Books: Blackest Night

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Blackest Night
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert 
2011





Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/

I tried. Really. I tried. As hard as I possibly could.

But there was just no way that I could get myself to read this book all the way through.

It was all too much - and as soon as I managed to get a few pages in my brain would go all fuzzy and I just wasn't able to read any further into it: and it all just becomes mush - brightly coloured, outer space, super-heroic, with added zombies mush.

I tried with the others too (Green Lantern: Blackest Night, Green Lantern Corps: Blackest Night, Black Lantern Corps: Blackest Night: Volume One, Black Lantern Corps: Blackest Night: Volume Two etc etc): but same result.

And - hey: to be clear - I love all those things: colours, space, super-heroes and zombies (how could I not?). But Blackest Night - I dunno. I think that unless you've been following things from the start it's pretty hopeless to just jump on board and hope to enjoy things. Geoff Johns is not Grant Morrison (whose Final Crisis is the nearest thing that I've read that comes close to this - and that at least was fun even in it's no-sense-making-ness).

Being nice: I just don't think that my brain is tuned the right way to be able to enjoy this type of stuff. Being nasty: this kind of stuff is just rubbishy, over-saturated, all-too-much-all-time-all-over nonsense.

What is good are the articles underneath which you should read even if you haven't read and don't want  to ever want to read the book itself.

That's all you get. Sorry.

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Links: Tearoom of Despair Review, Death To The Universe Article: Geoff Johns The Best On Offer Part 1 / Part 2.

Further reading: Green Lantern: Secret Origin, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Final Crisis.

All comments welcome.

Books: Green Lantern: Secret Origin

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Green Lantern: Secret Origin
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ivan Reis
2011




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/

Oh dear. That's not a good cover. In fact - it was almost enough to put me off reading it altogether. Makes it look like a hastily-thrown together movie-tie in with a cheap and crumby retelling of how our hero got started. But - then I noticed Geoff Johns name. In case you don't know: he's the guy responsible for turning Green Lantern into one of the most lauded superhero titles of recent years with such storylines as Revenge of the Green Lantern, The Sinestro Corps War, Rage of the Red Lanterns and Blackest Night. Although I should say: he's not going too far out there (like Alan Moore with Swamp Thing - whose Green Lantern story from DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore makes an important cameo) - just delivering the action and super-adventure goods that the fanboys have been crying out for whilst slowly adding new bits to a concept that first took flight way back in 1940. Green Lantern: Secret Origin is - as expected - a retelling of Hal Jordan's first got started - but it's far from crumby or cheap. Starting off with an idea that you could either dismiss as being ridiculously hokey or embrace as being one of the purest escape fantasys ever written (a power ring that makes all your dreams come true) this is a careful structured yet brazenly compelling superhero comic that sets up all the peices for Johns sprawling Green Lantern epic and introduces all the Green Lantern mainstays from Carol Ferris to Abin Sur, Thomas Kalmaku to Hector Hammond, William Hand to Sinestro (don't worry if you have no idea who any of these folks are). So skip over the introduction from Ryan Reynolds and power up: this is the perfect place for take-off into mindless superhero fun with plently of cool little touches.

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Further reading: Green Lantern: Rebirth, DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore, Blackest Night.

All comments welcome.