Fast Thoughts - The Week of 10/01/08 and 10/08/08

Been so busy with work and HEROES musings I forgot - oh yeah - I actually DID get a few comics this past week.



GREEN LANTERN #35 - Secret Origins concludes and continues the wonderful trend Johns started with this series.

My favorite touch? Using Quill of the Empire of Tears - a prophetic villain created by Alan Moore for one of his Green Lantern stories - to doom Sinestro as he doomed Abin Sur.

In the story Tygers, it was Quill who inspired the paranoia that caused Abin Sur to travel in a space-ship after giving him a prophecy that he would die when his ring failed him in deep space. In this story, Quill predicts that Sinestro's home-world will fall into chaos and ruin - a fate that orderly-minded Sinestro swears to prevent.

If you're read Emerald Dawn 2, you know where this is heading - how Sinestro went too far and began to rule as a tyrant, relying on fear to keep his own people in line with his own laws. Still, I find this retelling of the story preferable to that older story for many reasons - not the least of which is Johns tying together several great, yet unrelated tales. He's also done a much better job of creating a convincing student/mentor relationship between Hal Jordan and Sinestro than Gerard Jones did.


GREEN LANTERN CORPS #29 - The plot thickens in the search for a Sinestro Corps alien who is kidnapping the children of Green Lanterns. The Green Lantern Saarek, who also has the power to talk to the dead, seeks the corpse of the Anti-Monitor. The first of the new Star Sapphire Corps is chosen. And Ice goes to visit Guy on Oa. And for those of you who were wondering just how Tora was able to hitch a ride to Oa in the first place, we get an explanation; her wish to go to Oa was foreseen by a Green Lantern who is part of an race of precognitive aliens. Lots of stuff going on, but it's all fairly accessible for new readers. Good old fashioned space opera and soap opera, mixed in perfect harmony.


KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #143 - It does my heart good to see BA getting one over on Brian. And I hope that the continuing Hard 8 storyline isn't heading for another dramatic twist like when Gary Jackson died. Still the best gamer comic on the market, even without The Gamers Rant.


JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #25- A lot to like here - from the final resolution of Red Tornado's story arc to some nice character moments with Black Lightning and Hawkgirl. But the center of the issue - and the best part - involves the big reveal of trickster god Anansi being the one pulling the strings of Vixen and Animal Man's erratic power changes.

I admit a bias here. I'm a sucker for a good trickster villain and good Elseworld ideas... and the idea of a storyteller god who can alter reality by deciding to change the story... well, it's been done with Mark Waid's "Queen of Fables" but not quite this effectively or as scarily. The Queen of Fables may have put Wonder Woman in an eternal sleep but Anansi effectively erased the Justice League from history simply by causing Bruce Wayne to pick up a gun and shoot the man who killed his parents...

And Bruce Wayne as the black-clad Western hero Paladin... the Have Gun, Will Travel in me is pleased.


SECRET SIX #2- Not quite so great as last month, but it still has the Line of The Month so far...

RAGDOLL: If I had known we might die, I would have done something filthy enough to shame the Heavens as my last act.
DEADSHOT: What have you got left on that list, Doll?
RAGDOLL: Only what my allergies won't permit, I'm delighted to say.


WONDER WOMAN #25- Much as I do rag on The Queen of Fables in the JLA review, I do like her appearance here. Then again, Gail Simone is at her best using serious characters in an unserious situation and... well, forcing Diana to play herself in a bad version of her own life story makes for some good action and some amusing comics.