One of DC’s biggest sales successes of the last five years remains the revitalization of their space-bound hero Green Lantern. Driven by fan-favorite writer Geoff Johns, test pilot Hal Jordan and his fellow Green Lanterns square off against an army of multi-colored Lantern Corps in July’s event epic Blackest Night, and Johns opened up about building an accessible mythology with an emotional base and Green Lantern’s potential for success as a Hollywood blockbuster.

Debuting with a special #0 issue on this year’s Free Comic Book Day and running through an 8-issue Blackest Night mini series as well as tie-in issue of Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps and over a half dozen other mini series and one-shots, the new story earned its name at the end of Johns’ 2007 The Sinestro Corps War event. That sales success revealed that aside from the will-driven power rings of the Green Lantern Corps and the fear-inducing yellow energy behind the Sinestro Corps, even more color-coded groups of alien warriors would arise each with their own emotionally-powered rings including the rage-filled Red Lanterns and the hopeful Blue Lanterns. Toss in an army of zombie superheroes controlled by the villain the Black Hand, and Blackest Night seems crammed with kinds of minutia that superhero readers love. But Johns promised that the wide-ranging cast of characters works more as an inviting and organic story device than it does a marketing gimmick.