Sword Of Sorcery #1-3 - A Review

I've somehow managed to go three months without reviewing what is easily the best original anthology comic released in recent memory.  I thought I had reviewed the first issue, but hadn't.  I just recently bought a copy of the second issue.  And the third issue came out this past week.  Know then that I only review these books together as a means of catching myself up and not because each issue isn't worthy of individual attention.

The main focus of Sword of Sorcery continues to be Christy Marx's revival of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld.  Over the past three issues, Marx has slowly given us glimpses of The Gemworld. it's people and its' politics.  There are a number of houses, all with their own functions and magical powers.  There's allegiances, treachery and all manner of drama to equal anything one might find in the Game of Thrones series.  Imagine Tamora Pierce writing She-Ra and you might have some idea of what this book is like.


We've seen this sort of thing before in countless books, comics and cartoons aimed at young adults.  The hero raised in seclusion by one parent or a foster parent.  They discover the power that is their birthright as a teenager.  They learn of the villain seeking their destruction, because they are destined to overthrow them or take their power.  It's all very Joseph Campbell but Marx infuses this title with enough humor and personality to keep it fresh, though some of the fish-out-of-water humor as Amy adjusts to life in a fantasy world is equally familiar.

Thankfully, the artwork by Aaron Lopresti and Claude St. Aubin is always fresh and exciting.  Most recently seen on Justice League International and Green Lantern Corps respectively, both artists make use of thin pencils and light inks to give this book an open, hopeful appearance. Coupled with the vibrant palette utilized by Hi-Fi, this remains one of the best looking series on the shelves.



Less impressive is the back-up series Beowulf by Tony Bedard.  While the concept of re-imagining Beowulf as a genetically-engineered super-soldier in a post-apocalyptic future is a novel one, the novelty of the concept quickly wore off.  This story might have been serviceable as a one-shot but as a serial, it drags for anyone who knows the original story and can see this is all going even before the monster Grendel's "mother" appears to explain it all for everyone who hasn't read the original epic.  The gorgeous artwork of Jesus Saiz is wasted here.


Despite the back-up being a bit boring, the revival of Amethyst makes interesting reading and thus makes this book worth the buying.  The whole series is available for digital download if your local comic shop doesn't have any back issues.  It's well worth the tracking down and catching-up - believe me!

Green Lantern: New Guardians #13 - A Review

With this issue, Tony Bedard has exhausted my patience as well as what little credit I was able to extend to him.  Bedard's writing has missed with me more than it has hit but I was willing to give the man his due since his Green Lantern writing was largely good up until The New 52 relaunch.  Plus, he was the only writer working with Green Arrow (albeit it briefly, through Birds of Prey) who acknowledged that Oliver Queen was a rape victum that he had never cheated on Dinah Lance until after his return from the grave..

So why now?  Why has New Guardians #13 accomplished what an entire year of completely pointless meandering didn't and made me drop this title?    Because this issue, released over a year since we should have received a full backstory for Kyle Rayner, reveals that the only part of Kyle's backstory that has remained constant is the one part that honestly could have - no, should have been changed.  I speak, of course, of the incident that coined the phrase "Women in Refrigerators" - the death of Kyle's girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt.


I've written before about Alex as a character and the ramifications of her death, so I won't repeat those arguments here.  I will say that given that most of Kyle's previous love life is now impossible since three of his four ex-girlfriends never existed in the New 52 universe (Donna Troy, Jenny-Lynn Hayden-Scott and Soranik Natu, for those keeping track), it really adds nothing to Kyle's character to have Alex exist in this new reality only for her to die horribly again.  It's particularly vexing here since Major Force - the villain responsible for the death in the original universe - no longer exists in the New 52 universe and the flashback we see here just has Kyle refer to non-specific enemies that came with his job being responsible for Alex dying.

It may be unfair of me to blame Bedard for the decision to bring Alex back only to have her die again.  The decision may have been handed down by DC Editorial.  But I can blame Bedard for the poor execution of this story.  Say what you will about Ron Marz but while he freely admitted to creating Alex only so that she could be killed off, at least he spent a few issues building her as a character so that you cared when she was taken away. 

Bedard fails to do that and fails to make this issue, which apparently follows after the most recent issue of Red Lanterns, stand on its' own merits as a story on any level.  What is meant to be the first hard lesson Kyle learned as a hero and his defining tragedy is reduced to a footnote, revealed in the middle of a training montage as Acrocitus of the Red Lanterns tries to teach Kyle how to harness the power of Rage without a Red Lantern ring. 


You wouldn't think the artwork could possibly make this mess of a story any worse.  Somehow, Andrei Bressan and Amilcar Pinna manage it.  In reviewing the last issue, I compared Bressan's artwork to that of Frank Quietly, noting the similar detail-oriented styles while also noting that Bressarn was a poor visual storyteller.  Those problems continue throughout this issue, as well with the pages I think were drawn by Amilcar Pinna, which  resemble nothing less than a poor parody of Rob Liefeld, with tiny eyes and consantly gritted teeth. 

Do not buy this book.  Do not even read it in the shop.  Go spend your money on Green Lanterns Corps and leave this one to die.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #0 - A Review

The biggest problem Green Lantern: New Guardians #0 faces is that the story it tries to tell is nowhere near as interesting as stories it implies.  Unlike every other Zero Month issue thus far, this one does not give us an origin story.  Indeed, the events of the last year of this comic are largely ignored and most of this issue is based on events occurring in the main Green Lantern title.     


Tony Bedard is a competent comic writer but there is little interest in yet another story where the Black Lanterns have to be fought.  Better to have devoted an issue to Kyle's life as a Green Lantern and some explanation as to how Emerald Twilight and the collapse of the Green Lantern Corps occurred -assuming they still did - and how Kyle became known as The Torchbearer.  This is doubly true given some of the clues we receive during this issue that indicate either some major changes in the Green Lantern mythology or some whopping big continuity errors.

To name a few...Why does Kyle call Hal a Colonel when his rank has always been listed before as Captain?  How does Carol know Kyle Rayner's secret identity?  For that matter, why does Hal still have a locker at Ferris Air when - as the new series opened - Hal was fresh off being drummed out of the Air Force?  And why did Hal have an engagement ring hidden in his locker when he seemed utterly shocked that Carol expected him to propose as the new Green Lantern series started?  Why is Carol just now developing a sense of modesty regarding her costume or just now getting the ability to alter her costume so her boobs aren't falling out?  And why the heck was Ganthet trying to find someone capable of channeling all the Lantern energies at once in the first place?    


The artwork this time around is all over the place.  With the pencils handled by two different artists and two different inkers, there's very little consistency to the visual aesthetics of this issue.  The principal penciler, Aaron Kuder, appears to be aping David Finch's style.  By contrast, Andrei Bressan appears to be a disciple of Frank Quietly though with none of that artist's eye for storytelling.  There are a lot of awkward poses throughout the issue and everything looks odd and off-kilter as a result.    

