Blackest Night #3 Review

BLACKEST NIGHT #3 (OF 8)

Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert

+ Art is pretty. Some of Ivan Reis's best artwork. Most think of Ethan Van Sciver when it comes to Johns's Green Lantern work, but Reis has established here that he's just as good, if not better, than his longtime collaborator on the title.

+ "The Purple Lanterns" (aka Indigo Tribe) finally make an appearance and kick ass and chew bubblegum.

- Not much else. It's the same story we've been reading for three issues and dozen or so tie-ins. Nothing has changed outside of that and it looks like we're in holding pattern for another two issues until Nekron finally shows up.

- Firestorm. Take your pick in regards to the living or Black Lantern one. Both are boring characters and the writing for his "heart wrenching" scenes was cliched and about as telegraphed as you can get. Oh, two characters talking about how much they love each other and want to get married? In a story where everyone with emotions gets killed? Wonder what happens? Oh, heart ripped out. Who would have thunk it? The dialogue here was just painful to read in context of knowing exactly what was going to happen the minute they started speaking on page one.

- Hal Jordan is a dumbass.

"ZOMG Carol is a Star Sapphire? That's only happened 57 other times. I must go to Zamaron now! "
"But Hal, everyone on Earth is dying and we just found out Green Lanterns are essential to stopping the bad guys."
"ZAMARON! NOW!"

She's not even his girlfriend anymore and hasn't been in years. At least Barry Allen was there to talk some sense into him and get him to, you know, stay and help save all the people on Earth since the other Green Lanterns are all off-planet.

- Yack, yack, yack, yack, yack. There is a whole lot of excessive dialogue in this issue. I don't have a problem reading and read novels all the time, but this is a visual medium - you show, not tell. The worst instance of this was with Indigo-1, the leader of the Indigo Tribe. Remember how they only speak some messed up, monosybillic language? Well, they know English, apparently, and just won't shut up. She has a splashpage image where I swear there is more text than actual image on the entire page. Just when the first onslaught of text bubbles ends, I look down and there are more. I was tempted to just flip the page and move on at that point.

Verdict - Check It. I didn't want to write a full review of this because, well, I'm completely apathetic about it now. Loved ones come back from the dead, say mean things and kill people. Rinse and repeat. Same story for three issues and a dozen or so tie-ins. Yawn.

Related Posts