this may come off bitchy, and i'm sorry for that, but if you are reading blackest night and NOT green lantern and green lantern corps, you are an idiot. you might as well not read blackest night at all.

I hadn't realized Green Lantern had such mass appeal. It's easily my favorite Super-Hero title right now, but I still have plenty of friends who haven't been picking it up either.

Could someone who reads this clear something up for me? Have they made a distinct statement that it's not the actual person coming back, but rather just some evil force that can access the memories of corpses it inhabits?

It seems like something I'd enjoy reading, but hearing that made me lose interest pretty fast. Seems like a lame copout if that's the case.

Most of the main thrust of the action has been taking place in Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.

Green Lantern has mostly been focusing on Hal and his reaction to the madness on Earth and the effort to get all of the Color Corps to work together to fight The Black.

There's also been a subplot on John Stewart having to confront the resurrected world of Xanshi (a planet he was unable to save and feels directly responsible for the death of) and it appears that his dead wife (The GL Katma Tui) will be confront him soon enough.

Green Lantern Corps has been more focused on the regular cast of alien GLs from that book and their reaction to - among other things - the apparent death of The Guardians, the resurrection of their fallen comrades as Black Lanterns, an assault on the homeworld of the Red Lanterns to recover one of the deceased Green Lanterns... and the takeover of the Sinestro Corps by Superman baddie Mongul.

Whew. Talk about epic.

But yes, most of the outer-space parts are in the Green Lantern books. Blackest Night has been centering on the Heroes of Earth and their efforts to hold the zombie menace at bay until the Lanterns get their act together.

SHAMELESS PLUG TIME: Anybody interested in keeping tabs on the series can do so by reading the Blackest Night reports on my blog: Looking To The Stars

emerson99: yeah, it's the rings that are doing everything, it's not the actual person. but i promise, it still gets pretty dramatic because those black rings are huge dicks.

Me, being a huge DC nerd, am so proud with what's going on right now! (ehhh minus JSA and JLA, we won't talk about that) Hail the Corps!

I'm not sure that Blackest Night would make any sense with out reading at least Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.. I've been picking each title up since they started, so I wouldn't know. I will highly suggest them though. Outside of Batman and Robin, they are definitely DC's best comics right now.

This event is amazing. and yes read GL and GLC.
I'm glad to see Green Lantern becoming so popular. My first comic was Emerald Twilight and I haven't stopped since.

I'm way disappointed that Detective Comics isn't on this list. I picked up 8 of the 10 books on this list (not X-Men or New Avengers) and I think that Detective Comics right now blows all of them out of the water.

And if you're just reading Blackest Night, you owe it to yourself to also read Green Lantern. I read Blackest Night, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps and the only one that feels unneeded to me is Corps.

@emerson999 - Basically, what you said is correct. It is, however, not so much that an evil force is possessing the corpses and turning them into puppets as an evil force is taking the corpses and corrupting them.

They HAVE said that the Black Lanterns do not have a true soul and are capable of being possessed by a ghost like Deadman... albeit briefly and at great pain to the ghost. The current Firestorm, too, has somehow melded with the deceased former Firestorm and declared that there's no "there" there but he can sense a conciousness commanding the Black Lanterns actions.

So you have an army of super-powered zombies that have the memories of the decased heroes as well as the superpowers of the deceased heroes but whom act nothing at all like the real person. Hence you'll see a Zombie Elongated Man and Sue Dibny who speak in loving tones about one another... but who speak hatefully of their best friends.

And the big bad behind the Black Lanterns was recently named in Blackest Night #4 but given the nature of his powers, the means through with the Black Lanterns are resurrected as mockeries of the living person makes sense.

So ... what exactly is the value of sales numbers in age where the top selling comics are measured in paltry tens of thousands of issues, when at their silver-age height anything that sold less than a million was considered a dud series? Vying for the top single issue sales ranks in the current marketplace seems a lot like playing "King of the Molehill".

I'm sorry, but that's not total domination. That's DC having a massive, company-wide event and Marvel laying off of one. Marvel is in cruise control and DC is busting out it's best stuff coupled with a sure fire selling gimmick that works for just about anyone and all that can salvage is one very good month (in which Marvel still takes the rest of the top ten.)

This is like TNA wrestling being happy because iMPACT! (their flagship show) is capable of beating ECW (WWE's third-tier, red-headed stepchild) in the ratings.

Congrats on being the king of mediocrity, DC!

I'm still not feeling this crossover, for most of the reason you mentioned, Rob. DC's crossovers are generally *about* something - whether it be the "new vs old" theme of Infinite Crisis or the whole "nature of storytelling" theme of Final Crisis.

This one's seemingly just an excuse to string together a bunch of action scenes right now, and it's not working all that well. It's a far too typical of Johns' post-Flash writing - all sizzle, not nearly enough steak, and waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much gore.

While I'll admit that it at least addresses the core strength of the DC Universe by reminding everyone of the legacies and the history all the key characters carry, the fact that the miniseries is revolving around dull (Barry), duller (Hal) and Tortures-Bad-Guys-in-the-same-way-his-wife-died-Man (Ray) has been one of the biggest problems with it.

(Then again, I'm one of those people who thinks the real Geoff Johns was killed and replaced with his evil twin at the start of Infinite Crisis, as his writing has been mediocre at best since that point.)

