Blackest Night #1 (OF 8)

I have often growled about Geoff Johns' writing being entirely overrated. Yet, time and again i have tried his books because he seems to get shifted to characters I want to read. I had previously tried to get into the Green Lantern series by him 2 times, after having read the book for years, and was sorely disappointed in whatmost people rave about.

I picked up Blackest Night with little hope of changing my opinion of his overall skill, but ended feeling okay with the story. I liked the moments he writes into the story, they were very powerful and poignant. Such as Hawkgirl's death and Manhunter's resurrection.  Further, having not really read Green Lantern for about four or five years I had minimal difficulty jumping into the plot and understanding the majority of characterization or situation. This is much to Johns' credit considering the large, complex cast of characters. That said, I still cannot gush over his writing completely. He still has very clunky moments in his dialogue that are 'hokey', which many people find charming but I find tedious.

The art is really sharp and nice. It has a bit of stiffness to it in some scenes, but is elaborate and and detailed. It is easy to loose yourself in the more elaborate scenes. One drawback to that compelxity, in my opinion, is the crowding of the art. As many peopel note, art is a subjective preference but I like art that breathes and flows more naturally than the crowded scenes on many of the pages. I have noticed this in many other Johns written books, such as the Flash. This makes me believe that Johns request or designs much of the layouts.