Injustice 2 #60-62 - A Belated Review

The Red Lanterns have recruited Starro The Conqueror and have lain siege to Oa - home of The Green Lantern Corps and The Guardians of The Universe. The New God Metron has recruited Jaime Reyes - The Blue Beetle - to stand against Starro, having foreseen that only the wielder of The Scarab can stand against the rage-empowered Starro.

Blue Beetle does not stand alone, however, with his friends in the New Titans and Booster Gold having joined in the fight. Even the bounty hunter Lobo, who was hired by Metron to bring Blue Beetle to him, has joined in the fighting on the simple grounds that it'll be hard for him to get paid in a universe run by a crazy hive-mind. And before the day is over, even more unlikely allies may be found to aid Oa in its blackest night...


Due to life being life and my schedule of late leaving me busy on Tuesdays when this book is released on-line, I haven't had the opportunity to review Injustice 2 for nearly three weeks. Indeed, I've barely had the time to read it!

Today, however, I made the time and I am glad I did. For Injustice 2 #62 contained no less than three jaw-dropping moments. I am not certain that my jaw literally did drop physically as I was reading the issue. Mentally, however, I was gobsmacked.

I know Tom Taylor is a busy man but I dearly wish he were writing several series based on his work here. There are a number of characters in Injustice 2 - no longer in existence in the DC Rebirth reality - who I sorely miss and am glad to see being given their due here. Chief among these are Conner Kent and Cassie Sandsmark, who have become this reality's new Superman and Wonder Woman and one heck of a cute couple. I'd also love to see Taylor tackle the Green Lantern Corps on a regular basis or pen a new Blue and Gold series.

The artwork is equally fantastic. This book is blessed by a number of great creative teams and I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite if asked to do so. Xermanico, Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran, J Nanjan, Rex Lokus and Wes Abbot all deliver their respective A-games to every aspect of this series' artwork and I cannot recall any issue where the art was anything but excellent.

If you haven't been reading Injustice 2, for whatever reason, you've been missing out. This is one of my favorite series and you would do well to check it out and find out why.

The Final Analysis: 10 out of 10. Great issues, all of them. 

Green Lantern Corps Annual #1 - A Review

Green Lantern Corps Annual #1 is an oddity.  Labeled as the conclusion to the Rise of the Third Army event, it brings several storylines to a conclusion while simultaneously failing to resolve anything.  Indeed, it seems that this three-month long crossover between all the Lantern Corps books ultimately served no purpose but setting up the next big crossover, Wrath Of The First Lantern.


Despite this seemingly pointlessness, there is much to recommend this issue.  Peter Tomasi's scripting is as strong as ever and with this issue Guy Gardner has become my favorite Green Lantern.  Forget that "one punch" nonsense with Batman.  That was a different universe and besides that Guy is dead.

This Guy Gardner storms the battlements of Oa with no ring, no weapons, no plan and no chance of victory.  There's one other thing Guy hasn't got - anything left to lose.  And a man without hope is... well, Matt Murdock may be The Man Without Fear but after this issue I'd put money down on Guy if they wrestled for the title.

And this is but one fine moment of many.  Another occurs as John Stewart and The Star Sapphire Formerly Known As Fatality restore the planet Mogo.  And SPOILER ALERT, kids.  It turns out Mogo is a her!


The artwork by guest artist ChrisCross is a fine substitute for Green Lantern Corps' usual penciler, Fernando Pasarin.  Regular inker Scott Hanna is on-hand as is inker Wil Quintana.  Together, they create some amazing visuals, though there are some minor hick-ups such as Fatality's unfortunately exaggerated figure in the panel above or Fatality's skin-tone being far lighter than usual.  Thankfully, it's not enough to sink the book and long-time Green Lantern fans should be pleased with this issue.

Friday Comic Con News Round Up - Part One

All news from the DC Comics Justice League & Green Lantern panel.


* Justice League #12 will bring big changes to the team. New people will join. Old people will quit. Tony Daniel will take over writing after Issue #12.

# The relationship between Billy Batson and the wizard Shazam will be antagonistic once they finally meet. According to Geoff Johns, "Shazam is weirded out that a kid is visiting him, whereas Billy doesn't like Shazam telling him what to do. Johns says that Billy will be joining the Justice League." An empowered Billy Batson will be part of the new Justice League.

* Again, the Green Lantern on the cover of Green Lantern #0 is an original character, who carries a gun as a back-up weapon in case his ring runs out of power at a bad moment.

* Again, the upcoming "Third Army" the Guardians create will come about because of their conclusion that emotion and fear aren't the cause of the universe's problems - it's free will.

* Johns also made reference to "The Fall Of Guy Gardner" in the coming months.

* By Issue #12, we will learn how and why a ring from each Corps wound up going to Kyle Rayner. More, Kyle will wind up with one of each ring again and apparently have to learn how to use and master each color of the spectrum heading into "The Third Army".

* Tony Bedard also said that upcoming stories will spell out more of Kyle Rayner's past - a neccesity given, as Geoff Johns pointed out, that over half of his girlfriends may not exist in the new continuity. Jade definitely doesn't. The fate of Donna Troy and Soranik is still in question. No word on if Major Force still fridged Alexandra DeWitt.

* There probably won't be any resolution to the dangling plot-thread of Lobo getting a Red Lantern ring.

* The Dex-Starr Valentine's Day special is coming. They just need to bring Krypto back before it can happen.

