As I stated in my review of GLC from last week, that series has been
consisently better than the main Green Lantern title for about the past
six months give or take. While normally that wouldn’t be important,
since we are inching closer to Blackest Night the big summer epic
penned by Johns some were beginning to worry that Green Lantern’s
slippage was a soon of things to come. Thankfully, Green Lantern #43
has put these collective fears to rest by bringing the book back to a
level of excellence which was once its norm.

They first thing
that you’ll notice is the art which starts strong and stays strong
throughout the entirety of the issue. Art in the previous arc was not
my favorite thing in the world to look at although I didn’t dislike it
as much as some because I felt it fit the tone of the story.
Regardless, Mahnke’s pencils and the crisp and clean coloring are a
welcome improvement over the dark and muddy work in Agent Orange.

What
is most impressive from Johns here is that he crafts a story that grabs
your attention and maintains it even though most of us reading knew
exactly where the story was ultimately going to end up. In this issue
alone, like he did with Larfleeze in the Agent Orange arc, Johns has
made William Hand a character you are going to want to see more of come
Blackest Night. One concern I have is that Johns is going to be too
busy with other bigger characters in the DCU that he won’t have time to
shine the spotlight on some of these wonderful villians he has taken
the time to build up in Green Lantern.

Blackest Night #1 is finally hitting stores this Wednesday and thanks to Green Lantern #43 I am as excited as ever.