Reilly2040's Blog

These previews seem to be coming out earlier and earlier

I’m guessing its part of DC’s hype and build up to Blackest Night that they’re releasing them early or something.  As usual these days, IGN have the scoop with the Green Lantern #43 preview.

Anyway, there’s been comparisons made between this preview and Geoff’s Rogue profiles during his tenure on the Flash, and I definitely think that’s what I’m expecting from this issue.  I’m not really expecting Hal to turn up much at all.

The look into Black Hand’s history promises to be pretty disturbing and twisted.  Geoff Johns seems to be having a lot of fun with just how sick and twisted this character actually is, right from the initial shot of him in the grave with the bodies (ewwwwww).

I’ve also got to mention Doug Mahnke’s art.  I’m really loving it in this preview, especially that little glimpse of Scar.  Its a really nicely detailed image that jumped out at me.

I’m very enthusiastic for this issue.  Its just a pity its another week to wait.

Meanwhile IGN also have a preview for this week’s GLC #38.  Its the last part of Emerald Eclipse, picking off right where we left off, with the Lanterns reeling from Oa’s armour being destroyed.  I’m really looking forward to this conclusion of a fantastic story arc.  It’ll be interesting to see if Sodam Yat’s fate is revealled here.  Obviously, we know he survives, but is his presumed death going to be left hanging as a plot thread to be addressed during Blackest Night?

Its also nice to see a short scene with Soranik trying (and failing) to remove the tatoo Sinestro gave her.  She fails and acknowledges she’s stuck with it, but I have to wonder if they’ll at least address the tracking device Sinestro had implanted within it.

Its another cracking finale to a Green Lantern arc, this time offering a little more closure than the Rage of the Red Lanterns arc, which followed much more directly into Agent Orange.

The resolution to last issue’s cliffhanger caught me by surprise, but made complete sense given what we’d previously seen of the blue rings.  However, it was also a slight disappointment, probably in part due to having seen the exact same trick pulled off by Paul Cornell’s Captain Britain and MI13 last week.

Talking of Hal’s Blue ring, we finally got the reveal of his hope which activated the ring, and it was a great moment.  Whereas most had been speculating about his Dad’s final words or something, instead it turned out to be something fairly inconsequential that activated the ring.  A throwaway thought.   Again, its something that rang very true.  However, we also see that the ring shows Hal a glimpse of the future (suggesting that’s his true hope), and aside from the glimpse of Sinestro we saw, I have to wonder what else might be revealled that he’s seen later down the line.

Hal specifically glimpsing Sinestro saying they need to work together may also provide some insight into Hal’s hopes.   We know from Secret Origin that prior to his fall, Sinestro and Hal were friends as well as mentor and student, so perhaps this also hints that Hal still secretly hopes Sinestro can be redeemed one day and he can have his friend back (although granted this flies in the face of his “KILLKILLKILL” Red Lantern moment).

There are various other nice moments as well.  We get a good character piece with Fatality and John Stewart where she tells him he must forgive himself for Xanshi, but also interestingly hints that Xanshi wasn’t as innocent as he might’ve believed when it comes to the war of light.  Intriguing, and obviously Geoff must have a plan in this direction.

The ending of the issue also gives us two big moments.  The Guardians sell out the Blue Lanterns by telling Larfleeze where Odym is and we see the Blue Lanterns about to come under attack.  Of course, this is very bad, as despite the blue light’s effectiveness over the orange, we know that beyond basic life support and flight, blue rings are inactive unless there’s a GL in range.  Wonder if we’ll see Hal or Kyle get an SOS from Ganthet.   Of course, we also know that Atrocious was last seen leading his Red Lanterns to Odym as well.  Since Larfleeze has a love of new, shiney things, I imagine he’ll be wanting a red ring as well as a blue, so that may buy the Blue Lanterns a chance.

You do wonder what’s going to happen with the Guardians after Blackest Night.  Really their actions in recent issues have been unforgivable.  Kyle’s going to be regretting resurrecting them after the damage they’re doing.