All in all, New Guardians continues to be the most disappointing of the Green Lantern family of books.  Apart from Kyle's newfound ability to channel multiple ring energies, Bedard isn't continuing any of his storylines from the past year of this title.  The artwork here seems phoney and lifeless.  Still, if you really feel the need to be reading all the Green Lantern books heading into Rise of The Third Army, this issue would serve as an adequate jumping-on point for those who haven't been reading it.

Sword Of Sorcery #0 - A Review

Nearly 10 years ago, I suggested that DC Comics should look into reviving the much beloved Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld series.

It took them a while but someone is finally listening to me. ;)



All kidding aside, I could hardly have asked for a better comic than this had it been custom-made to my specifications. I'm a life-long fan of the sword-and-sorcery genre and my favorite original series out of all the New 52 books has been Demon Knights. But even ignoring my own bias, this is a great book that has a lot to offer a variety of readers.



The greater portion of this issue is devoted toward the aforementioned revival of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. We see little of the titular Gemworld but we do get a strong introduction to our heroine - Amy Winston a.k.a. Princess Amaya. Hidden away on Earth from her evil aunt, Amy has been raised on the run and trained as a warrior by her mother. This has made it difficult for young Amy to make friends but left her a good sense of who can be trusted and made her more than capable of defending herself from bullies and worse. As the hour of her 17th birthday approaches, Amy and her mother make the journey back to their homeworld - the other-dimensional planet known as Gemworld. The homecoming is not a smooth once, however, and Amy finds herself pressed into battle far sooner than her mother had hoped.

Writer Christy Marx breathes new life into this classic concept and I'm hard pressed to think of another writer who could have done so grand a job. Best known for her work as a writer on a number of cartoons and computer games, Marx is no stranger when it comes to writing strong-willed young women with a connection to a gem. And if you think I'm about to make a comment about this book being "truly outrageous"... well, you've been reading my reviews too long. Punning and referential humor aside, Marx establishes Amy as a sympathetic, no-nonsense heroine fairly quickly while still infusing the book with her trademark humor.


Aaron Lopresti, most recently of Justice League International, does a fine job of depicting both the mundane and the mystical elements of Marx's script. It is unclear at present if this new series will stick to the classic idea of Amy living a double-life, half on Earth and half in Gemworld. If it does stick to the old ways, it is nice to know it will be in the hands of an artist who can draw a brawl behind the bleachers as well as a battle with a horde of armored knights. Surprisingly few artists are able to show that kind of diversity but Lopresti proves successful in that regard.

The second story in this issue presents a post-apocalyptic take upon a classic character who - while depicted in the pages of his own DC Comics - existed for quite some time before comic books or even the printing press! I speak of Bewoulf, whom Tony Bedard has reimagined as some sort of super-soldier in cryogenic suspension in a dark future where man has reverted to barbarism and monsters walk the earth!





The story here seems to follow the original Beowulf bard's tale - where Beowulf is summoned to the home of a distant king in order to slay the beast called Grendel. There's not a lot of character development to be had here, most of the story being told through the eyes of a young warrior sent to summon forth Beowulf from the home he is pledged to defend - i.e. an abandoned military base. Bedard's script is less dependent on character than it is concept but the idea of Beowulf as a superhuman soldier who only leaves his post after being told the King who summons him is also a general is a nice nod to the original myths, where Beowulf only answers the summons because of the king's reputation as a warrior. The artwork by Jesus Saiz, most recently of Resurrection Man and Birds of Prey, does a fine job of depicting the action with all the blood and gore one would expect in a story based on Beowulf.

This book is a must-read for all comic book readers. Lovers of comics centered around strong female protagonists will find Amethyst to be an entrancing heroine. Fans of the Conan comics will get a kick out of Beowulf. And fantasy fans of all stripes will enjoy the whole package. This book has made my pull list. Make it part of your subscription too.

Green Lantern: Prelude To The Third Army

Having little to say about this past month's Green Lantern comics that I have not said before, I thought perhaps it might be best to look at each issue and how it is contributing to the upcoming Rise of The Third Army crossover.



The main contribution of Green Lantern #12 is a rehash of the events of Blackest Night and The Guardians discussing their recent revelation that the greatest problem facing universal order is free will and how they will cope with everyone who has a decent chance of stopping them. It also establishes that Black Hand will have a role to play in the coming action and that Hal Jordan may soon be wearing another color ring yet again.




Green Lantern Corps #12 is primarily concerned with continuing the action sequence involving the jail break that became a prison riot in the wake of John Stewart's conviction of murdering a fellow Lantern several issues ago. Good stuff, as always. There's a lot of good action here and Tomasi does a good job balancing the protagonist time between Guy Gardner and John Sewart.



Our primary interest here lies in two points. First, the Green Lanterns all getting the same distress call through their rings from some being saying "Let Me Out!" The other is a scene toward the end, where The Guardians congratulate themselves on eliminating all of the Alpha Lanterns without having to get their own hands dirty, thus eliminating the one body in the Green Lantern Corps devoted toward rooting out corruption from within.


As usual, Green Lantern New Guardians #12 is the weakest of the pack. The plotline involving the need to stop the being Inviticus from destroying the Vega system is concluded and we finally get an explanation for how these "new Guardians" were brought together and who was responsible for stealing the various rings and manipulating everyone from the start.

It turns out to have been the enslaved Guardian Sayd, who now claims that Ganthet foresaw that one day they would need someone capable of channeling all the various Lantern energies and THAT was why he chose Kyle Rayner to become the last Green Lantern when Hal Jordan went nuts. My response to this is best summed up by the collected contents of the bull pens at the Fort Worth Stockyard.


As in Green Lantern Corps, all the various lanterns assembled receive the same distress call from someone demanding to be let out. Based on some dialogue from War Of The Green Lanterns, I believe this call to have been from the imprisoned First Lantern.



The issue concludes with The Guardians breaking up, but the preview ads for the upcoming storyline suggest that some of them will return and that Carol Ferris will be replacing Fatality, in a new costume that actually covers her body!

Green Lantern: New Guardians #11 - A Review

A FEW WORDS OF WARNING: This review doesn't really do much to talk about the book for those of you who haven't been reading the series before now. I apologize for that, as I usually try and sum up the story thus far for potential new readers. But honestly - I can't do that this time. If you haven't been reading this book before now, you'll be totally lost. So if you're really interested in learning about New Guardians, read this review instead. Thank you.


I want to love New Guardians. I really do. But it occurs to me with this penultimate chapter of the opening arc that the story is entirely dependent on established characters acting counter to their usual motivations and personalities. And I'm not talking about Red Lantern Bleez suddenly being more than a mad-dog murderer. That's all down to stuff that happened in other books affecting this one, which is a whole other problem. In this case, I'm talking specifically about Kyle Rayner.

