Reddit mentions of Blackest Night

• Crisis on Infinite Earths | Marv Wolfman
  
• Identity Crisis | Brad Meltzer
  
• Infinite Crisis | Geoff Johns
  
• 52 | Geoff Johns, et al.
  
• Final Crisis | Grant Morrison
  
• Blackest Night | Geoff Johns
  
• Flashpoint | Geoff Johns
  
• Forever Evil | Geoff Johns
  
• The Multiversity | Grant Morrison
  
• Darkseid War | Geoff Johns
  
• DC Universe: Rebirth | Geoff Johns
  

https://www.amazon.com/Blackest-Night-Geoff-Johns/dp/1401229530


This would get you most of the story. There are a bunch of tie ins...but those aren't totally necessary. However, I would recommend Johns' entire run for context. Blackest Night was the culmination of several years work.

Well, if you want to be detailed then you can follow his full journey here, here, and here.

But if you want to go with trades (which will be a ton easier), then here's a list of trades in chronological order you can check out:

• Emerald Twilight/New Dawn (1994) (GL 48-55) by Ron Marz
  
  
• Baptism of Fire (1995) (GL 59-75) by Ron Marz
  
  
• Emerald Knights (1998) (GL 99-106) by Ron Marz
  
  
• New Journey, Old Path (2000) (GL 129-136) by Judd Winick
  
  
• Green Lantern: Circle of Fire miniseries (2000) by Brian K. Vaughan
  
  
• The Power of Ion (2001) (GL 142-150) by Judd Winick
  
  
• Brother's Keeper (2002) (GL 151-155) by Judd Winick
  
  
• Passing the Torch (2003) (GL 156-161) by Judd Winick
  
  
  Then from here it can get confusing because multiple Green Lantern titles went into publication, but for this list it's only following Kyle Rayner's journey
  
  
• Green Lantern: Rebirth miniseries (2004) by Geoff Johns
  
  
• Green Lantern Corps: Recharge miniseries (2005) by Geoff Johns
  
  
• The Rann-Thanagar War miniseries (2005) by Dave Gibbons
  
  
• Ion: The Torchbearer (2006) (Ion 1-6) by Ron Marz
  
  
• Ion: The Dying Flame (2007) (Ion 7-12) by Ron Marz
  
  
• The Sinestro Corps War event (2007) by Geoff Johns
  
  
• Green Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse (2009) (GLC 33-38) by Peter Tomasi
  
  
• The Blackest Night miniseries (2009) by Geoff Johns
  
  > can be read alongside Green Lantern Corps: Blackest Night (2009) (GLC 39-47) by Peter Tomasi
  > see here for reading order
  
  
  
• War of the Green Lanterns event (2011) by Geoff Johns
  
  
  Now is the New 52, same as before, there are multiple crossovers throughout the Green Lantern Line, so i will do my best to present Kyle's story the best i can
  
  
  
• Green Lantern New Guardians: The Ring Bearer (2012) (New Guardians 1-7) by Tony Bedard
  
  
• New Guardians: Beyond Hope (2012) (NG 8-12) by Tony Bedard
  
  
• Rise of the Third Army event (2013) by Geoff Johns
  
  
• Wrath of the First Lantern event (2013) by Geoff Johns
  
  
• New Guardians: Gods and Monsters (2014) (NG 21-27) by Justin Jordan
  > contains events from the Light's Out trade which collects issue 24 of each Lantern title as well as issue 23 of New Guardians Light's Out event (2014) by Robert Venditti
  
  
  
• New Guardians: The Godkillers (2014) (NG 28-34) by Justin Jordan
  
  
• New Gods/Green Lantern: Godhead event (2015) by Robert Venditti
  
  
• New Guardians: Storming the Gates (2015) (NG 35-40, though 35-37 are in the Godhead trade, and 38-40 take place after) by Justin Jordan
  
  
• The Omega Men: The End is Here (2016) by Tom King
  
  
  And now is Rebirth
  
  
• [Spoiler](#spoilers "'Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps' Rebirth issue as well as the second arc HJ & the GLC 8-13 by Robert Venditti" )

Read this:

• Green Lantern: Rebirth
  
  
• Green Lantern: No Fear
  
  
• Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns
  
  
• Green Lantern: Wanted - Hal Jordan
  
  
• Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War
  
  
• Green Lantern: Secret Origin
  
  
• Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns
  
  
• Green Lantern: Agent Orange
  
  
• Blackest Night (Opt.)
  
  
• Green Lantern: Blackest Night
  
  
• Green Lantern: Brightest Day
  
  
• Brightest Day Vol. 1 (Opt.)
  
  
• Brightest Day Vol. 2 (Opt.)
  
  
• Brightest Day Vol. 3 (Opt.)
  
  
• Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns
  
  
• Green Lantern: Sinestro
  
  
• Green Lantern: The Revenge of Black Hand
  
  
• Green Lantern: Rise of the Third Army
  
  
• Green Lantern: Wrath of the First Lantern
  
  
• Green Lantern: The End
  
  
• Green Lantern: Dark Days
  
  
• Green Lantern: Lights Out
  
  
• Green Lantern: Test of Wills

Short Answer why this is so loved is the same reason why people like Harry Potter fan-fiction.

