Blackest Night #3 – Review

By Geoff Johns (writer), Ivan Reis (artist), Oclair Albert with Joe Prado (inkers), Alex Sinclair (colorist)

The Story: The Green Lantern and the Flash are fighting a losing battle against the Black Lanterns, Elongated Man, the Martian Manhunter, Firestorm, Hawkman, Hawkwoman and Sue Dibny. In the meantime, the new Firestorm (Jason and Gen) respond to a distress call from the JLA HQ, which they really shouldn’t have done. A few characters and forces we thought dead make some surprising appearances, but things continue to get worse.

What’s Good: Ivan Reis is always awesome. He blew the doors off this barn. Albert, Prado and Sinclair are solid as well, and between the four, they really deliver. Sinclair must be doing some especially serious lifting too, because between the speed effects around the Flash, the transparency effects of Gen in Jason’s head as Firestorm, the glow on Firestorm’s chest, and the bursts of light around the Indigo Tribe, he’s pretty busy, and that’s nothing to say of just keeping up the coloring job on the regular line art. Oh, and one word about the speed effects around the Flash: Awesome…

Johns delivers lots of good character work as well. Despite the enormous cast, I felt like every character not only had something to say, but they said something emotionally meaningful. In one page, he does the A to Z of a tiny romantic fight between Jason and Gen. Over two pages, he has the Green Lantern and Flash argue some pretty heat-of-the-moment stuff and then reconcile. Ronnie Raymond kicks butt as a Black Lantern. He’s ridiculously creepy, especially when he says stuff like “There’s a big empty spot in my head….I’ve got a vacancy that needs to be filled.” And with just one panel, we get to see the dramatic plot reason that the Atom is here at all. Fine, fine writing with lots of tension, action and character moments.

What’s Not So Good: Black Lantern Elongated Man doesn’t work for me. I was pretty happy with him quietly dead, to be honest. He comes off in this issue a little too much like Jim Carrey with manic faces and lines like “Oh! Anger! IIIIII like it!” Not very scary. But that’s a minor point in an otherwise flawless comic book.

Conclusion: We’re getting really close to epic-level here. If you’re not following Blackest Night, check with your doctor; you might have an enzyme imbalance.

Grade: A

-DS Arsenault