For the entire run of this book, I've let a few things slide, figuring they were due to desperation and idealism. As wary as he'd be about it, I can buy that Kyle would put aside his differences to work alongside a woman (i.e. The Star Sapphire Formerly Known As Fatality) who was, for a while back in the Ron Marz days, his arch-enemy. He was a Blue Lantern for a while after all and believes in the power of hope and redemption.

I was able to accept that Kyle would bargain with an angelic being who said his ultimate goal was to destroy an evil-aligned star-system for the sake of recreating paradise for his chosen people and agree to become an assassin for said being, after having previously agreed to kill the angel. Much as Kyle hates killing, it's not like there was much he could do to fight Inviticus and it looked like he was going to have to kill Larfleeze anyway.




However, I cannot believe Kyle being as outright stupid as he's been portrayed in the previous few issues. Last time, what set me off was his not showing up in-person to aid the Blue Lanterns during the invasion of their homeworld. As I noted then, Kyle should know damn well from personal experience that Blue Lanterns can only access the offensive potential of their rings if a Green Lantern is present. This time, we have Kyle forgetting that the Orange Lantern constructs - though they may act like independent personalities - are still just constructs. So if you say something in front of a construct and the ring-wielder is focusing on listening through said construct...




To my mind, a superhero should not ever sound like a schoolboy who just discovered that people will pretend to be your friend in order to get something they want. At the very least, Kyle Rayner shouldn't.

At least the artwork by Tyler Kirkham is as good as ever. But that's cold comfort for a long-time Kyle Rayner fan like me who is sick of seeing the Green Lantern that got me into comics being portrayed as a green rookie (no pun intended) instead of the Torchbearer who kept the Green Lanterns going when nobody else could. I'll give this one more issue to try and make sense of it all since it looks like the storyline is finally going somewhere. But after that... I'm probably dropping it.

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.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #10 - A Review

Green Lantern: New Guardians #10 continues the invasion of the Blue Lantern homeworld by the sinister alien menace known as The Reach. Seemingly abandoned by their Red, Orange and Indigo allies, it falls to Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, Star Sapphire Fatality and Sinestro Corps drillmaster Arkillo to aid Saint Walker in the defense of his Corps' central power battery.



This issue is heavy on action and light on characterization, but it well-paced action. My only problem with it is that Tony Bedard does throw logic to the wind in order to build the drama in one rather important respect. In the middle of the battle, Kyle Rayner stays in sky to battle the Reach spaceships, sending Fatality on to aid the Blue Lanterns. This despite Kyle (who wielded a Blue Lantern ring himself during War of the Green Lanterns) knowing from personal experience that Blue Lanterns need a Green Lantern nearby in order to activate the offensive capabilities of their rings. By the time Kyle gets there, the battle is already all but lost. I know Kyle may be the most inexperienced of the Earthling Green Lanterns... but this just makes him look incompetent.

The artwork by guest artist Tomas Giorello is competent, but too heavily inked for my tastes. The artwork in a Green Lantern title should be bright and vibrant. There is a lot of color here (no pun intended) but it seems that the only reason the color stands out is because everything around it is so dark. Perhaps this was a stylistic choice given the rather bleak ending? If so, it was not a great choice.

Green Lantern: The New Guardians - 52 Catch-Up

I haven't written anything about New Guardians since my review of the first book because this title is very difficult to review in a monthly format.  To say the story here is decompressed would be putting it mildly as most of the series thus far has seemed like one big extended fight scene, with a plot twist at the end of each issue changing the dance card for the next fight.

I'm not convinced this is entirely the fault of writer Tony Bedard, who has written many great character-analyzing stories in the past  Indeed, his first issue focuses upon Green Lantern Kyle Rayner and retells his origin within the context of the New 52 universe.  The problem is that the vast majority of our protagonists early on are either one-dimensional (the vengeful Sinestro Corps drill-sergeant Arkillo, the ever-optimistic Saint Walker) or largely incapable of normal speech (the Orange Lantern Glomulus, the Red Lantern Bleez).  There's not much for the readers, particularly new ones,  to latch onto in terms of personality and this series lacks a lot of the emotional punch of the other Green Lantern titles as a result.




The plot kicks off as Kyle Rayner is attacked - first by a series of rings belong to the other Lantern Corps then by various members of the other Corps who have come seeking the stolen rings.  Unable to convince Bleez (Red Lantern), Munk (Indigo Tribe), Arkillo (Sinestro Corps) or Fatality of the Star Sapphires (a.k.a. Yrra Cynri, though this name is never used, though she says she is no longer Fatality) that he is not responsible for the theft, things are looking grim for Kyle until the arrival of Saint Walker - first of the Blue Lanterns.  The two of them escape and plot a course to Oa, hoping that the Guardian Ganthet - who helped to start the Blue Lanterns and chose Kyle Rayner to be a Green Lantern - might have some answers.





A quick note about the art.  Regular penciller Tyler Kirkman is joined on issues #2-4 by current Green Arrow penciler Harvey Tolibao and the cohesion of the book suffers for it.  Ignoring my own personal dislike for Toliabo's style which has already been discussed in some detail in my Green Arrow reviews, the two artist's styles do not mesh at all and the designs for various characters look completely dissimilar from page to page.  Consider Kyle Rayner in the above scan (Tolibao) and in the one below (Kirkman).


Issue #3 opens with Kyle having been possessed by the rings and suddenly lashing out at The Guardians.  The rest of the Corps members arrive shortly thereafter and another fight ensues between the Lanterns and the Guardians.  This continues until the arrival of the one party conspicuous in his absence - Larlfleeze, a.k.a. Agent Orange.



He joins the fight in opening half of Issue #4, claiming  that someone tried to steal his ring too.  Having disguised one of his Orange Lanterns - the Slimer-like Glomulus - as a power ring, Agent Orange let it follow the other captured rings while his slave - the former Guardian Sayd - tracked the power that was stealing the rings in the first place to a gigantic orrery in space.





Reluctantly, the assemble band of "New Guardians" as Agent Orange calls them agrees to investigate the orrery, as the party splits up to investigate the differing worlds making up the gigantic solar system model.  They discover several amazing things, such as an entire planet of Tamaranians (i.e. Starfire's race) and another world claiming to be Okaara - the world where Fatality trained as a hunter and warrior years earlier.  Perhaps most astonishing, however, is a temple depicting Larfleeze as a monster called "The Beast" - sworn enemy of The Archangel Invictus, whom the temple is devoted to.




