Over the past week or so I have read the seven collected hardbound editions of DC Comics’ recent crossover event, Blackest Night. I’d read little bits here and there but I did what the creators would have wanted me to do and I’ve treated it as a comprehensive text.

Further, instead of blogging the individual book, as I normally do, I’m gonna’ do what’s easier for me and, again, what they would probably want and stir it all up in my mind and conceive of it as just one thing, despite multiple writers and artists all adding their own flavor into the stew.

So what do I think?

I like comics with big, bold colors, and the very nature of this story (the emotional spectrum at the engine of creation/existence as made manifest by Roy G Biv) is one giant excuse to have page after page of vibrant color explode out of every panel.

I also like when obscure, particularly square Golden Age characters show up, and, therefore, I’m a fan of Geoff Johns who loves nothing more than a solid deep cut. For God’s sake, the original Mr. Terrific shows up as a zombie – you don’t get more square than him! Seriously, everyone you’ve ever cared about in the DCU past or present gets a moment on stage here.

As an avowed Green Lantern fan (and, even more so, a Green Lantern Corps fan) I found myself more interested in the main stream of this story. Maybe, just maybe, tying EVERYTHING in the DCU wasn’t exactly for me. But for a snoozer chapter here (like, say, The Question or Jonah Hex) there is something really bizarre that takes some risks – Superboy Prime assaulting the offices of 1700 Broadway, I’m looking at you.

Nothing tops the Corps, though, and hats off to Blackest Night being a Green Lantern-driven story. Because Green Lantern is awesome. Green Lantern/Green Lantern Corps is the greatest thing happening in comics right now, and much of what has been making it cool is all the weird-ass shit leading up to Blackest Night. The Blue Lanterns are here to stay, as is Larfleeze and a rage-napalm-spitting Atrocitus.

Okay, my wife may’ve thought I was nuts wasting an entire beautiful Sunday plowing through these weighty tomes, but she’s enough of an Indigo Lantern at heart to allow me the indulgence. (Now if only I can convince her to dress like a Star Sapphire – reowr!)

The 1970s reboot of the JSA, introducing Power Girl and doing its best to make sense of Earth-One and Earth-Two.

These are the last embers of the Silver Age whiz bam pow comics – with some wonderfully dated narrative prose from Paul Levitz. It’s stupid, it’s fun. Wildcat is my favorite.

The email correspondence between author and filmmaker (in Sri Lanka and Los Angeles, respectively) is interesting in that I find all behind-the-scenes material on filmmaking interesting. What makes this book such a treasure is Clarke nerding the hell out about the miracle of the then very much embryonic internet.

To send and receive email in 1983 was a very difficult process – and Clarke’s extremely detailed descriptions are a wonderful capsule. That he recognizes how swiftly the method of communication will be adopted and altered is just as striking.

Hyams meant well with 2010. I should watch it again.

Right on the heels of GL’s Agent Orange is this final pre-Blackest Night arc from the GL Corps.

There’s a riot in the sciencells, Arisia and Sodam Yat fight Mongul and the Sinestro Corps on Daxam, Soranik Natu learns the truth about her father and Kyle and Guy stand-up to the Alpha Lanterns – even if it means protecting the life of (now Red Lantern) Bolphunga the Unrelenting.

Read that sentence again.

Now ask me why I love the Green Lantern Corps.

An absolute victory of an arc – the final one of the straight GL comics before the start of “Blackest Night.”

Hal Jordan runs afoul of yet ANOTHER color in the emotional spectrum: the orange light of insatiable avarice.

The will of Green must forge with the hope of Blue to. . . .oh, who cares, show me some crazy aliens and pour gobs of fluorescent ink on the page! And a giant blue sage elephant-warrior!

This is one of the most fun GL books out there.

Picking up nicely where Emerald Dawn, the Vol. 3 origin tale of the early 1990s, left off, it is time for Hal Jordan to a) face the music of his drunk driving and b) begin to learn that Sinestro is a persnickety dick.

Tremendous fun – while still a little bit of a Gee Golly Gosh holdout from the Silver Age, but still dazzling in its trippy space cops storyline.

500 (mostly) great pages of badass bounty hunter comics.

Here’s what I discovered – when I read Star Wars comics, I hear Wilhelm Screams in my head.

As this is a massive collection, there are different writers and artists on display. Some are better than others. When it’s cookin’, though, it’s great.

My favorite story is called Underworld: The Yavin Vassilika, which has competing Hutts sending all the great Bounty Hunters, such as IG-88, Dengar, Zuckuss and Lando & Han, on a wild goose chase. The drawings are really groovy and the fan service is through the roof.

I tore through his hefty tome on an airplane and now I’m hungry for more.

This may be a first for me when commenting about a Marvel book – but this is absolutely fucking fantastic. This and Vol 1 (Super-Human) of The Ultimates is, with some minor tweaking, all they need for creating a fantastic Avengers movie.

If the Thor that comes out in theaters is *this* Thor, we’re in for some real fun.

Truly beautiful, disturbing imagery and one of the best uses of comics as a true artform. Light on story, heavy on tone – wonderful abstract painted panels that threaten to rise to the level of genuine, impressionistic art.

(The stuff about Harvey Dent gateway drugging from a coin to a deck of cards to the IChing is cool, too.)

Does a Justice Society of America/Justice League of America crossover need to bring in the Legion of Superheroes? That’s just wayyyy too many capes and masks to keep track of.

All the charm of the JSA’s first (recent) book is overwhelmed by the massive, plodding plot.