Happy Rebirthday! (The First Day of the Rest of my Life)

27 October 2004.  Although I didn’t realise it at the time, this date heralded the biggest world changing event in my life outside of my wedding day and the births of my children.  For it was on this day that DC Comics released Green Lantern: Rebirth #1, the first issue in a six issue story recounting Hal Jordan’s return to the role of Green Lantern. My life and the long-suffering patience of my family can be divided into two parts – ‘Before Rebirth’ and ‘After Rebirth’.  Before Rebirth I was a young twenty something with a wide range of hobbies and interests, one of which happened to be reading comics.  In fact, I enjoying reading standard text novels far more and I got a lot of my superhero fix from reading novelizations of comic book stories such as Death of Superman.  If anyone asked, my favourite heroes where Batman and Punisher “because those guys were dark and they didn’t need superpowers to get the job done”.  Then Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver came along and nonchalantly tossed a phenomenon right there in my lap.  From that moment forwards I have been an obsessive.  Obsessed with comic books in general, and more importantly, obsessed with all things Green Lantern.  Check out some of the other posts on this blog if you don’t believe me!

The funny thing is, Hal Jordan isn’t even my favourite Green Lantern.   He isn’t even my favourite Green Lantern from Earth (that honour goes to John Stewart), or indeed my second favourite (Kyle Rayner).  But the book itself unleashed something within me that cannot be quelled or sedated.  I’m not going to try and tell you the story contained with the pages of Green Lantern: Rebirth.  I know my fellow GL blogger Myron Rumsey of The Blog of Oa intends to publish a celebratory post today as well.  Myron is a die-hard Hal fan and I admire his writing and his blog very much and expect he has provided an exceptional recap of the book that I can piggyback on.  So stop, go read his post and make sure you come back here when you are finished.  Ok then… welcome back.

What I do want to tell you about is why Rebirth lit the touch paper within me that quickly became an everlasting green flame.  First I have to tackle the art.  When it comes to getting under the skin of Green Lantern, Ethan Van Sciver is untouchable.  There are actually a few artists out there who I probably like more, Ivan Reis being one of them.  But Reis nor anybody else could have done justice to this book like Van Sciver did.  I can imagine Geoff Johns’ receiving his artist’s pages through the mail and thinking “Wow, I kind of thought I knew what I was trying to say here but Ethan just nailed it better than I had even imagined possible”.  Let me home in on one specific concept to demonstrate what I mean.   With Hal back in the green there are now four Green Lanterns from Earth.  In another creative team’s hands they could all be said to wield the same power – ring energy is ring energy, right?  No.  As Johns tells us, each Lantern’s power is influenced and enhanced by his own personality.  It is all very well to write this in a script but Van Sciver went to town on the concept and brought it to life in a way that I think has not been replicated since.  John Stewart is an architect, a designer, he builds his constructs in minute detail.  Guy Gardner is a wild force and his constructs burn and flare just as he does.  Without even reading the narrative textboxes we already know from the art alone how each GL thinks.  What fuels them.  How they look at the world.  To capture that emotion in such a unique way is, I think, one reason why Rebirth should be considered some of the best art that comic books have to offer.

And if that weren’t enough there is always this…

…and this…

…and this…

…and this.

So that’s the art.  But, let’s face it, Green Lantern: Rebirth would not exist at all if it were not for the brilliant and unusual mind of Geoff Johns.  My obsession is entirely borne out this writer’s own obsession.  He opened me up to a history that I had never really considered before.  I started reading Green Lantern on and off through the Kyle Rayner era.  Kyle was my guy, he was young and essentially cool but with a touch of the Peter Parkers about him.  I was well aware that he was the latest in a long legacy but I didn’t really give it much thought.  With Johns arrival on the book I could think of nothing else.  I know it has been said elsewhere but it should not be underestimated the risk that Geoff Johns took when he brought Hal back.  He could have gone down the traditional comic book route of retconning all that came before out of existence.  He didn’t.  Johns took every bit of mythology from every era of GL.  Golden-Age, Silver-Age, Bronze-Age, Modern-Age.  He took them all and threw them all into the mixing pot.  He gave it a stir, blended the ingredients together a little, and poured out the glorious creation that is Green Lantern: Rebirth.  And not only did he manage to hold on to the essence of the last 60 odd years of the character’s portrayal in comics and bring back the most famous iteration of said character in a move that many thought was impossible; hindsight shows that he also sewed the seeds for the next ten years of his unrivalled story-telling.  Wonderful stories like The Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night have their origins right here in Rebirth.

