Rating: ***

Blackest Night continues in this week’s issue of Green Lantern #44.  I liked this issue.  It wasn’t as good as last week’s first issue of the Blackest Night mini-series, but it was still a good read.  Geoff Johns is also the writer here as he continues his run on the main Green Lantern title.  Doug Mahnke who many know from his work on Batman, provides the artwork here and does a great job.  Some very cool splash pages.  I think his work is better here than it was over in Batman.

The story picks up from Blackest Night #1 as we saw the Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onnzz is now a Black Lantern and he confronts Hal Jordan and Barry Allen.  In a very cool scene we see when the black ring found the body of the Martian Manhunter as the Oreo cookie that Batman left on his coffin falls to the ground and crumbles as he bursts out of the coffin and flies off.  J’onn keeps talking about how both Barry and Hal should be dead.  I wonder if their resurrections have anything to do with the prophecy behind the rise of the Black Lanterns and the war that will take place among the various colored lanterns. 

The female Guardian Scar makes an appearance here as well and is holding the other Guardians captive.  They ask why she’s doing this and she believes that it is the Black Lanterns who will save the universe unlike the Manhunters and the Green Lantern Corps.  She states to the Guardians that the Black Lanterns are “collecting hearts full of splintered light” and that “soon it will be his turn to rise”.  I wonder who that can be?  Could it be the Anti-Monitor who scared Scar?  It would certainly tie into everything as the Anti-Monitor was a part of the Sinestro Corps War and the original Crisis which “killed” Barry Allen.

Black Lantern J’onn does a good job of handing Hal and Barry their rear ends by the end of the issue, but the story doesn’t end there.  The story ends in Space Sector 1313 with John Stewart still blaming himself over the destruction of Xanshi.  There he meets up with Fatality who is a survivor of the Xanshi tragedy and is now a Star Sapphire.  Now that she’s a Star Sapphire, she’s learned to forgive him and says that he must do the same for himself.  But as John tries to do so, Black Lantern rings begin shooting through space and are crashing into the meteors of what is left of Xanshi.  We end with a big splash page of John lighting up his ring as we hear the Black rings say, “Rise”.  Will the Black Lantern rings resurrect all those who have died?  Will John Stewart survive the assault of so many Black Lanterns?  I hope so.  I like John.  We find out what happens to John next month in Green Lantern #45, while Hal and Barry’s story continues in Blackest Night #2.

I really enjoyed the camaraderie between Hal and Barry here.  I hear from a lot of old time DC readers about the days of Hal and Barry fighting side-by-side and how good those stories were.  I’m looking forward to more of these types of stories.  So far Blackest Night is living up to the hype.  Let’s hope they can keep it going and not get delayed like we’ve seen with the Flash: Rebirth and Legion of Three Worlds mini-series.  No matter how good the story is, delays hurt and people tend to forget. 

I’m not picking up Tales of the Green Lantern Corps mini-series, but I will be getting the Blackest Night Superman and Batman mini-series.  Superman vs a Black Lantern Earth 2 Superman and Batman vs the Black Lantern Flying Graysons is very cool.  Can’t wait.  Later.