Reilly2040's Blog

Well, that wasn’t entirely what was expected.

For anyone expecting a big fight between the New and Dark Avengers, this issue is going to disappoint. The cover is in fact, the only place the two teams appear together. However, that said, this was still an enjoyable issue and the conflict actually played out in a way very believable, given Osbourne’s current strategy.

As shown in the preview, the New Avengers are watching the Dark Avengers’ press conference and quickly realise who and what they are, and they’re not happy. With the help of Spider-Woman they try and lure the Dark Avengers into a trap where they hope they’ll real their true identities during the ensuing fight.

Sadly, Osbourne’s ahead of them, and instead sends the Hood and his supervillains, throwing the New Avengers off, as its not who they were expecting to fight. The New Avengers manage to defeat the villains and escape, however Clint decides to take action himself, and goes on television to tell everyone the truth about the New Avengers.

Despite the lack of a fight between the two sets of Avengers, I still enjoyed the issue. Largely for one reason, and that was the dialogue. One thing Bendis does very well is the humourous dialogue, and that’s what I found so enjoyable. The preview included the New Avengers’ reactions to Wolverine’s son, however there’s loads of great little moments and lines like that littering the issue. A particular highlight for me was during the fight between the New Avengers and the villains, where each Avenger is given a page where we follow their thought through the fight. Spider-Man’s internal quipping about his iconic costume, and Wolverine’s “KILLKILLKILL!” thoughts got a chuckle.

Really, the only complaints I can level at the book is that we don’t get the confrontation we were expecting, and the number of guest artists gets distracting at times. If you’re following Dark Reign, then its definitely worth picking up.

This month brings the conclusion of the “Rage of the Red Lanterns” arc. Well, I say conclusion, but really this feels more like the end of part 1 of “The War of Light”.

I do now get the feeling that rather than being a specific event in the GL titles, the War of Light will more be an umbrella title for everything that’s currently going on with the different groups of Lanterns, both in this title, and GLC, which will probably come to ahead during the Blackest Night event.

Events pick up from the last issue, with Hal’s will struggling against the red ring. He attacks the blue lanterns with a red-flame fighter jet, which allows them to realise his willpower is attempting to fight the ring (as other red lanterns are incapable of forming constructs). Its nice to see that technically the red energy can form constructs like the other Lanterns, its just that it overpowers the Red Lanterns so much they don’t have the willpower to do it.

Saint Walker finds himself facing off against Atrocious, who reveals that the Blue Lanterns are now powerless, as hope is useless without willpower, and so the Blue Lanterns need to be within range of a Green Lantern for their rings to work. With Hal being overpowered by the red ring, his GL ring has shutdown leaving the Blue Lanterns defenseless.

Or so Atrocious thinks, as Saint Walker vaults past him and gives his blue ring to Hal. The blue ring destroys the red ring, and restores Hal’s heart and blood, allowing Hal’s GL ring (and the blue lantern rings) to reactivate. Hal is able to beat back the red lanterns, however he is now caught somewhere between a blue lantern and a green lantern.

Meanwhile, with their power being drained by the red flame, Sinestro and his Corpsmen take advantage of the distraction to retreat back to Qward. Here, we get a nice nod to the events in GLC, as Sinestro comments on Mongul’s attempted coup. However with Atrocious’ comments about his daughter, Sinestro’s priority is now returning to Korugar, while he orders his loyal Corpsmen to gather any others that have stood against Mongul and wait for him on the darkside of Daxam’s moon.

This is another great issue, however as I say, doesn’t really read as a conclusion, but more just another instalment in the war of light, to be continued next month (indeed, we get a couple of pages teasing the next Agent Orange arc, and it seems that Agent Orange has a history with the Guardians).