I’ve written other blogs about how much I like to scrutinise both the real and imagined history of Green Lantern.  It appeals to the geek in me.  Is there a hardcore comic book fan that doesn’t spend hours deliberating over continuity and who begat who, killed who and brought who and who back to life?  It was Johns that opened my eyes to the endless possibilities that Green Lantern mythos contained for just this activity.  Sure I’d read quite a bit of Kyle’s run and had come across Hal and the rest here and there, mostly via Justice League but I hadn’t sat down and blown my mind with a billion years of continuity.  And I hadn’t respected how much ground Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps had covered, even in the last twenty or thirty years, until Geoff Johns tied it all up in to one neat little package for me.

So that’s the history bit.  Green Lantern: Rebirth has it in spades and I love it.  But that’s not the main attraction.  The real reason I hold Rebirth as one of the finest comic books ever written is the feeling it gives me every time I read it.  The characters contained within these pages are the very definition of ‘superhero’.  In the face of the untold adversity they stand tall.  In the shadow of evil they burn brightly.  In the space of these six issues the Green Lanterns come together to combat two of the greatest enemies they have ever had to contend with, namely Parallax and Sinestro.  They show valour akin to knights of old.  Strength worthy of ancient Greek titans.  Ferocity reminiscent of Viking warriors.  And an unswayable determination matched only by mighty modern champion himself, Superman.  In short, the heroes of GL:Rebirth  are truly the stuff of legend.  And let me assure you, as if there was any doubt, the bad guys get well and truly beaten!

There are a dozens of scenes I could point to illustrate my meaning more clearly.  Hal Jordan battling for his soul against Parallax and Spectre at the same time as both entities fought to possess him will always stick out in my mind.  Green Arrow donning a power ring and mustering all of his will to construct a single arrow of green energy and drive it into the chest of Sinestro is another.  And if my respect for Green Arrow was raised measurably through this act, my respect for Green Lanterns and the effort it takes to use the ring every day was raised a thousand fold.  Guy Gardner purging his Vuldarian DNA.  John Stewart standing up for his beliefs against a disapproving Justice League and taking down the aforementioned Superman with a pinpoint accurate beam of energy.  The list goes on and on.

As well as establishing the individual traits that make each character remarkable, all of these vignettes share a common subtext which can be boiled down to two words, ‘The Corps’.  This was a concept that had been essentially missing from all the Green Lantern titles I had read in recent years.  I’d read team books like Justice League, or the more nurturing Teen Titans.  I’d followed team-ups and crossovers were allies band together against a mutual foe.  But I had never read a book that stirred within me a sense of unity like I experienced reading Rebirth.  This was something I wanted to be a part of and to read more of.  Geoff Johns understood that Green Lanterns aren’t just a legacy of characters sharing the same name.  For all of their differences they are bound as closely as any blood-tie.  And together they will face down anybody.  His Lanterns don’t reel off their oath in secret, charging their rings in some hidden broom cupboard.  They roar it proudly in the field of battle, standing side by side with their fellow Corpsmen and revelling in the association.  “Beware our power…”

Frankly, I’ll never look back.  Hundreds of unwritten issues awaited me.  Hours of trawling back-issue bins.  Literally thousands of pounds of hardcovers, trade papers backs, variant covers, T-Shirts, prints, cups, caps, figures, belt buckles and DVDs featured in my newly discovered life. …And one crazy little blog that I am pretty damn proud of!   On 27 October 2004 a bright green light was switched on and it has been shining over my universe ever since.

Oh, and that guy Batman I professed to love so much, the dark shadow of superhero comics?  Well…

Beware their power, Green Lantern's light!

Check me out... with Green Lantern!

DC Comics have released a selection of "selfie" variants this month to adorn the covers of some of their mainstream titles.  

And, I have to say, I am enjoying the heck out of them
 a lot more than any self-respecting mid thirty-something family man should probably choose to admit...

Green Lantern Corps #34 by Mike McKone

Green Lantern #34 by Craig Rousseau

Earth 2 #26 by Kevin Maguire

The Legacy of Green Lantern

Mythos and history.