Red Lanterns #1 - A Review

When I first heard that a team book devoted to The Red Lanterns was one of the New 52 titles, I must admit to being confused. While Geoff Johns’ invention of an emotional electromagnetic spectrum, where different emotional states can be tapped to generate energy, was a brilliant conceit The Red Lanterns did not strike me as being a group who could be readily tapped for a mini-series, let alone a monthly series. For Red is the color of Rage, and those who possess a Red Lantern ring become possessed themselves, berserkers who turn their uncontainable fury upon everything around them. They are a group in name only, not given to teamwork nor coherent thought.

Peter Milligan masterfully explains all this for new readers, with the focus of the issue upon Red Lantern founder and leader Atrocitus. Atrocitus was one of Johns’ greatest creations in Green Lantern and Milligan conveys the characters voice perfectly in this issue. Milligan also concisely recounts the recent events of the War Of The Green Lanterns storyline in explaining Atrocitus’ current malaise and his eventually decision about what he must do now that the revenge that he sought is unattainable.

Ed Benes is probably better known for his work as a pin-up artist among the general comics-reading public but he proves to be an excellent choice for the art duties on this book. Drawing a book centering upon a non-human protagonist can be a difficult task for some artists but Benes rises to the challenge, depicting all of the various alien creatures – humanoid and non – with equal ease.

Green Lantern fans will likely see this title as a welcome edition to their pull lists. New readers who enjoy good space-opera stories or books with anti-hero protagonists will likely enjoy it as well. I know I plan to keep buying this one.

One Good Thing And One Bad Thing About Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #5

BAD THING: The "rookie gets killed and drives Killowog into a rage" sub-plot has been done to death. Granting that it is done well here does not change that fact...





GOOD THING: The storyline is finally starting to come together and the mysteries are starting to be explained. I'll leave most of this in the dark (the better to inspire you to read this book) but I will say that it is a nice touch to have Guy Gardner - not exactly a dreamer or a navel-gazer - being the Cassandra figure in this story, cursed with strange visions that nobody else believes and he may be powerless to prevent coming about.







The Final Verdict: Still an enjoyable read, though some of the subplots are a bit repetitive. Perhaps the most enjoyable of the Green Lantern books at this time.

One Good Thing And One Bad Thing About Green Lantern #48

GOOD THING: A lot of good character moments here but for my money, the best is Blue Lantern Walker attempting to empathize with Atrocitius, as we learn about just what caused the Red Lantern leader to see out the power of Hatred in the first place. Namely, that his entire world/space sector was all but slaughtered by the Manhunter Robots for no good reason and The Guardians apparently covered the whole thing up.

BAD THING: Not a lot of action, as this issue is mostly dedicated toward the Rainbow Connection trying to win over Atrocitius and Larfleeze.



The Final Verdict: Good issue and a must read for anyone interested in keeping up with the main story of Blackest Night

Tales Of The Corps #2

Another three profile stories; these centering upon members of the Red Lanterns, Star Sapphire and Orange Lantern Corps respectively.



The first story centers upon Bleez - a princess who was recruited by the Red Lanterns after her family was killed by The Sinestro Corps, her wings crippled and she was nearly raped by the Yellow Lantern who led the attack on her planet.

This story is serviceable, with Bleez being far from the typical pampered princess, fighting the mother who wishes her to marry and start popping out babies. However, the fan service with her being interrupted in her bath at the start is a bit much. And one can't help but find this story a little pointless since Bleez is nothing but a frothing-mad Red Lantern at the end with no personality or mind to speak of left.

The second story centers on Carol Ferris. For those of you who read Blackest Night #1 and wondered when Carol Ferris became a Star Sapphire (or Violet Lanterns of Love, as I guess they are now), wonder no more. This story details just how that happened.

I can't help but wonder if the irony here is intentional, with Carol insisting that her life isn't defined by Hal when - in terms of the long-term history of Green Lantern as a book - she always has been. Not to mention that while even as she's being asked to take a position of power were she can save the universe, she's being asked to forsake her identity and her life to redefine herself in terms relating to how important she should be to Hal. This is pretty disturbing any way you slice it but given the all-consuming nature of the Love power it makes sense.

What also bothers me is the idea of Carol being set up as the great True Love of Hal's life when I find Hal's current girlfriend - USAF pilot Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman to be a much more interesting character. I know this is kind of a "Betty and Veronica" argument with Green Lantern fans right now.... actually, with Gillian being a blonde tomboy and Carol being a brunette rich bitch - holy cow, it IS the Betty and Veronica argument!

Well, even so, it still bothers me. Especially with Carol having shown up only two times in the past four years, and that's including Rebirth

The final story details a creature that calls itself The God of Hunger but which I call The Big Giant Head. There's not much plot here, with the Big Giant Head flying around form planet to planet, demanding the he be fed the most valuable items on each planet.

It's a nice exploration on the concept of value and it's the kind of story you'd expect to see in the old Tales of the Green Lantern Corps annuals. The one downside is that it seems a bit of a waste since The Big Giant Head is consumed by Agent Orange on the last page. Honestly, doing a story on ANYONE in "The Orange Lantern Corps" seems a bit of a waste since, by definition, they're a soul-bound thrall with no independent personality or mind. Hell, even the Orange Lantern Profile Page doesn't bother to give the names of the poor suckers killed off by Larfleeze!

This issue wasn't quite as good as the first one, if only because there's an aura of pointlessness about these stories. They're well written, especially the final story by Peter Tomasi - but there doesn't seem to be much point in recounting the history and personality of characters who have been robbed of all personality or absorbed into a collective that makes death seem attractive by comparison. Why build up interest in a character with a short story if nothing can be built upon that foundation?