Blackest Night

Image via Wikipedia

I have been getting the TPBs of the the Blackest Night stuff.  For anyone that doesn't know, Blackest Night is a storyline that has been several years in the making and has been headed by Geoff Johns.  The Green Lanterns were only one color of the emotional spectrum, the other colors have been repressed.  Blackest Night centers around the Black Lanterns.  Black represents death on the spectrum, and the Black Lanterns are reanimated coprses of dead DCU characters. 

This was a big crossover all encompasing event.  While they haven't killed anyone specifically so they could be a Black Lantern, there have been no shortage of characters dying in the DCU over the past few years.  The even bring out some heavy hitters like Earth 2 Superman.  A lot of these character were not even super heroes themselves, like Pa Kent, Sue Dibney, Robin's (Tim Drake) dad.  Of course they were not afraid to kill a few people off in this event creating more opportunities for Black Lanterns.  Oddly the series brought about the resurection of the Barry Allen Flash.  This isn't really surprising as he has made several post death appearances and most of them in "big events."

The series itself is fun to read though.  You get to catch up with some dead characters as they toy with the guilt that was left on the people that survived them.  The Blackest Night books are generally better than the Green  Lantern Corps books, this might be because I didn't like Patrick Gleason's artwork at all. 

Overall it is a pretty good series.  Not sure how accessible it is to new readers, I would suggest starting at Green Lantern Rebirth and working your way up.  Like I said, Johns has been dropping hints and building this up for years. 

Geoff Johns is the best thing to happen to the Green Lantern since Abin Sur. 

All Hallows Eve

I wasn’t expecting to dress up this year but boredom got the best of me.  You see, we were going to meet up with another family and go trick or treating.  I start getting the kids ready for a 6pm departure at about 4:30pm.  It doesn’t take that long to get them ready contrary to what every Sunday morning church departure has taught me.  At 5:30pm we make the call to see if the other family is ready and they tell us 6:30.

 

I had an hour surrounded by face paint and an imagination.  The easiest thing, I think, is a zombie.  15 minutes later, I am done with make up and bored again.  In my mind, I associate Black Lantern’s with zombies.  Not a huge leap and I wonder what the black lantern symbol is.  I check it out on google and my first thought is that I could draw that pretty easily.  So 20 minutes later I am standing there with a black lantern symbol on the chest of my black leather jacket. 

Of course no one knew that I was a black lantern.  I did get compliments on my face paint though.  One person asked what the symbol on my chest was but didn’t know what a black lantern was and probably didn’t know what a green lantern was either. 

"The blackest night falls from the skies,
The darkness grows, as all light dies,
We crave your hearts and your demise,
By my black hand— the dead shall rise!" –Black Lantern Creed

Green Lantern Rebirth (2006)

Although a knowledge of Hal Jordan’s origin as Green Lantern is helpful, it isn’t necessary to pick up this graphic novel and understanding and enjoying. The book actually does a fair job of catching up new readers with an everything you need to know to understand the story so far.