As I’ve come to expect from this title, Green Lantern #46 picks up right where Blackest Night #3 left off, with Hal being swept away as the rest of the Justice League faces off the Black Lantern League. Indigo brings him into deep space, where a heated battle between Sinestro and Star Sapphire Carol Ferris has been interrupted by the Black Lantern invasion. As Hal and Indigo-1 attempt to turn the tide of battle, John Stewart sees a spark of hope from the dead planet Xanshi.

A lot of great action this issue. The five-way battle with Lanterns of Green, Yellow, Violet, Indigo and Black makes for an excellent backdrop for some intriguing character developments. Most surprising was just how much you find yourself actually rooting for Sinestro as he battles Mongul, the bloodthirsty warlord who has been attempting to wrest control of the Yellow power from him. In the Sinestro Corps War, he made for an excellent Big Bad. In this storyline he and Hal, as the cover proclaims, have become uneasy allies, and the relationship between the two is fascinating.

Doug Mahnke’s artwork really works here. I love his interpretations of the various alien races we encounter, not to mention the begins so central to the power of the Star Sapphires (more on that later).

Like I’ve noted before the Green Lantern issues of this crossover seem to be almost indispensable to the main title. Not surprising, since this is the book that did the heavy lifting leading up to the event, and both are written by Geoff Johns. And as for how good the book is — that, too, isn’t surprising at all.

Rating: 8/10

SPOILER SECTION: I’m about to get into some of the more interesting (to me) tidbits of this issue, so if you’re trying to remain spoiler-free, stop reading now.

The biggest revelations we got this issue both involved the Star Sapphires, and the source of their power. Each of the colors has its own living embodiment, the entity that stands for their source of power. So far we’ve met two — Yellow is Parallax, Green is Ion. Back in Green Lantern #43 we discovered the name of the Violet entity is Predator. In this issue, we find that the Sapphires are actually holding Predator prisoner. The Lanterns embodying love are trying to keep their entity in check. Why?

Also of note, we discovered that the heart of the Violet Lantern was the crystallized remains of Khufu and Chay-Ara of Earth — the Egyptian lovers who died and were resurrected as the perpetual reincarnates we call Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Now this is interesting. IF you’re going to pick two people who embody love, you’d have a tough time picking someone better than Khufu and Chay-Ara. But we also know that the Black Lantern has the Anti-Monitor at its heart. Are all of the Lanterns powered by the remains of a being who embodies that color’s emotion? And if so, who is at the heart of the other six Lanterns?

Curiouser and curiouser…