Blackest Night Review – “Green Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse”

With this review, our “Blackest Night” coverage is up to date.

General Information

Title: Green Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse (issues 33-38)

Author: Peter J. Tomasi

Illustrator(s): Patrick Gleason (pencils); Rebecca Buchman, Christian Alamy, Prentis Rollins, Tom Nguyen (inks); Randy Mayor, Nei Ruffino, Gabe Eltaeb (colors)

Cover Date: April – September 2009

Cover Price: $2.99 US per issue

Premise

The Blackest Night is now a few steps closer. Arisia and Sodam Yat travel to his Xenophobic home of Daxam, where they find a few hundred members of the Sinestro Corps working under their new leader, Mongul. Soranik Natu has an encounter with Sinestro, who makes disturbing claims about her history. The Lanterns on Oa are met with a breakout and riot in the sciencells, resulting in several deaths, including many of the prisoners within.

High Point

This was tough to choose. Sodam Yat’s fulfillment of his end of the prophecy was nice, but I think I ultimately prefer this dialogue:
Rookie Green Lantern: The sky is falling…
Guy Gardner: And you know what a Lantern does after the sky falls, rookie?
Rookie: No, sir.
Guy Gardner: He picks the damn pieces up and he gets on with getting on.

Low Point

Scar’s behaviour has changed considerably since she was attacked in the Sinestro Corps War, particularly here. None of the other Guardians notice this, or her frequent moments of isolation?

The Scores

This keeps pushing the Corps in new directions, which counts nicely for originality. With Blackest Night ready to launch next week, tension is building. Scar is starting to moves pieces in place, and the new Corps promises to hit big very shortly. I give it 5 out of 6.

The artwork is very nice. I find this a little surprising, actually, given the rotating color and ink teams throughout. I give it 5 out of 6.

The story effectively sets up the next stages for the title. It’s interesting on its own, but it only really makes sense as a part of a whole, as background from previous chapters is assumed and it ends on something of a cliffhanger. I give it 5 out of 6.

The characterization doesn’t get a lot of time to shine. There’s a lot going on from so many different ends that there’s very little breathing room. I’m happy it was extended to include issue 38, as the originally announced 33-37 would have been extremely tight, and had even less time. I give it 4 out of 6.

The emotional response was strong. Each of the last three issues has one heck of a cliffhanger. (The issue before those three would have also felt this way, if the cliffhanger hadn’t been based on the “surprise guest appearance” of the only character on the issue’s cover.) I give it 5 out of 6.

The flow is smooth, despite numerous changes in location, likely because the relationships between the different story arcs were similar in terms of action and tension. I give it 6 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a solid story arc to read in the context of “Blackest Night,” but don’t expect it to stand up as well if read in isolation. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total, Green Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse receives 35 out of 42.

Blackest Night Checklist

A History of the DC Universe: Green Lantern

Preliminaries

The Main Event

  • Blackest Night #0 (Free Comic Day edition), #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, , #7, #8, complete series
  • Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1-3
  • Green Lantern #44-??
  • Green Lantern Corps #39-??
  • Blackest Night: Batman #1-3
  • Blackest Night: Superman #1-3
  • Blackest Night: Titans #1-3
  • more to come…

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