Green Lantern: Brightest Day (DC)
Written by Geoff Johns, drawn by Doug Mahnke
Collects Green Lantern #53-62

First and foremost, I have to say that Doug Mahnke should be the biggest artist in the biz. The fact that he isn’t boggles this long time reader’s mind. He has such a knack for creating big, bold figures that seem iconic while also having a style that’s all his own. I love that about him and have since my days reading his run on Superman: Man of Steel and later JLA. A book like Green Lantern is perfect for him because he gets to draw those classic characters while also rendering big crazy monsters like Atrocitus, Larfleez and various members of the Sinestro Corps while also getting to play with a rainbow’s worth of constructs.

So, I guess I should talk about the book itself. After the events of Blackest Night, there’s a whole lot of lanterns running around, including several still found on earth like GL Hal Jordan, Star Sapphire Carol Ferris, Red Lantern Atrocitus, Blue Lantern Saint Walker, Sinestro and even Orange Lantern Larfleez. And, it’s a good thing because a mysterious figure is trying to round up all the emotion entities like Parallax and Ion to start some intergalactic shiz. Throw in Indigo and you’ve got a pretty impressive line-up of folks trying to stop that from happening. We also see what I believe is the first mention of Guy Gardner’s secret pact with Atrocitus and Ganthet that spurs GL, GLC and Green Lantern Emerald Warriors on between Blackest Night and the upcoming War of the Green Lanterns (upcoming for me, I mean).

In the meantime, as everyone figures out what’s going on, there are some awesome scenes for your reading enjoyment and most of them are made all the better for Mahnke’s involvement. You’ve got Larfleez approaching Lex Luthor again, Hector Hammond getting involved with the orange lantern, Sinestro trying to lift the white lantern that’s still on earth and–best of all–the appearance of Lobo who throws down with Hal, Sinestro and Carol. I’ve always been a fan of Lobo’s look and no one should ever draw him again after Mahnke absolutely murdered his interpretation.

Overall, I found this to be a fun collection that mixes the big, overarching stories that Geoff Johns is known for and also a lot of the smaller moments that might not mean as much to the larger story, but still tickled my DC fanboy fancy. It also includes the back-up story origin of Red Lantern Dex-Star which nearly brought me to tears the first time I read it. I actually skipped it in this collection because I’ve become even more of a softy since I first read it way back when. Kids will do that to you, I guess.