In the Brightest Day... In the Blackest Night...I will have finally Finished reading this Story Line:

I have finished reading the storyline “Blackest Night”. Finally! Man that took a lot longer than I was expecting it to take and all I can say is that I was trying to put it off for as long as possible. But I have finished the story line, though I have not read every tie-in title but did read all the main titles and 90% of the tie-ins.

The Green Lantern titles have been really good with this newest volume of the series. From the start of Green Lantern back in 1959 in the issue of Showcase #22, which was also the first appearance of Hal Jordan, Abin Sur, the power ring, and the oath said by Green Lanterns to recharge their rings. Though the oath is not needed to be said for the ring to recharge it’s only used to time the length it takes for the ring to charge.

 Here is the oath in full.
“In brightest day... in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power -- Green Lantern's light!"

Now the reason I mention the oath is because the story line I just read is in the oath. Check it out, it’s the second phrase, “in blackest night” and the story line was titled “Blackest Night”.  What’s cool about this story line is that it goes all the way back to Showcase 22 to when Abin Sur first appears to Hal Jordan giving him the power ring and turning him into the Green Lantern for the first time. Though it don’t explain how this happen or even why Hal Jordan was picked to be the new GL, it explains why Abin Sur was running that caused him to crash in the first place. Though one little point brought up in “Blackest Night” made me think about something that never occurred to me yet is actually something pretty big to have happen for a Green Lantern. That is, why did Abin Sur need a ship? When he crashed on Earth he was flying a ship that was damaged, then right before dying he passed the ring onto Hal Jordan. But wait, Green Lanterns can construct anything they think of with the power ring or do like they normall do, just fly through space because the power from the ring protects them from space and nothing else is needed, not even a real ship or one made from the ring. So again, why did Abin Sur need a real ship when he had the power ring?

The answer that was given to why Abin Sur needed a ship was that he didn’t trust his ring. According to the prophasy that he found out about, his ring would fail him at the time he needed it the most. Instead of using the power of the ring to get him where he needed to go, he used a real ship with real weapons. Though this is not the only time an answer has been given, I found this out when I finally was made to ask it myself and then went looking to find out why, I also found that there had been other times the question had been brought up. I won’t go into them here because my main point is on “Blackest Night” and I was just saying that the crash is ties in with the story.
Which again, the story of “Blackest Night” explains why Abin Sur crashed on Earth, which was because he heard the prophacy where there will be a war of all the different Corps that are different colors (yep, there’s more out there than just the Green Lanterns but I’ll get to them soon), and how the Earth will be where the black rises up and will consume life. So off Abin Sur went and in the process he dies and the beginning of it all starts without really knowing it started.
"...the armies of fear and willpower must come together, because across the Universe, the dead will rise."
That was a teaser used to get everyone excited about “Blackest Night” and it worked. Now I’m not going to get into detail about the story line because there’s just way too much that happened for me to talk about in only one blog. With having the story go through 80+ titles, where 8 of them was the main title of “Blackest Night” and also the one that features the most action of them all, it would take way too long to go into just decent detail on what happens in this story. So instead I’m giving a quick little paragraph about what it was about and then into why I liked it.

Alright the run down.
“Blackest Night” is about a villain that is able to bring the dead back to life by using a black power ring. At first everyone thinks it’s William Hand aka the villain Black Hand who is the leader and cause of all of the dead rising. It’s not, not exactly though he does play a huge role in the dead being brought back to life, though they are more zombies then alive. Black rings are taking over the universe, not just Earth, even a planet becomes part of the Black Corps. With the rise of the Black Corps and the dead, there comes other new Corps. There’s now a Red (rage), Orange (avarice), Yellow (fear/though this one has been around for a bit), Blue (hope), Indigo (compassion), Violet (love), and of course Green (will). It’s all these new corps that will create the war of the Lanterns against the Black Corps (death) to stop the Black Corps from killing the universe.

This whole storyline was just awesome. It was spanning into so many of the other titles and even the ones that it wasn’t in the main title it was given a limited issue special so that “Blackest Night” still affected the characters. Such as Superman and Wonder Woman, who both end up with a black ring on their fingers and becoming evil and trying to kill the Lanterns. Coolest part though was the introduction of all the other new Corps.
I am liking the Red, Orange, and Blue Corps over the rest but they are all cool. By the end of the story line there is also a White Corps (life) that rises up but I have stopped reading at the last issue of Blackest Night #8 and have not read any further in the main titles since they are starting the new story line of “Brightest Day”.

There is just so much going on in this story it’s wrong to just only read the main titles of it. Though the other titles don’t really have much to do with the main story other than having the characters involved in the title be experiencing the same plot it’s still a lot of fun to read. I didn’t find anything wrong with this story line, other than it being too short. Typically I would think having a story run of 8 issues of a limited series while running through around 20 issues of the main titles is more than enough. However this time I think it should have been a whole lot more. By the time it finished it just seemed to end way to fast. But then again, after having the action start right at the beginning of the story while have the back story being explained along the way, it was tough to really have it end any other way. So this is a moment that I liked/disliked but still understand that it had no other course for the way it ended and having more would probably have hurt the story more than it would have helped.

Now if you’re a fan of Green Lantern, or was one at one time, even one that just kind of likes Green Lantern, “Blackest Night” is a great jumping on point. It’s also a great story for beginners to read to get drawn into the character. And now they are all being collected in graphic novels, unlike for me I’ve bought each title as they have come out. The novels are a lot cheaper and less of a wait to read them.

Now for some Comic Book News:
Moon Knight, this title is getting another try and is coming out May 4, 2011. Don’t take this the wrong way because I love Moon Knight, he’s a great character, cool costume, and is just a fun read, but Marvel has launched and canceled and launched, and canceled the title so many times I have no sure idea of what volume it’s now on. With this new one it could be volume 7 or 8, I’m just not sure.
Still, I don’t really care if it’s volume 21, I will always read this title and every time it’s canceled I hate that it is but look forward to having it re-launch in later years. With this new story line the character Marc Spector is still all crazy with the multiple personalities but now Moon Knight is not his only superhero personality. He now has other superhero personalities that will be taking over at random moments, like Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Captain America.

Ok, I’m not sure about this story plot but with Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev doing the title it has a lot of potential of being good. Still, I’m trying to figure out how they will have him be these other heroes? I can see him being able to pull off Captain America. Marc Spector is rich, like super rich, so he could easily have a shield that resemebles Caps, not one as strong as Caps but close. Wolverine would be tough with the claws and healing factor, but the claws could be made in a way that instead of in his arm they are a spring loaded set on top of his arm, the healing factor I would say there’s no way to have other then using that mutant power up drug. However, it’s Spider-Man that I can’t see him being able to pull off. The speed, agility, and most of all being able to climb walls. Then again, it’s comics and with the right words, all that needs to be done is have the right equipment made and poof he’s all of them. I’ll just have to wait to find out on May 4.