Green Lantern #51

Parallax Rebirth Part Two

Geoff Johns Writer
Doug Mahnke Art
Colors: Randy Mayor
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover: Mahnke, Christian Alamy & Hi-Fi
Variant Cover: Greg Horn
Assoc. Editor: Adam Schlagman
Editor: Eddie Berganza

Our main cover features the Yellow Lantern Scarecrow with tons of bugs and maggots pouring out of his mask. It's a well-done and appropriately creepy cover. The only problem is Scarecrow doesn't show up on a single panel in this issue. Which is completely ridiculous, seeing as how this story is dealing with Parallax, the literal embodiment of fear. Oh well.

Our variant cover shows all the other Lanterns facing off against the Parallax-possessed Hal Jordan, with Nekron looming large in the background. It's a nice enough cover, but I feel like we've already seen quite a few images just like this. And that's the problem with an eight-month event that gave a variant cover to almost every tie-in issue. Things start to feel a bit redundant.

Our story opens with the two Orange Lanterns — Lex Luthor and Larfleeze — bickering over who gets to use the Orange Lantern power battery. Lex probably would have defeated the Black Lantern Superman had Larfleeze's intense greed not got the better of him. But their squabbling is soon interrupted by the gigantic fight between Black Lantern Spectre and Parallax. All our other heroes are naturally worried about Hal's decision to bring back Parallax, but Ganthet urges everyone to let Hal carry out his plan, believing it to be the only way to tame the Spectre.

And that small panel is all we see of Kid Flash in this issue. Anyway, Hal's plan is largely a success. Parallax is able to free Spectre from the Black Lantern ring, but then Parallax immediately tries to destroy the Spectre. Carol Ferris manages to separate Parallax from Hal, and Sinestro tries to contain Parallax, but an unknown force pulls Parallax away. The Spectre then tries to help out our heroes by taking on Nekron, but soon discovers that Nekron has no soul and is immune to the Spectre's powers.




I really don't have anything to say about this issue. It was a decent Green Lantern story with nice art. I often get frustrated with all the other heroes not being able to do anything in the Blackest Night series, but I don't mind letting the Lanterns take charge in the Green Lantern series. I'll also note that I don't actually own this issue but am reading it off the DC Universe app. I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you're not a DC Universe member, then you're doing it wrong. Only $8 a month and access to more comics, movies and shows than you'll ever have time to get through.

Next time, we'll finally — finally! — bring this bloated event to a close with Blackest Night #8.