In Issue #6, Invictus himself shows up and begins beating seven kinds of hell out of the team.  For a moment, it looks as if Saint Walker's desperate attempt to use his ring to relieve Invictus of whatever burdens he has might prove effective.  Alas, it turns out that whatever Invictus is, he is far beyond the ability of a Blue Lantern ring to manipulate.




Thankfully, he is all too eager to tell his story to our heroes before they die.  Thus Issue #7 opens with Invictus explaining his own history with Agent Orange and how - millions of years ago - Agent Orange was responsible for undoing all of the good works his people attempted to bring about in the Vega Star System.  If that sounds vaguely familiar, it should - Vega is one of the few systems Green Lanterns are not allowed to enter and the place has become a wretched hive of scum and villany as a result.




Trapped outside the universe after Agent Orange turned his own followers against him, Invictus is newly returned and constructed the gigantic orrery as a means of restoring Vega to its' former glory... as soon as he is done destroying the current inhabitants and Agent Orange himself.  In the middle of all this discussion, it is revealed that for all of his power Invictus is unable to take a power ring away from it's wielder.  This too leads our team to realize what most of the readers had already guessed - Agent Orange was lying his crooked yellow teeth off.  Eventually a truce is reached and Invictus agrees to let the group live if they will accomplish one task - Kill Agent Orange.

As Issue #8 begins, the team is split once more, as everyone parts ways to head to their respective homeworlds and recharge their rings.  The rest of the issue is not as action heavy as previous ones, mostly focusing on plot details as it sums up what we already know of the plot in this book and explains recent intergalactic events to those few people who are reading this book but aren't reading the main Green Lantern title. 





Chief among these events are Sinestro's rejoining the Green Lanterns and shutting down the fear-empowered army that bore his name.  These events are recanted to Arkillo by The Weaponer of Qward, who gives Arkillo a new yellow power ring and battery that will act independently of the old Sinestro Corps Central Power Battery.  We also learn from the Star Sapphire commanders that someone in this universe had to be working to help Inviticus escape... but they have no idea who.   




Issue #9 primarily focuses upon Saint Walker and the Blue Lanterns as they defend their home base from an invasion of Breach soldiers, a.k.a. The Outer-Space baddies responsible for creating Jamie Reyes' armor in Blue Beetle and for the first time in months, Bedard seems to be writing up to his usual standard.  The action sequences of The Blue Lanterns are excellent but what really sells the story is Bedard clarifying the powers of the Blue Lanterns as the story progresses.  The Breach, for instance, take the Blue Lanterns seriously as a threat even though they are thought to be the weakest of the various Lantern Corps.  While it is true that they lack the overt offensive capabilities of most of the other Corps, The Blues are far from helpless as Saint Walker demonstrates.




Kirkman's prowess as an artist is proven in this issue as is the skill of the coloring team.  It would have been all too easy for this issue to become a muddy mess of blues, since the Blue Lantern uniforms and the Breach Soldiers uniforms look fairly similar.  Still, inker Batt manages to keep things separated and Kirkman's designs are distinctive enough to be differentiated  from a distance despite having the exact same palette.  Thankfully, carefully applied glow effects mark the Lanterns easily enough.

Can I recommend this comic?  Yes, but only if you are already a fan of the Green Lantern mythos.  Ironically, this book is not newbie friendly despite the amount of pages Bedard's devotes toward trying to explain everything to new readers.  Bedard's also at his best when he is focusing on individual character conflicts rather than on epic action sequences, as the two most recent issues have shown.  This book has taken its' time getting warmed up but it's finally turned into something worth reading.  And Kirmna's pencils, as ever, make it something exciting to look at.

52 Pick-Up - Week Four

AQUAMAN #2 - Another solid issue, which gives a little more development to Aquaman's wife Mera, reestablished as a fiery redhead with water-control powers for those new readers who missed her star-making appearance in Blackest Night. While Johns' cracks about how Aquaman is perceived by the public at large in the DC Universe are starting to become wearying, the action of this issue - in which Cthulhuian horrors from the deep come to the surface looking for food - is well-executed and amazingly drawn by Ivan Reis. This is going on the pull list.


GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS #2 -The plot thickens as Kyle Rayner escapes Earth and heads to Oa, taking with him six rings he doesn't want. He goes to seek the console of the Guardian Ganthet, who it seems has been radically changed by the other Guardians, his old personality having been entirely erased! Bedard does a great job pacing this issue, delivering some good action scenes while explaining away the special relationship between Kyle, Ganthet and The Blue Lanterns for new readers. The one stumbling block is that while Bedard has a good grasp on the character relationships, he fails to explain some of the special ring powers - such as the presence of a Blue Lantern super-charging nearby Green Lantern rings. This too, is going on the pull list.


JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #2 - This issue wouldn't be so bad if I at least had the sense that it was building toward something. As it is, we get a lot of random scenes as our team STILL hasn't come together and isn't showing any signs of doing so anytime soon. The two pages with John Constantine, for instance, seem to have been accidentally pasted into this issue from this month's issue of Hellblazer, having no relation to anything else in the issue! Even the art - supposedly by Mikel Janin throughout the comic, looks totally different on those two pages. This one is off the list. Not even going to pick up the trades.

Green Lantern: The New Guardians #1 - A Review

Regular readers know that I first got into comics during the days when Kyle Rayner was “The Last Green Lantern” and Ron Marz writing of the character had a hand in turning me from a casual reader into the graphic novel guru I am today. While I like all of the Green Lanterns as characters, I’d probably choose Kyle as my favorite for sentimental reasons, having been a artsy, smart-aleck twenty-something with too much imagination when I first was introduced to the character. You can imagine then how much I was anticipating New Guardians #1, which promised to update Kyle for the new DC Universe.

Thankfully, Tony Bedard does not disappoint in this first issue. The flashback detailing how Kyle became Green Lantern is true to the original story and Kyle is quickly established as a creative, good-hearted young man. In fact, I think Bedard improved on this origin by having Ganthet (usually portrayed as the most kind-hearted of the Guardians who created the Green Lantern Corps) stick around long enough to give Kyle some basic instruction in using his ring rather than abandoning him to his own devices as per the original Emerald Twilight.

The rest of the issue establishes Kyle in his current position as the Green Lantern’s agent on Earth, while introducing new readers to the concept of the seven Color Corps – groups like the Green Lanterns, who draw their power from other emotion forces than willpower, such as hope, compassion or greed. While Bedard doesn’t profile all of The Corps in this first issue, he gives enough of a taste for new readers to get a feel for the Rage-empowered Red Lanterns, the fear-empowered Sinestro Corps and the love-empowered Star Sapphires. Old-time readers will be glad to see the Violet Lanterns being represented by The Villainess Formerly Known As Fatality, who was perhaps the most interesting new villain to come out of the original Ron Marz run on Green Lantern. Her inclusion here promises some interesting drama in the issues to come.

