Pro

-I like the interaction between Larfleeze and Atrocious. There’s a team up your not going to see often and Johns writes the banter pretty well. Rage and Greed mixing together just seems like a bad idea, but it worked well for the early portions of the book.

-Doug Mahnke, once again, shows why he was the right choice for this title. It’s just panel after panel of beautiful designs and layouts. There are some amazing two page spreads that almost rival what Ivan Reis did for BN #5 (more on that later). I also like some of the constructs that he did for Hal; like the Stop sign or Donald Duck that we see. This is still an enjoyable title even with medicore story. Speaking of which….

Con

-A lot of this banter between Sinestro, Hal, Atrocious, and even Larfleeze got old quick for me. I know these guys aren’t on the same page but seriously…..I just can’t take any more “I will never trust you lantern!” or other lame things that come out of these characters mouths. Also, some weird and pointless pop culture references thrown in. I know he’s made the joke before, but the whole muppet thing was not funny this time around. We’re at a serious point of the story but Geoff Johns is anything but that right now.

-Larfleeze is not entertaining when he is talking to other lanterns. It was interesting with Atrocious because he’s never talked to him before; but the stuff with Hal, Sinestro, and the Blue Guardians was dull. Nothing funny about it and nothing that interesting.

-Total nitpick I know but: Mistake on the very first page of this comic. I’m talking about what issue of Blackest Night DC is reffering too on the top of the page. Again it’s a nitpick, but that is something that should be caught right away. Especially if it’s the first page of a comic.

This entire subplot of Hal getting all of the lanterns together was interesting. But for some reason it just gets tiring to read now. Maybe it’s event fatigue, or maybe it’s just that Geoff Johns is repeating the same damn thing in every issue. Mahnke’s art is still amazing to look at, but it still isn’t enough to get me out of this funk of reading a medicore comic book. I was hoping the main event issue for this week would make it all better. Well……(continues in Blackest Night #6…..I mean 5!)