History and mythos.

Regular readers of this blog will know that one of the key factors fueling my obsession with Green Lantern is the rich backstory that can be attributed to the character.  I am fascinated by the real life history of a concept that has been developed from the gaudy Golden-Age knockabout hero of the 1940s into the multi-titled  space opera of recent issues.  I am equally captivated by the fictional continuity of a legendary Corps that stretches back over billions of years.  Whereas readers in the pioneering days of comics had to make do with one Lantern only, we modern day fans are spoiled with some 7,200 recruits to choose from in the Green Lantern Corps alone, nevermind the ring bearers who make up the other Corps of the emotional spectrum.

To my mind there was a sweet spot in DC Comics' chronology that managed to capture the best of all worlds.  Somewhere between Crisis on Infinite Earth's in the 1980s and the New 52's introduction in 2011 we were blessed with the presence of an elder statesman to shine a guiding light over the Green Lanterns we know and love.

Kilowog might have been the first port of call for other rookies who sought to learn control over their their power ring but when it came to dispensing valuable lessons on Earth there was only one person to go to... Alan Scott.  Green Lantern #140, vol. 3, by Judd Winick and Darryl Banks, illustrates this relationship perfectly when Alan steps up to teach Kyle Rayner a thing or two about slinging his ring with maximum effect.

*** UPDATE *** THE COLOUR OF STEEL

Regular visitors to ‘Flodo’s Page’ will remember my interview with the very talented graphic illustrator, ColourOnly85.  In celebration of the release of Man of Steel, the artist set himself a daunting challenge to produce designs of the entire cast of DC Comics in the months before the movie hit our screens.  All the while he promised us the ultimate tribute to Zack Snyder’s much anticipated reworking of the Superman story with an original ColourOnly movie poster.

 

I recently had the pleasure of catching up with ColourOnly85 again to talk Man of Steel and, of course, a little bit of Green Lantern.

 

FP: Good to speak to you again, man.  Man of Steel has been out in cinemas for a few weeks now and you have completed your final piece for your MoS challenge.

 

The first thing I've got to ask, what did you think of the movie?!

 

CO85: It's great to be back!  Thanks again for having me.

 

I really enjoyed the film.  From news and trailers it was always pegged as being a much darker and more serious take on Superman, and I was happy that it delivered on that.  Things like seeing Superman brawling with Faora and the others the way they did was just what I had hoped for.  I also really liked the different approach to the Superman story, with the spotlight being put on Krypton - that was refreshing.  I appreciated Nolan before but this film has definitely put me on his fan list.  I can't wait for number two.

 

 

FP: Your Man of Steel movie print is awesome.  You must feel very proud.  How would you describe the process that went into producing that image?  A labour of love?

 

CO85: Thanks so much, I'm very grateful.  Haha, labour of love and labour of frustration probably sums it up best.  I probably went through more revisions on that design than any other.  During the design process I realised I wanted it to reflect the styling of the movie, so I had to keep modifying it until it felt 'right’.  I was definitely glad when it was finished that's for sure...

 

FP: So now you have crossed the finish line can you tell me, altogether, how many DC comic characters were lucky enough to receive a ColourOnly85 treatment?

 

CO85: The total was around 160.  It's a far cry from the total number of DC characters, but I’m glad to have accomplished the number I did.

 

 

FP: 160 characters is no mean feat!  And finally, I can't let you go without saying a few words about Kilowog.  You kept your promise and 'Wog is looking mighty fine.  Is this a case of the show isn't over until the fat lantern sings..?

CO85: Thanks so much.  It was a lot of fun doing ‘Wog, although I'm looking forward to doing him again during the second project where I can do him more justice.  Time caught up with me on this first project, so I'm looking forward to the second one where I have a bit more freedom.

It's definitely a case of 'it ain't over’.   I'll be launching a new project on 1st September called 'The 215 Project'.  The project will be similar to the first, so I'll be doing designs counting down to Man of Steel 2; however, I’ll be limiting the number of illustrations being done.  I really want to push the individual designs much further in terms of style and feel, something I wasn't able to do with the previous challenge due to the time restraint.  I will also be doing things a little differently in terms of the characters being illustrated.  I'll be announcing more news of that on my Instagram shortly.

