Comics are Awesome III

[Sparky Prime]

But the inhabitants, far from being grateful, are determined to die because their god wants it to happen.

That's similar to what recently happened in Green Lanterns. Jessica and Simon were dispatched (along with some help from Ungarans, Abin Sur's people) to evacuate a planet whose sun is going red giant, only the people didn't want to leave based on religious beliefs. Which begs to question why the Lanterns were sent there in the first place when Jessica's ring points out they aren't supposed to mess with a culture's religious beliefs... But she eventually talks them into agreeing to leave and settle on Ungara.

[andersonh1]

As someone who's never read a thing Bendis has written, is this a good or bad thing?

Difficult to say... Overall, I feel that Bendis starts out a story strong, but eventually looses his way with it. I loved his run on Ultimate Spider-Man, until around when he killed off Gwen Stacy. I thought it started to go downhill at that point. His event stories for Marvel I thought started out interesting (such as Avengers: Disassembled and House of M), but again, it seemed like his dropped the ball on the endings. He also seems to have problems with maintaining continuity, even if it's continuity he himself established.

I'm listening to a long interview with Bendis on the Word Balloon podcast, trying to get an impression of who the guy is, and I like his enthusiasm for Superman. It sounds like we have him to thank for the return of the classic costume. He thinks the whole controversy over the red shorts is silly, and that now Superman "looks like Superman again", a sentiment I share. He seems very familiar with the history of the character as well, so I'm optimistic.

http://wordballoon.blogspot.com/2018/02 ... ining.html

[andersonh1]

Hal Jordan and the GLC #38
Hal and Kyle are injured and imprisoned on the planet Zod has conquered, with Kyle far more hurt than Hal. The Eradictor is examining the Green Lantern rings, and Zod has Hal brought in for dinner, but as you might imagine, dinner between some psychotic and hateful Kryptonians and the mouthy Hal doesn't last too long. Hal's not buying it anyway, he figures Zod is playing for time. Once again the unique nature of Hal's ring proves decisive, as Hal is able to summon it from afar (where it goes right through the Eradicator's head!) and break out of the cell, taking Kyle with him. Kyle is way too injured to travel, and he figures out that the natives worship Zod. With time running out and Hal unable to carry Kyle out of there without risking further injury or death to him, Hal gives Kyle his ring, instructs it to hold him together, and sends him back to get the rest of the Corps, leaving Hal powerless and surrounded by Zod-worshipping aliens. And in an interesting twist, when Kyle does make it back to Mogo, he's clearly being influenced in look and actions by the fact that he's wearing a tiny physical portion of Hal Jordan's willpower. Great issue, made all the better by some Ethan Van Sciver art.

Titans #20
The cover proclaims "The Titans are finished!" and the name of the story is "Titans Apart", so three guesses as to what's going on here. After the Justice League essentially forced the disbanding of the group last issue, this one mainly follows Roy Harper as he goes after Intergang for pushing drugs on the street, while Dick helps Wally move into the apartment he got in the Flash annual. Roy/Arsenal is a bit more interesting to me these days since I'm reading his earliest adventures in the GA omnibus, and big pieces of his past continuity are referred to here, including his drug use (from Snowbirds Don't Fly in the GL/GA days) and his relationship to the assassin Cheshire (who plays him big time this issue). Does Roy still have a daughter in current continuity? I honestly don't know. I don't know that I'd ever buy a solo Arsenal series, but I do enjoy this first generation of former kid sidekicks as a group. This book feels a bit like it's spinning its wheels though, and has for a number of issues. Wally has to conform to whatever is going on over in Flash, and everything has to conform to Doomsday Clock's ending. Speaking of Wally, I noted that at the end of Flash #40 (which I didn't buy), Barry's powers were gone, so for now, Wally is again THE Flash. I know full well that's not permanent, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Action Comics #997
Part V of Booster Shot sees Superman and Booster Gold captured on Zod's planet, still several decades in the future from where Hal is right now. Zod and family want Booster's time ship, they have Booster and Superman trapped and are trying to kill them at the end of the issue, while Skeets has seemingly been destroyed. Meanwhile Lois finally finds her father imprisoned in some hellish African nation's jail, and Jon finally has to reveal himself to keep his mom alive. He gets to meet his other grandfather (after meeting Jor-El a number of issues back), and Lois isn't sure how to keep knowledge of Jon and Clark's powers from her father, but she knows it has to happen. In a cliffhanger, the party of three is apparently sprayed with machine gun fire and when we last see them, Lois and her dad are covered with blood and seemingly dead, while Jon is obviously unmarked. They're not going to kill off Lois Lane, so if anyone's dead, it's going to be Sam Lane. The time distortion that made Krypton different is mentioned at the opening of the book, but we STILL dont' have an explanation.