I am slightly confused as to the continuity though. We know that Rage of the Red Lanterns takes place between Final Crisis #1 and #2. Presumably now, Agent Orange will as well. I’m hoping that at somepoint there’s going to be a noticable break in the storyline wherein the events of Final Crisis can play out, as Hal appeared in the later issues of Final Crisis, and as near as we could tell was still a regular GL (maybe he was hiding a blue ring?).  I’m guessing this will be addressed during the Agent Orange storyline.

There’s plenty of action with the various Corps (we see the Star Saphires recruiting Carol) and the reveal of the weakness in the Blue Lanterns puts an interesting spin on things. When we heard Ganthet wanted to recruit Hal as leader of the blue lanterns, we’d assumed it was as a blue lantern. With what we now know, its perhaps reasonable to assume that Ganthet had intended Hal to remain a Green Lantern, so that the Blue Lanterns would always have one with them, to ensure their rings would work. Or alternatively, Ganthet had intended for Hal to wear both rings as he now does? Its certainly going to be interesting to see what happens to Hal next issue.  Upcoming solicits suggest he’ll be hanging onto the blue ring for at least this next arc however.

Its nice to see John turn up during the Origins and Omens backup. Again we’re seeing some focus on his background as a sniper, and this story seems to take place after the Agent Orange storyline (hopefully indicating there will be a bit of a break between it and Blackest Night in terms of continuity). Here he’s got Fatality in his sights, who’s now been converted to a Star Saphire. Very interested to see where this goes as I always enjoyed John and Fatality during Winnick’s run on volume 3. John’s not had a huge amount to do in the GL titles lately (although he at least appears in JLA), so it’ll be good to catch up with him during all this craziness with the various Lanterns.

Its a great issue, and I can’t wait for next month.  With everything gearing up for Blackest Night, these books can’t come fast enough.

Spoilers ahead for the BBC3 episode. Couldn’t resist watching it after that cliffhanger.

Despite the kicking it seemed to take in reviews, I really enjoyed volume 3 of Heroes. While I felt that Volume 2 was a bit ropey (although still enjoyable), I really got into volume 3, which was much more action-packed.

Volume 4: Fugitives picks up sometime after the events of volume 3. Mohinder is back driving his cab, Matt and Daphne have settled down together, Peter is back working as a paramedic and Hiro is trying to set Ando up as a superhero.

Things rapidly go downhill though, as Nathan’s wander down the darkside results in him sending special forces teams after the various heroes (and we find out that Mohinder has retained his super-strength in the process, although no word on the rest of the powers that came with last volume’s mutation so I’m guessing they’re gone).   Its not long before the various heroes are in orange jumpsuits, being shoved onto a plane and being sent off to God-knows-where.

Of course, there’s a spanner in the works.  While Nathan’s more than willing to setup Peter, he draws the line at Claire.  Who promptly sneaks on board the plane and works to free the others, resulting in a fairly dramatic crash, and our main cast ends up on the run as Nathan’s special forces team gets steadily more out of control.

To be honest, I felt the opening two episodes were a mixed bag.  Peter’s new powers screamed of depowering a character that was insanely powerful compared to everyone else, and I don’t think its a coincidence that the only hero left powerless at the end of last season was Hiro.

Parkman developing Isaac’s painting the future powers strikes me as something that’ll need more attention paid to it in future episodes.  Its the first time a hero has spontaneously developed new powers which are unrelated to their current power.  Of course, it also feels like the writers trying to keep a hold of a narrative device they’ve been heavily reliant on in previous seasons.  But as long as its treated with the significance it represents then I’ll be fine with it.

A big plot hole that struck me though, was Hiro.  Not him being grabbed per ce (as from memory only a small number of characters actually knew he’d lost his powers – and that Ando had gained them), but more that you’ve got a US Special Forces team kidnapping a foreign national on foreign soil.  Not to mention that Hiro is currently the head of his Dad’s company, so is someone who should be missed.  So far in the two episodes these facts have been completely glossed over.  I’d at least like to see Nathan worrying about whether or not they’re going over a line grabbing Hiro, or Hiro suggesting he could go to a Japanese embassy.