And the final pages of the book give us a great lead-in to Blackest Night.  I loved how they picked up directly from events in GLC with Ash and Saarek.  Sadly it looks like these are another two classic GL casualties, but the giant arms reaching out to grab them was a great scene.  Again, we’re also given a tantalising hint, as the ring identifies the planet with the Black Lantern as “Classified”.  So its definitely charted by the Guardians.  Do they already know of the planet’s significance and are hushing it up from the Corps?  Or has Scar quietly classified it without the other Guardians knowing?

Sci-Fi Channel UK have been doing pretty well lately with some high-profile premiers, and the latest is this Christian Slater vehicle.

Christian Slater stars as both Edward and Henry. Edward is a black ops Goverment agent. Henry is a normal family man working for a financial institution. Sadly for Henry, it turns out they’re also the same guy, with a chip implanted in his brain which allows Edward’s superiors to decide which of them is the active personality at any time.

Then one day, things rapidly go pear-shaped after the chip malfunctions and the two personalities start swapping over randomly with no control. Edward wakes up in Henry’s home and instantly knows what’s wrong, as he knows about his dual identity. However Henry gets a much more rude awakening, taking over during a mission and finding himself targeted by Russians.

We’re two episodes in, and I’m enjoying this series immensely. Our main focus between the two characters is Henry, as he has no idea what’s been going on or his dual identity. I get the impression that a key part of the series is going to be finding out who exactly Edward (I like the Jekyll and Hyde nod BTW) is. We know there’s something unusual about him, as his boss notes they only knew about the flat he owns within the last year and it was a surprise to them, and on investigating Edward’s place, Henry uncovers a hidden room, filled with weapons.

Edward’s relationship with his employers seems to have more to it as well.  There’s an implication that this kind of malfunction should’ve resulted in Henry’s “death”, however instead the boss is helping to cover up what’s happened, and has been helping to guide Henry where necessary.

Its an intriguing setup.  The riff on the classic Jekyll and Hyde is well played and has a bit of a twist to it.   The exact nature of the program that would create agents like this, as well as who Edward is and his motivations are interesting mysteries that have been setup.

Dark Reign rumbles on in the Marvel Universe, and it still sucks to be Tony Stark, as he’s quickly shot down after wandering into Russian airspace on his way to the latest of his private facilities.

The person doing the shooting turns out to be Tony’s old friend, the Crimson Dynamo who’s unimpressed by this person wandering into his country in an outdated armour that’s easily taken down.  He’s even more surprised when he realises it is indeed Tony Stark in the suit.

This is something Matt Fraction’s doing that I really love.  In the past, whenever Tony’s armour has been trashed, its been almost cliche that he’d spend 5-10 issues running around in the classic 60s armour, before its overwhelmed and he’s forced to build a new suit.   This rarely made sense, as in some of those situations he could’ve easily gone with a suit more advanced.   In this story, Tony’s reasons for adopting such an old suit make perfect sense, as his intelligence is compromised, and his reaction times slowed.

The other thing Fraction does which was previously ignored, is address that in the modern Marvel Universe, the 60s armour is rubbish.  Yes, it looks good.  But its old technology.  In previous instances where Tony’s worn this suit as a substitute, he’s generally held his own to a point, until becoming overwhelmed.   Here there’s no pretence that he can hold his own.  He’s quickly shot down by the Crimson Dynamo and his armour rendered useless.  Fortunately once the situation has been explained, the Dynamo is more than happy to lend Tony his armour to help him out.

We also go back to Pepper, who’s more than happy to flaunt Osborn’s authority in order to track Tony down.  Sadly, she’s playing straight into Norman’s hands, as he’s been watching her, waiting for her to run to Tony.

Talking of Norman, there’s a great scene where he contacts the Russians for permission to chase Tony in their territory, only to be bluntly told to shove off.  Its a nice scene, and its interesting to see that internationally, other countries seem to be well aware of Norman’s past, and don’t trust him one iota.