FP: We’ll all be looking out for that one!  If you’re taking suggestions for the ‘The 215 Project’ I’d love to see what you could do with the current star of Green Lantern Corps and my favourite GL, John Stewart.  In the meantime, thanks again for sparing time to share a few words with ‘Flodo’s Page’ and congratulations on producing a spectacular homage to Man of Steel.

LIGHT UP ROOKIES, WELCOME TO THE CORPS

 I’ve been approaching my Green Lantern comics with cautious optimism over the last couple of months.  Five Lantern titles hit the stands in July and although only one of them bore a #1 on its cover they might as well have all been brand new.  Every writer and most of the art teams were starting out on their respective book for the very first time.  In fact, with the exception Alex Sinclair’s irreproachable brilliance colouring constructs in the main title and a showing from old hands Keith Giffen and J.M. Dematteis, I didn’t know very much about the creators involved.  Having just said goodbye to the previous generation of stalwarts I didn’t have a clue what to expect from this new bunch.  Word on the street, or more accurately the internet, was that they were all pretty reliable so I tried to convince myself that I didn’t have any real cause for alarm.

What I did have were questions running around my brain about the future of the franchise.  Will it carry on along similar lines to the event laden stories of the last few years?  Or will it feel fresh?  Will the new teams introduce original concepts and directions?  Will the roster of characters remain largely unchanged?

So now that I’ve read the first two issues from each of the new teams I have to say that for the most part I’m impressed, and maybe a little bit relieved.  This is unashamedly a new beginning for the GL universe but it nods respectfully to the history that has come before it.  It seems to me that Larfleeze sits apart in its own world, perhaps choosing to remain outside continuity or in a different timeframe, but the other four books come together well to kick off the next chapter in our favourite ring-slingers’ lives.  They contain enough shared elements to achieve cohesion while putting their own stamp on the world being created (or should that be recreated?).  Each book has a very definite sense of style about it.  They each offer a tone that felt very suitable for that particular title without being a carbon copy of the preceding 20 issues.  There was a danger that the writers would struggle to move past implications of the First Lantern event and become bogged down in the past.  Instead they use this event as a springboard to produce great starting points for some exciting new storylines.  And they give me faith that they will successfully take charge of the Green Lantern mythos.

In the first issues (the #21s) the overarching theme of all four titles is reconstructing the Corps.  Losses are high and its reputation is in tatters.  Their base of operations on the planet Oa lies in rubble.  There seems to be an acceptance that the Templar Guardians would take over from their fallen brethren as leaders and advisors to the GLC but the Guardians want to educate themselves to the ways of the universe for a while before they take on the duty of protecting it.  I don’t know if I’d automatically want to place my trust in this unknown quantity just because they share heritage with the previous lot.  I mean, look at how those guys turned out.

  

Hal Jordan is chosen to shoulder the responsibility of command in the Templar Guardians absence.  He immediately is pulled in all directions and quickly realises his usual ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ attitude isn’t going to cut it.  He has to find and train new recruits and rebuild the citadel.  At the same time he has to protect his Corpsmen from the Red Lanterns, and he doesn’t trust his new bosses much either.  He relies on his closest allies, the Earth Lanterns, to handle the dangers for him.  This is the premise of Green Lantern: New Guardians (which has never been more aptly named by the way). Kyle Rayner is enlisted to guide and where necessary contain the new Guardians!  Get it?  Acting as Hal’s other man-at-arms, Guy Gardner is sent to fill the even less appealing role of an undercover spy in the Red Lantern Corps.  That he ends up defeating Atrocitus in combat and leading that Corps instead is on the one hand ‘sooo Guy’, and on the other a mind-boggling new angle that excites and surprises.  If all this weren’t enough, Larfleeze unleashes a brutal attack on Oa and all troops are called on to defend the planet.  A busy first day on the job.

John Stewart’s place in the shared world of Green Lantern is going to be very interesting in the coming months.  He will be the main focus of Green Lantern Corps.  Perhaps more so than Hal even, John feels that it is his responsibility to ensure the new recruits receive the training they need to represent the Corps honourably and, more importantly, live to tell the tale.  While Hal leads from the front, John is in among the rookies showing them how it’s done.  His new purpose is best described with his own words in Green Lantern Corps #22, “Lesson four, Rookie: never leave a lantern behind!”.

