Untold Tales of Blackest Night #1

Overall: This really isn't a new comic in the conventional sense. It's like a DVD that has deleted scenes and extras. The pieces of the Blackest Night story that were left on the cutting room floor are here, as well as a new mini story where Lyssa Drak escapes from the Book of the Black thanks to that little robed figure who has been appearing in the Green Lantern series as of late. As for the extras, they're pretty much what you'd expect. They're okay, but there was a reason they didn't make the final Blackest Night product. We get to see Ragman, the Rainbow Raiders, Animal Man, Wonder Girl and Donna Troy, the Scarecrow, and Sinestro Corps member Karu-Sil and what they were up to during the Blackest Night saga. So if you're interested in checking out these characters deleted scenes, then I guess this is the comic for you...

I will say this, it looks like Animal Man was going to be a major part of Blackest Night originally, because his deleted scenes culminated with him becoming White Lantern who had to prevent some sort of extinction event. I wonder why DC decided to take Animal Man out of the equation. Maybe he's the savior the White Power Battery is looking for? Most of these stories were pretty unexceptional/unnecessary(the Rainbow Raiders? Really?!), although as a fan of the Scarecrow, I did like seeing the scene from when he received his Sinestro Corps ring get extended a bit. Really the only thing of any interest here was the Animal Man stuff, and I really can't imagine anybody in their right mind would be willing to spend $5 to read a quick story about Animal Man becoming a White Lantern.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.You know, besides Hush, I think Scarecrow is my favorite Batman foe.