Meanwhile War Machine #7 continues Jim’s quest to shut down the research into the Ultimo virus.   Having successfully distracted American Eagle in the previous issue to allow him to get to the US military base housing the research, Jim quickly begins dismantling their defenses only to discover that the head of Ultimo is being used to house the project.

Again, a real part of the fun here is the Dark Reign setup, mainly with American Eagle’s interactions with Norman Osborn.  Again we’re seeing someone in authority tell Osborn to get knotted.  Its  a situation that’s sure to escalate, since as more and more people tell Osborn to take a hike, you can see him getting further and further out of control and throwing around his authority.   As a direct result of this issue you see military personnel questioning exactly why there was an alien superweapon hidden on their base by Osborn.  Hopefully these are hints that Osborn’s ascendancy to power isn’t nearly as all-encompassing as may have first appeared, and there’s still a good few people out there questioning what’s going on.

The other thing that really surprised me in this issue is the cliffhanger.  Jim manages to hack the Ultimo project’s database and discovers the locations where Ultimo’s main processor has been stored (after being split up).  To stop him, Osborn calls in his latest line of defense against Jim. Someone who looks a lot like Tony Stark, leaving the Stark Solutions offices.

I’m really wondering who this is going to be.  Assuming I’ve not missed any issues where there was a clone of Tony kicking around or something, this is hugely interesting.  ”Tony” is carrying his signature briefcase, so it seems to be hinting towards another War Machine/Iron Man confrontation, but what’s the twist here?

A really nice part of this issue is that we finally see the sequence of events that resulted in Jim’s injuries.  Interestingly, he was serving as an advisor to the military (in something reminiscent of his role as a liason in the Iron Man movie).  We quickly see Jim’s determination to save others no matter the personal cost.  Its nice to finally see what actually happened there.

Just a quick note regarding the other solicit that really caught my attention.  Strange Adventures #7.

so, this series is heading for a Comet vs Captain Comet clash.  However, this raises a heck of a lot of questions, given that they’re the same guy.  Is this Captain Comet a clone?  Or the original turned up via some time mangling?  Or is it all just Synnar screwing with our heroes?  Of course, it could be Synnar screwing with our heroes using a clone of Captain Comet.   Deacon Dark (who works for Synnar) does have a history of cloning Captain Comet, although Comet destroyed his original body to stop the clones being produced back in Mystery in Space.

One thing I’d mentioned in previous posts about Strange Adventures was the ongoing, and largely ignored, plot thread with Comet pretending to be his own nephew, taking on his uncle’s role after his death.  Of course, we know that Comet is infact the original Captain Comet, resurrected in a new body via the Weird’s powers after his original was killed by Lady Styx.  I’m assuming this means that this plot thread is definitely going to be addressed in this series, as you have to assume Comet will be forced to tell Adam Strange the truth when faced with his older self.  I can’t imagine Strange will be overly pleased with being lied to.  Ideally it’ll also see Comet take on his full name again of Captain Comet.  I much prefer its retro sound

Ok, its no surprise, but Geoff Johns has confirmed this isn’t the final cover for Rebirth #6 (fairly safe money that the gradient will be replaced by a group shot of the Flash family, including Wally in his new suit?), but still, the solicit is worth a mention.

The one thing that’s been leaping out from Rebirth so far has been that its been a struggle to care about Barry being back, however I did also say that I hoped issue 3 would be a big turning point.  From the solicit for issue 6, I’m now feeling a lot happier that it will be.

The solicit hints at big changes in store for the Flash family.  Obviously we know that Wally is due a new Ethan Van Sciver-designed costume, but what’ll happen to his family, and will he be making a bigger change to his life to accomodate them other than a change of outfit?  The stuff about Kid Flash’s destiny is also interesting.  I wonder what exactly that means.  What choice will he be facing?

There’s also the talk of a new archnemesis for the Flash family.  In my Rebirth #3 post I’d speculated that the Reverse Flash may be revealed as working for someone else, and it sounds like that may be the case afterall.   I’m very glad this is the case (unless they’re just referring to Reverse Flash being redefined for the new series, but it does sound like its an original villain being introduced).