One other thing: WHO THE HELL IS STILL READING X-MEN!?! I know that back in the late 90s the excuse was that people were just doing it out of habit, but the book hasn't been readable since Morrison left (and he wasn't even on Uncanny), and now it's both unreadable and boasting Greg Land on art.

Yet it's always been a top ten book while actual GOOD Marvel titles like Daredevil and Cap (almost) never crack the top ten. Maybe Claremont's preferences turned the X-Men fanbase into a group that enjoys punishment as well?

Dude, if you're enjoying Blackest Night you GOTTA read the Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps books. That's where the real war of light is raging. The main Blackest Night series and tie-in mini-seires are just the "meanwhile, back on Earth" parts of the story.

Oh, and before anyone else points it out: yes, I remembered ten seconds too late that Ray's wife didn't die from the torture, but rather used that torture to kill the wife of one of his friends.

KAINE'S BACK!

Comics cost 3.99 in America? If they were that cheap over here I'd buying one every day...whose responsible this!?

I'm awaiting this to come out in trades, then I will pick it up to read. The story sounds like a lot of fun!

wonder pigeon really puts things into perspective for us american comic buyers

Finally! DC is starting to get it together again!

Rob,

You could've been reading Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps instead of drinking yourself into a coma last weekend. And yes, you are only seeing about a third of what is happening.

GL & GLC are must reads,especially if you've followed since the reappearance of Hal and The Sinestro Corps storyline, but the other to-date crossover titles (Superman, Titans, Batman) have been very lackluster. The exception was watching Ma Kent and Krypto do a number on Earth-2 Lois. That was pretty awesome. Otherwise the crossovers have had absolutely no plot development per se and have been straight up blasé action.

Maybe its just me, or the fact that I love DC with all my heart, but I am thoroughly riveted to this story. Sure it's super-zombies, but its way better than Marvel Zombies, which I hated. This really is a horror movie in comics. I still never know who's the next one to die, and when it happens, I'm still shocked.

Yes, you have to read GL and GLC to round out the story. Also, you should at least check out the Titans 3-parter that just finished...while the Superman and Batman ones were alright (Batman brought back the Graysons and Drakes), the Titans one has some movement toward resolution and further conflict (Dove's power can destroy a BL - makes sense because her pure white light would be what you get if you combined all of the emotional spectrum lights prism-style - and Donna was bitten by a BL of her dead son, which infected her and has her able to see auras like the other BLs).

GL has been the "here's what happened and how we stop it" book that first showed the destruction of a BL. GLC has been the "your past is about to haunt you" book...remember all those folks the Corps killed when lethal force was enabled? And the Lantern Crypt? Uh-huh. We also got the return of Jade to confront Kyle (I still wish they'd kept those two together), and coming up soon one of the main GLs joins another Corps. (It's been advertised in the previews as to who and which, should be next month.)

As for the main Blackest Night title, that's been the world effect book, as well as the "holy crap, they didn't" book in terms of offing people. Tempest and the Hawks are already dead, as is Gem of the new Firestorm matrix (as someone else said, the other one is currently absorbed by BL Ronnie Raymond - particularly insidious because instead of having to rip his heart out to absorb his emotion, the kid's emotions are almost battery-like for Ronnie in charging him) and the original Atom's kid, at least. Also, the new Hawk was killed in the Titans book.

This story brought me back to getting comics at my comic shop, it's been that good. And if you like Geoff Johns, tell him so...I follow his tweets on @GeoffJohns0.

Remember: all will be well.

I've been reading Green Lantern since just before the Sinstro Corp War and it's just damn good superhero stuff. It's hard to make space interesting with superheros but Tomasi and Johns are doing pretty well (can you think of any x-men storyline when they went into space that was good?). It's hard to relate to people in colour code costumes floating in a void with godlike power, but they've been pulling it off for the last few years.

Whoo!

Green Lantern has been amazing since Geoff Johns took the reigns. Easily some of the best comics of the decade.

The Blackest Night cross-over may be lacking in substance, but then again, very few crossovers have much substance. I find it highly enjoyable.

Three words. Zombie Martian Manhunter. And that was just the beginning.

Johns is making it where you can't use zombies anymore. Which is great, because fuck those guys. They finally gave Woody a zombie movie so we're done.

Sigh. Extremely happy about the news. Really. Finally the company and the title that deserves to be on top are.

But when, when, sweet jumpin' Jesus Jones WHEN will they bring Kyle Rayner back to Earth to stay? He is so misplaced in space. So dreadfully misplaced...

I promised myself I wouldn't cry.

*sob*

Fuck.

Yeah the Blackest Night has been entertaining enough, but I still feel that Hal Jordan is one of the most dullest characters in comics.

Lucky there is a lot more happening in the crossover so the story doesn't have to just focus on him.

But yeah I wouldn't worry about all the 3 part side series (batman, superman etc..) they really don't add anything to the whole crossover story. Just stick to the main books, GL and corps.

"my oblique way of saying ..."

...gay

FYI, Geoff Johns says thank you on Twitter:

@GeoffJohns0: Top 6?!? Sa-weet. Thanks to everyone's support! Happy Saturday!! :)

I'm looking forward to the White Lanterns showing up and kicking ass! Any guesses as to who is gonna be a WL?