Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #3 – Review

by Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Chris Samnee, Mike Mayhew (artists), John Kalisz, Andy Troy (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letterer)

What a jip! 2 stories only?! What the hell?! If DC’s gonna skimp out us on our expected Lantern stories, they could’ve at least given us 2 compelling stories related to the ongoing event; not two character profiles that read like annuals that you can pass on. And what’s with the Directory’s Commentary for Free Comic Book Day’s Blackest Night #0? That’s something I usually expect to find at the end of the trade.

So what are we really getting with Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #3? 2 character histories (Kilowag’s and Arisia’s) that don’t reveal anything new about the characters, just the dead people in their lives– who we can expect to be in the background somewhere when all hell has broken loose and Johns has each respective character battling the ghosts from their pasts. I guess that’s supposed to be the point of these two stories– to expect and know who those Black Lanterns are.

But if you’ve already picked up the first two, you might as well swoop this one. The Kilowog story takes up most of the pages, and I guess I can say it’s all right. In this story, Tomasi gives us the history of how Kilowag came to be the hardass that he is. And although you may know where the story is going by the second page, it’s still somewhat entertaining to witness the half-assed character exploration behind Kilowog and how he got his ball-busting drill sergeant ways from Lantern Ermey (lame Full Metal Jacket reference by the way, Tomasi…). As for the Arisa story, it’s forgettable, unexciting, and reads as if the creative team thought it would be funny to forcefuly run an unfunny gag over and over…

There aren’t a lot of redeeming qualities with Tales of the Corps #3; but since it’s the 3 out of 3, you may as well get it. Read it once, slip it back in the bag and board, and marvel at it for a couple of seconds when you connect all three covers. Then pray that Blackest Night #2 comes out already.

Grade: D

-Ray Hilario

Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #2 – Review

by Geoff Johns & Peter Tomasi (writers), Eddy Barrows, Gene Ha, & Tom Mandrake (pencils and inks), Ruy Jose (inks), Nei Ruffino & Pete Pantazis (colors), Steven Wand & Sal Cipriano (letters)

The Story: How Red Lantern Bleez, Star Sapphire Carol Ferris, and Orange Lantern Blume (the giant floating head) ended up in their respective lantern corps.

What’s Good: Bleez’s story is probably the best of the bunch this month, making me care about a character I knew little of. Johns does a great job of making things go horribly wrong while also adding new depths to the Sinestro Corps’ depravity.  It’s despicable stuff that makes Bleez sympathetic, but Johns also makes no attempt to paint Bleez as innocent or perfect: Bleez was nonetheless elitist and spoiled. This makes the Sinestro Corps invasion all the more effective, as it opens her world in a huge way, shattering her ignorance as it shatters her.

Barrow’s artwork was also absolutely superb, particularly in his depictions of Bleez’s homeworld and her angelic form. From page one on, it’s clear that this is Eddy Barrows at his best.

As far as Carol Ferris’ tale goes, I enjoyed the level of sentience and conversational ability that the violet ring possessed. Make no mistake though: this story is a showcase for Gene Ha and Pete Pantazis, who put out perhaps the best artwork of any Tale thus far. There’s almost a retro feel to it, lending itself well to the flashbacks, while Pantazis gives the entire story a fitting violet hue. It’s rare that a colorist asserts himself so well in the storytelling aspect of comic art.

Blume’s story is fun for what it is, with Johns’ “God of Hunger” concept being a really neat one. This is a rare case where I feel that the short page count of the Tales actually does the story favours.  At six pages, it doesn’t overextend itself or lead to questions of relevance. Rather, the cool concept alone provides enough mileage for the Tale, which aims to be nothing more than fast, simple fun.

What’s Not-so-Good: While it’s the best of the bunch, the Bleez tale is severely hampered by its low page count, as the pacing feels somewhat crushed, with one massive plot development following another with little to build-up. The Tale is excellent because of its larger scope, but it’s this very scope that also proves to be its weak-point, as the story would clearly have lent itself better to a full 22 pages. The invasion out of nowhere happens far too quickly and Bleez’s getting the red ring feels a little too convenient, giving the feeling that a ridiculous number of rings are floating around at any one moment. Also, due to the page count, Johns isn’t fully able to do a thoroughly convincing job of depicting Bleez’s rage. Yes, what she undergoes is horrible, but she doesn’t have quite enough lines to express her anger.

The Carol Ferris tale, while not bad, is probably the weakest of the bunch, only because it feels like something of a rehashing. It simply re-tells things we already knew or have already seen and thus feels a little more lifeless than it should. While not quite to the extent of the Son of Mongul tale last month, I just don’t feel like this story had to be told.

Conclusion: While the Saint Walker tale is still the best, this week’s offering is a better overall package than last week’s.

Grade: C+

-Alex Evans

Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1 – Review

By Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi (writers), Jerry Ordway, Doug Mahnke, Chris Samnee, Rags Morales (artists), Tom Nguyen, Christian Alamy (inkers)

The Stories: This three-issue limited series contains three stories. The first is about the Blue Lantern Saint Walker, and his sad origin and the nature of hope. The second story is an interesting father and son tale about Mongul. The third story is about a new group, the mysterious Indigo Tribe, and its encounter with a Yellow Lantern and a Green Lantern.

We are also treated with some great splash pages of the Blue Lanterns, the Green Lantern Corps, the Sinestro Corps and the Indigo Tribe. This means that Johns and Tomasi don’t need to do a whole lot of exposition during the story to keep new readers on track.

What’s Good: Saint Walker’s story is an intriguing look at hope, faith and religion in the face of terrifying disaster (think trials of Job). Walker’s faith is well done, compelling and it makes me want to read more about him. I obviously knew that Walker was going to get a blue ring and I expected a cliché ending, but Johns misdirected and surprised me. As for the story of Mongul’s son and how he perceived his father was interesting, and it ended neatly enough. And for the Indigo Tribe, the story was meant to tease and it succeeded.

Art: All the art was well-done. Ordway iss a strong, experienced penciller who did some fine work with Saint Walker against Larfleeze. All the images were clear, despite the fact that many panels had a lot going on. I loved Ordway’s take on a sun getting younger – a spectacular image of blue and red. Mahnke, Samnee and Morales were also strong visual storytellers in this book.

What’s Not So Good: The concept of a montage book of stories is good, but given that these are origin stories and character study stories, there’s a lot less incentive to collect this book. In fact, throughout, I was wondering why this was part of Blackest Night, when pretty much everything in this book could have fit perfectly into the Blackest Night preludes. Also, while Saint Walker had a complete arc, the story of Mongul’s son was not only brief, but I didn’t feel that anything changed for anyone enough to justify the story being told.

Conclusion: Did anything super-important happen in this book? Not really, which was a bit of a disappointment given the advanced excitement Blackest Night has been getting. This is a collection of back-stories with one teaser for the future. Well-executed, but if you don’t buy it, it shouldn’t get in the way of your enjoyment of Blackest Night.

Grade: C

-DS Arsenault