Required reading from the week in books.

Before Ryan Reynolds puts on the Green Lantern tights, get acquainted with the many, many Lanterns in the DC Comics stable with the new mega-crossover, "Blackest Night," by writer Geoff Johns. Fingers crossed that Bruce Wayne isn't actually coming back as a Black Lantern. That would be monumentally stupid.

Also out on the shelves:
-- "The Nobody," by Jeff LeMire, is "The Invisible Man" with a Vertigo twist.
-- "Asterios Polyp" is the latest from David Mazzucchelli, the artist behind "Batman: Year One."
-- Look, it's the first quickie Michael Jackson cash-in biography.