I’m also a bit sore over Daphne’s death.  Of course, it could be undone in the episodes to come, but as it stands, I think they’ve just killed off one of their more interesting new characters.  Of course, I felt the same when Adam was dispatched last season (although he’d have ended up dead anyway during the eclipse, so that made sense in that context).

However, the first episode was exciting, and the idea of the main characters being on the run, Prison Break season 2 style, should make for some good, tense storylines.  So I’m not writing the show off or anything silly like that.

As usual, the best scenes belonged to Sylar.  When Nathan’s team attempted to grab him and it went completely wrong, you pretty much find yourself cheering for him.  Zachary Quinto’s on fine form, and despite the character being the villain of the peace, Quinto just makes the character so much fun to watch.  Frankly, even if the main plotline struggles, I’d probably keep watching just for the Sylar stuff.

So my hopes for the rest of this volume?  I’d like to see Hiro’s capture in Japan be mentioned, but I suspect it’ll be glossed over.  Hiro getting his powers back should be addressed, although with Peter they seem to have introduced the idea that while he may get powers, they probably won’t be his old ones, or at best a less powerful version of his original powers (although could Ando then boost them to their previous levels?  Or for that matter, could he do the same for Peter?).  The Sylar plot has been really interesting so far, and I’m intrigued to see what his father (to be played by John Glover) is like.  What happens with his new-found protégé should be interesting as well.

So looking forward to seeing where this volume leads, although I’d say I probably enjoyed the first two episodes of volume 3 more.

Despite feeling a bit burned by the Avengers titles during Secret Invasion, and personally not being too bothered about the New Avengers lineup, the idea of them facing off against the Dark Avengers is enough to get me interested in this issue.

Newsarama now have the preview for the issue up and I must admit the standout character for me has to be Spider-Man.  His various reactions to their “replacements” are genuinely funny.  I love his “Its not even the good Venom!” comment

The artist was surely having a laugh with the poses of Mockingbird and Ms Marvel though?

Talking of Ms Marvel, as someone who only reads very few Marvel titles, I am finding it a bit confusing that she’s ditched the costume and identity in her own book, yet is on this Avengers roster.   I presume that’s been explained somewhere though.

Despite the book being a bit pricey, it is over-sized, and I’m enjoying Dark Reign quite a lot, so I think I’ll definitely be picking this up on Thursday.

Found this on my travels.  The scantily-clad assistant is a bit much, but the rest of it is pretty cool.  The Cybermen I especially thought were ace.

Newsarama have an interview with Ivan Reis regarding the upcoming Blackest Night event.

Unfortunately in the interview Ivan drops the bombshell that he’ll be leaving the GL monthly at the end of Blackest Night.

Since Green Lantern: Rebirth, the main GL book has had no shortage of incredibly good artists working on it, be it Ethan Van Sciver, Carlos Pancheco or Mike McKone however for my money, my favourite artist on the title has always been Ivan Reis, so I’m very sorry to hear he’s moving onto another book.

I’ve enjoyed Ivan’s art since I read the Rann-Thanagar War mini-series, and he’s produced some amazing art during some of the biggest stories in Green Lantern to date. I’m very much looking forward to his work on Blackest Night, and while I’ll be sorry to see him go, I’ve got no doubt DC will be lining up another top-quality artist for the GL monthly.

I’ll definitely be interested to see what his next project is. Given that he says its with Geoff Johns again, the obvious thing that jumped into my mind is the new Flash monthly series. However some people online are also thinking it could be an Aquaman series.

Either way, it’ll be worth picking up.

The May solicits are up at Newsarama, and there’s some interesting things in store that month.

First up, it looks like there’s no issue of GL.  Well that sucks, especially with them building up the Blackest Night at the moment.  I daresay the issue will be more than worth the wait, but I hope its the last delay for a while.   They’d done a cracking job of getting the delays sorted out after Infinite Crisis with the one-arc-on, one-arc-off rotation for Ivan and a guest artist.  Its a shame to see them creeping back into the title (although, in fairness they’ve already hit the Rage of the Red Lanterns arc).

