Two years ago, “The Sinestro Corps War” ended with a teaser…a teaser for an event called “Blackest Night”. Two years and one “Final Crisis” later, the “Blackest Night” is here and starts off with a bang. The opening salvo of “Blackest Night” is action-packed, emotional, and downright creepy. It begins with the heroes of the DC universe paying tribute to fallen heroes. Johns shows how each hero is affected by the death of their comrades or their loved ones. At the same time, the “War of Light” the Guardians of the Universe have been trying to prevent has erupted. Unfortunately this part is brief, but serves its purpose because the Guardians are too distracted to realize the danger soon to be heaped upon the universe. So far the “War of Light” is being covered in the “Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps” title. Then all hell starts to break loose.

The Black Lantern rings have swarmed across the universe like a plague of locusts, picking dead heroes and villains as their bearers. The dead have risen and will begin their assault on the living, targeting Hawkman as their first victim.

The Black Lanterns are DC Zombies with a similar mission as Thanos - to spread death across the universe until everything is dead. The resurrected heroes and villains are mangled and ghoulish, a gross distortion of their once noble forms. The most disturbing are Ralph and Sue Dibny. While this is clearly a set up issue, their is enough character interaction and story to hook you. Johns has been building this event since “Green Lantern: Rebirth” and it shows. I can’t wait for the rest of the story when we find out more about the Black Lanterns and how the heroes of the DC Universe react to their fallen comrades resurrection before realizing that their friends serve the forces of death.

The Blackest Night has arrived….

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