ComicWorm Speaks!- Blackest Night Tales of the Corps

ComicWorm Speaks!

Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps 

by Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, and Sterling Gates

Acquired: Barnes & Noble 

Series: Blackest Night

Paperback: 176 Pages

Publisher: DC Comics

****

The Story: In this 3-issue miniseries, the secrets behind the Lanterns of BLACKEST NIGHT are revealed! Bear witness to Blue Lantern Saint Walker's pilgrimage of hope, Star Sapphire Carol Ferris' sacrifice for love, Green Lantern Kilowog's courageous beginnings, Red Lantern Vice's source of rage, Orange Lantern Blume's bizarre creation, and the first appearance of the mysterious Indigo, leader of the Indigo Tribe! 

Written by Blackest Night author Geoff Johns and fan favorite Pete Tomasi, BLACKEST NIGHT: TALES OF THE CORPS is an essential part of the Blackest Night storyline.

The Review: Green Lantern is one of Bookworm’s Favorite Superheroes, and thanks in large part to the Green Lantern Animated Series, he has begun to devour the mythology as is standard procedure when something sparks his interest. So this volume was an immediate candidate for purchase and It delivers. 

Like a lot of anthologies, this volume is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the stories are good, some are bad, and some are just mediocre. 

This is illustrated by the selections made for the Green Lantern stories. The tale of Kilowog is excellent and little bit funny too. It tells the story of Kilowog’s training when he first became a Green Lantern. No spoilers but it tells the reader the power of Will and does so excellently. 

The next one is the story of Arisia and her recruitment. This is a very sweet tale but it is not much else. It leaves more questions than answers. 

The Blue Lantern story is one of the best in the whole volume. It displays the power of faith no matter the context. Something that still needs to be said even in a world where religious power is seen more as a negative influence. 

The Orange Lantern Corps story is something of a disappointment. Some may have been hoping for more of a story about the corps, specifically Larfleeze but it does show the interesting manner in which avatars of the Orange Light are “recruited.” That is pretty much it though. The journey of the character is pretty repetitive and we don’t see the main character of the Orange Light, Larfleeze until the very end. What get when we finally do see him it is pretty over and done with in two pages. The Orange Lanterns are kind of interesting and would be nice to see more of it’s history in later volumes.   

Another confusing story is the Yellow Lantern story. It tells the story of Mongol’s son and his attempts at being a conqueror like his father. Since the Yellow Lanterns don’t appear the point is a little confusing but it does come through in the end. Yellow is the light of fear and Mongol Jr embodies fear in two main ways. He is afraid of his father, who commands absolute obedience and he wishes to be feared, to be a conqueror. An ideal recruit for the Corps of Fear. 

Finally we get to final corps, the corps of death, The Black Lanterns. 

Let’s get this out of the way. The Black Hand is one of the most insufferable villains that ComicWorm has ever encountered. That may not have been the intention but ComicWorm cannot stand him. He is supposed to be a necrophiliac nihilist but he just comes off as such a whiner that ComicWorm just wants to slap him every time he opens his mouth.  The Book of the Black is part of the Black Lantern section of this book and it is interesting in how it details his mental state but at the same time is a reflection of a whiner. No one likes a whiner. 

That’s nothing compared to the final story in the volume. This one deals with the Black Lanterns but it also deals with Superboy-Prime. This one is just a mess. While reading it, ComicWorm had no idea what was going on. Further research has concluded that Superboy-Prime is a character from the Infinite Crisis, a crossover event from DC history, and now he has somehow ended up in the prime universe. The Prime Universe is the “real world” where comic book characters are fictional creations. This admittedly is kind of fascinating but honestly that’s all it has going for it. The storyline requires so much prior knowledge that it’s barely worth the bother of reading it. It is confusing, and really what prevented this volume from receiving five stars. 

The other stories of the Black Lanterns are much better. The Black Lanterns are interesting in a moribund sort of way. There is something rather poetic about the way they talk and what they talk about. This could be surmised about all the colors of the emotional spectrum. Death, hope, will, rage, all of these are fundamental forces of life. The writers of these stories recognize this and all of these stories know what they are about. They are about fear, about greed, and about compassion. They are simple tales about simple things. 

All of this being said, while the stories by themselves can be a little off, this book really is greater than the sum of its parts. They are exactly what they say on the cover: Tales of Corps. They are not sprawling and deep epics and they don’t have to be. They are little snapshots of the various colors of the light spectrum. 

Final Verdict: Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps, is a critical edition for any fan of Green Lantern or any fan of comic books. It is a volume as colorful on the inside as it is on the outside. It is probably not the best place to start for a newbie but good for anyone who want’s more. 

Four out Five Stars

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