Marvel comics are more often than not about character empowerment, without much character . DC on the other hand focuses more on Idealism - examples being Superman and the American Dream, Wonder Woman and female empowerment, Batman and staying true to one's convictions in the face of true evil.

If you want well-written comic books then you're probably looking in all the wrong spots if the best you found was the most recent Secret Wars.

List of some of the best comic book story lines ever.

DC

Kingdom Come by Mark Waid, illustrated by Alex Ross(Easily the best comic title in the list, every page looks like a watercolor painting)

Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer (extremely controversial, Trigger Warning)

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Zero Hourby Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway

Green Lantern: Blackest Night by Geoff Johns

Shazam: Power of Hope by Alex Ross

Marvel

Adam: Legend of Blue Marvel by Kevin Grevioux (only good title from Marvel in a long time, it did what Black Panther tried to do in a more meaningful way)

The Superior Spiderman by Dan Slott

Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont

Hal Jordan

Emerald Dawn

Emerald Dawn II

Emerald Twilight

As Parallax

Zero Hour

The Final Night

As The Spectre

Green Lantern: Power of Ion

Green Lantern: Brother's Keeper

Rebirth

Green Lantern: Rebirth

Green Lantern: No Fear

Revenge of the Green Lanterns

Wanted: Hal Jordan

Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War

Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns

Green Lantern: Agent Orange

Blackest Night

Green Lantern: Blackest Night

Brightest Day

Green Lantern: Brightest Day

War of the Green Lanterns

War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath

This is what I've got for Hal Jordan so far.. up until the new 52.

You want to read

Sinestro Corps War which is GL #21-25 and GLC #14-19

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Lantern-Sinestro-Corps-War/dp/1401233015/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409177379&sr=1-1&keywords=green+lantern+sinestro+corps+war

Rage of the Red Lanterns which is GL #26-28 #36-38 and misc

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Lantern-Rage-Red-Lanterns/dp/1401223028/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0H9NBEHYRPHYVQFQNZK4

Agent Orange which is #39-42

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Lantern-Orange-Geoff-Johns/dp/1401224202/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

Blackest Night Blackest night #0-8

http://www.amazon.com/Blackest-Night-Geoff-Johns/dp/1401229530/ref=pd_sim_b_11?ie=UTF8&refRID=1APX9NW9JBA4FB73WEDV

and Green Lantern: Blackest Night which has 43-52



Honestly just read all of Geoff Johns gl run, but that s the bare skeleton for your rainbow lanterns

edit: 29-35 is just an origin story for hal jordan. read it or not. doesnt matter too much

Blackest Night and Green Lantern: Blackest Night.

Read the issues in (I think) this order:
GL 43, BN 0, BN 1, GL 44, BN 2, GL 45, BN 3, GL 46, BN 4, GL 47, GL 48, BN 5, GL 49, BN 6, GL 50, GL 51, BN 7, GL 52, BN 8

You might want to double-check on the reading order though, mine might not be quite right.

EDIT: Oh, and you could also get Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps, it's not necessary though. It takes place right before Blackest Night and is basically just an anthology of origin stories for various new characters from the various Lantern Corps that Johns introduced in his run. But it does feature the introduction of the Indigo Tribe, the seventh Lantern Corps.

No because it collects Blackest Night and Green Lantern blackest night which as you can see is far cheaper to buy them individually and even get more issues in the GL Blackest Night than is included in the Absolute. If it included the Gl Corps Blackest Night and Black Lantern books it would be worth it, but you could probably buy used paperback versions of all of them for less than the absolute.

My favorite writer right now is Geoff Johns, he wrote some great stories for DC for heroes like the Green Lantern and The Flash, but I would highly suggest you read Blackest Night.

Blackest Night by itself is just one book. I think it's seven or eight issues long. Here's a link to it on amazon. Blackest Night https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401229530/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_HxvZub116YJH1

Personally, I'd just stick to Blackest Night. Everything in between focuses on the event as it relates to each respective group and adds even more depth to the story, but not really necessary at all.

IMO, you want to read Blackest Night, and maybe [Green Lantern #43] (http://www.amazon.com/Green-Lantern-Blackest-Night-prologue/dp/B002G4CJLG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1449693121&sr=8-2&keywords=green+lantern+43) to understand how Black Hand came to be this way.

http://www.amazon.com/Blackest-Night-Geoff-Johns/dp/1401229530/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335316503&sr=8-1

Blackest Night, Vol. 1, in case you're curious.

This video always works for my girlfriend. If you want more the full show is on netflix under the title "Too Cute!"

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!!!

That's what cheers me up lol

Superman: Red Son

All Star Superman

Superman: American Alien

Batman and Superman Number One

Throne of Atlantis from Justice League and Aquaman

If you haven't yet Watchmen is a must for any reader, comics or not

Anything Geoff Johns wrote for Green Lantern (Frankly anything he's written for DC). He has 3 Omnibuses (Very Large Collections with MANY stories). Particularly look for:

Green Lantern Rebirth

Flash Rebirth

Flashpoint


Blackest Night

In Brightest Day

Geoff Johns Omnibuses

Or always Peruse other Trades/Omnibuses to see what piques your interest

Also, I know it's a DC sub, but if you're okay with adult themes: Saga