Blackest Night Tales Of The Corps #3 (OF 3)

I nearly gave this five stars for the Arisia story.  The nostalgia factor, the throwback to being a kid, sitting in the library after school and reading "Tales of the Green Lantern Corps" was strong.  What the book failed to do, despite two well told stories, was give me any new information that was likely to be genuinely useful in Blackest Night.  Yes, Kilwog is sad, and determined, and protective of rookies.  We knew that.  Arisia is young and eager to please.  We knew that.

I don't know how many people remember the period of Green Lantern that starred John Stewart, Katma Tui, Arisia and a bunch of other GLs living on Earth, but I read all of those issues, mostly for Arisia.  I love her character, and I'd love to see more of her in a story with depth and breadth.  This was not that story.  Fun, but not the difinitive Arisia story.  Mayhew's art, though, was quite nice, and getting to see old GLs like Chaeselon and Tomar Re made me smile.

The "Director's Commentary" for Blackest Night #0 was... meh.  No real surprise moments, like "I was going to kill Hal off in this panel, but DC wouldn't let me."  Isn't stuff like that the reason that we listen to director's commentaries?  I did learn an important lesson, though: Ivan Reis is much, much better when inked and colored.  His pencils lack depth and definition.  They're not bad, they're just better when there's color.