B’ZZD REVIEW – RED LANTERNS #16

Brightest:

- Possibly due to his reluctance to completely relinquish the hold on his human side, Rankorr has the unique ability among the Red Lanterns of generating constructs.  Unlike the Green Lanterns Corps he does not have complete control of his creations.  He is attacked by a giant manifestation of his late grandfather made real by the insecurities of his own mind.  He realises the power he possesses and refuses to fall for Bleez’s seductions when she tries to manipulate the male Lantern so as to share his dubious gift.  She would make a formidable force if she managed to couple her singularly venomous rage with the potential to produce deadly weapons with a mere thought .

- Another exciting element of Red Lanterns #16 is the hook of slowly introducing the Inversions again.  In this issue they confront Ratchet who stumbled into their lair.  They are hugely ominous.  Peter Milligan has excelled himself in conjuring a dread around these creatures that leaves us with little doubt of the danger they pose to Atrocitus and his followers.   And with the sudden appearance of Krona’s ghostly projection on the final page I am at last on board with the cliff-hangers in this book.  I want to know what comes next.

Blackest:

- The art was a bit ragged at times.  It had none of the horror that we have been spoiled with by Miguel Sepulveda.  The fill-in penciller was Andres Guinaldo.  He didn’t seem overly familiar with the characterisation we’ve had previously.  Rankorr and his compatriots lack their usual menace as do the Inversions.  I was slightly confused when there appear to be six members to the notably named the ‘Five Inversions’.

- The Manhunters.  I can’t quite explain this one which I realise is of very little use in a written medium but there was something that just seemed a little off.  They chatter witlessly like some two-bit henchman from a Batman book.  Like one of the Riddler’s goons.

Beware its power…

- The original Sepulveda cover is staggering.  Atrocitus cuts the figure of a tyrannical war lord, clutching an enflamed Green Lantern flag - or Guardian tabard perhaps!  His terrifying Manhunter army fly in formation behind him.  They stretch out into the distant and each one brandishes a decapitated skull.  Explosions of blinding red and green energy light the sky behind them all.  This is a cover that demands attention.

 

 

 

GHOST IN THE MACHINE – RED LANTERNS #15

 
Red Lanterns #15 is a continuation of the ‘Rise of the Third Army’ event currently spanning all four of DC Comics’ Lantern titles.  I had high hopes for the issue after the compelling read that was RL #14.  Atrocitus had travelled to Ryut to raise an inorganic battalion of Manhunters to stand against the ever increasing forces of the Guardians of the Universe.  It occurred to me that this might not be as easy as it sounds, and sure enough Red Lanterns leader runs into one or two problems along the way.

The book does much to expand on the individual personalities of its cast.  In recent months writer Peter Milligan has successfully taken the Red Lantern Corps from a collection of mindless super-violent slaves to a co-operative whose members bare distinct characteristics.  They are bound together by rage and revenge but how the emotion affects them is often manifest in very different ways.

Unfortunately, as explored in my recent examination of ‘Rise…’, this is another book that does very little to push the event itself forward.  The thrust of the narrative is engaged with two elements.  The first follows Atrocitus coming to terms (again!) with the Manhunter’s genocide of his people, and using his blood magic powers in an attempt to control his android enemies.  The second follows Rankorr on Earth in the company of Bleez were they are in pursuit of the man who murdered his grandfather.  Rankorr spends most of his time trying to come to terms (again!) with his role as a Red Lantern.  He meets his brother who has turned to alcohol, and also the policeman who he injured when the red ring first selected him.

 

 

As more of a by the way than an actual criticism I’d like you to take a quick look at that cover were Bleez has cut a swathe of destruction across a big American city, causing chaos for police SWAT team and local law enforcement.  -- Doesn’t happen.  Not even a little bit.  I’m used to covers taking an artistic licence with the interior storytelling but this one I don’t get.  Bleez is not the central figure in this story and the closest she comes to fulfilling the scene you are looking at is to grab one ne’er-do-well by the head in the English countryside.  She’s not even particularly angry at the time (not for an agent of rage anyway).  I’ll grant you there are two police officers looking on at the time.  I mention all this as an aside really.  Some people love their covers but for me they take a firmly second place to content and storytelling.