I have always appreciated that the Green Lantern titles exist in a shared universe, something that happens in one book impacts on the next.  Some readers find this daunting.  They would rather have a comic that tells its own story in isolation.  To those people I would say it is perfectly possible to pick up any of the four issue #21s and read it by itself without having to worry about missing something.  I would then advise them not to!  The four books weave together naturally to create a fixed point of reference before kick-starting their own adventures.  I very much look forward to them all coming together again down the road.  The creative teams have obviously put quite a bit of thought into making sure no book could be considered less relevant.  The much publicised new ‘Big Bad’ of the GLU is first introduced in Green Lantern: New Guardians thereby giving it equal weighting to its more famous sister titles.  Elsewhere some as yet unknown force is affecting the ring energies of all the coloured Corps and this is picked up through unrelated incidences in more than one book.  And having laid a strong foundation in #21, each title strikes out confidently with its own exciting storytelling in #22.

There is more than enough in each of these books to satisfy both old and new readers.  While the new creators have undoubtedly given the world we were familiar with a shake-up, they haven’t thrown away everything long-time fans hold dear.  One of the first things Hal does as leader is to send out the hundreds of rings belonging to his fallen companions so that they can seek out new Lanterns.  There are new faces to get to know in both Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.  But alongside them we get to spend time with fan favourites like Salaak and Kilowog who have to cope with massive changes to their lives following the fall of the Guardians.  The new writers did their research well and succeed in ensuring the personalities of our much loved characters continue to ring true.  I was particularly pleased to see Sinestro’s daughter, Lantern Soranik Natu, make her first significant appearance since DC Comics’ ‘New 52’ reboot began back in 2011.

In case anybody reading this blog is trying to decide whether or not to pick up one or all of the Lantern titles for the first time, or after a spell away, I will briefly relate my impression of each.  Even for a dedicated fan like myself the Green Lantern books have been quite a slog over the last several months, not because the writing wasn’t good (except possibly Red Lanterns where I have to admit it wasn’t) but because the books have been heavily entrenched in bringing to bear the huge concepts Geoff Johns had been working towards for a number of years.  They were not books that you could just pick up randomly at your comic book store and have any real hope understanding what was going on.  I enjoyed everything the ‘Wrath of the First Lantern’ crossover had to offer but it has been a breath of fresh air in the last two months to see my favourite characters roll up their sleeves and get back to focusing on the Corps again and having a few swashbuckling space adventures to boot!

Green Lantern #21 & #22 – As the flagship title of the collection and formerly penned by Johns for the best part of a decade all eyes are going to be on this book.  Robert Venditti has made a really interesting choice by placing responsibility for the Corps squarely at Hal Jordan’s door.  It gives us a chance to explore the character with fresh eyes which I think is important for any new writer taking on a book after his predecessor has been so long at the helm.  The last thing I want to read is a poor imitation of what has come before.  Issue #21 pitches straight into the action with a flashforward to a battle with Relic that we will do no doubt see more of soon.  The scene setting that follows is necessary but does not feel obligatory.  Before long we are taken back into the thick of battle as Larfleeze shows up to attack Oa knowing the Corps is at its weakest.  With constructs aplenty and new recruits having to learn their trade in the heat of battle there is lots for any GL fan to sink their teeth into.  I was particularly interested in the sub-plot of the unrepentant criminal who escapes her sciencell prison with the aid of a Star Sapphire ring.  Again, there is plenty to suggest that Venditti intends to tells stories unlike anything we have read before.  Like all of the new artists on these books, Billy Tan is still finding his feet but there is enough quality in there to give me confidence that he will be competing with the best of them on Green Lantern in no time at all.

Green Lantern Corps #21 & #22 – This book is a little different to the others in that it is the only one where the main character, John Stewart, does not start out on Oa.  Instead we find him on a mission with the Star Sapphire Fatality to save a planet from unidentified thieves whose miscreant actions are about to cause nuclear disaster.  In all honesty, despite my professed favouritism for Stewart over the other Earth Lanterns, Green Lantern Corps #21 didn’t work for me as much as I had hoped.  I put my misgivings down to two main factors: 1) Van Jensen is still finding his way with the book and his lead character’s voice – suffice to say by #22 this was no longer a problem and I was completely sold on the writer and the direction he and co-plotter Venditti are taking; and 2) Bernard Chang’s art felt ‘off’ to me – I put this purely down to the fact I have been spoiled by Fernando Pasarin’s outstanding contribution on GLC over the last couple of years.  Art is a matter of preference and often takes longer to adjust to than writing style so I fully expect to be singing Chang’s praises from the rooftops before very long at all.