[Sparky Prime]

Once again the unique nature of Hal's ring proves decisive, as Hal is able to summon it from afar (where it goes right through the Eradicator's head!) and break out of the cell, taking Kyle with him.

That's something Kyle's ring used to be able to do too... After (the first time) he'd become Ion, he made some changes to his ring that allowed him to summon it to him, as well as to hold a backup charge.

[andersonh1]

Once again the unique nature of Hal's ring proves decisive, as Hal is able to summon it from afar (where it goes right through the Eradicator's head!) and break out of the cell, taking Kyle with him.

That's something Kyle's ring used to be able to do too... After (the first time) he'd become Ion, he made some changes to his ring that allowed him to summon it to him, as well as to hold a backup charge.

Is he still wearing that same ring? I know he was a white lantern for a few years, but I don't know what became of his green lantern ring.

[Sparky Prime]

Is he still wearing that same ring? I know he was a white lantern for a few years, but I don't know what became of his green lantern ring.

As far as I can remember.... I think it should more or less be the same ring. When he became a White Lantern, it was (sorta) explained his Green Lantern ring had gotten a residual charge from each ring Sayd had sent to him from the other Corps. After mastering each color of the spectrum, his ring basically just changed into a White Lantern ring. And then when he returned to a Green Lantern, his ring (for some reason) split into a ring from each Corps, with him getting the Green.

[andersonh1]

Action Comics #998
"Booster Shot" has meandered quite a bit, but this issue it finally gets to the point of the story. Superman originally traveled back in time to the point of Krypton's destruction to try and verify Mr. Oz's story that he was really Jor-El, ripped away at the point of Krypton's destruction. And after Booster, Skeets and Superman finally escape from the planet Zod rules in future (after Superman decks both Zod and his son in a pretty satisfying fight), Booster is able to very precisely aim the time sphere and allow poor Superman to watch his parents at the very instant of Krypton's destruction. Lara burns up, while Jor-El vanishes in a blue glow, exactly as he said. Poor Superman has to watch his mother die right in front of his eyes. And in a surprising turn of events, when Booster takes him home and Superman has headed for the African country where Lois had gone to rescue her father, Skeets tells Booster that Lois and her father were both killed less than two minutes earlier. So both did die in last issue's cliffhanger, something I didn't predict. Booster jumps back in time just in time to alter those few minutes and save the life of both, without Superman ever realizing it. Next up, Action Comics #999.

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #39
Continuing the parallel storylines, Hal is imprisoned on Zod's world while Kyle is supercharged and saying things only Hal would say, since he's wearing the ring made from Hal's willpower. It's classic material as John plays it by the book and goes to get a decision from the Guardians about rescuing Hal, while Guy and Kyle just up and take a whole group of Lanterns to free him without waiting for permission.

In a nice bit of character work for Zod, he's willing to talk to Hal as one military man to another (when he usually has very little to say to Superman), and speaks lovingly of his lost Krypton and the beauty of that planet. If he wasn't such a horrible person you'd almost feel sorry for the guy. The issue ends with him and his family going up against the Corps, while the Eradicator attempts to decode and take all the information in Kyle's GL ring.

Flash #41
Wally plays a prominent role in this issue, which is of course why I bought it this week. Grodd has frozen Central City with a "speed force storm" (and boy, do they overdo it with the speed force nonsense these days). Everyone is stuck in a moment in time except Grodd's subordinates and the Flashes, while include the now non-powered Barry (who has enough residual energy to avoid being stuck in time for now), a Flash from China I'm not famliar with, young Wally and original Wally. And I'll say this for whoever is writing the book, they capture Wally's voice very well. I could easily believe I'm reading Mark Waid when reading Wally's internal monologues. Out of all these characters it's of course Wally West that I'm invested in, and can't help but enjoy as he remembers buying flowers for Linda, misses his Aunt Iris, and bristles at being called a "pretender" by Zod's underlings. I"ve dipped into the middle of a storyline here and dont' quite get everything that's going on, but then I'm here for Wally's ongoing storyline, and that gets touched on nicely, so I got what I paid for.

The speed force was originally something introduced back when Waid was writing, and he wisely kept the nature of it fairly vague. It was Max Mercury who first talked about it, and the way he described it, it was almost like Heaven, a place that granted speed and to which those who had been given speed longed to reach one day, with Max regretting that he had fallen short. It was mysterious, it was unreachable, and it was the source of the Flash's power. And that was fine. These days it's been very much overexposed and is more of a plot device than anything, able to do whatever the plot requires and able to be manipulated by the villain of the month. I think the whole concept has been sadly watered down and lost whatever quality it once had. Just my two cents.

