Green Lantern/Space Ghost Special #1 - A Review

Sent to investigate a message regarding a weapon from beyond the boundaries of known space, Green Lantern  Hal Jordan soon finds himself in a place his ring cannot identify. Worse yet, he is engaged in battle by a strangely dressed figure whose wrist-mounted weapons seem as dangerous as the weapon he was warned about. Naturally this is all a great misunderstanding and two lawmen of different realities will have to trust one another to survive the battle to come.

I came into Green Lantern/Space Ghost with high hopes but I'm afraid they weren't met. Given this story was written by James Tynion IV and Christopher Sebela - whose respective work on Detective Comics and Injustice: Ground Zero I've loved - I expected more than a cliche tale of two similar heroes getting into a fight, realizing their mistake and joining together in the end. The individual panels of Ariel Olivetti's painted artwork look amazing but the story flow between them is clunky at best. This isn't a bad comic - merely a passable one. Given the talent involved, however, it should have been better.


The Ruff 'n' Reddy back-up story by Howard Chaykin and Wil Quintana is a different beast - no pun intended. Set in a world much like that of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? where animated anthrmorphic animals live and work among humans, we follow two comedians - a cat named Ruff and a dog named Reddy - whose careers are floundering after their respective acts break up.

It spoils little to say the two have decided to partner up by issue's end. Personally, I enjoyed this piece but as a fan of 1940s comedians my opinion may be biased. It remains to be seen how this will play in Peoria or if the barber in Peru will get it, to borrow two old phrases from the agents of yesteryear. If nothing else, Chaykin deserves credit for briefly partnering Ruff up with a Mae West type named Sexx.

Future Quest #8 - A Review

The cosmic horror known as Omnikron has made its first full manifestation on Earth! As Birdman and the new Mightor do battle with the beast and The Impossibles do what they can to prevent others from being absorbed by it, Dr. Zinn and Dr. Quest agree to work together to stop the menace. Unfortunately, Zinn's partners in F.E.A.R. have other ideas...


The artwork in this issue looks fantastic. Ariel Olivetti's art is reminiscent of the work of Alex Ross. Both feature a similar clarity of design and a capacity to make simple, cartoonish characters look epic in scope.


Jeff Parker's story continues to amaze and inspire with every passing issue. The various players are starting to come together and it is only a matter of time before they are all working together in one epic team-up. If what has come so far is any indication, that will be a great and glorious moment!

Conan And The People Of The Black Circle #4 - A Review

The final issue of this adaptation of Robert E. Howard's People of the Black Circle proves to be as problematic as the previous chapters.  Unlike most of other writers to handle the Conan comics since Dark Horse took over the license, Fred Van Lente liberally removed whole scenes from the original Howard stories in his adaptations.  He also cuts much of the original Howard narration, trusting the art to tell the story.



This might not be a problem if artist Ariel Olivetti were a better visual storyteller.  He's a fine painter but there's very little sense of story from panel to panel.  His choice of expression for some of the characters is also questionable, particularly in the case of our heroine who smiles vapidly when she is meant to be arguing with Conan!

In the end, People of the Black Circle will only be of interest to Conan completists.  And even they might rather skip this story than being subjected to a half-hearted adaptation.

Conan And The People Of The Black Circle #3 - A Review

The third part of Conan And The People Of The Black Circle possesses problems that were less obvious in the first two chapters, if not completely absent.  Writer Fred Van Lente's decision to remove much of Howard's original narration - while helping to speed certain scenes in the earlier part of the story - proves something of a hindrance in these later chapters where Conan finally begins to face the titular Black Circle of wizards.  Here, Howard's description of the spells and devices used against Conan and his fellow warriors would add to the artwork rather than distracting from it, as it is often unclear precisely what is happening.    


This might not be so bad were Ariel Olivetti a good visual storyteller.  Alas, Olivetti is a great artist but there is very little sense of flow and continuity between his painted panels.  Indeed, there is one sequence in the climax of the book where the heroine is naked before the villain and then suddenly fully dressed the next time we see her but a few seconds later!

All in all, this isn't the worst adaptation of Robert E. Howard's work but it's also not a good one.  It seems to have been rushed to completion in its final hours.  I'll probably pick up the final issue for the sake of completeness but I can't say this series holds any attraction save for the most devout of Conan fans.

Conan And The People Of The Black Circle #2 - A Review

The People of the Black Circle is one of Robert E. Howard's most unusual Conan stories.  While Conan was always an anti-hero at best under his creator's pen, Black Circle is one of the few stories where we see Conan in a truly villainous role, kidnapping a princess in order to ransom her against the lives of the bandits he is currently leading.  It is also unusual in that Howard devoted just as much of the story towards the actions of Khemsa - an acolyte sorcerer in the service of the titular Black Circle - as he does Conan's exploits.


 
Fred Van Lente's dialogue borrows heavily from the original Howard script.  Virtually all of the text is presented as it was in the original story, with Van Lente's main contributions being to edit certain sections that would add little to an illustrated adaptation.  He also adapts several internal monologues into actual dialogues between the characters.
The artwork by Ariel Olivetti is skillfully painted, though overly bright compared to most Conan comics.  A good deal of the definition is lost due to Olivetti's palette choices as is most of the subtle line-work.  It would have been better had this book been published in an over-sized volume rather than a comic-book sized one, so the details would be more easily visible.  This is a minor quibble and the book still looks good, though the reader may have to squint at some panels to see everything.