I think Johns knows this because eventually the book shifts from being a survival-horror story to being an action book with people shooting lots of rainbow colored laser beams at each other.
A large chunk of the story seems to be missing too. A major plot point is the heroes learning that all the different colored lantern corps have to stop fighting and work together if they want to stand a chance against the Black Lanterns, but those peace negotiations happen *entirely* off panel. Apparently that part of the story happens in an entirely different book! And after doing some digging I found that if you want to read Blackest Night in its entirety, you have to buy not 1. Not 2. Not even 3. But *7 different volumes of books*. That's asking for a lot of money from your readers and if I didn't have these books already through my DC Universe subscription I don't think I'd buy them. I don't think I'd trust DC enough not to pull the same trick twice when I buy one of the other books. If you can't tell, this really wrecked my engagement with the story and I'm surprised there still isn't an omnibus available after all these years to help rectify this problem.
So after all the hype and build-up, was it worth it? Yes and no. Blackest Night is a really good desert, but it's not the meal I was hoping for. The action and use of a trope in superhero stories that still haunts the genre is great, but all of the meaty character moments and political negotiations I was hoping for are in another book. The moment I realized that, it took me out of the story and I never really clicked with it again. Blackest Night highlights that death isn't the only harmful thing in the comics industry, greed and scummy business tactics are too. I envy the people who still have fun with this event because I don't think I'll be re-reading it any time soon.
This book really did not pull all the strings together for me as I was hoping. Lots of stuff happening (lots of really cool stuff too) but it just wasn't built up very much. It tells the tale of the rise of the black lanterns which you only see get murdered over and over, then there's Parallax and then a white lantern. Overall I am glad to have some more knowledge concerning the canon... but it wasn't much else.
I read the entire first Geoff Johns and friends of Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, etc. run from Rebirth through War of the Green Lanterns before the new 52 hit, and him and the other GL writers really knocked it out of the park. Can't say enough about how great that entire run was. If you have DC Infinite, look up a good reading order and dive in for a few months.
The emotional spectrum was first, now the Black Lanterns have arrived. Obviously black lanterns yield the power of death. So, essentially, Zombies with power rings.
This is the main story. There are 8 total graphic novels, all of them center around this one and this one is the only one with the ending. You can read just this one and get most of the picture. It's like the skeleton of the story. There are parts that seem like you missed something (because you did) but there is so much action that it can be chalked up to happening behind the scenes.
A couple of interesting notes: First, the story acknowledges how superheros die all the time but come back, Nekron (read: death) explains why he lets this happen. It also gives him influence over them. Second, the other color power rings allow for a temporary deputization of heroes and it's interesting to see who gains which power.
It's a pretty good read, with lots of great, and BUSY, splash pages. But I'm not really a big fan of the whole Zombie craze. So that's why it's only 3 stars
This is the main story. There are 8 total graphic novels, all of them center around this one and this one is the only one with the ending. You can read just this one and get most of the picture. It's like the skeleton of the story. There are parts that seem like you missed something (because you did) but there is so much action that it can be chalked up to happening behind the scenes.
A couple of interesting notes: First, the story acknowledges how superheros die all the time but come back, Nekron (read: death) explains why he lets this happen. It also gives him influence over them. Second, the other color power rings allow for a temporary deputization of heroes and it's interesting to see who gains which power.
It's a pretty good read, with lots of great, and BUSY, splash pages. But I'm not really a big fan of the whole Zombie craze. So that's why it's only 3 stars
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Although this story is definitely great, and the coordination and years of build up was masterful, I still feel that the highpoint of this era of Green Lantern was the Sinestro corps war. But hey even a lesser story in this run is still well worth a reader's time
Of the three "offical" titles in Blackest Night, this was the weakest. I think its biggest problem was that it becomes too crowded with the whole Lantern cast, plus the rest of the DC heroes. Seeing other characters join the corps, like Scarecrow, was fun but it could use a little more focus. Still not entirely sure what Nekron wanted.
Blackest Night was incredibly awesome, and now I want to read a whole lot more Green Lantern because of it. Go pick it up.
It's been a long time since I've read any Green Lantern. This was a great way to get back into the series. I look forward to reading the rest of the books.