DCU Comic Book Reviews

BLACKEST NIGHT:  TALES OF THE CORPS #3

September 2009

Tales of Red Lantern by Geoff Johns and Eddy Barrows & Ruy Jose

Tales Of The Star Sapphires by Geoff Johns and Gene Ha

Tales Of The Orange Lantern by Peter J. Tomasi and Tom Mandrake

Covers by Ed Benes and Dave Gibbons

Synopsis

In the aftermath of the ScienCell Riot, Kilowog grieves for his fallen comrades.  Watching nearby, a rookie is fearful Kilowog will be upset with him.  Honor Lantern Guy Gardner tells him to remember that Kilowong was once a rookie….  Then, Kilowog is trained by Lantern Ermey.  In the midst of training on new palent, Ermey receives a priority alert.  They are the only ones close so the recruits are pressed into duty.  During the fight, Ermey dies, but the rookies save the day.

On Graxos IV, Arisia trains with her father, Lantern Fentara, hoping to carry on the family tradition.  When Fentara dies in action, however, the new Corps member is Arisia’s uncle, Blish.  When Blish dies, though, Arisia becomes the new Lantern of the Rrab family.  On Oa, Arisia smiles as Kilowog trains her.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Both of the stories are good.  They don’t really have anything to do with Blackest Night and who knows if either Kilowog or Arisia will even have a big part of the main mini-series, but they were interesting looks into the past of two long-standing characters in Green Lantern history.  I will reiterate what I stated for the first two parts of this mini-series; I like the idea of telling stories that are not necessary to the main story, but rather flesh out the main story, but I am not sure this is the right venue.  I think these would’ve worked better as a back-up in the Green Lantern Corps book. 

I will assume that the Lantern trainer Ermey was modeled after famous actor and former drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey.  He is a veteran of the Vietnam war and is famous for playing authority figures, most notably in Full Metal Jacket.  He also was the voice of Sarge, the leader of the green plastic Army Men in Toy Story.

I like the brief cameo of Guy Gardner in the Arisa story.  A nice touch. 

In addition to the two stories, Blackest Night #0 is reprinted with pencils only and a “Director’s Commentary” by writer Geoff Johns and editors Eddie Berganza and Adam Schlagman.  Unfortunately, there is not much new or illuminating information provided.  Johns lets slip that the Arom will play a big role in Blackest Night, but as I have already the first two issues of the mini-series by the time I got around to this, it doesn’t seem like that big of news.  What the “commentary” needed was more tidbits of information like at the end where Johns worked from “the dead shall rise” to create the Black Lantern oath.