Tyler Kirkham is probably better known for his work on Witchblade, but he’s no stranger to drawing Green Lantern adventures, having been a regular penciler on Green Lantern Corps for much of the past year. Kirkham is a master at drawing weird-looking aliens that look like real, living beings as well as imaginative constructs – a must for any artist drawing a Kyle Rayner story. The inks by Batt are unusually thin but this only serves to emphasize the bright, vibrant coloring Nei Ruffino. This is a gorgeous book in every department.

I can’t say this is the best book of the new Green Lantern line as Green Lantern Corps was just a little bit more accommodating of new readers. That’s not to say that this book is bad – far from it! Bedard’s script does a wonderful job of introducing new readers to Kyle Rayner but falters a little on explaining all of the other Lantern Corps. Still, the artwork is gorgeous and I believe future issues (and the inevitable trade paperback collection) may help alleviate any confusion this first issue causes.

Blue Beetle #1 - A Review

Blue Beetle was a quirky little title that managed to survive despite a continual threat of cancellation. The adventures of Jamie Reyes developed a small but loyal following as it also gained critical acclaim. Through three years and three regular writers, the book endured – continuing on as a back-up feature in Booster Gold until relatively recently. Now, the book has returned with everything reportedly back at square one, ready to be discovered by a whole new audience – new readers and those who failed to jump on the bandwagon before.

The issue opens in deep space, long ago, where we are quickly introduced to The Reach – an evil alien empire that conquers worlds through the use of strange scarab-shaped devices that latch onto a person and turn them into an uncontrollable living weapon. Once the world is sufficiently weakened, The Reach move in and claim the spoils. Cut to Earth, now, where El Paso teenager Jamie Reyes is suffering the usual teenage troubles – getting bullied and trying to convince his parents to let him go to parties they don’t want him going to. After sneaking out with his drop-out friend Paco, they run into a super-villain gang and Jamie soon finds himself bonding to the item they were stealing – one of The Reach’s scarabs.

Tony Bedard is a good writer but he seems to be out of his element here. Not surprisingly, given his background writing Green Lantern Corps, REBELS and other space opera series, the best part of the book is the early scenes in which he quickly and simply explains what “the blue beetle” is, who created it and how they use it. It is the later scenes on Earth where the book suffers, with Jamie lacking the spirit he had in his original series. The supporting cast is set up, though we don’t see any of them save Jamie’s friend Paco for more than one page. Worse, much of the characters’ personality seems to have been replaced with random Spanglish dialogue. Perhaps the most distressing thing about the text is the interview in the back, where Bedard reveals a major change to the book – nobody in Jamie’s supporting cast is going to be aware of his dual identity.

To be quite blunt, this is a big mistake. Part of the reason for the original series’ appeal was that it defied the conventions of teen hero comics. Jamie’s parents knew from the beginning about his powers and were supportive of his decision to try and use those powers to help people. This was not only an original development but it also inspired some wonderful scenes, like Jamie asking permission to go out and save people in the same way that an ordinary teenager would ask to borrow the car. I fear that this change will turn Jamie Reyes into yet another Peter Parker wannabe.

Thankfully, whatever reservations I have about the writing, I cannot deny that the artwork is wonderful. Ig Guara & Ruy Jose prove equally adept at conveying the depths of deep space and the weird beauty of alien worlds as they are at portraying the gritty streets of El Paso and the details of high-school life. It is a rare art team that can manage to depict the majestic and the mundane with equal skill but Guara and Jose manage it.

I find myself reluctant to recommend this book or condemn it. It’s a bit hard to gauge as our hero has yet to become a hero. Personally, I am worried about the direction this book seems to be heading and the leisurely pace of the decompressed storytelling which fails to generate much excitement. Still, the artwork is good and Bedard has surprised me before so I will merely suggest we wait and see what happens next time.

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

GOOD THING: It's nice to see John Stewart front and center again after having been a supporting player in Green Lantern for so long, when Johns could be bothered to show him.

BAD THING: Much like Green Lantern, there's a lot going on here and not all of it seems to be all that necessary given some of the things that could be getting explored in greater detail. One scene that stands out in particular as an example of padding out the issue is the scene in which Ganthet forges his own ring.

The Final Verdict: Bedard proves that he's capable of carrying on where Tomasi left off and new artist Adrian Syaf's style proves to be much clearer and easier to follow than the stylized art favored by Patrick Gleason. If you're looking for a good book to jump in on, this is the book and this is the time!

One Good Thing And One Bad Thing About Rebels #11

GOOD THING: Tony Bedard is still committed to making sure you know the names and powers of every single one of characters... no matter how little most of them actually do in this book.

BAD THING: Unless you are Keith Giffen writing a comedy, your space opera book's dialogue should not remind me - even accidentally - of Sean Baby's Superfriends Page.

The Final Verdict: Leave it alone. Just... leave it alone. It has nothing to do with Blackest Night really and it's just plain boring otherwise.

Fast Thoughts - The Week of 8/20/08

Since I'm on kind of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 buzz this morning, I'm going to do a good thing and a bad thing about each comic I read this week.



BIRDS OF PREY #121
GOOD THING: The picture-perfect scenes with The Joker.
BAD THING: The Birds are almost completely ignored in favor of letting Tony Bedard write a Sweet Valley High fanfic as Misfit adjusts to public school.


CONAN THE CIMMERIAN #2
GOOD THING: This month's cover, while ludicrous, is not as bad as last month's cover.
BAD THING: We're still listening to a story about Conan's grandfather instead of seeing Conan himself in action.


DOCTOR WHO: THE FORGOTTEN #1
GOOD THING: Art by Eisner-Award winner Pia Guerra!
BAD THING: The story is nothing we haven't seen before, with a fairly obvious villain behind it all and the plot itself seemingly borrowed, in broad concept, from The Eight Doctors.


JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #24
GOOD THING: Everybody gets to contribute to the fight against Amazo and gets a good lick in, including Black Canary literally blowing the head off of Amazo.
BAD THING: The cover has nothing to do with this issue. Seriously. While the last pages seem to set up a battle with some spider-related creature, nobody called Anansi is in this book.

Fast Thoughts - The Week of 6/18/08 and 6/25/08

Just now got my comics. Partly due to busy work stuff and partly due to my birthday festivities last weekend.




BIRDS OF PREY #119: I know a few months ago I was wishing that Tony Bedard was writing this book. Now I'm starting to think that I should have been careful what I wished for.

Oh, don't get me wrong - there's a LOT to admire in this issue. Bedard is trying to set The Birds up on their own, taking them out of the Shadow of The Bat AND The S-Shield and - at the same time - positioning them in such a way that they can easily reabsorb Black Canary into the fold and into this book, where she belongs. There's a lot of seeds being planted, from the mysterious Visionary behind Platinum Flats to Oracle's manipulation of The Calculator. And who doesn't like seeing Manhunter at work?

