jepson_brown's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
samckirkpatrick's review against another edition
5.0
Oh my god this is the most exciting DC event since the original Crisis. This is absolutely amazing and frightening at the same time. Is there anything better than superheroes kicking ass? What if they were kicking zombie ass? And what if those zombies were other superheroes (Elongated Man, Hawkman, Aquaman etc)? It's just the coolest thing since the printing press, which is much better than sliced bread. Blackest Night is the perfect answer to the muddled Final Crisis and Countdown before that. Top notch, and can't wait to see what happens when the Black Lanterns reach 100% power level.
myke's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
matt4hire's review against another edition
4.0
Probably the least of the core Blackest Night series, which is ironic, as it's the core book. Reis's art does fairly well, but the story suffers, like most crossovers do, by being bogged down with too many characters, too much going on at once, and, eventually, by a fairly corny/obvious deus ex machina. I understand it's there to start off the next change in tone, but...well. The execution could've been a little better. Still, it's way better than the vast majority of crossovers of the past few years.
afterthehype's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
lordcheez's review against another edition
4.0
Good graphic novel, I am impressed, first time reading Green Lantern
georgezakka's review against another edition
5.0
4.5
with blood and rage
crimson red
ripped from a corpse
so freshly dead
together with our
hellish hate
well burn you all
this is your fate
-- a beautiful quote from atrocitus.
I love this book! I love it so much for these reasons. 1. the art by Alex Sinclair and Ivan Reis is unbelievable, I especially loved the splash pages with all the lanterns saying their oaths and the splash page where heroes like the flash, wonder woman, mera, the atom and Lex Luthor got chosen by copies of other lantern rings, I especially loved the colouring by Alex Sinclair because usually, I don't care about colouring but this was so great. I also loved the dialogue between the different lantern corps and the dialogue between Hal Jordan and barry. I also enjoyed the twists such as when everyone got connected to a white lantern ring or when Bruce Wayne rose from the dead.
I only had one problem which was that I felt some of the dialogue at the start of the book felt like filler to me and it found it boring.
overall amazing book
with blood and rage
crimson red
ripped from a corpse
so freshly dead
together with our
hellish hate
well burn you all
this is your fate
-- a beautiful quote from atrocitus.
I love this book! I love it so much for these reasons. 1. the art by Alex Sinclair and Ivan Reis is unbelievable, I especially loved the splash pages with all the lanterns saying their oaths and the splash page where heroes like the flash, wonder woman, mera, the atom and Lex Luthor got chosen by copies of other lantern rings, I especially loved the colouring by Alex Sinclair because usually, I don't care about colouring but this was so great. I also loved the dialogue between the different lantern corps and the dialogue between Hal Jordan and barry. I also enjoyed the twists such as when everyone got connected to a white lantern ring or when Bruce Wayne rose from the dead.
I only had one problem which was that I felt some of the dialogue at the start of the book felt like filler to me and it found it boring.
overall amazing book
medjredd's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
nikshelby's review against another edition
4.0
>>>before this review...read mine for Blackest Night: Green Lantern....
Okay. Confession: I misunderstood the order of the graphic novels and read BN:GL first. Wrong! Don't do that! Like any series, reading it out of order messes it all up.
I read all the preludes and buildups first. And while I appreciated the grand setup for the large event coming...i've got to show my crankiness. Specific subtleties aside: every one had the same basic plot = new color in the spectrum revealed, Hal Jordan comes in contact, of course he is taken over by the new color, back to green. Every. Single. Time. Except for the Star Sapphires, they are all women. hmm...oh yes! Long time staccacto-girlfriend: Carol Ferris.
One more bit of crankiness: I stand by my opinion that these graphic novels needed a better editor. Like I said, I read these two out of order. However, there was several times that if I hadn't read the GL one first, I wouldn't have understood parts of Blackest Night. The scope of this story was the entire DC Universe. Every character was involved. Old and new. I may not understand the difficulties of putting together a cohesive main story...still, I can claim it should be better. Its so easy to be a sideline critic!
Complaints over. On to compliments.
There is no way that I could include every amazing aspect here...that would take a page-by-page "look at this!". and, I'm not kidding. You open it. That page is amazing. Turn. Amazing. Turn. Amazing. And, that's just the art! Anyone who claims that comic-art isn't REAL art...has never read one, and definitely has not looked at this one. The detail, textures, color, full-spreads, small-panels...every single penstroke and paintcolor was beautiful (even the black lanterns). I've seem some comics where the artist was good...but, the characters each had a similar feel. The women looked the same, in different outfits. The men all had the same face. Not here. Every single character was their own character - with very individual looks, costumes, mannerisms, implied movements. It was truly amazing. The black lantern designed-look of each was so cool. There were so many that I would proudly use as art on our walls. I can not express enough how impressive the art in this series was.
