Thursday 24 November 2011

My last reviews of the new 52 No1's




Green Lantern: The Lantern universe seems to be largely unaffected by the changes in the new DCU, Sinestro is still a Green lantern and doesn’t want to be, Hal doesn’t have his ring any more and cannot get used to normal life, and age wise they both look the same as they did before the change?
Aside from that the book is still at the same high standard it was before the re-boot, the story jumps between Hal on earth to Sinestro on Oa and Korugar. Its while he is above the planet Korugar we see Sinestro have a slight disagreement with one of the Sinestro Corps, and as you would expect with Sinestro a slight disagreement means someone ends up dead. Meanwhile back on Earth Hal’s seems to be finding it difficult to adapt to civilian life and has to rely on the help of Carol Ferris to get him out of jail after a run in with a film crew (think John McClane of Die Hard Fame).
The dinner date scenes in the restaurant with Carol and Hal are a joy to read, and there cannot have been only me who could see where this was going. As he sits opposite her and says “ I never thought I'd be doing this but, I need to ask you something”, Carol looks over to him all excitedly and says “yes Hal ?” probably thinking which planet was he on when he picked up the diamond for the ring. Unfortunately Hal then asks “will you co-sign a lease on my car”, the look on Carol's face is brilliant as it goes from expectant to fury in two panels. The best bit is Hal cannot understand why Carroll is so mad at him, and then when he realises he makes matters worse by saying '' you didn't think I was going to propose did you''. Well that's what I believe he was about to say if he hadn't got cut off mid sentence by a slamming car door as furious Carol drives away and leaves him standard in the rain, as they say Hell hath no fury and all that.
This is classic Hal Jordan and classic Hal Jordan is what Geoff Johns understands and does very well, it is also what makes the character seem so real as he is a hero who has faults. The final page where Sinestro shows up outside a dejected Hal’s flat and offers Him a chance of getting his ring back leaves you excited about the next issue, I was a lantern fan before the relaunch and for me nothing has changed.


Green Lantern Corps: Some one is killing lanterns and no one seems able to stop them, from the two female lanterns on a prison ship (along with the prisoners), to a whole planet of underwater dwellers nothing is safe from the as yet unknown villain.
Back on earth both Guy Gardner and John Henry are trying to balance a normal life with that of the Corps, both not very successfully but it is good to see both men out of Lantern uniform and on earth at the start of this book, and it is a reminder that both have life's outside the Lantern universe. As with the main Lantern book its business as usual for the Corps, as nothing much seems to have changed and the book is all the better for it. Peter Tomasi seems to have a good understanding of the Corps and the characters who populate it, and the crisp art by Fernando Pasrin fits well with the book with lots of shades of green through out. My only slight gripe is that there was no appearance of Soranick despite her been on the front cover, and for me you cannot have the lantern Corps without Soranick been there in the thick of the action.



Green Lantern The New Guardians: For some unknown reason the rings of a Star Sapphire and the red, yellow, indigo and orange lanterns, are leaving their owners and making their way to Kyle Rayner. Hot on the heels of the wayward rings is a member of each of the respective Corps, and its putting it mildly to say and they are not happy bunny's.
As with all the Lantern books this is a very enjoyable read, and the recapped story on how Kyle first got his ring fits into the story well. If you were a long time reader it didn't detract from the story and if you were new to the Lantern universe it can only have been helpful.  It also made a refreshing change to see a Star Sapphire other than Carol Ferris, and give that her name before she joined the Sapphires was Fatality (surly no-one calls their child that when their born) Kyle could be in for a rough time. However, given the current state of his love life, I predict that Kyle and Fatality will become an item before issue 6, but then I'm an old romantic at heart.
New Guardians has the potential to become one of the top Lantern books due to having all the colours linked into its story’s at the same time, and this is a solid start for a book I have high hopes for.



Red Lanterns: The book starts off quite well with Dex-star the Red Lantern cat (it shouldn't work but it does) going to the aid of a torcher victim, she soon finds herself in trouble until the arrival of her owner Atrocitus who says the line you didn't think a red Lantern would say ''what are you doing with my cat''. Its a fast paced fantastic start to the book, but unfortunately it all goes a little down hill from there.
We are later see an Atrocitus has seemingly lost his way after the death of Krona the Guardian who devastated his planet,and was killed by Hal Jorden in the War of the Green Lanterns story. All of Atrocitus's anger and purpose in life was was centred around his hate for Krona, and now he is dead he seemingly no longer knows what to do or where to direct his anger. As he ponders what to do next his Red Lantern Corps are left to fight among themselves, with only Bleez showing any partial signs of rational thought. Now I may be wrong here but I don't remember the Red Lanterns acting like mindless puppets, and if this is a change for the new DCU then I think its a poor one.
Now the artwork is good and the story if not riveting is OK, the opening pages where we get to see Dex-star are very good
(I love a homicidal cat, we have had a few in our time)  

I personally was unsure that a Red Lantern book could be interesting as I see them as very one dimensional all anger and rage. So far I have seen nothing to change my mind on this, but I will stick in there for the first few issue to see how it goes, as I would love to be proved wrong.
PS: Having read issue 2, issue 1 now reads a bit better so my hops for the book are improving.

So that's the last of the new number ones that I am going to review, due to the fact that some of the books are now hitting their 3rd issue, so I will review the books as I read them.

Other books I am reading that I recommend are:

Animal Man – if you think you have family problems read this and you wont complain again.

Swamp Thing – This is as good a Swampy gets

Demon Knights – Set in the early years of the DCU the artwork is beyond brilliant, I am reading this one digitally

Captain Atom – Art by Freddie William need I say more, OK then you had me at Freddie.

DC Universe Presents – I love an anthology title, this kicks off with Deadman and is brilliant

Supergirl – Got to get my Powergirl fix some where, another digital read

The Flash – We have a fun Flash and its Barry Allen

Fury of Firestorm – Gail Simone now I know I don't need to say more

Superman – Set later than Action its fun to see how Supes has grown, a bit any way. another digital one for me

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