Elsewhere Dex-starr is still smarting from the punch on the nose he received from Stromwatch’s Midnighter back in issue #10 and is taking it out on anybody with a chin spike!  And back on Ysmault the rest of the Red Lanterns speculate on why their power battery remains weak little realising the answer is below their feet.  In what for me is the most exciting panel of the whole book, Miguel Sepulveda gives us a spectacularly spooky rendering of the Inversions that captures the horror of Kevin O’Neil’s original drawings perfectly.  I have contemplated doing a commentary on Alan Moore’s Tygers here at Flodo’s Page for a while now and this great image has cemented the need in my mind.  Geoff Johns, Tomasi, Milligan and the rest have taken a little piece of Green Lantern history and turned it into a legend… so watch this space.

 

Back at the RL ranch things aren’t running so smoothly either.  Years before Atrocitous had stashed the bodies of the Manhunters in readiness for a time when he would have need of a fighting force.  He uses the blood of a native predator to retrieve them.  I took it that this creature caused Atrocitus to see hallucinations of his tortured past but I could be reading this incorrectly.  In either case the Manhunters appear but they are lifeless.  I have an issue with the look of the robots in Red Lanterns.  Visually it seems that their faces have rotted away to reveal a Terminator type skull underneath, complete with rows of uncovered teeth.  Please correct me in the comments below if I am wrong but surely the whole point of these characters being introduced is that there are 100% inorganic and therefore have no flesh to rot.  In my mind they should look in the same state of repair as the day they were buried.  I feel like Sepulveda’s effort to create dreadful images has led him in this case to overlook the basic premise of the story.

 

With the power battery being so weak Atrocitus has to use hemoglobin ripped from his own jugular to perform the blood magic that fires the androids up.  He assumes they will bend to his will and so no-one is more surprised than the Red Lantern leader when instead they follow their previous prime directive, “No man escapes the Manhunters”.  In the final splash page they pound him with energy blasts and we can see his skeleton outlined by his brute form.  Alas, this isn’t the cliff-hanger it could have been considering we’ve already seen him in the vision from Green Lantern #11 leading the Manhunters into battle.  I’m going to bet he wriggles out of this one faster than Adam West escapes a death trap at same bat-time, same bat-channel.

And that, as I mentioned above, highlights the whole problem I have with Red Lanterns #15 (and the #15 issues of the other lantern titles too); I was sold an event and I tweeted heavily about #ThirdArmy before it was published.  I feel like I have helped over-hype something that is more of a continuing story arc than an event in the classic sense.  The inclusion of the Manhunters is a great concept but I am eager to get into the thick of the action.  Atrocitus’ role in this book could have been covered in a few pages and Rankorr’s could have been left for another time or, as is my preference, should have taken place several issues ago.  At this stage, with only one more month to go, we should be up to our ears in evil minions and kicking some alien bad-guy ass from here to sector 3600!

 

 

PICK UP THE BONES – RED LANTERNS #14

  Fourteen months in and I finally feel like I’ve turned a corner with Red Lanterns.  Out of the four titles in the shared lantern universe this one seems to be benefiting most from the Rise of the Third Army crossover.  For a start it is the only book that shows any character development of the Thirdite creatures themselves.  I guess Peter Milligan has an advantage over other writers in that he spent the best part of a year struggling to give personality to a mindless Red Lantern Corps.  Who would have predicted in the early stages of the run that Atrocitus would eventually utter the immortal words seen in this issue, “I sense that you are the most intelligent and trustworthy of my Corps, Ratchet.”?  Now that he has actually achieved sentience for the RLs he seems to be finding it a straightforward matter to chart a development for the Guardian’s own mute army.

