Weekly Comic Book Review

By: Geoff Johns (writer), Doug Mahnke (artist), Christian Alamy, Rebecca Buchman, Tom Nguyen, Mark Irwin, Doug Mahnke (inkers)

The Story: The newly reinforced armies of light are making good headway against the black lanterns, but black lantern Spectre is still there, and nothing they do will stop him. So it’s time to pull out the one thing that has a chance of matching the Spectre’s power: Parallax.

What’s Good: There’s a lot to like in this book. It’s a high-stakes, epic adventure. However, Johns, as always, finds ways to squeeze in some good character moments. In one, black lantern Aquaman tries to get under Mera’s (now a red lantern) skin. Her reaction to this deep, personal, manipulative attack leaves Atrocitus with nothing to say, but “Welcome to the Red Lantern Corps.” Scarecrow as a member of the Sinestro Corps was a delightful a show-stealer, and a quiet moment with Luthor and Larfleeze was classic. Hal Jordan had a few good moments too, with some snappy dialogue that seemed more suited to Spider-Man than to Hal, but it didn’t get in the way. Mahnke had some great moments too on the art chores. The splash page release of Parallax was awesome. The staking of the Spectre was a brilliant panel, as was Green Lantern’s “mallet-to-the-head” panel. The poses and layouts were dynamic and carried the story from panel to panel, page to page.

What’s Not So Good: Two minor complaints on this issue. The first is on art. I never get any sense of texture from the characters drawn by Mahnke. He does crumbling brick, fiery explosions, bursting zombies, and they all look like they’re made of some real substance. Skin and clothing, on the other hand, are so smooth in his work as to appear airbrushed and plastic. This makes for a certain stiffness in the faces that I find distracting. On the writing, the only comment I’d like to make is that the sheer size of the Blackest Night epic makes it such that any individual issue is hard to place in the whole, in part because the story develops so slowly. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just a comment that, if a story takes (let’s say) sixty issues to tell (8-issue Blackest Night series + miniseries and crossovers), any given issue will only move the story along a small amount, which can make it hard for a reader to feel he’s brought home something memorable. Again, this is not necessarily bad; it is a consequence of telling a really big story. So be aware.

Conclusion: A solid addition to a sprawling, lantern-filled, zombie-choked saga.

Grade: B-

-DS Arsenault

Filed under: DC Comics, Other Tagged: | Aquaman, Atrocitus, Black Lantern, Blackest Night, Christian Alamy, Comic Book Reviews, comic books, comic reviews, Comics, DC, DC Comics, Doug Mahnke, DS Arsenault, Geoff Johns, Green Lantern, Green Lantern, Green Lantern #50, Green Lantern #50 review, Lex Luthor, Mark Irwin, Mera, Rebecca Buchman, Reviews, Scarecrow, Spectre, Spider-Man, Tom Nguyen, WCBR, Weekly Comic Book Review