The main thing a long time reader should be aware of with the switch in writers is that, thematically speaking, Green Lantern Corps has a new agenda (or seems to at any rate).  This title was primarily a war book under Tomasi’s guidance.  The Corps was an army marching into battle or dealing with the fallout from a previous skirmish.  John Stewart’s most significant contribution was his military court martial.  Under Van Jensen the book is much more about what makes people tick.  John’s complicated relationship with Fatality is put under the microscope.  Salaak’s reaction to the betrayal of the Guardians, and his fellow Corps members’ distrust of him as their closest associate are all put under scrutiny too.  And even more interesting are the new recruits that show up in this book.  While the rookies in Green Lantern are initially viewed through Hal’s eyes, Green Lantern Corps takes time to understand that each recruit has come from somewhere and has a past that makes them unique.  It poses the question of how a diverse group with different motivations and influences can work together to achieve a common goal.

With all of this high-brow soul searching you’d be forgiven for thinking the book might be short on the action department but not a bit of it.  Major run-ins with Khunds and Durlans in these two issues mean the book isn’t short on the blood and guts either.  All that and the first sight of the Emotional Entities in the New 52 make this a comic book with a whole lot of promise.  I am intrigued to discover if it can deliver.

 Green Lantern: New Guardians #21 & #22 - This is another title that is being rebuilt from the ground up by the new creative team of Justin Jordan and Brad Walker.  I imagine that Kyle Rayner, the lead figure of the title, could be a very difficult character to write these days.  From the very beginning of the New 52 he has been a man apart from the Green Lantern Corps, a renegade on the run from the evil manipulations of the Guardians of the Universe.  More recently, with the extraordinary abilities of the White Lantern at his command, there is a real danger that Kyle could suffer from the same foibles as many less than successful Superman stories over the years, namely that he is so powerful there is nothing of interest to challenge him.  Luckily this does not seem to be the case.  That he is the first Lantern to face off against Relic is not insignificant itself but, more to the point, Justin Jordan gets Kyle.  He knows who the man is and what he’s been through.  And he manages to write a story that is both a huge cosmic tapestry, very much complimented by Walker’s art, and an intimate personal tail sharing the hallmarks of a well written soap opera (if there is such a thing!).

Kyle feels a weight of responsibility on his shoulders surpassing even his own great gifts and when Hal asks him to accompany the Templar Guardians on their mission of learning he turns the new Green Lantern leader down flat.  The last thing he needs is to waste his time on a baby-sitting job when there is so much good he could be doing in the universe.  It is only when Hal points out that the Guardians are too powerful for anyone else to deal with if they stray onto the path of their evil predecessors that Kyle relents.

Something that caught my attention in GL:NG was Kyle’s “connection” with Carol Ferris, a fact neither hero seems to be consciously aware of.  The book doesn’t go into to detail on what this might mean yet but I get the feeling that the Star Sapphire is going to be a regular feature in the book and I can’t be alone in speculating that Hal Jordan might have a little competition on his hands on the relationship front.  With a track record of being unlucky in love these two look to be a great fit for one another at the moment.  If giant space sharks and villains from another universe aren’t enough to grab your attention then surely the possibility of a little bit of romantic tension is going to bring you back for more.

Red Lanterns #21 & #22 - Truth be told these issues were going to be make or break for me.  Peter Milligan's run was not ticking my boxes at all and since I am no longer doing regular weekly reviews here on Flodo's Page there was really nothing to keep me on the book except a masochistic Lantern completism.  What it also meant, however, was that this was the switch up I was feeling most positive about.

 As it is, all this positivity came crashing down around me when I opened issue #21 and was greeting with a maudlin Atrocitus spouting the same old theatrical nonsense he had for the previous 20 issues.  Luckily, it transpired this was just Charles Soule attempting to bridge the gap between old and new.  Red Lanterns continues to have its faults; the art is a little shaky and if I were to nitpick I could wonder why Dex-Starr has the ability to create construct bubbles in the same issue the Reds make it clear only Rankorr possesses this ability.  But I will not nitpick.  Instead I will tell you to go out and buy this book.  NOW.