[andersonh1]

Action Comics #999
A great little one shot issue that alternates between Superman working on a more humane prison for the Cyborg Superman than the Phantom Zone, and Sam Lane coming to dinner and having a rough conversation with Lois, while Jon just wants his family to get along.

Superman heads into space to retrieve a mineral that allows him to make a super-hard prison cell, which it turns out is for the Cyborg Superman. Superman feels partly responsible for the state Zod's family is in after years in the terrible environment of the Phantom Zone, and he wants something more humane for Cyborg Superman, whose origin as a human astronaut is retold. It's a good example not only of Superman learning from his experiences, but actually trying to see things from an enemy's point of view and show some compassion to them. The Lois, Jon and Sam Lane segment is largely conversation and argument, with Clark showing up at the end to act as peacemaker, and he actually gets the family to sit down to dinner when Sam had been ready to walk out.

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #40
The corps take on Zod and family, and the aliens who worship Zod. They have some initial success until Zod and family really cut loose and stop holding back. Some good character moments include Guy refusing to hit Zod's son, because he doesn't hit kids (his dad's abuse of him is back in continuity apparently), John dealing with the Guardians, and Kyle pushing to try something entirely new with Hal's unique ring. I expected the plot to wrap up this issue, but were's not done, as Hal looks like he's going to take on Zod solo, after the Corps members who came to rescue him have all been taken down. I still wonder if the "personality imprint" aspect of Hal's ring will have something to do with how this plot is resolved.

Flash #42
Grodd thinks he should know this "other Flash" (Wally, still a stranger in this post-New 52 world), and puzzles about it. There's a lot of character interaction with various Flashes/super speed characters I'm unfamiliar with, and as I said last time, I'm in the book for Wally. Barry Allen obsesses over getting his speed back, and has a "wand" that will allow him to do so when he gets close enough to Grodd. Wally warns him not to, and though the gambit works and Barry is the Flash again, Grodd somehow now has control over all the other super-speed characters. There could be some interesting ramifications here.

Titans #21
And last but not least, Titans continues the focus on Roy Harper, who messed up bad last time and slept with Cheshire, who was playing him. Monseuir Mallah and the Brain are the villains here, a talking gorilla and a brain in a robot head with vast mental powers, who bemoans never being taken seriously by hero or villain. He's increasing his mental power to the point he will be able to effect vast control of the population. Roy calls Donna for help, but gets angry when she thinks he's relapsed into his drug habit, and then takes it out on Nightwing and Flash when they show up to help him out, after which he goes out to take on Cheshire and whoever is with her. Once again there's some good character interaction which is probably the highlight of the issue, and Arsenal gets to shine as he manages to neutralize Flash and beats Nightwing in hand to hand combat, which is no mean accomplishment.

Another good week, and I hope DC can keep it up. They really seem to have their groove back with Rebirth and afterward, since we're pretty much done with that overarching storyline, apart from the actual reveal of Dr. Manhattan (which, considering that Doomsday Clock is only on issue 3 and has been delayed, isn't likely to be for another year at this rate). Some overall plot resolution would be welcome, but at least the individual series are good.

[andersonh1]

New Hawkman series on the way with Robert Venditti writing and Bryan Hitch on art.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/03/14 ... i-hawkman/

Hawkman, Venditti says, has been chronicling history through his time as an archaeologist and through multiple reincarnations that have made him experience almost every time period imaginable.

“The biggest question mark he has when we open up this series is about himself. He has now become his own greatest adventure,” Venditti said. He’s been “unlocking his own deep past, his own origins, his own mythology and discovering things that he has not known up to this point and the reader will very much be swept along in that mission of discovery and exploration along with [Hawkman].”

“As much as he knows and as much as his experience with his many lives has brought him, he’s about to find out that he knows a very small piece of the story,” Venditti said. “There’s a mission he has to fulfill and if he doesn’t, it’s going to have implications not just for Earth, but for the wider DC universe.”

[andersonh1]

And, Venditti is leaving Green Lantern.

https://twitter.com/robertvenditti/stat ... 2222918656

Turning in the script for Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #48 today, which seems like as good a time as any to say that this is part one of our big, three-part finale. #50 will be my last issue writing the Four Corpsmen. A nice, milestone number to say goodbye.

Too bad, I think he's done a good job on the nearly 80 issues he's written since taking over for Geoff Johns.