“Green Lantern” #43 Review

“Blackest Night Prologue: Tales of The Black Lantern”

Writer: Geoff Johns

Pencils: Doug Mahnke

Inks: Christian Alamy

Colors: Randy Mayor

Cover: Mahnke, Alamy, and Alex Sinclair

The Blackest Night is…here!  A special prologue features the most shocking page and a fantastic story focusing on villain William Hand, a.k.a The Black Hand.  Spoilers Within!

Blackest Night Prologue is entirely centric on William Hand, exploring his life as the son of a funeral home embalmer, his first kill and his turn to crime. As he relates his history as a villain, he is goaded on by Scar, the corrupted Guardian of the Universe, which culminates in the insanely graphic murder of his family and his own suicide. 

Yes, the main lead of the Blackest Night is dead before book’s end, in an amazing page that I really don’t think would be published if this book was written by anyone other than Geoff Johns.

The book ends with Hand resurrected by the power of the Black Lantern and Scar.  Black Hand is established as the Black Lantern Corps equivalent of Ion or Parallax.

The book is probably one of the best issues of Green Lantern that we’ve seen in a while.  Its an intimate, deep look at the life and origins of Black Hand that’s very reminiscent of the excellent Rogues Profile issues of The Flash that Johns did a few years ago, covering everything from his origin (recently somewhat retconned in the “Secret Origin” arc) to the loss of his hand at the behest of The Spectre and his regrown, death-inflicting Hand.  Johns crafts a solid tale that hits all the right notes and jaw dropping moments of shock that this prologue needs.  Everyone I’ve spoken with that read this is now very, very much ready for Blackest Night #1 to hit next week.

The art is fantastic.  Have I mentioned that enough?  I could gush over Black Hand’s death for ages.  The coloring effects especially, with the slight, green tinge behind his eyes, create a powerful, almost disturbing effect.  And the zombified Black Hand is equally awesome.

This is THE issue of the past week to pick up.  The Blackest Night finally begins next week, and is going to consume the DC Universe whole, promising the return of possessed, evil incarnations of pretty much everyone who has ever died in the DC Universe, and a new look and meaning to death afterwards.  Pick this one up; you really owe it to yourself.  Green Lantern#43 gets an A for being the best comic related to a company wide event we’ve seen in over 2 years.