 Soule has managed to capture the voice of Guy Gardner at his most, well ...’Guy-like’.  While the premise is that Guy is undercover in the Red Lantern Corps, it’s not long before we wonder if this isn’t where the angry man of the Greens should be in the first place.  There certainly weren't any complaints coming from this corner when he deposed Atrocitus and beat him to within an inch of his wretched life.  Guy brings a moral code to the RLs that they were missing previously but a question for the reader is how long will it be before the deliciously unfettered and unrepentant thirst for revenge overcomes him completely, and will anyone care?  We are only two issues in but already Red Lanterns is shaping up to be the no holds barred action thriller we had all hoped for way back in issue #1.

Larfleeze #21 & #22 – I haven’t a whole lot to say about these books really.  If you were a fan of Keith Giffen and J.M Dematteis’ run on Justice League International or in the mini-series Formerly Known as the Justice League you’ll like Larfleeze.  If you are into comic books that are tongue-in-cheek or kooky you’ll like Larfleeze.  If you like your humor falling firmly in the realm of purile and pushing on the boundaries of good taste you will like Larfleeze.  And to be fair I like all of those things.  This is a funny book.  But if you want to read a Lantern book that has any consideration for previous continuity or has a bearing on the future of the GL universe Larfleeze is NOT the book for you.  In issue #21 the keeper of the light of avarice gives a version of his own back-story and even he admits it’s not exactly accurate!  So until DC Comics confirm any different I will take it that this title sits outside of the New 52 DCU.  I prefer to think of it as a bawdy romp for the sake of rompery all alone in its own little world.  And isn’t that how Larfleeze would want it in any case?

If you’re hoping to read a version of Larfleeze that pays its dues to Geoff Johns’ original ‘Agent Orange’ storyline you are better off sticking with Green Lantern #21 and #22 and leaving the revelry to somebody with a bit less nerd in their DNA…

So there you have it.  The rookies have landed and bar none they have made their mark on Green Lantern in one way or another.  And although there may be a few teething problems while writers and artists get to know their subjects in the same depth as many of us have had the pleasure of for a good many years, I think it is safe to say that the that the legacy of Green Lantern is in a safe hands. Big, green safe hands.   

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN – GREEN LANTERN CORPS ANNUAL #1

(The following review was largely written a week or two after the original publication date of Green Lantern Corps Annual #1.  It was a time of innocent excitement; it was before news of the GL creative team departures was widely known.  In some respects this is a last chance to remember what Fantern life was like before ‘The End’).

I’d like to take a moment if I may to cast your thoughts back to August 2012 when DC Comics released the Geoff Johns penned Green Lantern Annual #1.  The oversized publication did much to maintain Johns’ reputation as the quintessential mythmaker of the Green Lantern universe.  It was in that issue all those months ago that the Guardians of the Universe finally revealed themselves as the malevolent force we the readers had long known them to be.  Here too were the first rumblings of the Third Army that promised to sweep ferociously across the DCU.  In those early moments we were hypnotically entranced as they assimilated their human victims.  The kind of horror you can’t look away from even though your mind is screaming at you to run.  We were also introduced to another breed of Maltusan, cousins to the Guardians, who showed potential for great things.  And, more than all of this, we encountered the First Lantern trapped in his multi-coloured prison of emotional energy.  Johns’ teased his appearance to deftly to bait us in a way that only the very best writers can – and he and his fellow GL creators have continued to tease us ever since.

In the meantime we’ve been introduced to a new Green Lantern in the form of Simon Baz and over in Green Lanterns: New Guardians Kyle has completed his quest to become a White Lantern.  While both of these developments are hugely interesting in themselves little has happened in the intervening months to match the excitement and invention of that GL Annual.  The story of the Third Army crept along in an underwhelming fashion despite its colossal opening salvo. With all this in mind I am delighted to be able to report to you here that the GLC Annual concludes the crossover event in fine style.  Perhaps it is only right and proper that annuals give a little bit more bang for your buck than their monthly counterparts.  And not just in page count either.  In this issue Johns’ former editor and writing partner Peter J. Tomasi proves he is just as capable of producing an oversized Green Lantern book that is a compelling page turner from cover to cover.  By comparison it almost wasn’t worth making us wait so many months for the story to get to this point. 