Still, there's a lot of things about the issue that make me uncomfortable and worried. For one thing, The Visionary isn't an inspiring crime-lord ala The Kingpin or even Blockbuster from Chuck Dixon's 'Nightwing'. I'm also worried that they're pressing forward with the cliched "two people can't stand each other, so their obviously long-lost siblings" storyline between Misfit and Black Alice. And then there's the unanswered question as to just why Oracle has Manhunter tailing Black Canary and Green Arrow in the first place and how any reason other than the obvious - Babs is checking up on the best friend she never gets to talk to anymore -

The artwork inside the book is pretty good, though the cover... with yet another Dinah's costume is coming unzipped cleavage shot - is horrible beyond words.


CONAN OF CIMMERIA #0: A nice, basic story based around Conan's slaughter of several Vanir warriors and Robert Howard's poem Cimmeria, this issue is both a look back - in flashback paintings - of the 51 comics that came before and an introduction to the character of Conan for those who have yet to be exposed to the character through books, movies, comics or video games. We see that Conan is a man of action, but also a man of principal and compassion as he spares a younger man with a lyre, forced into combat, and urges him to go home "sing of this day... and of how Conan slew your kin." Those this reboot to a new title with a new #1 may be pointless, this comic isn't and I'll be surprised if it doesn't get an Eisner nod like Conan #0 before it did.


EX MACHINA #37: Again, regarding the pink-leather clad, conservative fighting bad girl who is now making many Republicans uncomfortable and - by proxy - Mitchell Hundred's life more difficult... I think I'm in love with a fictional character. Again.


FINAL CRISIS #2: I've decided to write all my comments on Final Crisis as separate posts from now on. Look for that later today.


GREEN LANTERN #32: The plot thickens as Johns continues to build and expand on the Green Lantern mythos and Hal Jordan's background in particular. Tying some of Hal's more powerful villains closer into his own life is an inspired idea and in doing this Johns has eclipsed John Byrne who tried - and failed - to do much the same thing in Spider-Man: Chapter One.

For some reason, it just seems to makes sense for Hector Hammond to get his telepathic powers after tampering with alien technology he doesn't understand rather than from his random discovery of an intelligence-enhancing, radioactive meteor. We also get an extended version of the first meeting between Sinestro and Hal Jordan that we saw in Green Lantern: Rebirth as well as the first ever scene I know of which depicts how Tom "Pie" Kalmaku found out about Hal's secret identity. Throw in a scene that seems to show the creation of the power behind The Red Lanterns and you have one hell of a story.


HELLBLAZER #245: The production team for a "Where Are They Now?" show about punk rockers does a story on John Constantine's old band and apparently awaken something evil as they go looking for the nightclub in Newcastle where a younger John tried to fight a demon, went mad in the process, failed to save a little girl from Hell and was blamed for the girls' murder.

John's absent for most of the issue, but his presence is felt none the less. Like many classic Batman stories where the legend of Batman and the influence of the character are felt even if the character is never seen, John Constatine's legend fills this story to the point where John's first appearance on the last page is almost gilding the lily. Another good issue for newbies who have never been exposed to the world of Hellblazer to jump on with.


HUNTRESS: YEAR ONE #4: I liked the first three issues of this series for creating an origin for Helena that didn't seem like a rehash of The Godfather or make her into a supporting player in her own origin story. I love this issue for the first meeting between Helena and a younger, pre-wheelchair Barbara Gordon and a bunch of little touches, such as..

1) Barbara being a revealed as a legal librarian. It makes perfect sense given her interest in crime-fighting as a teenager and her father putting his foot down over her becoming a cop. And as a librarian myself, I appreciate someone acknowledging that most of us are specialists in some aspect of the research sciences.

2) The idea of Bruce Wayne making his home available for a Mafia social function and then bugging his own house. Of course we've seen Bruce using his position to get information from the high class criminals before... but this is such a brilliant conceit, I'm amazed that I haven't seen it used in a Batman story before.

3) The Selina Kyle cameo. Nice continuation of the use of the character in The Long Halloween.

I know Tony Bedard just got back on the book... but we need Ivory Madison writing Birds of Prey as soon as he is ready to move on to something else.


JACK OF FABLES #23: Ex Machina is probably the best written book I read every month. And Fables is the best overall package. But for my money, no book can quite get me to laugh like all the bits with Babe, The Blue Ox in this book. And the main story with bandit king Gentleman Jack Candle in the Ol' West staying one step ahead of Sheriff Bigby Wolf is a good one too.


JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #22: Some say that Brad Meltzer is the best writer working at DC when it comes to getting inside the character's heads and giving us a story that may not have a lot of action, but perfectly captures the heart and spirit of a character.

With all due respect, these people are full of it. Because Dwayne McDuffie - in this single issue - has built upon every thing Brad Meltzer did in his one year on JLA and then blown it out of the water as...

* An incorporable Red Tornado answers more questions than we ever wanted to know about his sex life and proposes to his long-term, common-law wife.

* Vixen pours her heart out about her failing powers to ex-boyfriend Bronze Tiger.

* Superman goes Dr. Phil, and gives Roy Harper his philosophy on how conflict and arguments benefit a relationship.

* Black Canary takes charge and actually acts how a professional woman, a legacy hero and the leader of the Justice League SHOULD act when she finds out that one of her teammates has been lying to the team and been putting them in danger. She chews Vixen out, kicks her off the team and dismisses all requests for leniency.

* She then pulls Vixen aside, and because Dinah has always been a nurturer as well as a warrior, asks what she can do to help Vixen with her problems.

* Batman actually loses a fight. This happens so rarely, I thought I should mention it.

As I've said before, give McDuffie the freedom to write his own stories, and he's one of the best writers on the planet. Shame he's stuck with Ed "Cheesecake" Benes on art... but you can't have everything, I guess.


KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #140: Just in time for Convention-Season, all the standard storylines went on hold for this tribute to traveling to the convention. From bad road-trips to surly gate guards and the magical powers a chainmail bikini can bestow upon a girl amidst gamers, this issue is something that comic geeks and game geeks can both enjoy. If you've ever been curious about KoDT, this is a good issue to jump on with.

Fast Thoughts - The Week of 05/14/08 & 5/21/08

Because you demanded it!



BIRDS OF PREY #118 - Tony Bedard returns! And just as I was getting used to Sean McKeever. There's honestly nothing really all that bad about this issue but there's not a lot to redeem it either. Bedard deserves credit for doing probably the most interesting idea yet with the earth-bound incarnations of the New Gods with The Dark Side Club. But that doesn't forgive the fact that continuing the Black Alice/Misfit conflict is pouring gasoline on a dead ember and hoping for a fire. And the revelation that Alice and Charlie are blood relatives is cliched to the point of being painful. Not a good start...