But most important is the picture of Barry on the cover.  He’s smiling at last.  Whatever happens in the second half obviously refocuses his outlook on life (specifically his own).  Of course, its not a surprise that Barry will be sorted out, character-wise.  Obviously Geoff Johns wasn’t going to leave us with a moping Barry Allen at the end of this, that people were going to struggle to like, and most importantly, it wouldn’t really jibe with Barry’s appearance in Blackest Night #0, which I really enjoyed, and has probably convinced me more about Barry’s return than issues 1-3 of Rebirth have so far.

This solicit has been perfectly pitched to me.  It raises a lot of interest in me in terms of where this series is going to go over the next 3 issues, as well as leaving me optimistic about the second half of Rebirth.   I said it in my Rebirth #3 post, but I’ll repeat it here.  I suspect this series will read better as a whole, and I imagine that by the end of the run, I’ll be excited for the direction of the Flash going forward.

IGN has put up the solicits for September’s Blackest Night titles.

Interestingly the cover shown for Blackest Night #3 is the Firestorm-focused variant cover.  So it’ll be interesting to see what’s on the Ivan Reis main cover, but I’m guessing its considered spoilery (the main villain?).

Its also interesting that the Superman tie-in doesn’t mention the Earth-2 Superman, but does reveal that Psycho Pirate will be back as a Black Lantern.  I love how there’s a hole still in his head from where Black Adam punched him  (although it does raise the issue of how the Black Lanterns come back.  This lends itself towards them being the actual remains of the dead, but then we’ve got the question of how Black Lanterns come back where there aren’t any physical remains, such as Firestorm).  Given the prominance of Earth-2 Superman on the cover and in the solicit for August, it’ll be interesting to see where he’s gone, or if its just a natural shift of focus for this issue to Clark and Connor (speaking of which, its great seeing Connor on these solicits again.  I can’t wait for Adventure Comics).

Despite the firepower on display on the Batman cover, which I’m a bit dubious about, I love seeing Batman, Robin and Red Robin side by side on that cover.  I’m really hoping this is something that happens in the book, rather than the cover just reflecting the fact that all three of them are in the story, albeit separately.  I really want to see them team up, although it’ll be interesting to see how that jibes with the events of Red Robin #1, given Tim is currently globe-trotting.   And not a big fan of Richard.

Titans is still the book that’s highest on my “could skip” list, although the Donna focus of this issue grabs my attention.  Again, it wins the “most twisted cover” award of the month.  I’ve got a soft spot for Donna after the Kyle run, and realistically I’ll probably go all completist over this event anyway.

The Green Lantern solicits also cover a plot point I’d been wondering about, as the Green Lantern #46 solicit tells us this is the long-awaited Sinestro/Mongul confrontation.  I’m a bit surprised about this, as I’d really thought it would’ve happened by now (specifically by the end of Emerald Eclipse in GLC).  However its going to be great to finally see.  Its pretty much being taken as granted that Mongul is going to lose, but it’ll be interesting to see exactly what happens to him.  He’s been a great nemesis for the GLC and I hope Geoff resolves this conflict well and leaves Mongul open as a character for a new direction (ie, he doesn’t end up killed by Sinestro).

The cover of Green Lantern Corps #40 also provides us a tantalising image, with the various Black Lanterns appearing to absorb different aspects of the emotional spectrum from Guy, Arisia and Kyle.   It strikes me as something that could be quite amusing potentially.  Will we see the return of “nice” Guy from the JLI if he’s been drained of his hate?  And will Kyle without fear be roughly equivalent to Dave Lister in the episode Polymorph of Red Dwarf?

