Rating: ***

When we were first given information about the Blackest Night min-series, we were told that this story would involve all of the various Ring Corps that exist in the universe.  So far, we haven’t seen much of them - only the Black Lantern rings racing across the universe and resurrecting the dead into Black Lanterns.  That all changes with this month’s issue of Green Lantern.  All of the various ring colors are represented here, but the major feature of this issue is the battle between yellow ring leader Sinestro of the Sinestro Corps and Carol Ferris of the violet colored Star Sapphires Corps.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a long-time Green Lantern reader so I didn’t know until recently that Carol Ferris was at one time a Star Sapphire.  So the impact of her as a Star Sapphire again and her fighting Sinestro does have the same impact on me as a long-time reader would have.  Still it’s very cool.  You don’t normally have the girlfriend/wife of a super-hero becoming a hero herself and then fighting her boyfriend/husband’s archenemy all that often.  Have we ever seen Mary Jane get powers and fight the Green Goblin?  So this is very cool and it adds a whole dynamic to the relationship of Hal Jordan, Carol, and Sinestro.

Our issue opens up with John Stewart at the remains of the planet Xanshi as multiple Black Lanterns rings swarm him.  He immediately calls for back up and we then see a splash page of John floating in space over the resurrected planet of Xanshi as a Black Lantern.  I guess if the Green Lantern Corps can have Mogo, why can’t the Black Lanterns have their own planet lantern.

Sinestro heads to Zamaron, the home planet of the Sapphires.  There the Sapphires have captured various members of the Sinestro Corps and they are being converted into Star Sapphires.  Each different color power ring carries an emotion and the violet ring of the Sapphires is love.  Sinestro and Carol begin to battle.  During the battle, Carol makes Sinestro relive the death of his wife Arin who was the sister of Abin Sur.  As I said, I was never a huge GL reader and this is all news to me.  Will Arin be resurrected as a Black Lantern?  Also in this issue we see former Green Lantern and Red Lantern Laira is about to be resurrected as a Black Lantern.  She was killed by Sinestro, so a fight between these two is sure to come about.

Carol is defeated by Sinestro thanks in part to other Sinestro Corps members assistance.  However, this is the least of Carol’s problem as they all are then surrounded by Black Lanterns.

Our story ends on Oa with the Guardians being held captive by Scar and we are able to see the Book of the Black which shows the prophecies of the Blackest Night.  Scar informs the Guardians that all of the power ring lights will fall - including the power of the indigo rings.  They’ve have never been seen until now as the last panel shows various members of the Indigo Lantern Corps. 

Next month’s issue deals with Mongul vs Sinestro.  Mongul has tried to take control of the Sinestro Corps, but of course Sinestro will not have any part of that.  A good issue here.  Glad to see all of the other Lantern colors now getting involved in the story.  Forgive me, but I’m not reading the Green Lantern Corps book so maybe they’ve been focused on there. I hope to see the different colored lanterns in the main Blackest Night series soon.  I like Carol as a Star Sapphire.  I would like to see where her relationship with Hal goes after the Blackest Night is over.  Sinestro continues to be one of the great bad guys of the DC Universe and Geoff Johns handles him well.

The Blackest Night has not let me down yet.  I’m really enjoying this one.  This could be a classic in the making!