Blackest Night: Green Lantern
Reading through Johns' GL run has lead me to Blackest Night, and I gotta say it was pretty enjoyable. While I understand that this is but a small fraction of Blackest Night as a whole, I have to take it for what it is. What it is being the Green Lantern portion of the Blackest Night crossover event. There are multiple components that make up Blackest Night as a whole: three volumes of Green Lantern Corps, one volume of Tales from the Corps, Blackest Night by itself, and the one volume of Green Lantern, which is what I've read.
To begin, we have a nice opening about William Hand a.k.a. the Black Hand. It's effectively about how he becomes the first Black Lantern, as well as an origin story. Basically, he's a necrophiliac with a penchant for murder who was driven insane by the Green Lantern because light means life. And he cannot process life very well. This does an extremely good job at passing him off as a major creep. It also makes me sad that they didn't let Atrocitus do his goddamned job, which was to keep the Blackest Night from happening. In this case, that means he was going to murder Hand, as seen back in Secret Origins. Cut to present day, where he murders his entire family and then kills himself, leading him to be resurrected as the first Black Lantern. Of course, this makes him special, much like all first lanterns: Atrocitus, Sinestro, and Indigo-1. His referred to as the equivalent of an emotional entity, but that doesn't make sense. I would think it would be Nekron?
Anyways, now that the Blackest Night has begun, Martian Manhunter wakes up and attempts to murder Hal Jordan and Barry Allen. He's a space zombie now. Cut to space, where the War of Light has begun, in which all the different emotional spectrum wielders are attempting to murderhouse the fuck out of each other. The Star Sapphires are attempting to convert Sinestro Corps members into Star Sapphires using the power of love. And also crystals. Sinestro is attempting to bust his corps out, and so a massive battle ensues on the Sapphire's home planet of Zamaron. By the way, can we just stop for a second so I can say this: the Sapphires are creepy as fuck. Seriously. Creepier than any other corps. They force you to love using "love" crystals, and their entity is referred to as the Predator. I'm not entirely convinced that this isn't just a rape metaphor/analogy or something. Seriously. There is nothing that isn't just creepy. Stranger still is that the entire corps is female. There has to be some subtext here that I'm not picking up on. Oddly enough, this is also the corps that I am the most interested in reading about.
That digression aside; Sinestro spits mad fire at Carol whilst beating the shit out of her and other Sapphires. Carol gets some good hits in, and it's also shown that she's immune to the Sapphires' brain control, because the rings also brainwash the corps members. So they're sex zombies. Black Lanterns show up. This is not the only battle that this occurs at: the Lost Lanterns and one Alpha Lantern are on Ysmault to reclaim Laira's corpse (burial purposes) from the Red Lanterns, while Larfleeze sends his Corps of of space ghosts to claim the Blue Light of Hope, because it makes him feel good. This battle takes place on Odym. During these fights, death rings show up to claim corpses or those who have died and came back (prevalent on Earth). This includes the corpses of Hawkgirl and Hawkman on Zamaron (which brings up an interesting lore bit about them being pretty much the mascots of the Sapphires, eternal love and all that). It's revealed that the Indigo Light of Compassion is the last light to find, however they remain hidden.
Next thing you know, Hal shows up on Zamaron with a couple of Indigos to help take down the Black Lanterns. They reveal that the Indigo Light is Compassion, and it can channel other emotions based on the amount of emotions there. I think. Basically, their power level is based on how long and how many rings they are near. I think. I'm not sure, but I know that's how they channel specific emotions. Anyways, they explain that Green "sanitizes" Black rings, which makes them vulnerable to other colors. One of the Indigos leaves, with only Indigo-1 and Hal left. They recruit Sinestro and Carol to their cause. The group then goes to Korugar to free the rest of Sinestro's Corps from Mongul, whom Sinestro wrecks indefinitely. Then they go to Larfleeze's planet, where all the corpses of the people he's killed come back and attack him along with Atrocitus, who also just shows up in an attempt to take the Orange Power Battery from Larfleeze. Not entirely sure why, though. Then the group of Indigo-1, Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris, Saint Walker, and Sinestro show up and take Larfleeze and Atrocitus with them to Ryutt. Supposedly where the Black Power Battery is stored. However it has long since left and headed to Earth. During all of this, John Stewart is approached by a resurrected Xanshi, because every Corps needs a planet as a member.
So now our rainbow colored spec ops unit shows up to Earth, where they have managed to give a ring to one Earthling per color: Mera gets Red; Wonder Woman gets Violet; Barry Allen (fuck that guy) gets Hope; Lex Luthor gets Avarice; Scarecrow gets Fear; and Ray Palmer gets Compassion. They kind of explain why each character got them, but the only one that ever got any foreshadowing was Scarecrow during the Sinestro Corps creation, when one of the rings visited Earth. Anyhow, a bunch of formerly dead heroes tries to kill not-so-dead heroes and Lantern corps members. This particular book revolves around our special team and their battle with the Specter, who is now a Black Lantern due to his host, Crispus Allen, having been a formerly dead man. The only way they manage to beat him is by Hal fusing with Parallax again, because Specter is apparently scared of Parallax (fucking bullshit). Hal is then exorcised of Parallax, while Nekron shows up to murder everyone. Also, John Stewart and Fatality, along with some other corps members, manage to blow up Xanshi before it crashes into Earth.
Next, Sinestro is now a White Lantern and fights Nekron. This fight reveals the Emotional Entities origins and that the White Lanterns are broke as fuck. Also Earth is apparently some source of something. Anyways, to be continued *gasp* in Blackest Night!
So this book was enjoyable. Lots of good action, which was especially cool seeing all the different Corps and fighting styles. Particularly the Sinestro and Sapphire fight. John Stewart soloing Xanshi was badass, as was Sinestro's fight with Mongul. A lot of good action. Though, I have some confusion as to how Blue Lanterns were able to fight off Larfleeze's constructs, since they can't actually do anything without willpower. Unless being near the Power Battery changes things. Obviously there is a lot missed by only reading this, since Blackest Night was spread out across so many books. Why take Bruce Wayne's skull (though not really his skull)? All the shit that happened on Earth. Where did Nekron come from? How did Sinestro become a White Lantern? All that really bugged me, but the recaps made it easier. Regardless, it was really enjoyable, and it was cool to see all the interactions. Plus, my boy Atrocitus putting in work. Overall I really liked it, and I definitely look forward to the actual Blackest Night event.
Also, quick question: Black Lanterns say that Superman died, but the only time that happened was with Doomsday, yeah? I thought he didn't technically die when that happened?
