Blackest Night. By Geoff Johns

Now that I've finished the Blackest Night and have had a little time to digest it, I think I'm ready to give me thoughts.  Going into this book I was extremely excited.  This was the book that I was recommended that actually got me to purchase my first graphic novel. (Green Lantern: Secret Origin)  But since I had heard such glowing reviews I wanted to get some background and place this story in the context of the Green Lantern Universe. I really, really, really wanted to LOVE this book, but it did not capture the same excitement that the Sinestro Corps Wars did for me.  I mean this had all the makings of a book that I should have loved.  It had the Green Lantern, Hal Jordan and the Flash, Barry Allen as the central figures, both of whom I really like.  It had all the color spectrum corps coming together to fight off a universe destroying Black Lantern Corp.  And the thing that should have had me hook, line, and sink was stinking superhero ZOMBIES!!!  The black lantern corp is death.  Black had the power to reanimate the dead and control them.  It didn't bring them back to life, which the book specifically explains.  Now this still was a very good story.  I loved the fact that the Flash played a central roll.  I did like the zombie superhero element, that was really cool.  I think because this is the central story to a whole lot of tie in stories(Superman, Batman, Wonder Women, Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps), it seems a little disjointed.  For example, we know that Hal Jordan has to go recruit the other lantern corps to help defeat the black lanterns.  So Hal leaves and a little later he is back with the other six corps.  In the context of this book, it just seemed too easy and too convenient.  There are another six books that make up the full detailed story...so I've been told.    The next book is Blackest Night: Green Lantern which is supposed to go into detail on Hal's journey to recruit the the other corps.  Another thing that bothered me about his particular book was that unlike the Sinestro Corps Wars, the Black Lanterns though we mentally know they are extremely powerful, I never really felt that the good guys were totally helpless and in dyer straights and were fighting for dear life.  Maybe it was because I knew things were eventually going to work out and the Black Lanterns would be defeated.  The Black Hand never felt that intimidating.  Some of the facts were never explained like why all the corps fighting together couldn't make a dent, or why Dove could dissolve the black lanterns.  Several Blackest Night prophecies were fulfilled but it were never really talked about or emphasized.  Even with all those negatives, it still was a good book.  Many characters that have been dead in the DC Universe have been truly brought back to life. (you'll see why in the book) It would seem to help setup the New 52 reboot. I'd give it a 4 our of 5 as a stand alone.  Now on to the other supporting books.  Hopefully they fill in all the gaps and make this a much more rounded story.