I never expected to be in a position where Red Lanterns is not sitting at the bottom of my GL stack but I have no qualms in admitting that this book is considerably better than Green Lantern: New Guardians #14 released the previous week.  I’d even take my compliment a step further.  RL #14 has the feel of a Gerard Jones era GL book.  The characterisation is strong, the narrative is reflective without being laboured and, in terms of the storytelling, nothing can be taken for granted.  Sure, dialogue is a tad clumsy here and there but it comes across more as charming than stilted.  This is a vast improvement on earlier issues in my mind.

The story opens on the rage corps swamped in Thirdites and giving as good as they get in hand to hand combat.  Even to hold their own in this scenario is a great deal more than the Green Lantern Corps have achieved up until now.  Of course, they are helped by the fact that Atrocitus has apparently developed the powers of Atom Smasher.  Either he has turned into a giant on the first splash page or his corps have been attacked by a battalion of Third Army smurfs.

I mentioned in previous reviews that Miguel Sepulveda’s art sets a great tone for what is essentially a horror comic posing as an anti-hero book.  I’ve also mentioned how he appears to have thrown out the style notes that would have been drafted for the crossover.  Well, now he has also thrown out the long-established rule book on form and perspective too.  Rankorr continues to show his conflicted human side by having doubts about killing a creature that had only just been transformed.  In the dialogue this is attributed to the victim’s eyes not having been changed with the rest of her, which fits in nicely with everything we have been shown previously.  But Sepulveda unnecessarily telegraphs her tragedy by drawing her with a distinguishable hairstyle that is not at all in keeping with our understanding of the Third Army’s transformation.

On the whole, however, the art is to be commended.  It is brutal and bloody when needed and the dramatic stylised panels are much clearer than they have any right to be given the amount of viscous flying around the place!

Atrocitus carries one of the corpses back to his home world for study and applies a combination of science and magic learnt over the course of many centuries to divine that his enemies were spawned by the Guardians in order to conquer the universe.  He realises his corps is vastly underpowered for a successful confrontation with the Oans and so he sets each of them a mission of revenge which will draw strength for their red power battery.  The book shows a rare glimpse of humour when Bleez  wisecracks about being typecast as she is instructed to seek out crimes of passion.  Milligan has found his voice and is able to utilise light and shade in a much more effective way than was the case five and ten issues ago.  He is no longer bogged down in the overtly philosophical burdens of his agents of vengeance.

As all of this was happening the lantern’s magic was having unexpected side effects on the subject of their recent autopsy.   In a further example of Milligan’s improved sense of balance a terrifying panel of a rat being sucked into the corpse’s remnants is juxtaposed with Dex-Starr, the rage kitty, giving a goofy shrug at its disappearance.   What then follows is the creation of a monstrous beast that is part rat and part skeletal spider.  It took a combination of Atrcocitus’ blood magic and Rankorr’s ring construct to eventually defeat the abhorrence.  I enjoyed Milligan’s exploration of the skill that Rankorr possesses which is common amongst Green Lanterns but unique to him within the Red Lantern Corps.  This definitely opens the doors for some intriguing storylines in the future.

In order to exorcize the inner doubts that hold him back from fulfilling his lantern duties Rankorr is ordered to Earth to have revenge on those who first enraged him.  He quickly realises that the planet of his birth can never be his home again.  Meanwhile Atrocitus is facing his own demons on the barren wasteland of his destroyed native planet, Ryutt.  His plan is to take control over the robotic Manhunters who slaughtered his species and turn them against their former masters.  He presumes the Guardian’s minions will not be able to forcibly induct an inorganic foe into their army.  Things take a turn for the worse when his memories of that fateful day seemingly become reality.  Ryuttians are brought to life before his eyes before being horribly slaughtered by the Manhunters all over again.  It remains to be seen how and why this tragic event is taking place.