GREEN LANTERN CORPS #24 - Almost in stark contrast to Birds of Prey, this is a book I feared would be cliched which managed to surprise me. Sure, we were all worried when the solicits said that Mongul the Second was cultivating an entire planet of the parasitic, telepathic Black Mercy plants - but this story shocked me as almost no page time was given to depicting the dream worlds of the two captured lanterns and - oh shock of shocks - Guy and Kyle were actually depicted as being smart enough to know what a Black Mercy is and use their powers to defend against it accordingly. And as for the last-page revelation regarding what a Black Mercy truly is... well, I don't think ANYONE expected that!


HELLBLAZER #244 - I can't do this book justice by trying to describe it. Suffice to say, Andy Diggle is continuing to rock this book back onto it's foundations. And what is more, he managed to bring back Ellie; an old favorite member of John's supporting cast with a wink and a nod. Though I'd sure like to hear the story of just HOW she is free of Hell's grip, especially after the working over John gave her nearly ten years ago, I am content enough with Diggle's explanation for why she doesn't hold a grudge against John.


JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #21 - Much like his run on Fantastic Four was spoiled by a need to connect to Post-Civil War Marvel, I wonder what Dwayne McDuffie's JLA run might have looked like had he not been forced to bend his stories to conform to a series of big events (GA/BC Wedding, Tangent Universe Special, etc). Hopefully it would have been a lot more stories like last month's Wonder Woman/Flash team-up against Queen Bee or this issue which - despite being a direct lead in to Final Crisis - is still the best examination we've had of the Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman relationships in a while (Yes, that includes Trinity!) Anxious as I am for James Robinson to take over, I will miss McDuffie on this title and wonder what might have been.


KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #139 - Say what you will about Brian, but I think that the better part of him actually was trying to do the right thing in this issue. Okay, yes - he got a brand new character with a whole lot of benefits out of the bargain... but he still had to kill his character. And he chose to do so as a hero.


RED SONJA #33 - I had been hoping for a nice, normal Red Sonja issue to talk about this month after the bru-ha-ha of last month's "What If?" I might as well hope for the moon, for all the good it is doing me.

This entire issue might as well be titled "Red Sonja in Hell", because that's basically what it is. Sonja tormented by the people she failed to save. Sonja tormented by the friends who died because of her. And Sonja pinned down and threatened with rape by every man she ever killed.

Never mind the fact that her traveling companions from her final question - and ever warrior who ever aided her in battle and died beside her - show up to save her, heal her and vow to stand beside her no matter what. It's still a wee bit on the creepy side building to that touching moment.


SERENITY: BETTER DAYS #3 - Like "Those Left Behind" before it, this Serenity story gets confused in the last chapter. And what is worse, this time the story isn't resolved as the two conflicting forces are attacked by third force that is never identified or even speculated upon. And the final scenes - rather than building upon the characters we love - adds whole levels of unpleasantness to both Simon, Inara and Mal. You can do better, Joss. Seriously.


WONDER WOMAN #20 -There's something seriously wrong when Wonder Woman reads more like Red Sonja then Red Sonja. Or am I the only one disturbed to hear Wonder Woman trash-talking Beowulf and saying he's too ugly to be a whore? I can see Red Sonja saying that to a rival male warrior but not Diana - even though, if the final pages are to be believed, Diana isn't really herself in this story. It's a bit weird but I still like it.

On the Black Canary mini-series & Why Ollie Didn't Tell Dinah about THE PLAN

I just got done reading through quite a few blogs and have found, disturbingly, that a lot of people seem to be commenting on the Black Canary mini-series who either didn't read the book at all or seem to have, as many an English teacher has put it, "failed to comprehend the material."

Now, I'm of the position that a Green Arrow/Black Canary marriage - in general - would be a good thing. I'm not too happy about the execution thus far. I'm dreading the upcoming Green Arrow/Black Canary book for many reasons. And I think I would have preferred for this marriage to be coming about under the pens of writers who wanted to make the change rather than because some editor said "Make it so, Number One." Still, I think that later on, some good writers might be able to make something out of this concept.

But there are a lot of people who don't think this marriage is a good thing. They range the gamut from those who think that bad writing will taint this idea from the beginning to those who hold out hopes that Dinah Lance and Barbara Gordon will forsake Ollie Queen, Dick Grayson and all other men forever and then embark on a partnership that can best be explained by the 39-part fan-fict they just wrote entitled, Birds In The Hand, Two In The Bush.

And that's fine too.

What bothers me are the people who had a mad-on against Oliver Queen as a character, who are twisting any and every story they can get their hands on as a reason for why...

A) Olllie is not a good character.
B) Ollie should have stayed dead.
C) Ollie should be ripped apart by wild dogs and fed to pigs, after having his manhood ripped off and bronzed by Barbara as a wedding gift for Dinah before they move off to Boston.

One of the points that keeps being brought up by these people involves the Black Canary mini-series and how Green Arrow, without telling Black Canary, puts a plan into action that involves faking her adopted daughter Sin's death, setting himself up as being accidentally responsible for said death and sneaking Sin out of the country - all to throw off the League of Assassins, who want Sin as a figurehead to rally their warring factions around.

Is this a jerky thing to have done? Yes. Ollie himself admits to that and Dinah takes him to task for it in Black Canary #4. But before everyone drinks the "We Hate Ollie" Kool-Aid, let's recap the action of the main series... with some photographic evidence courtesy of scans_daily

Black Canary #1: We open in a fast-food place in Star City, as Dinah tells Sin about how she and Green Arrow first met auditioning for the Justice League. It is here, saving the Japanese Prime Minister, that Dinah first sees that underneath all his posing and bravado, that there is a nice guy in Green Arrow. They talk about how Dinah is still pondering the proposal and how Ollie has hurt her in the past but how he seems to have grown since then.

Hilarity ensues as Dinah leaves Sin alone for a few minutes, a fight breaks out in the playground and Sin single-handedly demolishes the place with her bare hands, unaware that they are being watched by a man who turns out to be Dinah's ex-husband, Craig. It seems that Craig owes a gambling debt to the wrong people and needs Dinah's help.

She helps and Craig, who now knows about Sin and Dinah's problems in finding a school for her, says that he knows someone at a special school for children with violent backgrounds in Star City and that he can pull some strings. The issue closes with Craig reporting to Merlyn (archer, Green Arrow baddie and card-carrying member of the League of Assassins), who we find out is using Craig as a hook to get to Black Canary, to get back at Green Arrow.

Black Canary #2:We open in another flashback, with Ollie telling his sidekick Speedy (aka Mia) about the first time he thinks Dinah started falling for him. This conversation occurs as they watch, from a distance, as Dinah and Craig are dropping Sin off for her first day of school. Ollie is somewhat suspicious about Craig just suddenly dropping out of the blue like this, but Dinah dismisses his suspicions as jealous ranting when the subject comes up as Sin, Dinah, Ollie and Mia have dinner together that night.

