The third and final installment of Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps doesn’t actually feature both the Greens and Blacks, the Corps that weren’t covered in the first two. Instead, we get two stories focusing on the Green — specifically, the origin stories of two of the more popular alien Green Lanterns, Kilowog and Arisia, both written by Peter Tomasi.
In “New Blood,” Tomasi and artist Chris Samnee bring us the story of Kilowog’s days as a Green Lantern in-training. It’s so bizarre to see him playing this role. We’re so used to seeing the calm, confidant warhorse Kilowog is today that it can be easy to forget that he was once a recruit himself. The story fits a pretty common archetype, the young recruit who becomes his own trainer, but it’s an archetype that suits Kilowog very well. There are some really strong moments for the character, including a nice dovetail into the current story at the end. Plus, Samnee‘s art is just great, a perfect fit for this story.
“Daddy’s Girl” tells the story of Arisia, Green Lantern of sector 2815. Her story is known pretty well, but this story tells it in much more detail than any version I’ve seen before. Arisia was the daughter of Fentara Rrab, and from an early age was determined to follow in his footsteps, just like Fentara followed his own father, and he his. Arisia comes from one of the few families in the universe for which being a Green Lantern is a legacy. Tomasi really gets across the fear in young Arisia, the terror that she may not live up to her father’s example. Arisia’s been around for a long time now, and she’s changed a lot. This story really recalls the bright, eager young cadet she was when she first turned up in the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps miniseries. Mike Mayhew‘s art on this story is downright beautiful.
Filling out the book we get a “director’s commentary” version of the story from the Free Comic Book Day giveaway comic, Blackest Night #0. This version is uninked or colored, featuring only Ivan Reis‘s original pencils and the text written by Geoff Johns. Johns, along with editors Eddie Berganza and Adam Schlagman, add extra captions discussing the behind-the-scenes stuff — the things that inspired certain choices in the story, the artwork, that kind of thing. It’s a fun look into the workings of the book.
Rating: 8/10
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