Girlfriend got me the blackest night omnibus for Christmas since I mentioned it looked cool and I wanted to get into Green lantern a while ago. I’ve never read any GL before though, am I fine to read the omnibus as is or is there anything I should read beforehand to not be lost?
You should get the Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Vol 1 and 2. Blackest night is an event in the second book. You wouldn't understand anything if you just jump right into blackest night. Just so you know, the Blackest Night Omnibus collects all the tie-ins of the event. The second volume of green lantern also has the event but just the main story.
Blackest Night is actually one of the major story arcs from the classic Geoff Johns era on Green Lantern. If you haven't read what happened before on the run, you might be confused and not enjoy it as much.
So, for context, here's a reading guide for what comes before Blackest Night. Click on the links to see the books on League of Comic Geeks:
If you prefer reading bigger, larger books containing all of the above (and more), then just get:
Afterwards, you can go into the Blackest Night Omnibus that you got without much problem.
Keep in mind, though, that Blackest Night is not the end of the Johns era. It's actually in the middle of it lol. The run only ended a few years later during The New 52.
Here's the guide for post-Blackest Night Green Lantern:
Wow seems like I have a lot to read before I can indulge lol. Do you happen to know which of the above 10 are in each of the compendiums? Thinking of getting the first one and not sure if I wanna wait for the second or just buy the volumes if I finish the first fast enough.
Well, Compendium One has everything on numbers 1 to 4 of the list of 10 that I posted, plus a few other Lantern stories from the time.
Compendium Two has everything from 5 through 10.
Nothing before Geoff Johns run. Any good event will be stand alone, but the buildup really does add a lot to it.
Yes, it's like a big finale. But you picked it up at the right time. The Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War Compendiums are every last comic that leads up to it. Rebirth is out, SCW soon.
If you want to get the Green Lantern by Goeff John's omnibus volumes, I suggest saving links to their Amazon listings and checking in on them periodically. The price varies. I managed to get Volume 1 for $60 and Blackest Night for $80, iirc. If I wasn't spent out from Christmas, I'd order Volume 2, which is at $73 right now.
I collected them all single issues as they dropped. Last comics I bought like that. Was so hype. Now it’s either cheap used tpb or the dc universe infinite for digital. lol. I do prefer the physical comics though but I ain’t made of money like that.
Its a pretty simple concept and by no means all that full of callbacks and obtuse plot threads. You can for sure understand almost everything that happens without prior knowledge, you will just miss a lot of emotion and buildup.
Honestly if 13 year old me could read this as one of my first comics and understand what was going on. I’m sure you can too! Like will the Geoff John’s run help you appreciate it more? Yeah sure it will but just read it if you think it looks cool
I read Blackest Night before reading anything Green Lantern and really enjoyed it. It got me into GL to the point that I read the Geoff Johns stuff leading up to it and then read Blackest Night again and enjoyed it even more the second time. So you're good to start with Blackest Night.
You can read it blind, but as a fan I highly recommend reading the entire Geoff Johns run because it is just magnificent.
Yes. There are even flashbacks to characters that died years ago in the Crisis and such. It’s the ultimate crossover. It’s like going into Avengers Endgame having watched no previous movies.
No
Blackest Night is a good story.
It becomes an incredible one if you’re well versed in the DC Universe at that time.
So you don’t necessarily need prior knowledge but it would greatly elevate the work if you had it.