Blackest Night Watch: Green Lantern #52

Title: Green Lantern #52

Author: Geoff Johns

Artist: Doug Mahnke

Storyline: Blackest Night mega event

Publisher:  DC Comics

Rating: 13+

Release date: March 24, 2010

Verdict: 8.5/10

Following the wild and crazy-ness of the last few Blackest Night tie-in issues this issue kicks it up a notch. You can even tell by the cover. At this point in this massive fight between the forces of various-colours versus the Black Lantern corps, nothing seems more intimidating than a new and even more powerful Corps. That new corps is the White Lantern Corps, a one-man corps (for now) and the megalomaniacal Sinestro is in charge of it. You see, the Black Lantern’s get their power from death itself it seems, but the White Lantern is something entirely different. The White light is said to reside in all living things, and as Sinestro controls the “white light”, he technically has the power of all life in creation at his finger tips. This, of course, scares the hell out of the Black Lanterns. And you can see why. What was taking the combined powers of several Lanterns from different corps working together, now only takes Sinestro’s will to extinguish. It’s really a wild sight…

The issue then goes onto to detail the birth of the white light as well as the birth of all the emotionally based “lights” that are now signified by the different Corps. As the last issue of Blackest Night detailed (#7), this white light was born on Earth. Actually, not so much born “on” Earth as born and Earth formed around it. Earth then became the breeding ground for all the other “lights” to be born. Will Power (Green) literally came from the first spark of life as it willed itself into existence. As life evolved we got Fear (Yellow), Love (Magenta), Avarice (Orange), Rage (Red), Hope (Blue), and Compassion (Indigo), all of which started on Earth…it seems.

The remaining part of this issue then focuses on John Stewart and his team of multi-coloured Lanterns who are able to penetrate the core of the Black Ring infested planet Xanshi. They are able to set off a chain reaction that ends the threat that was Xanshi to Earth. After the fall, Black Lanterns left and right are having their connections severed and are disappearing into the ether. As so many Black Lanterns discorporate, Sinestro is able to literally pull himself back together, as he had been cut in two, and then decides to go on the offensive. Sinestro declares himself the one true Guardian of the Universe and the book ends. This was truly a great lead up issue to the final showdown in the long-time coming Blackest Night #8 which is set to come out in a very short time. FINALLY! J

Blackest Night Watch: Blackest Night #7

Title: Blackest Night #7

Author: Geoff Johns

Artist: Ivan Reis

Storyline: Blackest Night mega-event

Rating: 13+

Release date: February 24, 2010

Verdict: 9/10

We check back in this week with the happenings of DC’s the Blackest Night company wide mega-event. Unlike previous weeks where we had multiple books to take a look at, this week we just have the penultimate issue of the main mini-series of the event, Blackest Night #7. When last we left the core mini-series book in issue #6, and our new make-shift corps of multi-coloured guardians, Neckron, the baddest of the Black Lanterns, was looking to destroy a Guardian or two. Oh…and Earth as well. Let’s check in…

The issue starts out with the questioning of a guardian by Neckron. What did Neckron ask it? “Why did you vow to guard the universe?” This is a question I’ve always wondered. Why do the guardians do what they do? Who asked them to do it? How long ago did they start? All the guardian can say to this is, “I…I do not remember…” This was perfect. The guardians have been doing this for so long that they don’t even really remember. What does this mean in the long run? With the Blackest Night almost finished, will they stick around? Wasn’t this big event all they were protecting against anyways?

From this point the issue really kicks off. We then proceed to be thrown right into the fray with Hal Jordan and the “colourful” members of his little multi-coloured ring-slinging crew. Everybody is seemingly giving their all to destroy Neckron, but Neckron doesn’t come close to even budging. At the exact moment the crew really needs Lex Luthor, whom is under the spell of his orange ring, he goes berserk and rips the yellow (fear) ring off of the Scarecrow’s hand and makes his bid to get a ring of every colour in order to make the equivalent of Marvel’s Infinity Gauntlet. Then simultaneously in orbit of Earth, what seems like thousands of Lanterns from all over the colour spectrum arrive to save the day. This is the point when the monthly Green Lantern Corps book, which has been concentrating on the battle in space, comes into alignment with Green Lantern and Blackest Night. The two page spread that depicts this is some of the best work of Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert’s careers. It was absolutely breath taking.