 

The art in the book is not handled by the usual Green Lantern Corps team.  This is likely a result of time constraints in production but I like to think that it might partially because the annual is a bit different from the monthly title.  Tomasi has to tie together plots that occur in the four Lantern tiles contributing to the ‘Rise of The Third Army’ crossover and in a weird way the pencils of ChrisCross lend themselves very well to this task.  He manages to take a little of the tone from each book and melt it down into a very successful sequence that pays a passing tribute to all of them.  It is only a small point but the colouring from Wil Quintana is a little overstated for my taste.  It sounds an odd thing to say but when you have seen as much green in a comic book as I have you become something of a connoisseur and the green in the opening page for example is just a little too… green.
 

 

It is a comic that reads well as a standalone issue even though it is the final act of a 19 book crossover event.  The sheer numbers of characters featured in the book would be considered staggering anywhere else but this is Green Lantern where over the last nine years the projection of epic has been honed to perfection.  An intense battle with the future of the universe as the stake escalates in a rolling crescendo of action.
 

Beginning with a murmur, ChrisCross’ rendition of Kilowog trudging through the foundry tunnels beneath Oa is priceless.  This is one ugly poozer.  The likeness of the veteran lantern from Bolovax Vik is more than a little reminiscent of Joe Staton’s original artwork for the character way back in Green Lantern Corps #201 (v.2).

Not long after a powerless Guy Garnder rocks up to Oa in an armored flight suit created from the construct of his Lantern buddy, B’dg.  Thinking about this and previous appearances going back to Emerald Warriors and beyond I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear that Guy is Tomasi’s favorite Lantern.  That is one double-hard GL we are dealing with.

 

Fresh from the pages of Green Lantern, Baz and B’dg don’t take long to get themselves in the worst kind of trouble.  They get sucked into the Book of Black through the gaping mouth of the First Lantern.  On the face of it this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but it captured my imagination no end.  It’s the first portent we get signaling the level of control the First Lantern, Volthoom, could potentially wield over our heroes.

More layers are added to the narrative when Kilowog’s squad of rebel GLs is revealed to include the likes of regular fan favorites Soranik Natu and Vath Sarn, who have not been seen in these pages since the DC’s New 52 was launched.  Outside of these couple of panels the characters don’t really do anything of note.  Their appearance is simply a crowd pleaser and in that respect it succeeds amply.

Again giving the fans exactly what they want, the largest and most powerful Green Lantern in the history of the Corps is returned to us when Mogo reforms his planetary mass and successfully blasts a platoon of deadly Thirdites out of existence.  Soon lanterns of every colour have joined led by White Lantern Kyle.  Atrocitus’s reprogrammed Manhunters as shown in Red Lanterns arrive to fight shoulder to shoulder with the warriors of the emotional spectrum.  My personal favourite moment in the book is a scene where Guy Gardner appears to attack the evil Guardians single-handed while still depowered and vulnerable.  Cut between panels are glimpses of Kilowog quoting the Green Lantern oath.  His ferocity grows with each line delivered.  It becomes clear that Guy’s efforts are only a distraction as a super-charged ‘Wog forms giant hand constructs to tear the planets crust in two and free the hundreds of Lanterns from massive Guardian death trap in the process.

 

Sensing defeat at the hands of their former servants is imminent the Matusans syphon more and more energy from their mysterious prisoner, the First Lantern.  The tide of the battle turns quickly and now it is the Guardians who look to be unstoppable.  As it transpires this last audacious move was their undoing.  They drew enough power to weaken the First Lantern’s cage. Suddenly he breaks free and promises that everything the Guardians created “will be no more.  At the same time art panel after art panel fades to white as if the very comic itself has been bleached away.  Thus, without a seconds respite, begins the “Wrath of the First Lantern” and the next rollercoaster crossover event is set in motion.

It is one thing after another for our Green Lanterns and, as a fan, I feel we are right there along with them.  DC Comics and creators Johns, Tomasi et al. have no intention of taking their foot of the pedal on this one.  What other superhero comic who handle that sort of intensity and just keep on going?  At least over in the Batman, the caped crusader gets a few hours off at the end of each mission to share a cup of tea with Alfred.  Our war-hardened GLs have no such luxury…