Ollie is right to be supicious, however, and the issue ends with one huge fight as the League of Assassins storm the school, Sin fights them to a standstill and is caught only after Merlyn, disguised as Ollie, shows up to "rescue" her. We also find out that the main reason Merlyn wants Sin, apart from being a means to spite Green Arrow indirectly, is to unite the various warring factions of the League of Assassins behind the girl who was being trained to become the next Lady Shiva before Black Canary stepped in and adopted her.

Black Canary #3:We open on the scene of the crime as Ollie, Dinah and Mia learn about how Sin was kidnapped. Dinah is angry and frantic, for obvious reasons, to the point that she throat-grabs a police officer who questions whether or not the superheroes have any right to be there. Ollie pleads for Dinah to calm down. She tells him to back off and gets ready to go off on her own. Ollie tries to stop her from leaving; a move that shall henceforth be known as Mistake #1.

With Dinah gone and off on her own, Ollie and Mia begin searching the city for any sign of where Merlyn and the League of Assassins might be hiding. Ollie notes that even if they rescue Sin, The LoA won't stop trying to kidnap her and kill Dinah and how they need a more long-term solution to help them both.

Dinah tracks down Craig and gets him to spill the beans on the whole operation and gets directions to Merlyn's hideout. Massive ass-whooping ensues and the only thing that saves Merlyn is that Dinah let's go of him... literally.

Meanwhile, Ollie and Mia - with a little help from Oracle - find the boat Sin is being held captive on. Mia finds Sin and tells her that Sin is going to have to follow her directions exactly if they are going to sneak out successfully.

Dinah chases after Merlyn and is contacted by Oracle, who tells her that Ollie and Mia have already moved in on where Sin is being held but the ship is already moving out of the harbor. Dinah crashes her motorcycle onto the ship from above using a handy bridge and joins Ollie in the cracking of ninja skulls. In the middle of this, Sin and Mia make the least stealthy exit ever trying to sneak onto a lifeboat, Ollie makes a one-in-a-million shot to try and cut the rope on said boat to help the getaway and Sin apparently loses her grip and apparently falls to her death.

Black Canary #4: Dinah goes beserk, for obvious reason, and Canary Cries the heck out of everyone present. Merlyn shows up and overhears that Ollie just killed Sin and ruined his meal-ticket as the power behind the throne. He goes after Ollie, only to be smacked down by Dinah, who makes it clear in no uncertain terms that she is his problem and not Green Arrow.
Ollie helps the rest of the Assassin Leaders to get away, letting them know that there is nothing left for them here except death if Canary ever gets their hands on them. He then talks Dinah out of killing Merlyn, purely because if he dies, he can't ever really suffer for all that he's done. Dinah says she doesn't care. She only wants her daughter back.

And then... well, we'll let the images do the talking here.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

*****

My point with this little recap?

One of the big complaints the Ollie-haters have is that Ollie enacted this plan without telling Dinah and then counted on Dinah's shock at seeing her adopted daughter die would sell the drama. He then let her stew in anguish for three days, before finally telling her the truth.

Which is a jerky thing to do, make no mistake. However, I would like to point out two things.

First, at no point in the time after Dinah stormed off did Ollie have a chance to talk to her and explain "The Plan" to fake Sin's death. Ollie tried to stop her from running off alone so they could form a plan together and he got beaten senseless for his trouble. Dinah was not in the mood to listen to anyone, so trying to get her to go along with any plan was pointless and Ollie knew that.

Second, time was of the essence and it took Ollie and Mia, with Oracle's help, nearly the entire day to canvas every ship in the city and find where Sin was being held to say nothing of contacting Connor, finding a way to spirit Sin out of the city unseen and make all the other preparations for "the plan". There was barely enough time to do all that without trying to clue in Dinah, whom we already established was in no mood to listen, anyway - even though all three were in radio-contact as Dinah went after Merlyn and Ollie and Mia went after the ship.

I suppose Ollie COULD have said something while he was on the wire with Dinah and Oracle. But I can also picture this being a really short conversation.



Green Arrow: On our way to the harbor, Pretty Bird. Get what you can from Merlyn.

Black Canary: I will. Ollie. Don't let me down.

Green Arrow: I won't. Hey, listen... before you sign off, I have something to tell you.

Black Canary: I know. I love you too.

Green Arrow: Oh, not that. I'm going to fake Sin's death.

Black Canary: WHAT?!

Green Arrow: Yeah. I have a plan to get the League of Assassins to stop bothering you, but I have to make it look like I accidentally kill Sin to make it work. So try and look surprised.

Oracle: Boat leaves in three minutes, guys.

Black Canary: Ollie? Why are you telling me this now?

Green Arrow: I just... you know... didn't want you to get worried later.

Black Canary: You didn't want me to... WORRY?!?!

Green Arrow: Exactly!

Black Canary: My daughter is in danger and you're wasting time thinking about how to spare my feelings?! You think I'm going to have a total nervous breakdown or something?

Green Arrow: Uh, well-

Black Canary: You know what? Don't even answer that. Just try not to screw up saving my daughter, you ass. I'll be there in a bit... to give back your stupid ring!



But what if Ollie tried to get Dinah's best friend to break the news?



Oracle: Looks like that's the one ship heading to Hong Kong today. That's your target, archer.

Green Arrow: Beautiful. Hey, is Dinah still off channel?

Oracle: Yes. Why?

Green Arrow: I need you to tell her something for me.

Oracle: This isn't junior high, Queen.

Green Arrow: No, it's about my plan. We're going to fake Sin's death so the League of Assassins will leave her and Dinah alone. But Dinah isn't really in the mood to listen to me right now. So I figure... if you tell her, best friend, voice of reason and all that...

Oracle: ... that she'll be more willing to accept that it's a good plan?

Green Arrow: Well, it's a bit of a long-shot, no pun intended. But I really don't want to traumatize her if I can avoid it. I've done a lot of jerky things-

Oracle: Ollie, grow a pair and quit wasting time! There's a little girl in danger down there and even though she can kill a man with a jumprope if pushed, she's still an innocent that needs help. And if you're going to worry about your relationship with Dinah at a time like this, then you aren't good enough for Dinah.

Green Arrow: (pause) You'll tell her I had this planned all along later, right?

Oracle: GoodBYE, Ollie.

*CLICK*



My Final Point? Sure, Ollie was a jerk in this storyline. But he was, as he usually is, a jerk for all of the right reasons. And that is why Dinah accepted his proposal - because when push came to shove, he did the right thing thing first and worried about how to justify it later, even at the cost of his relationship with Dinah.