Now, the danger with this kind of story was that it could easily have devolved into a facile zombie/slasher/b-movie-esque type tale. That danger wasn't realized. Johns wrote a brilliant, interesting, emotional epic. Even if the art wasn't fantastic, if the story was superficial, this would've failed. It didn't though. It was carefully crafted, emotionally-involving, detail-oriented, GL-mythology-involving, expansive story. The larger view was enthralling, but, it was the characters who kept my addicted. I've said it before, and it bears repeating: some of the best modern writing is found in comic books. (I am TRYing to describe how great it was, without giving anything away!). And, I have to say, FLASH IS SO COOL. He stole the spotlight in every single scene. I jammed through this so fast, I couldn't get enough. Now, I need to read it again - taking my time to enjoy the myriad of details.
One more thing. As dark as this tale got, it was laced with lighter details: i'll just say "zombie sharks".
GJ Hal Jordan: "A poet once said "carpe diem quam minimum credula postero", which meant, "seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future." Most people only know the first part -- "carpe diem" -- probably because not trusting tomorrow is too damn cynical. It is to me, anyway. Sure you can't rely on tomorrow, we're not guaranteed we'll have it -- but we can't be afraid of it either."
Black Hand: "Why? Life was an accident. It has no meaning. It has no purpose."
Flash Barry Allen: "LIFE doesn't give US purpose, Black Hand. WE give LIFE purpose...I don't know why the earth or sky or people exist. And the fact is, i'll probably never know...We are the ones that give life purpose...We all live for different reasons, Hal. It's up to us to figure those out."
Okay. Confession: I misunderstood the order of the graphic novels and read BN:GL first. Wrong! Don't do that! Like any series, reading it out of order messes it all up.
I read all the preludes and buildups first. And while I appreciated the grand setup for the large event coming...i've got to show my crankiness. Specific subtleties aside: every one had the same basic plot = new color in the spectrum revealed, Hal Jordan comes in contact, of course he is taken over by the new color, back to green. Every. Single. Time. Except for the Star Sapphires, they are all women. hmm...oh yes! Long time staccacto-girlfriend: Carol Ferris.
One more bit of crankiness: I stand by my opinion that these graphic novels needed a better editor. Like I said, I read these two out of order. However, there was several times that if I hadn't read the GL one first, I wouldn't have understood parts of Blackest Night. The scope of this story was the entire DC Universe. Every character was involved. Old and new. I may not understand the difficulties of putting together a cohesive main story...still, I can claim it should be better. Its so easy to be a sideline critic!
Complaints over. On to compliments.
There is no way that I could include every amazing aspect here...that would take a page-by-page "look at this!". and, I'm not kidding. You open it. That page is amazing. Turn. Amazing. Turn. Amazing. And, that's just the art! Anyone who claims that comic-art isn't REAL art...has never read one, and definitely has not looked at this one. The detail, textures, color, full-spreads, small-panels...every single penstroke and paintcolor was beautiful (even the black lanterns). I've seem some comics where the artist was good...but, the characters each had a similar feel. The women looked the same, in different outfits. The men all had the same face. Not here. Every single character was their own character - with very individual looks, costumes, mannerisms, implied movements. It was truly amazing. The black lantern designed-look of each was so cool. There were so many that I would proudly use as art on our walls. I can not express enough how impressive the art in this series was.
Now, the danger with this kind of story was that it could easily have devolved into a facile zombie/slasher/b-movie-esque type tale. That danger wasn't realized. Johns wrote a brilliant, interesting, emotional epic. Even if the art wasn't fantastic, if the story was superficial, this would've failed. It didn't though. It was carefully crafted, emotionally-involving, detail-oriented, GL-mythology-involving, expansive story. The larger view was enthralling, but, it was the characters who kept my addicted. I've said it before, and it bears repeating: some of the best modern writing is found in comic books. (I am TRYing to describe how great it was, without giving anything away!). And, I have to say, FLASH IS SO COOL. He stole the spotlight in every single scene. I jammed through this so fast, I couldn't get enough. Now, I need to read it again - taking my time to enjoy the myriad of details.
One more thing. As dark as this tale got, it was laced with lighter details: i'll just say "zombie sharks".
GJ Hal Jordan: "A poet once said "carpe diem quam minimum credula postero", which meant, "seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future." Most people only know the first part -- "carpe diem" -- probably because not trusting tomorrow is too damn cynical. It is to me, anyway. Sure you can't rely on tomorrow, we're not guaranteed we'll have it -- but we can't be afraid of it either."
Black Hand: "Why? Life was an accident. It has no meaning. It has no purpose."
Flash Barry Allen: "LIFE doesn't give US purpose, Black Hand. WE give LIFE purpose...I don't know why the earth or sky or people exist. And the fact is, i'll probably never know...We are the ones that give life purpose...We all live for different reasons, Hal. It's up to us to figure those out."