Green Lantern: The Blackest Night

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"Green Lantern: The Blackest Night"
Teaser for "The Blackest Night" in the back page of Green Lantern (vol. 4) #25. Art by Ethan Van Sciver.
Publisher	DC Comics
Scheduled release date	Summer 2009
Type	Story arc
Scheduled run	Unstated number of issues
Proposed character(s)	Green Lantern Corps Hal Jordan Sinestro Corps Sinestro
Creative team
Writer(s)	Geoff Johns
Penciller(s)	Ethan Van Sciver (involved)

Green Lantern: The Blackest Night is a forthcoming American comic book fictional crossover event in the monthly Green Lantern titles published by DC Comics. Written by Geoff Johns, "The Blackest Night" follows Green Lantern: Rebirth and "Sinestro Corps War" as the third part of a trilogy throughout the Green Lantern comics. The storyline was first revealed at the conclusion of "Sinestro Corps War" and is planned for a summer 2009 release.

[edit] Background

The crossover was first mentioned at the conclusion of the "Sinestro Corps War" in Green Lantern #25. As the war between the Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps reaches its climax, the four Green Lanterns of Earth (Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner) are told by the Guardians Ganthet and Sayd of the "Blackest Night" prophecy. According to the prophecy, the two existing Corps would be joined by five new ones, each driven by a specific emotion and empowered by a specific colour of the spectrum, leading to an all-out war that would end up destroying the universe.

Shortly after the defeat of the Sinestro Corps, the Anti-Monitor is transported to an unspecified location. He is recognized by a dark voice that bids him rise. Too weak to resist or escape, he is engulfed by a Black Power Battery. The teaser proclaimed that "...the armies of fear and willpower must come together, because across the Universe, the dead will rise." A rotted hand was shown coming out of the ground with a black ring on its finger.^[1] The symbol on the ring is of Green Lantern villain Black Hand.^[2]

Like "Sinestro Corps War", "Blackest Night" is based upon a story written by Alan Moore Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2 in the 1980s.^[3] Both Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver have stated that "The Blackest Night" will be the third part of a Green Lantern trilogy that began with Rebirth and continued with "Sinestro Corps War".^[4] In an interview with IGN, Johns stated that he has the monthly Green Lantern book plotted up until issue #55, which (presuming there are little or no delays in the book) would come out in May of 2010.^[5]

More details for the event are revealed in DC Universe #0, which also sets the stage for most of the DCU line in 2008-2009.^[6] DC Universe #0, which bridged the story between Countdown #1 and Final Crisis #1, depicts Green Lantern villain the Black Hand discovering the black power battery on a distant planet.

[edit] Factions

The plot element of the prophecy cited a total of seven Lantern Corps and the teaser implied an eighth. Plot elements have started presenting aspects of the six colored Corps other than "Green".

• Yellow: In story elements, predominantly from Green Lantern: Rebirth and "Sinestro Corps War", expanded Sinestro into a prototype for a larger group. These stories also ascribed the emotion of fear as the color's power source.^{[issue # needed][citation needed]}

• Violet: Story elements have given a reason for the Zamarons' Star Sapphires to move to a ring and lantern motif as well as ascribing the emotion of love as the color's power source.^{[issue # needed][citation needed]}

• Blue: The only story elements presented so far have been the creation of the first blue ring by Ganthet and Sayd and that the emotion of hope is the color's source of power.^{[1][citation needed]}

• Red: The lanterns, rings, corps name, and origin point within the Empire of Tears have appeared as plot elements^[7] with hate being ascribed as the power source of this color.^[1][8][4] A one-shot tie-in to Final Crisis titled Final Crisis: Red Lanterns will prominently feature the Red Lanterns and Alpha-Lanterns as well as the "Lanterns of a couple colors".^[9]

• Orange: The plot elements have revealed the color's power source, avarice,^[1] and that both the Controllers and an unseen character "Agent Orange" are searching for the color.^[7][3]

• Indigo: No plot elements beyond the prophecy and its power source, compassion, have appeared relating to this color and that the bearers carry staffs.^{[1][citation needed]}

No obvious elements of the eighth corps, Black, have appeared beyond the teaser. Johns has commented that the emblem seen on the rings in the teaser is important, but did not elaborate.^[4] It should be noted however that the emblem on the rings is the same as the emblem for Green Lantern villain Black Hand, as indicated by Johns in Wizard Magazine.^[2]

[edit] References