Comic Info
Comic Name: Green Lantern (Volume 4)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Doug Mahnke/Ed Benes/Marcos Marz
# of Issues: 10
Release Date: 2010
Green Lantern (4) #43
Reprints Green Lantern (4) #43-52 (September 2009-May 2010). The Black Hand has birthed a new kind of horror and the Black Lanterns are born into the universe. Now, the dead are rising as part of an unstoppable army of horror and even the deceased heroes of the world could threaten to destroy it under the Black Lantern’s control. Hal must gather the other members of the Lantern color spectrum to battle the Green Lanterns if the universe is going to stand a chance, but it could mean releasing his greatest enemy…Parallax!
Written by Geoff Johns, Green Lantern: Blackest Night (also called Blackest Night: Green Lantern) is a DC Comic superhero collection. Following Green Lantern: Agent Orange, the series is a tie in with the Blackest Night event series and features art by Doug Mahnke, Ed Benes, and Marcos Marz. The issues in this collection were also collected as part of Blackest Night Saga, Black Night 10th Anniversary Omnibus, and Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Omnibus—Volume 2.
Geoff Johns really breathed life in the Green Lantern. I was always a Hal Jordan Green Lantern fan so it was good to see the character back. Johns continuously built toward big events by slowly adding aspects to the story, and Blackest Night was one of the bigger events.
Green Lantern (4) #50
While I do enjoy Johns and his writing, it is pretty standard fare in the comic book world. I admire his attempts to add new directions to the character, but the basic plotlines are pretty typical. It is a better quality of writing than many, but how the story evolves and expands is pretty predictable with big baddies and cliffhanger moments between issues…Johns isn’t revolutionizing the comic, but he’s writing a solid entry.
This collection is a bit jarring in that it is a tie-in book without the ties. The book offers small summaries of events occurring between issues in other titles (including Blackest Night), but there often feels like there are some missing pieces that could have made the comic flow a bit better. The old “what happened last issue” flashback sequence is out of vogue in general with the tight storytelling in limited pages, but I do kind of miss them.
Green Lantern: Black Night has Hal facing a lot of his demons (somewhat literally), and John Stewart also gets in on this action. The volume feels a little stunted due to the crossover aspect, but if you have been following Green Lantern up to this point, you will enjoy some of the payoff of the color spectrum. The series also dives right into DC’s next event Brightest Day with the conclusion of this collection. Green Lantern: Blackest Night is followed by Green Lantern: Brightest Day.
Preceded By:
