Inebriated Ramblings From Sector 875 (Unedited)

First up, don’t give intoxicating liquids to a gaseous life form… it screws our pharmacology right up!

So here it is.  News flash.  While your world continues to turn, any Green Lantern obsessive will tell you the biggest change in comics since DC’s Flashpoint has just occurred.  March 2015 solicitations are out.  I don’t normally read the solicits but Twitter hooked me up and this is one that I couldn’t ignore….

I buy most of my books in digital these days but print still holds a special, respectful place in my life.  Amongst the few titles that I still collect from my LCS are of course the Lantern books.  The GLU.  Of which there are currently 5.

But come March Green Lantern Corps, Red Lanterns and Green Lantern: New Guardians are all being hailed as final issues.  Gutted to say the least!

I love Green Lantern and Sinestro.  Robert Venditti and Cullen Bunn are both veritable geniuses.  But I ain’t about to enjoy my favourite comic book franchise being compressed by 60%.

In the last year Justin Jordan and Charles Soule have both been legends on GL:NG and RLs.  9 issues out of 10 they have taken the outer extremities of the Lantern universe to new heights and uncharted territories.  Told stories that have never been told before without spitting on the mythos that spawned them.

But for me the biggest loss is Green Lantern Corps.  Van Jensen has been irrepressible on this book.  He is obviously very close to Venditti, the writer on the main Green Lantern title, and the books tie in heavily together and are best read as a cohesive unit.  But they are not the same book.  Van Jensen has done his research.  He knows his main character, John Stewart.  He knows his own created characters, the new Green Lantern recruits.  And he knows the history of the GLC and pulls out character after character that we haven’t seen or heard of in a very long time. He writes action, politic, romance and intrigue with equal clarity. 

At the heart of his writing, whether consciously or not, he swears Corps up and down.

In short folks, DC Comics are going to have to think of something very clever to do to replace this book.  I will not accept that this is just going to be a gap in my life.

'Convergence' is coming.  Another apocalyptical event from publishers that will “change comics forever”.  And I am not being cynical when add the inverted commas because, to be fair, it might.  I just bemoan a little because I hate my favourite books being cancelled.

I have been touting on the interwebs that they might replace the book with something from the past, like an original Golden-Age Alan Scott book.  They might also bring out the long anticipated anthology book that deals with stories from all of the coloured Corps in the style of the much loved Green Lantern Corps Quarterly.  In my heart of hearts I think it is all a publicity stunt and at the very least Green Lantern Corps will return in some form or other.

The GL franchise was never going to sustain 5 books forever.  And I get that.  But it would be a travesty if we had to view everything through the eyes of the main players, Hal and Sinestro, from now on at the expense of the rich story-telling that can be derived from the rest of the expansive Lantern universe.

So cheers to the writers and artists who may (or may not) be leaving our GL family before long.  You will be missed and remembered.  Cheers to all the Fanterns because we know we care.  And I am going to go out on a limb and say cheers to DC Comics too, because I'm superbly confident they are not going to sell us short when it comes to Green Lantern (hint, hint...)  

A Fan's Tale: My Journey with Green Lantern #20

 Well, that was a hell of a week in comics!  On a personal note Flodo’s Page celebrated its first birthday… Yaay!   I started the blog a year ago to share my love of the Green Lantern mythos.  It stuns me on a regular basis when I think about the scale of the universe that has been created over the years by the likes of Broome and Kane, Jones, Staton, Adams, O’Neil, Moore and so many other great writers and artists.  Storytellers who revelled in tales of a man with a magic ring and a bright green lantern.  The adventures of the Green Lantern Corps were spun by the some of the biggest names in comic book history.  They were woven together, shaped and reshaped.  They passed across generations of creators, reimagined in the hands of Marz, Banks and their ilk before finally settling like a muse of legend in the mind of Geoff Johns.  And if you think that sounds a bit whimsical, think again.  The continuity, long though it is, is only the tip of the ice-berg in my appreciation of Green Lantern.  The vastness of this fictional universe is itself almost unique in comics.  The account of the DCU begins with “Billions years ago the Guardians of the Universe…”, or words to that effect.  Moreover, Green Lantern is not just one individual hero, it is a Corps comprising of thousands of heroes covering every sector of the known universe.  The potential for new stories is virtually limitless.  This is recognised in the imagery and language associated the comic book.  As I coined myself a moment ago, we were often presented with a ‘Tale’ from the annals of the Corps.  The idea if realised on panel through the Book of Oa, a giant tome recording every memorable moment of the GLC.  Over the last year on Flodo’s Page I’ve applauded the inspiration that has been given over to Green Lantern by professionals and fans alike.  And judging from the feedback I’ve had on the blog I’m not alone in my admiration.

So that was the birthday moment.  But suffice to say it isn’t anywhere near the biggest Green Lantern happening in comic books last week.  The week had started pretty miserably for me.  I was stung more than I’d care to admit by the news that James Robinson will shortly be replaced on the DC published Earth 2.  This is a wonderful book where Robinson has had free reign to rewrite the pasts of many golden age legacy characters including the original Green Lantern himself, Alan Scott.  It was much reported when Robinson took the brave step of presenting Alan as gay.  The world he created, while not quite on the scale of the GLC, is huge and requires an incredible ability to produce long-form storytelling.  Readers have been jubilantly buoyed along by promises in interviews and press articles of the huge things still to come under Robinson’s careful guidance.   Weirdly the news was more disappointing than the announcement a few weeks earlier that Johns, Tomasi and all of the other creative teams were calling it a day on the Green Lantern titles.  Geoff Johns has written almost a decade of GL stories.  He has had ample opportunity to make his mark on that world and he has blessed us with some truly unforgettable stories.  As I tweeted to a fellow enthusiast the other day, “He deserves a break!”  By comparison Robinson was only getting started on Earth 2.

So that wasn’t good.  There was also downheartedness among a section of fandom around the final issue of Firestorm which was published last Wednesday.  I feel sympathy for these hard-core match heads.  It’s never good to have your favourite title cancelled.

But none of this was enough to quash the excitement that I had for ‘New Comic Book Day’.  As you all know fine rightly or you wouldn’t even be reading this blog.  The day saw the publication of three lantern titles including the epic conclusion to the crossover event ‘Wrath of the First Lantern’.  As if this wasn’t enough, Green Lantern #20 was an oversized action packed issue featuring Geoff Johns as writer for the very last time.  All the way from Green Lantern: Rebirth in 2004 until now Johns has expertly crafted the title at every turn and I was in no doubt that his departing gift to the mythos was going to be unmissable.  Johns has taken the universe to unbelievable heights with the likes of the Sinestro Corps War and the subsequent war of light.  The DCU wide event Blackest Night, with Green Lantern front and centre, is honestly the most enjoyable episode I have read in comics.  The seven hardcover collections sit on my bedside and are dipped into constantly.

A funny thing happened in the run-up to the release of GL#20.  The book was delayed for 2 weeks, presumably because it took so long to make it completely awesome.  In the meantime Green Lantern Corps was printed and distributed on its scheduled release date.  The book was bannered as the Epilogue to the ‘Wrath of the First Lantern’ but it ended up coming out the week before the Conclusion to the same event.  And inevitably it was chock full of spoilers for the main title.  This was an epic FAIL on the part of DC Comics and I feel particularly sorry for Peter J. Tomasi who has worked alongside Johns since the beginning of his run, first as an editor and then as a writer.  This was to be his swansong and due to some calamitous oversight on the part of DC editorial the wind was somewhat stolen from his sails.   Thank the Guardians for Twitter, that is all I can say.  I didn’t notice the word Epilogue on the cover at all but before I opened the book somebody tweeted out a warning for Fanterns to tread carefully.  So I dutifully put the issue on my shelf and began to count the days (14 of them) until Green Lantern #20 was finally released.  It wasn’t easy, I can tell you.  An unread GL book is anathema to.  I was sorely tempted more than a few times.  In hindsight I am mightily glad that I waited.

So on to the main event.  It could be said that this was the moment that the last 10 years of Geoff Johns’ career had been building up to.  It was certainly his last chance to put words in the mouths of the whole slew of characters he created (for now!).  Rather than review Green Lantern #20 at this juncture I’m going to tell you what it was like to read it instead.  For this is more than a comic book to be read.  It is a thing to be experienced.  Holding the book in my hands, with its cardboard wraparound cover and glued spine I was hard pressed to begrudge DC the unusually high price tag.  Colours bounced in front of eyes.  Alex Sinclair was clearly on a mission to use every tint on his palate.
 

Page 1 grabbed me by the gut straight away.  As I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion, I find reciting the Green Lantern oath to be one of the most stirring rituals in comics.  Geoff was pulling out the big guns from the get go.  And then, immediately, I was confused.  Who is saying the oath? I didn’t recognise any of the Lantern’s in front of me.  And more importantly – what happened from the cliff hanger from the last issue?  I had a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach that I’d missed something, despite having followed every moment in the GL library for a very long time now.  And that includes more copies of Red Lanterns than I honestly care to remember.

Luckily my cruel despair was momentary.  These were Lanterns of the future and they were about to tell a story.  Page 1, if you’ll permit me the risk of redundancy, was a page-turner.  Page 2… BOOM! A full page spread of the Book of Oa.  They really know how to play to the nerd in me.  The book was looking a little more battered than I’d seen before, “like it had been through the wars” I said to myself with a knowing smile.  The following pages gave us a brief account of the Hal Jordan’s history as it was told by Johns picking out all the major beats but focusing particularly on a recap of the last few months.  For some reason I was overly pleased to spot one panel referencing an very early issue on the run where Hal charges his ring in mid-air on the capitated head of a Manhunter android.  I also cynically noted that the recent Third Army event did not rate so much as a mention.

After that the pages started to roll by as I was sucked into a veritable who’s who of GL supporting cast (Go Gnort!) joining forces to defeat the powerful First Lantern.  Part of me wanted to stop and savour each panel in detail.  I wanted to ask questions, to test the continuity.  To name each character and catalogue each reference but I couldn’t.  I was being dragged through story at an insatiable pace.

There are quite a few splash panels making full luxury of the increased page count.  Hal gets his fair share obviously, one of which is a double page spread of him returning from the Dead Zone as the leader of a Black Lantern horde.  But there is another character who steals a page or two. In fact, where the first half of this book really makes its mark is in its depiction of Thal Sinestro.  It’s pretty obvious, even to a brand new reader, that Geoff Johns loves writing Sinestro.  In that instant what many conceive to be the single worse choice made by any writer on a Green Lantern title becomes its greatest victory.  The yellow Lantern finally fulfils his ultimate wish in bonding with the fear entity, Parallax.  Even as I’m reading I pay silent tribute to the character that Johns has championed over the course of his long tenure.  It’s no accident that Sinestro has been borne from the dubious status of arch-villain to become one of the best loved anti-heroes in DC Comics today.  It’s great to see Sinestro as Parallax .  Unlike all of our favourite GLs from Earth, most infamously Hal Jordan himself, the entity does not possess his latest host.  Sinestro is able to control the power of Parallax while retaining his own persona.  This reminded me of Ion in the Green Lantern lore.  Both Kyle and Sodam Yat absorbed the will entity without being enthralled by it.  This perfectly captures the notion of characters being in tune with one element of the emotional spectrum.  I would suppose that there are only a few people that can safely bond with each of the emotional entities.

Interspersed throughout the issue are pages of tributes and testimonials thanking Geoff Johns for his long service.  The great and good of comic books and its associated media grace these pages.  Each one is picked out in a different colour and carries a Lantern representing that colour, a bright purple sheet with Indigo-1 in the corner for example.  The words appearing there are heartfelt and often poetic.  Dazzling nuggets celebrating one legendary writer’s journey.  Well… I’ve got to be honest with you.  After the first one I skipped them all.  In fact, I didn’t actually pause to take in any of them until my third read-through.  The story is that good.  Nothing was getting between me and the end of this book.

If I can take a segue on that topic for a moment, I have to commend the editorial team on their arrangement of Green Lantern #20.  The only advertisements in the issue are for other Lantern titles, pointedly the all new creative teams appearing on the shelves next month and the much talked  about offering from Keith Giffen and Scott Kolins who will launch their interpretation of Larfleeze from the pages of the Threshold anthology into his very own solo book.  The first ad doesn’t appear until almost the end of the story.   In this sense the book is spoiler free.  None of the forthcoming plotlines are thrown in to break the spell that Johns and Doug Manhke have cast over us in the first 50 or so pages.  Of course, I’ve long known that there are changes just around the corner.  How could there not be?  But while I was submerged in that narrative for the first time my thoughts were not wondering at some distant future.  I could barely contain my excitement over what would appear on the very next panel.

At my core I felt for the first time in years that I was reading a comic book of the same quality as I hold Blackest Night to be.  I’d never turned away from Green Lantern in the intervening years but neither was I fool enough to consider that all of the writing had been equal quality.  It was exactly this thought that was going through my mind when Nekron popped up in all his splendid scythe wielding glory.  “No, Geoff… you haven’t!”  He only bloody well did, ladies and gentlemen. “Mind officially blown.”

I’m not even going to try and talk about the art in any great detail.  I may be in danger of repeating myself here but, for me, panel after panel, image after image, reference after reference was jaw dropping.  In fact, I tweeted as much to Geoff Johns.  I said “… @GeoffJohns That was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor! #GreenLantern” And Geoff tweeted me back in a private DM, “ :) ”.  Now this might not seem like very much to the rest of the world but let me tell you as Green Lantern uber-geek, to know that I made Geoff Johns laugh (even digitally) on ‘Geoff Johns Day’ was a special moment for me.  He was very quiet on his public feed that afternoon but I like to think he was logged in and following some of the many reactions that were bubbling across social networks that ‘New Comic Book Day’.  I’m never going to wash this Twitter account again…

That the First Lantern would be defeated was inevitable, of course, and he was dispatched in rip-roaring fashion.  What I finally understood in its full complexity was the psychological battle that was being played out in this arc.  Up until now I had looked at the First Lantern’s mind games as a literary device to underpin the action.  All of a sudden it hit me like the proverbial 10 ton truck.  The underlying goal of ‘Wrath…’ was to heal Hal Jordan’s one remaining scar, the childhood trauma of his father’s death.  I wasn’t quite moved to tears when the GL comforted his younger self but I was hugely taken aback by the powerful impact the scene had on me.

And after all that the Green Lanterns won the day.  “As if there was any doubt, folks…”

One thing I was glad to have resolved, although I am undecided of my genuine reaction towards, is the demise of the Guardians of the Universe - or their well-deserved comeuppance you might say.  The Guardians were executed by Sinestro.  It doesn’t come as much surprise.  They had basically become irredeemable over the last year or two and if anybody was going to finally off them it would be Sinestro.  Appearing last August for the first time, the Templar Guardians were the heralds of their brethren’s doom, for they were the obvious morally stout replacement for the corrupted immortals.  Even so, it was nice to have any lingering doubts dispelled.

And with that all is right with the world once more.  The narrative jumps back to the future Lanterns and that is the end of the story… except it isn’t.  And by the same token it wasn’t for me that day.  Geoff and his many artistic cohorts had banded together to keep the story going.  He refused to let go the reins and we kept on riding together.

If everything up to this point had been Blackest Night, what came next was different, something special.  Something befitting the end of an era.  In my time as a comic book fan I can only think of one suitable comparison, ‘Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?’  In brief for those who don’t know, ‘Whatever happened…’ was a two issue story from Alan Moore giving a kiss good-bye to the Silver Age of Comics before John Byrnes issued in a new era for Superman in 1986.  These last few pages have that same feel.  Geoff Johns allows us to travel with him into the twilight of our heroes lives to find out what became of them.  I didn’t know how I felt about this.  If this is how the story ends what freedom do other writers have to take the ‘Tales of the Green Lantern Corps’ in their own direction?    My concerns were fairly short-lived, however, because the story itself was a thing of beauty.  Each of our Earth Lanterns got his own happy ending.  This is how I resolved it in my mind.  Like the Superman adventure I just mentioned, I see this as an ending that might happen, and could happen.  That doesn’t mean it will happen in our continuity but it is the ending each of these ‘hard traveling’ heroes deserve.  And it is the ending Geoff Johns deserves too.

There was one last thing to share with you on the book (besides Johns’ own letter to the fans that I completely missed first time around).  I was just getting to the very last page of the issue.  The keeper of the Book of Oa was sharing his ‘Jerry’s final thought' with his young audience, “Hal Jordan, The Greatest of all the Green Lanterns.  The inspiration he left behind continues to burn bright.”  And then I turned the page and disaster struck.  The leaves were coming out of my book.  The binding glue that I had been so proud of half an hour earlier was tormenting me with its shoddiness.   A collectable heirloom was destroyed before for want of a metal staple.  I looked again.  I felt the edge of the page.  I ran my nail along it gently.  It was then I realised the paper was hinged on the wrong side and it sprung open at my touch.  And with that moment my own journey was complete.  I had opened Ethan Van Sciver’s glorious 4 page gatefold crammed with just about every coloured Lantern ever to grace the pages of a comic.  I didn’t need the words in the lantern shaped logo in the corner to tell me this really was “The End”.  And what a fabulous way to go.

Epilogue:

Actually, it wasn’t the end.  There was another three books I still had to read that day; Green Lantern Corps #20, Green Lantern: New Guardians # 20 and Red Lanterns #20.  Each one dealt with the fallout from their namesake title in its own way.  I had to laugh when I reached the final page of each book and was confronted with a similar lantern shaped logo to the one that I described above but this time the words that appeared read “Never The End”.

Yaayy!!

For all I said earlier, Peter J.Tomasi does manage to say a fond farewell to John Stewart and his favoured charge, Guy Gardner.  By the end of the issue I think Guy is a character that most fans could forgive for his infamous smug demeanour.  I read GLC #20 and then, quite by chance, I took a decision that made my day complete.  I decided to read Red Lanterns next and leave New Guardians until last.  RL #20 was ok.  Peter Milligan has tidied up his run nicely and left it in a position to tell the sort of stories that I, personally, always wanted from the book but rarely got.  Going forward I’d like to see less introspection from this title and more rage-fuelled cosmic punishment squad.

But it was New Guardians that was really the final piece in the jigsaw of my comic book week.  This issue tells the story of Kyle through the eye’s of Ganthet and Sayd. …Spoiler Alert!  Ganthet and Sayd are both alive.  Sinestro let them live because they loved each other.  What an old softy he is really.  Here I nearly did shed a tear.  Tony Beddard shows us why Kyle is the most powerful Lantern of all.  How he can harness all of the emotions in the spectrum and use them, even fear, for the good of everybody.  Kyle is the lantern that I began my own Green Lantern journey with in earnest.  It was through his story that I came to know Ganthet, his father figure.  I found myself thinking that Geoff Johns could have written both of them out of existence 10 years earlier with the quick flurry of a penstroke.  It is a fitting tribute to the writer’s legacy that Kyle was allowed to remain and to flourish after Hal Jordan was reinstated as the lead role in main GL title.  Where Green Lantern #20 is John’s final gift to us, I thought in those closing panels that Green Lantern: New Guardians #20 is our thanks to him for taking a geeky little story about a man with a magic ring and a bright green lantern and turning it into the stuff of legend. 

Changing Of The Guardians - A New Era For Green Lantern

  Last week DC Comics announced via the Associated Press that Geoff Johns will be ending his legendary run on Green Lantern with issue #20 (vol. 5).  l received the news via Twitter. I am lucky to be counted among the Green Lantern Twitter community and my thanks goes out to all the Fanterns who are kind enough to include me in their discussions.

Geoff has done much work in expanding the GL mythos and I would be frustrated if he was replaced by someone who did not cherish the source material as he does.  My favourite fanboy catchphrase is “In Johns we trust.”  As well as the obvious disappointment of losing one of the greats, my immediate thoughts after reading the news were occupied with the future.  If I were in control at DC I would switch Peter J. Tomasi up to the main Green Lantern title and get Tony Bedard back to what he does best writing Green Lantern Corps. Green Lantern: New Guardians would make a great title for a new creator to find their feet in the massive and presumably daunting world of the GL universe.  I tweeted my fanciful wish list to mixed reaction.

Imagine my surprise then the following day when further news hit my feed that it wasn't just Geoff that was moving on.  It was all change at GL with writers calling it a day on all four lantern books.  While other fans cried 'foul' to DC I couldn't believe my luck. I was convinced my premonition would come to pass.  In my interpretation of Johns' blog post on DC’s own website he is bequeathing the upkeep of the legacy to Tomasi.  Of course, you could take it as a final thank-you to Tomasi before he too moves on to pastures new but I chose not to.

Johns won't be completely detached from the green as he shifts his focus over to Justice League.  In light of the news of his departure it seems like Simon Baz might be a bit of a parting gift from Johns to himself.  Only the Chief Creative Officer of DC could get away with creating a brand new lantern to pack in his box of tricks for his new project.  Solicits reveal Baz will be feature in the government sanctioned super team, Justice League of America.

 

I am hoping for a bold ending from Geoff Johns for a run that rescued the franchise from relative obscurity in 2004 and put the character front and centre in the DC Comics line up.  Perhaps more so than ever before.  I mentioned in a previous post that I think he should decimate the coloured Corps of the emotional spectrum and strip Green Lantern back to basics.  This would give whoever takes over a fresh crack at the whip without being encumbered with the heavy burden of living up to Johns' legend. With the levels of power wielded by the First Lantern in the current crossover arc a complete do-over is entirely possible.

I don't know where this tactic would leave New Guardians. Perhaps the book will be ended which I hope is not the case.  As an alternative direction Kyle and whoever joins him could be literal Guardians of the white light of life.

Personally I am just about done with Red Lanterns in its current format despite my anticipation of the Inversions return. Maybe some new blood (no apologies for the double meaning) could be just what this title needs.

The impact of Johns’ departure cannot be underestimated.  At the same time he leaves behind a comic book franchise that is in high demand from the fans.  A few readers may drop off and follow him to his other books but then again, if DC play their cards right, this could be the jumping on point for new readers who missed out on the fresh beginnings experienced in most other titles with the publication of the New 52.

Only this morning fellow lantern aficionado @CorwinC sent me a link to the news released via MTV Geek revealing the names of all of the writers and artists who will be taking the reins of the GL universe.  As ever, my predictions were 100% wrong.  All four titles (possibly five if the debate around Larfleeze breaking out of Threshold holds water) have brand new creative teams.  A clean sweep.  Not that I am disappointed.  Robert Venditti has had nothing but good press for his work on X-O Manowar at Valiant Comics.  And Billy Tan’s first art release speaks for itself.  They will be working together on the main Green Lantern title.  Similarly the other names in the mix are being lauded as team-ups with great potential.  I'm excited to be in on the ground floor of a new era in the lantern mythology.  Venditti has already set himself a massive challenge in his first interview since the news broke, “If we execute the story the way we hope to, it’ll tie together every Lantern of every Corps who has ever appeared in any comic book.  Ever.  We’re going all in.”  I only hope he realises he is talking about a billion years of history here!
 

Green Lantern by Billy Tan

From the way things have been shaping up in recent books it looks like the Guardians of the Universe are on the way out too.  What this means for the Corps remains to be seen.  It is worth recalling the last time the Guardians disappeared from our pages in the mid-80s leaving the Corps to fend for themselves.  Hal Jordan, John Stewart and co. formed the Green Lantern Corps of Earth while Flodo Span and his companions became the Green Lantern Corps of the Klyminade.  Will power endured, the Corps survived and the Guardians returned because in comics nothing is forever.  The same is true of the printed page and the publishing office.  In recent times Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman and others have returned to the characters that made them famous and there is no reason why we couldn’t be saying the same thing about Geoff Johns in the not too distant future.  And it sounds like we have a lot to look forward to with our new Green Lantern creators in the meantime.   

 

 

 

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.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE VERY, VERY UGLY – RED LANTERNS #13

  

When Sergio Leone described the personalities of his three protagonists in Il buono, il brutto e il cattivo he could not have known how apt it would become in summing the single figure of Atrocitus in DC Comic’s Red Lanterns.  Atrocitus and his Corps dispense a lethal, rage fuelled justice across the Green Lantern universe on behalf of the victimised and abused. Herein, of course, lies both the good and the bad.  And the resulting devastation, much like their leader himself, sure as heck ain’t pretty.  

In honour of this undeniable comparison I have elected to keep my overview of the story brief and instead review RL #13 by looking at elements of the book in relation to Leone’s famous movie title.

 

The issue is part of the GL crossover event ‘Rise of the Third Army’ and the plot is simple enough.  On some distant planet two sisters are enslaved by marauding misogynists for the purposes of serving their every physical need.  The older sister is slain trying to protect her sibling. The younger sister escapes into the care of a local lady only for her husband to betray both of them to the hoard in hope of earning financial reward.  The women are sliced down by Cord, the barbarian king, moments before Red Lanterns arrive and take bloody retribution on all and sundry. The Guardian’s Third Army join the scene to forcibly recruit the Red Lanterns (and anybody else in the immediate vicinity) into their Army.  Atrocitus notices that their eyes have not changed during their horrific transformation and deduces this to be their Achilles heel.  He plunges his thumbs into the eye sockets of their newest inductee, who until moments ago had been the Red Lantern Skorch.  In the final heart wrenching panel the surviving sister is also subsumed into the Third Army’s ranks.

 The Good:

 

** After a year of trudging through the angst of the Atrocitus seeking affirmation of his goals we have finally jumped into some good old fashioned story telling.  In addition we get something that you don’t come across very often in an on-going comic book series - namely a beginning, a middle and an ending.

 

** The narrative placed the young sister, Taya, as the central character for most of the issue and it was with relief that I discovered Peter Milligan hadn’t the adopted obvious formulaic approach of having her wind up becoming another Red Lantern.

 

** As the fourth chapter in the ‘Rise of the Third Army’, Red Lanterns #13 works very well.  We have witnessed the parasitic spread of the Army take place gradually over theprevious three episodes.  Now we’re invited to explore their disturbing mission in greater detail.  The tension has been built up sufficiently and now it is ready to pop.

 

The Bad:

 

** The dialogue in this book continues to irk me a little.  For the most part the characters talk as if they have just walked off the set of an English period drama.  Even the neanderthalic villains of the piece annunciate with all the clarity of a trained butler.

 

** The Thirdites (I made that word up.  Feel free to use it!) weakness is in their eyes.  The seemingly invincible, ring-energy-proof servants of the Guardians can be taken down in one with a swift chopstick to the eyeball.  They have gone from ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre‘ scary to pretty lame.  It’s reminiscent of the Keepers in the first arc of the current Green Lantern Corps book who were impervious to the all-powerful GL rings but not to basic weaponry like lead bullets.

 

** There are too many narrative voices taking centre stage.  Three different characters, Taya, Atrocitus and Red Lantern Rankorr each take a turn as storyteller in the text boxes littering this issue.  It’s a bit distracting for a book that only runs to 20 pages.

  

The Ugly:

 

** Miguel Sepulveda appears not to have received the editorial memo explaining what the Thirdites looked like (see what I did there?).  Or rather he received and chose to ignore it in favour of his own brand of over the top grotesque that suits the tone of Red Lanterns so well.  The creatures are positively skeletal here in comparison to their depictions in the other GL titles brought out earlier this month.  Hip bones and rib cages are on full shocking display. 

 

** Carrying on in the same vein the transformation of a regular person is handled very differently in this book.  Whereas victims elsewhere are touched by a Third Army recruit and shown to have their mouths seal over in the first stage of their mutation, in this case a web fluid extends from their captor’s fingers and wraps itself around their mouth and face.  I actually like the effect quite a lot but it is inconsistent with the rest of the titles included in the ‘Rise’ event.

  

** Atrocitus rips King Cord’s head clean off his torso in a bloody display fitting for the commander of a rage powered lantern corps.  For gore fans like me it is a juicy delight of a panel.

 

So there you have it. Red Lanterns #13 shares a few great touches and woeful errors in common with the most famous of spaghetti westerns. However, while the book is certainly worth a read, it is never going to be a timeless classic.