As a younger reader, I often found that Big Event crossover issues of my favorite series created a thrill unlike any other found in comics. Though such releases were often rightly subject to criticism for derailing the ongoing stories being told by the regular writer, nothing compared to their ability to create the sense of a genuine, worldwide crisis. If some gigantic ultimate evil were threatening the entire DC Universe, it made sense to see Flash, Wonder Woman, and Superman battling against it in their own respective corners, drawn away from business as usual.

Green Lantern #50 is a comic that reignites the excitement of those earlier days. From page one, Hal Jordan and company are shown smack dab in the middle of the Black Lantern conflict that has engulfed the universe. It may make little sense in a linear context as a follow-up to Green Lantern #49, but it’s the perfect way to promote the grand scale of the larger Blackest Night saga. Flipping through these pages it feels as if we’re peeking in on a war between life and death that is happening at this very moment, right now in January 2010.

Sadly, the choice of villain for this issue casts a bit of a, well, “Spectre” over the whole thing. To fully embrace the story being told here, one has to accept that the Black Lanterns have taken control of DC’s resident spirit of wrath and that’s not a disbelief that I’m willing to suspend. If the dead remains of the Spectre’s human host were resurrected, why would that affect the independent spiritual essence of the Spectre himself? Are we readers supposed to be comfortable with the possibility that the hero Deadman can easily slip from the Black Rings’ grasp whereas one of the most powerful beings in all of comics cannot?

It’s a contrivance that seems positioned to facilitate writer Geoff Johns’ conclusion to this issue, one which is admittedly a doozy. In fact, it’s almost stirring enough to suggest that the ends, in this case, justify the slightly illogical means. In the face of an unfortunate cover image that screams spoiler, I’ll do my best to maintain my integrity as a reviewer and simply say that the climax of this comic harkens back to a crucial moment in the history of Green Lantern. Keep in mind that this is Green Lantern #50 and fans should remember what happened the last time a series of that name reached the half-century mark.

In the contemporary style of event comics, the experience of reading an issue like this one has been hard to come by. Neither the publication of a special tie-in mini-series nor the collection of companion books in a trade paperback can replicate the feeling of immediacy generated by reading the floppy edition of an ongoing title the week it comes out. While I’m certainly glad that DC and Marvel have found a way to minimize event-related intrusion into their standard monthlies, Green Lantern #50 proves that there’s still a time and a place for an old fashioned crossover.

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