Ok, I joke, but it really does remind me of Polymorph, however I’ll be surprised if any aspect of this is played for laughs.  Its interesting as well that the cover is focused solely on the main/classic  Green Lanterns.   No Sodam Yat or Soranik Natu here.   Just Guy, Kyle and Arisia.  I wonder if this signals that the title will be very focused on these characters for the duration of this event, to ensure all the Guy and Kyle fans are left happy that they were properly involved in Blackest Night.  although I’ll still be annoyed if the four Musketeers aren’t playing a major role in the main mini series.  I’d rather have Hal, John, Kyle and Guy front and centre in Blackest Night and the GL series (albeit slanted towards Hal), allowing GLC to focus on the other Lanterns, much like happened in the Sinestro Corps War.

So the solicits are still looking very promising for this event.  And again, I think they’ve hit a good balance with the number of tie-ins for this event.  Presumably only Blackest Night, GL and GLC will be the “must-read” titles for the event, but the other tie-ins are restricted enough in number that I’ll be fairly happy to pick them up, without breaking the bank too badly.

So, an update on the Ben Reilly rumours doing the rounds.  It looks like its definitely happening, at least in one form.

Bleedingcool.com has the solicit (via SuperPouvoir) for Spider-Man: The Clone Saga.  A 6 issue mini series which will tell the Clone Saga in the way it was originally intended.

Now this should make for interesting reading.  For anyone who’s a fan of the Clone Saga, (or is just interested in what actually happened to cause it to go wildly wrong), I can’t recommend the Life of Reilly column enough.   Its a long read, but breaks the whole saga down and gives detailed accounts from the various people involved at the time as to what actually happened.

Going from what was said in Life of Reilly, I’m presuming this series will show the original “out” (which wasn’t too different to what actually happened) in that it would’ve been revealed that Seward Trainer had faked the test results that proved Ben was the real Peter Parker (although I forget who he was working for.  Must re-read Life of Reilly myself).   It’ll be very interesting to see this bit of Spider-Man history addressed and its a great idea to give the original creators a chance to revisit the story and tell their version of it.

As an amusing aside, given the Bleeding Cool article references both One More Day and the 101 Ways to End the Clone Saga one-shot, its worth pointing out that one of the original ideas touted to resolve the Clone Saga was to reveal that Mephisto had been behind it.   Amusingly this idea was rejected as the writers felt it wasn’t appropriate for Spider-Man, and that it should be a more grounded explanation, rather than a mystical one.

I’m looking forward to this a lot.

Annoyingly my ISP decided to not like my domain this weekend.  Makes blogging a bit tricky…

Picking up from where the preview left off, we get another page of Saarek and Ash discussing their situation in the Anti-Monitor’s empty boot.  There was something about that visual of them hiding out in it that made me chuckle.  Its a great image  They seem to accept that since both have been sent on their mission to find the Anti-Monitor by the Scarred Guardian that she was obviously hedging her bets by sending two Lanterns on the same investigation.

Given Scar’s link to the Blackest Night I find it interesting that this seems to indicate that she doesn’t know where the Anti-Monitor (and thus the black power battery) is.  While she’s been setting the scene for the Blackest Night, by causing the Sciencell riot and manipulating events, this makes me wonder if she’s as in touch with the forces behind the Blackest Night as we might believe.   Alternatively she could be leading both Saarek and Ash into a trap.   Given Saarek’s ability to talk to the dead, his role in the Blackest Night could be an interesting one, unless Scar manages to kill him.

Meanwhile on Oa, the Sciencell riot is spiralling out of control.   The Green Lanterns are desperately trying to keep it contained, but its chaos.  And then the rookies decide they’re through sitting on the sidelines, and break out of their containment to help, only to run into a load of Sinestro Corps members.   However, at the last minute, they’re saved by the intervention of the Alpha Lanterns.

This scene was brilliant.  Exactly how easy the Sinestro Corps would’ve been able to take down the Rookies would remain to be seen.  They were brave enough to want to join in the fight, so that could’ve meant that they would have overcome the yellow weakness and been able to hold their own.  However, the intervention of the Alpha Lanterns was brilliantly done.   They were rendered very differently here to their previous appearances, which just showed them as Lantern/Manhunter hybrids.  Here Patrick Gleason shows them mostly in shadow, save for their glowing power batteries.   It makes them a really ominious prescence and helps show off just how powerful and inhuman they really are.  While it wouldn’t work for all their appearances, here its chillingly effective.