The pacing of the issue was excellent.  An incredible amount of action is crammed into these twenty pages without feeling rushed or under-explored.  The crossover event and the story of the Red Lanterns themselves are both progressed with losing out to the other.  If the book can maintain the same level of quality next month with the added sprinkle of an invincible regiment of Manhunters I will be a very happy lantern fan.

ANGER RISING: RED LANTERNS #12

I would say, more than any other book in the Lantern series, Red Lanterns has benefited from the forthcoming Third Army event. It seems that Peter Milligan has been forced to get a move on if he intends to have his story of rage completed before the crossover drops into his universe and changes everything. And whereas it could be argued in books such as Green Lantern: New Guardians that narrative conclusions are being overly rushed, in Red Lanterns #12 I think Milligan finally hits the pace that many readers have suggested has been missing throughout this run.

This book is about the Red Lanterns finally becoming empowered and finding their true voice. And yes, that voice might be a little heavy on the Shakespearean prose but it is a voice that has been lacking previously. The principal characters in the book, Atrocitus, Bleez and Rankorr, had sought to understand their purpose in the world. Up until now we have been the psychiatrist to their turbulent self-analysis on all manner of indecisions surrounding the legitimacy of their mission and their waning humanity. But it is not the place of a Red Lantern to doubt or to introspect. They personify rage in its purist form. Their purpose is to burn with fury and dispense a mighty and bloody vengeance throughout the universe. That is the Red Lanterns book that the readers want to see; nay, deserve to see.

And, at last, that is what the reader gets. Facing defeat at the hands of his flawed creation Atrocitus uses the last of his ring's energy to send up a bright red flare. But not as a cry for help. It is a last defiant display of righteous anger. And when Rankorr comes to his aid he has given up the last vestiges of his former human life as Jack Moore. Raging at the slaughter of his brethren he conjures up a huge construct of their tortured demise. In a suitably gory showdown Atrocitus rips the hidden seed he had implanted in Abysmus years ago and reignites the failing Red Power Battery. Even Dex-Starr is given his dues. While still filling out the role of Milligan's comedic relief, it is a much darker comedy that sees Atrocitus toss the remains of Abysmus to the demonic feline to feast on.

Across space the Red Lanterns receive a charge and rise up to violently crush and destroy would-be assassins. Bleez and her rebel band shake of the influences of the Star Sapphire's and swear allegiance to their vengeful mission. The Lanterns return en masse to Ysmault to pay tribute to their cause in blood - literally the blood of their defeated enemies. A united Red Lantern Corps stand behind their leader once again, brandishing freshly plundered skulls and spinals columns, in Miguel Sepuldeva's in emphatic double page splash. Little do they realise this blood nourishes the newly resurrected bodies of Atrocitus' fellow Inversions who he had mutilated and murdered in a blood sacrifice at the inception of his Corps. 

My mind races at the return of the Inversions.  They were last seen as undead Black Lanterns in Blackest Night. If they have been returned to life here who is to say that we won't see other characters obliterated in that event brought back into current DC continuity?

In Red Lanterns #12 Milligan and his creative team have produced a solid book that will make a perfect jumping on point for new readers bedding in for the Green Lantern crossover beginning in October.  But more importantly it will come as a huge relief to many long-term readers who have stuck with the book for a full year now in the hope that Atrocitus and his Corps would finally snap out of their gloomy fug and begin to serve up magnificent portions of terrible rage to the DC universe.

LOVE & HATE COLLIDE: RED LANTERNS #11

Okay, first things first... I have a confession I need to get off my chest.  I actually dropped Red Lanterns after the first few issues.  And I only picked it up again because #10 was the second part of a crossover which began in the pages of Stormwatch.  I vaguely followed the intermediate books by flicking through the artwork in my local comic shop and then picking up the nuances of the plot via my favourite Green Lantern podcasts.


That being said, Red Lanterns is now back on my pull list in readiness for the Green Lantern universe crossover event 'Rise of The Third Army' beginning later this year.  Red Lanterns #11 has its fair share of problems but it is not the worst comic book I've read in the last 12 months either.  If you don't mind I'd like to get my negative comments out of the way first because I know they are no different to those already identified by comic fans throughout the book's run.


