Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Blackest Night Tales Of The Corps #1 of 3
DC Comics
Johns, Tomasi, Ordway, Morales, Samnee & Mahnke
Three short stories packed into this issue provide a wide range of results. The premise is to give you some background on key characters in the war of light. However, what we get is a true origin for one character, a lost childhood tale for a second character and an introduction into the powers of the Indigo tribe corps. It’s an okay issue but it is certainly not essential reading especially with the hefty price tag of $4.
The first story is by far the most relevant and the best of the bunch by Johns and Ordway. It’s the origin of Saint Walker. Much in the tradition of the Tales of the Sinestro Corps we learn exactly what happened right up to the point he receives his ring to understand why he was worthy of it.
The story is basically the kind where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Walker is a man of faith and as he preaches and prays with his family his planet is coming apart because their sun is reaching dangerous heat levels. He seeks out the savior and drags his family along a treacherous path. When he completes his journey he ends up losing almost everything, except his faith and ability to provide hope. For his efforts he gets a ring into the blue corps.
This part of the comic is good but it isn’t terrific. One could argue that it was willpower and not faith that kept Walker going. I’m not sure this story fully established the idea that his ability to instill hope was his best quality. Still, it was a good story.
The second story is about Mongul as a child by Tomasi and Samnee. This is nothing new as this territory has been explored before. Mongul had a father that was a super villain and since he is dead now there is a need to dress up his offspring as a monster like the original. To do this the son must endure hardships at the hands of his oppressive father. This story is much in line with that theme. The story does very little to tie Mongul to the Sinestro Corps or the yellow ring of spreading fear. If anything this story shows how subservient Mongul is capable of being.
The final story by Johns and Morales is a six page story that displays the power of the Indigo tribe. It’s not an origin story at all. Instead it just visually shows you how the Indigos are superior to both the green and the yellow rings. It’s really just a display of their power. I wonder if we will see more snippets of this tribe in each of the next two issues to get more of a complete picture.
The comic also contains several profiles of the various colored corps by Johns and Mahnke that appeared in the Blackest Night #0 issue from free comic book day.
The issue is illustrated well. However, the Walker story, in the beginning, was very difficult to tell which character was Walker and if the others were women, his father or his mother. It was confusing in the first couple of pages. The story got better once they set out on the journey and the art was terrific from then on. The entire comic makes outstanding use of color, as you would want in this sort of story.
This issue was okay but you really only get twenty four pages of original material for your four bucks. Sure it’s nice to get the profiles a second time but it’s not quite the same as adding in five more pages of story is it? If you have room in your budget you might like the Walker story and find the others interesting to some degree. However, with two more issues left in this mini series I am hoping that we return to stories more in the tradition of the Tales of Sinestro Corps back up stories that were such a huge hit.
3 out of 5 geek goggles