With the Alpha Lanterns help, the riot seems to be quickly quelled, however just as the Lanterns think they can catch a breather, Scar decides to push things forward in preparation for the Blackest Night, and blows open Oa’s armour, exposing the planet and leaving it vulnerable.

Its a dramatic ending, and does hammer home the fact that the Blackest Night is about to begin.  Its a pity we haven’t seen more of Oa’s armour through the series though.  Its something that hasn’t really been used since it was introduced, although in fairness, there’s only so many times you can really have Oa being attacked.

So overall, another great issue.  When you think about the big storylines Peter Tomasi’s juggling in this arc (Sinestro Corps invasion of Daxam, Sciencell Riot on Oa and the general manipulations of Scar), its amazing that he’s covering them all so well.  One of the big strengths he’s displayed since taking over this series has been to juggle lots of things (be it plots or characters) in a satisfying way.  No mean feat for a writer.

As a side note, I’m still wondering as to the timeline in the DCU at the moment.  Rage of the Red Lanterns happens between Final Crisis 1 & 2, and Agent Orange happens right after that, presumably still during the Final Crisis 1/2 gap.  since this story is running alongside Agent Orange, and has the Blackest Night lead in with Oa’s armour being blown open, I have to assume that Blackest Night is going to be happening right after Emerald Eclipse.

But what about the rest of Final Crisis?  I’m going to have to assume that Final Crisis, Flash Rebirth (since the Blackest Night preview shows a more familiar Barry than we’re seeing in Rebirth at the moment) and Blackest Night all happen within a *really* short space of time in the DCU.   That’s something I’d like to see addressed, the fact that the Earth falling to Darkseid, Barry as the Black Flash and now Blackest Night are all happening within a very short period of time.  It might be fun to see the heroes a bit more beaten down, struggling to cope with all they’ve been through without any real down time.

I don’t actually think it’ll happen though.  I suspect the issue of Final Crisis will just be ignored.  It’ll be a pity if tha’s the case.  I remember the Judge Dredd comics doing something similar back in the day, when they actually referenced the fact that all their big storylines had left Mega City 1 badly beaten, and vulnerable with shattered defenses.   It really helped build the fact that it was a consistent universe.

At least, that’s the way the rumour mill is heading at the moment…

From my point of view, its something I would be very excited about.   It’ll be no surprise that this character is where half of my domain name comes from.   For me, the big mistake in the clone saga was introducing the whole “one, true Spider-Man” guff.  While I understand that the writers desperately wanted to give the series a clean slate (in a similar way to One More Day), they eventually ended up in such a mess that killing Ben was obviously seen as the only way to put the Clone Saga behind them.

The thing is, Ben was popular.  Very popular.  Ok, not so much as Spider-Man, but as a character in his own right.  As the clone of Peter Parker who’d wandered the US trying to figure out his own identity, and then later, as Peter’s brother.   It put a great new spin on the series, with Aunt May’s death, it still gave Peter that other family member, but with a very different spin.  Someone who knew him possibly better than he knew himself.

So if Ben is coming back, then I’ll be a very happy reader.  I just hope it all doesn’t end up some cheap trick, and if its done, its done well.   I can’t really see them keeping two Spider-Men around as they were doing at the time of the Clone Saga though, so if Ben is brought back as the Scarlet Spider, he’d end up heading off into the sunset to have adventures of his own somewhere, but its something I’d like to see.  And as someone who has generally avoided the Spider-titles ever since the terrible Gathering of Five (honestly, never mind the Clone Saga, half the stuff that happened afterwards was worse), Ben Reilly is probably the one character they could bring back that would get me to buy Amazing Spider-Man again.

Heck, it could be very interesting, given that Norman Osborn was the one who killed Ben all those years ago, to see exactly how Ben would react to Dark Reign.