What follows up this amazing piece of artwork is basically what we’ve been waiting for during the run of this entire event. The core reason all of this happening. In reality it’s the biggest secret in the universe, and the guardians have been keeping it since the beginning of everything. MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR BLACKEST NIGHT #7 FOLLOWS THIS SENTENCE: It turns that the Guardians of Oa are not the oldest beings in existence. It turns out that that particular honour belongs to The Entity. What exactly is The Entity? It is the beginning of all universal life, and it just so happens that it was born on Earth. This is the big secret the Guardians have been holding onto for so long. They always contended that life started on Oa and that was why the Oan’s were charged with protecting the universe. It was why, they believed, that they had the right to do it. But now the secret is out and everything is different. And then Sinestro does what we all thought only Hal Jordan could do: He showed no fear and took control of his destiny. That’s enough spoilers for one column. Only one month left. J

DC Entertainment makes an Executive Decision

In a huge move this past week, DC Entertainment president, Diane Nelson, announced the new Executive team in charge of all things DC. Ms. Nelson , who replaced former President/Publisher Paul Levitz as president of DC a few months ago, announced that replacing Mr. Levitz on the publisher end of his job would be both Dan Didio and Jim Lee as co-publishers. DC’s most popular writer, Geoff Johns, was announced as the Chief Creative Officer, with John Rood and Patrick Caldon, two actual executives in the Warner Brothers hierarchy, rounding out the five-man team. For the full scoop, just click

here.

Blackest Night: Green Lantern #50

Title: Green Lantern #50

Author: Geoff Johns

Artist: Doug Mahnke

Storyline: Blackest Night mega-event

Publisher: DC Comics

Rating: 13+

Release date: January 27, 2010

Verdict: 7.5/10

Here’s a quick tutorial on the various rings and their representative emotions: Green- Willpower, Yellow- Fear, Red- Rage, Indigo- Compassion, Pink- Love, Blue- Hope, Orange- Avarice, and Black- Death.

In the last few weeks we’ve looked at both the Blackest Night mini-series as well as the latest issue of Green Lantern Corps in order to take a look at this Blackest Night mega-event. This week we got issue #50 of the core Green Lantern book with a beautifully rendered Ethan van Sciver cover depicting the return of Parallax in the form of Hal Jordan.

The issue starts out with Hal and his new “guardians” meeting up with their new ring-totting Earthmen who have been deputized into the service of the various corps for a 24 hour period. Heroes like The Atom, Wonder Woman, and The Flash get an indigo, pink, and a blue ring respectively, while Lex Luthor, the Scarecrow, and Mera get orange, yellow, and red rings. Hardly a situation that you want to find yourself in. I mean…Lex Luthor with a power ring? That is ridiculously dangerous. All this and the Spectre’s back. He’s looking to judge Hal Jordan. Oh… and he’s sporting a deadly Black ring.

The rest of this slightly oversized issue (27 pages of story) pretty much only dealt with the rebirth of the Parallax entity. It seems as though the only way to stop the Spectre when he is out of control, is to make him fight Parallax. He seems to be afraid of it. When Parallax was originally defeated, the Spectre fled as soon as it was no longer attached to Hal Jordan and thus felt fear. Hal gets the Ganthet (an Oan Guardian) to recall not only his power battery, but the power batteries of the other human green lantern’s John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, and Guy Gardner. Housed inside each of the four batteries is one quarter of Parallax. When all four are destroyed in proximity of one another, Parallax is able to escape and reform. Hal knew this, but he had a plan. His solution, although not surprising in the least, really only ended the issue. The actual battle between Parallax and the Spectre will have to wait for either Blackest Night #7 or Green Lantern #51.

The only real problem with this issue is the same problem that plagues all mega event tie-in books. This issue seemed like it took place over a few minutes during one Earth-bound battle. Blackest Night, when all is said and done, will cover about 50-60 comics. So far, it has seemed as though the entire mega event is revolving around a battle on Oa and a battle on Earth and all on the same day. That’s a lot of issues to detail a day or two. Of course, final judgement will be held until the series actually finishes up in another month or two. All in all, I liked this issue. Geoff Johns has crafted a really intriguing story and Doug Mahnke is proving why he’s one of DC’s truest unsung heroes. I hope they stick around as the regular creative team once Blackest Night is wrapped.