Last month was a bad month for Blackest Night.  The Green Lantern Corps book was too scattered.  Blackest Night Batman ended in a muddled pit of “so what?” that focused too heavily on the melodrama of the Black Lanterns, and not their utter horrifyingly bad-assedness.  Blackest Night Superman was great, but Green Lantern and Blackest Night #3 were both caught in the careful plot advancement portion of their stories: all integral information, but not a great read.

This week, Blackest Night returns to kicking my mind around my skull for a while.  Having pushed Hal into focus of the Green Lantern title, The Flash gets center stage in issue #4 of Blackest Night, and works with The Atom, and Mera (Aquaman’s…wife, I think).  There’s a great moment, where The Atom and Mera mention that what the world needs is a Superman, and a Wonder Woman, and Barry Allen says “You two are Superman and Wonder Woman.”, which leads Mera to ask “What does that make (Barry Allen)?, and, without hesitating, The Atom says “The Flash.”

If Barry Allen was this compelling in Rebirth, I would still be reading it.  You know, if it ever came out.

As the story progresses, we bring in more and more fmailiar DC characters, and they’re woven in very fluidly.  This is Johns at the top of his storytelling game, where it always seems like the story is going to get to big and burst into a sort of Morrison Final Crisis confusion, but it never quite does.

And, on the last page, we finally get the Big Bad Villain reveal behind The Black Lanterns, which would have been a huge surprise, if they hadn’t spoiled it on the cover of Previews a couple months ago.

Reis and Albert’s art does more than just keep up with Johns writing.  While there weren’t any moments where I stopped and said “That is an amazing panel.”  or “Wow, that layout drew me right in.”, they do create a consistent pace, and some really great action.