Comics are Awesome III

[Sparky Prime]

Yeah, I'm out of the loop on some of this. I skipped the Thorne run and both the Green Lanterns and Sinestro series, so anything that happened in those I don't know about.

I did some research... Turns out Sinestro did establish a New Korugar on the planet formally known as Necropolis.

[andersonh1]

Jay Garrick The Flash #4 - I've really got mixed feelings about this, because on one level I enjoyed the issue and thought it was well written, and I enjoyed seeing some of the actual dialogue from Flash Comics #1 in places where some of the scenes were recreated. On the other hand, I prefer blind chance and Jay's moral character making him into the Flash rather than some plot by an evil scientist, and I really dislike retcons that mess with long-established origin stories like this, as Professor Hughes from Flash Comics #1 turns out to be a mad scientist looking for ways to increase human potential, and he uses Jay as a human guinea pig. I don't mind stuff going on around the fringes of an origin, which is what we got with Flash Comics #104 and the Rival, but this issue makes the villain responsible for the existence of original Flash. Maybe something in issues 5 and 6 will convince me that this was a good route to take with the story. I do like Jay's slowed aging getting recognized, since he's around 104 at this point and still pretty spry for a cool old guy.

World's Finest #23 - Part four of Return to Kingdom Come, and while it's been a good story, it hasn't really scratched the potential of putting "our" Batman and Superman into that world. It turns into a case of Gog wanting to take all of that Earth's heroes and assault Apokolips and Darkseid in a fight he knows that he can't win, because he wants a sufficiently difficult warrior's death in battle. It's not a bad story, I just expected more.

Green Lantern War Journal #5 - The story continues to juggle John's personal life with the threat of the Revenant Queen, who is busy infecting the Earth with her plague. Some more loser Green Lanterns show up, and John creates a construct of his dead little sister to comfort his mother, who has dementia, and imbues the construct with his own will and knowledge. There are some interesting things going on in this book, which has kept me reading beyond my initial decision to try the book mainly to see how it addressed the current status quo of the GLC.

[andersonh1]

Green Lantern #8 - We may finally be getting some answers next issue about Hal's ring and what's going on with the United Planets Lantern Corps. This issue dives in with three of their Lanterns arresting Razer after he and Hal visit Madame Xanadu to try and figure out why Hal can't leave the atmosphere. The backup with Kyle is thin, since it's only a few pages, but it's a nice little character piece for Kyle as he talks to a construct of Alex about trying to find his role in the Corps. He still misses her after all these years. Not a bad issue, and we're rid of that pointless "Sinister Sons" backup.

[andersonh1]

Green Lantern #9 - Well, it took long enough to get here, but the payoff is interesting. Hal examines the cavern where he felt the power, and he finds a cave deep beneath the earth filled with light and lush vegetation, and there's Tom Kalmaku, recalling his old days as one of the New Guardians after the Millenium event. He's keeping watch over a giant power battery, hidden away by the Guardians, with the idea that the Earth lanterns are uniquely suited to be torchbearers and keep the Corps going if something ever again went drastically wrong. It's as good an explanation for multiple human Green Lanterns as I've seen. Hal loses the "shadow" ring he's had up until now, but gets a new one and is finally able to head out into space to investigate the power-shifting Lanterns. He's ultimately captured and then rescued by Jo. The backup story features Jessica Cruz infiltrating the inner circle of the UP rep running the Corps now, and it turns out more than one Green Lantern objects to the way the Corps is being run. I think it took us a bit too long to get here, but I like where this is going.

[andersonh1]

Today's comics: Green Lantern #10, Jay Garrick The Flash #6 (last issue), Fantastic Four #19, Transformers #7 and World's Finest #26. Haven't had time to read them all, but GL remains interesting.

Green Lantern #10 - A lot of explanations are given in this issue, if not everything. A number of the actual Green Lanterns have gone underground to fight the UP Lanterns, including Jo, Salaak, Kyle, Two-Six and Simon Baz. It's good to finally see so many of these characters again, and Guy Gardner gets the backup story this month as he goes after Lobo. We still don't know exactly what Tharos's plan is, or why so many UP Lanterns can use multiple colors from the emotional spectrum, but this material out in space dealing with the Corps is far more to my liking than Hal being trapped on Earth, as good as those issues were.