blackest night

RandoMonday: Green Lantern Corps #39

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Here’s a comic chosen at random from my collection.

GLC 39

 

Green Lantern Corps (2006) #39 by Peter Tomasi (story & words), Patrick Gleason (penciller), Rebecca Buchman & Tom Nguyen (inkers), Randy Mayor (colorist), Steve Wands (letterer), Adam Schlagman (editor), and Gleason, Christian Alamy, & Mayor (cover)

This is how much I loved Blackest Night: after the event was over I searched for and bought all of the BN tie-in issues of this comic so that I could have a more complete story. It was kind of weird to read these issues after having read all the others stuff from the other titles, but it was quite worth it, and it made me take notice of Patrick Gleason.

This issue is the start of the Blackest Night event (if you don’t count the Prelude from the previous issue) in this title, and after a few pages of Guy and Kyle catching up and talking about their love lives, a swarm of black rings fly past them, heading towards Oa. Once there, the rings break into the caskets (tombs?) of dead Green Lanterns, and that’s when the Corps realizes things are really bad. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Kyle’s former love, Jade, is one of the newly turned Black Lanterns.

I really wished I would have been reading this book as BN was going on. There are some good emotional beats to this story (if a little too obvious), and Tomasi and Gleason certainly have the characters’ voices down. Plus, Mayor’s colors, as I have said before, are outstanding, especially in a book where green is the dominant color.

 

RandoMonday: Green Lantern #45

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Here’s a comic chosen at random from my collection.

Green Lantern (2005) #45 by Geoff Johns (writer), Doug Mahnke (pencils), Christian Alamy, Doug Mahnke, & Tom Nguyen (inks), Randy Mayor (color), Rob Leigh (letters), Adam Schlagman (assoc. editor), Eddie Berganza (editor), and Mahnke, Alamy, & Hi-Fi (cover)

This issue is one small chapter in the Blackest Night event, featuring, mostly, a fight between Carol Ferris as a Star Sapphire, and Sinestro. Meanwhile, Black Hand’s black rings are picking up new recruits right and left during the fight scene, and at the end when all of the aliens that Larfleeze has killed rise in service to Death.

There’s nothing really special in this issue, unless you count the bit where we are shown that Sinestro once loved Abin Sur’s sister–I do not know if that is a revelation or merely a recap in this issue. If the former, then that is the WOW moment in this chapter, otherwise, the issue serves its purpose in moving the plot along, albeit slowly. Once again I praise Randy Mayor’s coloring. With so many colors being represented during Blackest Night, Mr. Mayor does a superb job keeping everything straight and making it look good.

RandoMonday: Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #3

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Here’s a comic chosen at random from my collection.

“New Blood” by Peter Tomasi (story and words), Chris Samnee (artist), John Kalisz (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letterer), & Adam Schlagman (editor)

“Daddy’s Girl” by Peter Tomasi (story and words), Mike Mayhew (artist), Andy Troy (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letterer), & Adam Schlagman (editor)

Blackest Night #0 Director’s Commentary by Geoff Johns, Adam Schlagman, and Eddie Berganza.

Ed Benes, Rob Hunter, & Nei Ruffino (cover) (Note: this covers depicts nothing inside–I really hate that.)

I really enjoyed this mini series, and I did not have very high expectations for it. The Kilowog story was my favorite of this issue, and look who the artist was: Chris Samnee, who is killing it on Daredevil right now. Basically, we get a Kilowog as the new Green Lantern trainee story, but it works very well, if somewhat predictably. The second story is also a bit of an origin story, but this time focusing on Arisia, who is the fifth Green Lantern out of her family that is called to duty. Mike Mayhew’s art was really good, too. And I will also say how much Peter Tomasi’s writing here is so good, and reflective of other things of his (Batman and Robin, anyone?)–basically, if Peter Tomasi is writing it, I will buy it. The issue closes out with one of those pencils-only “director’s commentaries” of Blackest Night #0, with Eddie Berganza and Geoff Johns providing the commentary. I do like these kinds of things if for no other reason than I get a glimpse into the whys and wherefores of the story. However, getting only 18 pages of original content for $3.99 kind of irritates me still, this many years later. Good thing the stories were so good. :)

RandoMonday: Blackest Night: JSA #1

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Here’s a comic chosen at random from my collection.

I loved the crap out of most anything that was Blackest Night. Add a mini about the JSA characters dealing with the event and I was on board. Really, this mini is just filling in the gaps from the main title, but James Robinson did a good enough job with the story as I recall. This first issue focuses on the onslaught of dead JSAers, but what I most enjoyed out of this, besides the art, was the focus on Liberty Belle’s guilt over Damage, and Power Girl’s righteous anger over her cousin’s second death and the one small, violet-colored panel of her face as she sees the resurrected Golden Age Lois Lane (though, while violet meant love, the look on Karen’s face reads to me as fear–horror, really).