GLC sounds excellent though, with a riot in the Sciencells leading to GLs versus Sinestros versus Red Lanterns. Wonder how that comes about. I think I’m right in saying that as it stands, its only yellow Lanterns in the Sciencells at the moment, so either the GLs manage to capture some Red Lanterns at the end of the current story arc in GL, or the Red Lanterns attack Oa looking to get some revenge over the Sinestro Corps. Either way, we’ve just seen just this kind of showdown taking place on Ysamault (only with the two blue Lanterns thrown in). The idea of this conflict taking place on Oa itself adds a level of danger to things, but it’ll be interesting to see how it comes about.

Strange Adventures is another no-brainer for me. I’ve been loving Jim Starlins take on the other side of the DCU’s cosmic tales, so I’m interested to see where he’s going to take things in this series. The idea of Rann being rebuilt in secret that he setup in the last series will be interesting to see played out here. Its looking like it’ll be a reduced cast as well, without the Hawks, or Space Team from the previous book.

Another no-brainer is Power Girl #1. I previously blogged about looking forward to this series here, and so I’m glad to see it finally hitting the shelves.

Of course, we now know that my speculation about it being set on Earth-2 was way off, although how Power Girl’s trip to that alternate world will affect this series will remain to be seen.  I personally felt the Earth-2 stuff in JSA didn’t really work (I’m sure I’ve previously ranted about the mess Earth-2 is in the DCU at the moment) but if this series can do something good with that mini-arc, then so much the better.

Of course, in the comments we’ve already mentioned the latest developments in the Superman New Krypton arc.  Just what could have led Superman to the point of joining up with Zod’s army on New Krypton?  I’m really not sure what I think of this direction, but we’ll see how it goes.  While I appreciate them taking Superman off in a bold new direction, I’m not sure how much I’m actually interested in Superman taking a prolonged stay on New Krypton, especially if he ends up in their army of all things.   I’m going to give it a few issues though to see what I think of the direction.

Other things that caught my eye are the Battle for the Cowl books (most of them I’ll be skipping for budget reasons, but I’ll probably nab the Oracle mini, even if I’m terrified for what it’ll do to the excellent Birds of Prey series).  Flash Rebirth #2 finds Barry Allen hiding yet another Dark Secret.  Again, not sure what to make of this solicit.  Is it really necessary to have Barry hiding a dark secret?  Afterall, Geoff did that fairly recently during Identity Crisis.

Final Crisis Aftermath Run and Dance should be interesting as well.  I’m interested to see what they do with the Human Flame (although again, perhaps similar to the recent Rogues storyline following Bart’s death?), and The Super Young Team were a lot of fun in Final Crisis, so what happens to them next should be fun.

DC is really kicking off the Blackest Night hype this month, with both the Origins and Omens mini-event thing, and full-page ads for the upcoming Agent Orange story in GL, and Emerald Eclipse in GLC. And with this issue, we have the first issue of Emerald Eclipse.

Peter Tomasi continues to well balance the cast of characters in GLC. We see things with Mongul come to a head as he decimates Daxam’s forces (using just his severed arm, in a really fun scene) and announces that Daxam will now be the new homeworld of the Sinestro Corps. He’s using the Daxamite’s own fear and prejudice against aliens as a natural source of fear for the rings to feed on.
Of course, Arkillo has something to say about Mongul’s attempts to take over the Sinestro Corps, so the two of them get ready to battle for leadership of the Corps.

Meanwhile, Kyle and Guy are having a heart-to-heart over Kyle’s latest mission, and more importantly the new law the Guardians have just instituted, which we learn has led to the resignation of over 200 Lanterns. Kyle attempts to talk around the issue with Guy, but we can see that Guy has figured out there’s something going on between Kyle and Soranik.

