Here are the facts: Blackest Night, in case you live under a comic-book-repellent rock, is a crossover storyline that has spun out of the pages of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. It currently runs as its own miniseries, as well as some tie-in titles. It is well thought out, brilliantly executed, and made of weapons-grade awesome. If you like to think about and be challenged by the crazy things that can happen in super hero comics (I do), then it’s easy to enjoy Blackest Night. If you just like power-ring-slinging and fighting and stuff blowing up in your comics, then you’re also pretty much set reading BN. Also, do you like zombies? I don’t particularly, but lots of people do. BN just happens to be a top-notch zombie story with some great horror-movie overtones. So. Sci-fi horror zombie super hero comics that look great and hold up to repeated readings. Are you with me yet?
The primary story is in the Blackest Night miniseries, and it’s definitely not to be missed. Geoff Johns and artist Ivan Reis are building a truly terrifying story here. We seem to see an endless array of characters coming back from the dead. Some were reviled, some were loved, some were super-powered, and some were just civilians. But now not only are they all back, but they’re super-powered and extremely envious of the living.
This isn’t a zombie story in the classic “braaaaaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnssss” sort of sense. Instead, it manages to incorporate the insane possibilities of what can occur in the DC Universe, the god-like power some of its characters possess, and an interesting and subtle take on what it is to be a zombie. In the end, it winds up being more high-powered and much more disturbing than your standard zombie tale. The undead in Blackest Night are far from mindless. We don’t know yet exactly what they are, but they seem to be envious of the living while also wanting to end them.
In fact, there’s a lot we don’t know. We don’t know the whole story of the black power battery, or the mysterious force that’s controlling Scar and Black Hand. Apparently, we also don’t know where the bottom of the story is. Just when you think there couldn’t be any more dangerous undead characters, a new wave of black power rings swoops in and makes more trouble.
Reis’ artwork doesn’t have the delicate detail of Mahnke’s in Green Lantern, but it’s exciting and gritty. It fits the creepiness of this book perfectly.
While it’s possible to get the whole story by reading just Blackest Night, the original Green Lantern title also has a lot to offer. Johns relaunched Green Lantern about four years ago, and has been using it to expand the scope of the story and characters to epic proportions. He’s been tying bits and pieces of old stories together, taking decades of convoluted story and actually making some sense of it. He’s told us a story about complex characters with believable feelings, who have their own motivations and personality. Even though there are dozens of them, we get a real sense of why each does what he does.
In GL, Hal Jordan and The Flash (that’s Barry Allen, recently resurrected and also written by Johns in a separate title) come face-to-face with the no-longer-so-dead Martian Manhunter, who has a serious score to settle. Jon Stewart comes face-to-face with some ugly parts of his past. And the storylines that have been playing out for years come to a head, while the black power rings continue to make everything more complicated.
The book is drawn in fantastic detail by Doug Mahnke, and it’s nearly bursting with rip-roaring, smashmouth action. Even if I can’t convince you to read Blackest Night, this one is still worth looking at.
In addition to the two Geoff Johns books, there are a number of other titles. These are filler stories that aren’t really required reading, but there are certainly reasons to look at them.
Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason have been telling a good but not great B-story for quite some time in Green Lantern Corps, focusing on Earth GLs Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner and a handful of others not regularly appearing in Johns’ flagship title. Now that the events of Blackest Night are hitting the fan, we might expect more details on what’s happening on Oa, and some explanation of why the Guardians are acting as they are. Whatever we learn from this book, though, it promises to be underwhelming compared to the two above.
There are also three miniseries running along with the first half of Blackest Night, lasting three issues each: BN Batman, BN Superman, and BN Titans. When they’re done, there will be a new set of minis focusing on other characters. None of them seem to be critical parts of the story, but are intended to tell side stories that wouldn’t fit in the main titles.
They aren’t really worth commenting on, except to say that it’s more of the same. Yes, dead people are coming back from the dead. Yes, they’re pissed off when they get back. And yes, the black power rings give them the ability to really mess with the living. You can pretty much pick your favorite line of books and get a glimpse into the zombie-fighting exploits of those characters. You don’t need to get too carried away in continuity and details, but there’s obviously been some thought put into the events and reactions you’ll see here.
Like I said at the top, Blackest Night is a solid story. It’s even more solid because it can be read (at least so far) as a self-contained book. If you have the time and resources, I highly recommend going back as far as you can in the ongoing Green Lantern book to make more sense of what’s happening. The Blackest Night tie-in issues are just as highly recommended as the rest of the series.
GLC is really just for the hardcore GL lover, and the minseries are for completists only. They’re fine by themselves, but don’t add a lot. They don’t need to add a lot. Blackest Night is a harrowing experience all itself, and what’s to come promises to be pretty spectacular.
Michael is old enough to know better, but still reads comics. He writes about them to make himself feel less nerdy. 