At times the art is inconsistent.  In one panel Skallox is wearing gloves and in the next he is bare fisted. Bleez and Fatality share a page of dialgoue surrounded by a crystal that isn't created until the following scene. And faces aren't always recognisable as the same character from one panel to the next.  Which isn't to say the art is bad because it most definitely is not.  Miguel Sepulveda and Rain Beredo are apparently experts in the field of death and destruction; the double page spread of Ysmault ravaged by volcanoes and earthquakes is a true spectacle. And in the fight scenes we experience every slash, stab and punch in eye-watering detail.


My other gripe is that the various narratives at play felt very disjointed.  It seems we are following four unrelated plotlines: Guy Gardner on Ysmault, Bleez on Zamaron, Atrocitus on his trail of planetary destruction, and Rankorr lost in deep space.  We can only hope that Peter Milligan has a plan to tie these threads together later on.  I get the impression Red Lanterns is written with one eye on collected trade sales in the future.


The issue opens with the Green Lantern Corps arriving on Ysmault to bear witness to its peril and immediately doing a 180 and heading into the sunset and out of the book.


We switch to Zamaron for the meat and bones of the issue, a confrontation between Bleez's rebel Red Lanterns and the Star Sapphire Fatality.  It seems that in the time between issues 10 and 11 the rage fuelled lanterns were ambushed in a preemptive strike by the love-wielding Sapphires in the mother of all throw downs.  It might have been nice to read this action packed battle as it happened rather than as a two-panel flashback but whatever.  The upshot is that the Red Lanterns have been captured and chained below the violet central power battery.  After a little bickering Bleez manages to rip her chains from the floor and starts flailing them around like Hawkman with his mace.

Bleez and Fatality trade blows in a fantastic skirmish which ends with the Red Lantern slashing both of their wrists and forcing their blood to mingle as blood sisters.  Not to be misinterpreted as a show of solidarity, Bleez hopes that her blood will ignite the rage buried within Fatality and induct her into the Red Lantern Corps.


We are briefly introduced to a lost and lonely Rankorr coming to terms with his status as a Red Lantern before we are flung headlong into Atrocitus' violent pursuit of Abysmus.  Sepulveda employs a great art device here with Atrocitus' flight path sweeping across panels depicting the destroyed landscapes left in his wake.  He executes a local tyrant as he passes through and it's good to see he is not so distracted as to forget his Lantern duties.


Back on Zamaron the brawl rages on while Bleez and Fatality debate who had the most difficult upbringing (my vote is for Fatality but Milligan 's writing manages to draw sympathy for both combatants).


Cocooned in the Star Sapphire's crystal away from prying ears the warrior women share their inner demons.  Despite being an avatar of love, Fatality's dreams are filled with a desire for retribution and Bleez admits that vengeful rage does not purge the pain she has endured.  This is a great scene.  It makes sense that these two, who recently fought side by side as New Guardians, should be able to move beyond the traditional antagonism of their respective Corps.  Bleez unmasks revealing the stunning features she was renowned for in her previous life.  This came as a shock to me.  Although I couldn't say why, I had presumed that the Red Lantern was somehow scarred or deformed under her mask which could not be further from the truth.


In deep space Rankorr stumbles across the massacre of his fellow Corpsmen by Abysmus and resolves to avenge them.  This may put him on a collision course with Atrocitus who discovers how quickly predator can become prey when Abysmus launches an attack on him in the book's closing sequence.


All in all this issue was a fairly difficult read with a few wonderful gems hidden in the middle of it.  Milligan tries to give his characters some depth and this is successful for the most part.  I feel I have learnt more about Bleez and Rankorr in particular.  The problem is that the through line of the narrative is disconnected.  Perhaps the writer is trying to squeeze the story into a shorter time frame than originally intended as the unstoppable Green Lantern juggernaut rolls on towards the Third Army.