Thursday, October 1, 2009

Green Lantern #46

Geoff Johns is one of the most successful writers in comics today, and one of the reasons for that is: he knows how to plant seeds.

Which is to say, he manages to place information in earlier stories that seem to be insignificant at the time. Then he adds more information as the story builds, until he finally unveils the secret behind that seed, and the reader can only say, "Wow."

A good example in this issue of Green Lantern goes back to an earlier story that mentioned the loving couple at the heart of the Star Sapphires. They are unidentifiable and frozen like statues, and it's a bit of background information you don't give much thought to - until the secret behind their true identity is revealed, and all you can say is... well, you know.

And that's just a small part of this issue, as the Black Lanterns attack, Sinestro finally faces Mongul for control of the Yellow Lanterns, and... well, lots of stuff is going on here.

It's to John's credit that despite the numerous storylines running, you never feel lost as you follow along, and the story just keeps building on itself. The Sinestro War was an outstanding story, and Blackest Night is shaping up to be even better.

I don't want to overlook the outstanding work being done by artist Doug Mahnke, who's turning in excellent work on a heck of a challenging assignment, given the huge cast and the big events he's depicting. And that double-page spread at the climax of the fight between Sinestro and Mongul - it's the kind of thing that makes you say "Wow," too.

If you're not already, you really should be reading this comic.

Grade: A

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