Bit of a misleading title this one, since the tales in this book all come from but one Corps; The Green Lantern Corps.
The first centers upon Kilowog, and his days as a rookie Green Lantern being trained by a hard-ass Sarge-type named Ermey. (Get it? Get it?)
It's not subtle, but it is a fitting tribute given that R. Lee Ermey has played The Sarge in so many war movies and in so many parodies of so many war movies that he's become synonymous with the type. And this comic is, in the early parts at least, the closest thing you can get to a Full Metal Jacket tribute in a comic that peaks at PG-13 at its' worst.
The second story is a little shorter, but no less dark. It focuses upon Arisaia - the teenage girl who become Green Lantern of sector 2815, following in the footsteps of her father, her uncle and and entire family line of Green Lanterns who all died in the line of duty.
Not much plot besides that, but it does give us some insight into Arisaia's character, showing how at a time when most girls think only of games and boys, she was already longing to do something greater with her life. And I think it's a fair bet that some of Arisaia's family will be coming back to visit. Heh heh heh.
The final story is not a story at all but a low-tech DVD-style commentary of Blackest Night #0, lain over the pencils of that book.
Your tolerance for this sort of thing may be linked to whether or not you are the sort of person who likes to hear artists talk about their work or the kind of person who listens to DVD commentaries. I am, so I loved this. But I can see how it might make for tedious reasoning for those of you who don't care to know that Geoff Johns decided to make Hal and Barry the central characters in this story since the other big heroes of the DCU are all busy with their own problems at the moment - Superman with New Krypton, Wonder Woman with building a new life in the wake of her leaving the Amazons and Greek Gods behind and Batman.. uh, being dead.
The Final Verdict: Two good stories and an interesting commentary on Blackest Night #0, if you are the sort of person who likes listening to the commentaries on DVDs. The only problem is that none of this seems to have anything to do with Blackest Night, apart FROM the commentary.
Those just picking this up for the story of Blackest Night can probably skip this book but fans of the old Tales of the Green Lantern Corps series as well as the current Green Lantern Corps book will want to get it just for the stories focusing on Arisia and Kilowog.
Yeah, I dug both of the stories. I really dug the art on the Arisia story for some reason, I'm not sure why. There was something soft and light about it in the wake of all of the darkness surrounding the character. Almost like a child's perspective of the world until she becomes a lantern; I liked that a lot.
ReplyDeleteThe Kilowog story was nice to see, especially given the results of the riot on Oa. I was wondering if they would deal with Kilowog's loss of his trainees or if it would be like the SCW where they seemed to move on really quickly from the slauter of 100s of lanterns. I liked that story a great deal.
I loved the pencils, and enjoyed some of the commentary. At times they fell too much into "And in this scene Barry is running away from Death again" ... yes ... we can see that ... talk about why you chose the panel layout that way, or is there something clever tha Ivan is doing in the layout of the enemy versus the heroes? Anyways, it was okay, and I would read more of it, but I would like more detail than is provided, and less narrating of what is already in the art.
I really dug the art on the Arisia story for some reason, I'm not sure why. There was something soft and light about it in the wake of all of the darkness surrounding the character. Almost like a child's perspective of the world until she becomes a lantern;
ReplyDeleteThat's a good thought. I liked it too, but I didn't think about the childish perspective, though I thought the use of light was brilliant. Hence why I chose to scan the page of Arisia waking up and finding her father charging his ring.
The Kilowog story was nice to see, especially given the results of the riot on Oa.
I liked it for that reason too. Douglas Adams rallied about this in the notes to the Hitchhiker's Guide Radio Show Script Book about how he hated it in any fiction where the supporting cast is killed without any acknowledgment from the main characters. No "The Queen, my lord, is dead." No "Good night sweet Prince." Not even a "Look, you bastard - we were supposed to play Tennis tomorrow!
At times they fell too much into "And in this scene Barry is running away from Death again" ... yes ... we can see that ...
Actually, I missed that bit of irony. Of course, until recently, I also missed just why Barry was in this story in the first place and how that ties in with Flash: Rebirth and Barry's apparent connection to The Black Flash.
I forget, how did Arisia come back and is it possible her father and uncle can? Or do they need to be BLs for that?
ReplyDeleteArisia was among the Lanterns kidnapped by the Cyborg Superman and the Manhunters.
ReplyDeleteOdds are she's probably on the list of people who SHOULD be dead, but aren't.