Kyle and Soranik have some nice scenes as well, directly dealing with Kyle’s post traumatic stress, showing him trying to deal with all the Lantern deaths recently by sketching them. Soranik takes Kyle to a chapel on Oa, suggesting that he paints a mural dedicated to the Corps to help him work through things. This is then picked up in the Origins and Omens backup, with Guy and a host of other GLs helping Kyle apply the base white coat to the building before he starts painting it in earnest.

Truth be told, these are probably the best scenes in the whole book. All the GLs coming together to help paint the chapel was really nice to see. There’s a strong bit of blackest night fore-shadowing where in a pot of black paint gets knocked over and forms a hand (along with pots of paint representing all the corps in its grip).

The only thing I thought was weird was when Kyle and Soranik kissed. Surely their rings would’ve issued them with a warning that they were in violation of the book of Oa? Either way its going to be very interesting to see the lasting effects of this law. So far they’ve only lost 200 Lanterns (truth be told I expected more, given that there’s over 7200 of them) however I suspect we’ve only just scratched the surface of the effects of this law. You have to presume that Kyle and Soranik’s relationship is going to come under fire soon, and Kyle’s got a lot of backing from his fellow lanterns as the torchbearer. It could backfire badly for the Guardians.

We’re now two episodes post the reboot of Knight Rider, and so far its been a good couple of episodes.

The stronger of the two was undoubtedly Enter Light, Exit Knight, which started in classic Knight Rider style, with Mike and KITT heading home after a long mission, only to be sucked into a bank robbery.

The opening was incredibly strong, starting softly, with Mike asleep in KITT’s passenger seat (a nice touch) and KITT chatting to Sarah.   But from there it quickly kicked off, with Mike and KITT getting caught up in a giant gun battle infront the bank.

Out of all the episodes so far, its probably been the strongest opening. And in that regard it maybe doesn’t surprise that this episode had some of the highest ratings of the season. That big action-packed introduction must’ve been just the ticket to suck in some passing channel-surfers.

The second episode, Fight Knight continued the trend of entertaining episodes. While probably not quite as strong as the episodes since the 2-parter, it was still a fun episode, with a real feel of the old school Knight Rider, as Michael and KITT investigate a death in a small town, and there’s even a corrupt sherrif as well.

For me, the main thing that’s really working in this show since the reboot, has been the relationship between Michael and KITT. There’s a real bond between these two now, and KITT’s really developed a fun sense of humour. There’s a fair amount of playful banter between the pair and its great to watch (I love Mike’s nickname of “supercar” for KITT, and the exchange when Mike deliberately put the dead drill sergeant’s belongings on KITT’s bonnet was fun).

Its a pity there’s only three episodes to go in the season.  There’s a real feeling that this is a show that’s now found its feet.  The tighter cast is allowing for much more focus on the relationships (specifically Mike and KITT), and the characterisations seem to have really fallen into place.   My only concern is the declining ratings in the states may be beyond the point of no return, and a second season is perhaps now looking unlikely.   It’ll be a real shame, as this show has so much potential, that its really starting to live up to.

 I’ve been using the 2.7 version of WordPress since it came out, and I’ve been pretty happy with the updates.   Ever since 2.6 there’s been loads of really nice features added that have made maintaining and using the blog a lot easier.
 
So today, when 2.7.1 was released, I was pleased to see that they’ve also built in the ability to have the blog upgrade itself.  Up until 2.7 it was always a manual (if painless) task, but now there’s just one button to click, and it nabs the update and upgrades the blog all on its own.  Brilliant

The management interface has also been coming on leaps and bounds since 2.6.  I’m really liking things like the quickpost window on the main dashboard (although since I tend to use Categories, I’m not using it much).  The whole thing looks a lot more professional these days, with options grouped into various expandable categories.

Anyway, slightly rambling, but the main point is that the new upgrade functionality has made my life easier