Reilly2040's Blog

Its all going a bit wrong on Earth.  The dead are rising, and increasing their numbers by the minute.  Firestorm’s been taken out, and just after they find out how to stop the Black Lanterns, Indigo-1 teleports Hal away, leaving Earth defenseless again.  Uh-oh.

Given that Green Lantern has been the cornerstone of this whole event, this issue is interesting in that no Green Lanterns actually appear.  Hal’s time in space recruiting the other Corps is currently being left to the Green Lantern title, while this book remains focused on the events on Earth.

So with Hal gone, the focus shifts to Hal’s partner throughout the first three issues, Barry Allen.  Barry immediately takes control of the situation, taking it upon himself to ensure all the world’s heroes are updated on what’s going on and that they have to hold the line on Earth until Hal and his team can nip the Black Lantern problem in the bud.

In my comments on the first three issues, I’ve been glowing of Johns’ use of Barry in this series, and this issue is no exception.  With Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman tied up elsewhere, the leadership role easily shifts to Barry’s character in a way that feels really natural as he tells Mera and Atom to get in touch with Alan Scott to see if his green flame will be effective against the Black Lanterns.

Much like my review of the recent Stargate Universe, where this story really shines is with its characters.  While Barry is written taking charge Johns also throws in great character moments for Damage, and is clearly enjoying giving Mera the spotlight, a character who wouldn’t necessarily have lept to anyone’s mind, but who’s been used brilliantly.

However, we’re also teased as to some of the ongoing mysteries in the series.  As the power metre hits 100%, and the central black battery moves from Ryut to Earth, Black Hand teases about the Guardian’s greatest lie and about something being buried on Earth.   There’s definitely a big reveal brewing here, and I can’t help but assume its going to be related to the massacre in Sector 666.  We know it gave rise to the Inversions and ultimately the Red Lanterns.  We know that Ryut is located in Sector 666 as well.  There’s going to be something there.

And as a final thought, with the Black battery now relocated to Earth, that means the Anti-Monitor is now back on Earth as well.  So if the heroes do manage to defeat Nekron and shut down the black battery they may just unleash another load of the problems.

Things are still pretty grim for the passengers of the Destiny over in Stargate Universe. Having only just fixed the air filtration system, the ship decides its now going to run out of power and crash into a sun.

A pretty short summary, but much like the previous episodes of SGU, the focus in this show is on how the characters react to the situation, not the situation itself.  For the crashing into the sun dilemma, I think at least 90% of the viewership had twigged exactly what was going to happen.  And that in itself is dangerous for the show.  While needing the basics of survival is a key starting point for a show like this, there’s a danger that “don’t worry, the ship knows what its doing” will completely remove any sense of danger the story will try to build up.   However, with the ship being such a central character in this show, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when what the ship wants, doesn’t coincide with what’s best for the passengers.

As I say though, the focus is very much on the characters here.  Again, Robert Carlyle’s Dr Rush probably steals things, but we also get a lot more fleshing out of the other cast.  Greer, who previously came across as an angry thug, is very well served by this pair of episodes, allowing us to see more of him as a person through his nice bonding moment with Young regarding his incarceration and through the larger medium of the Kino videos the crew record throughout the episodes as a log to leave behind when they think they’re going to die.

Again, Eli really shines as well.  The scene where Rush apologies for getting him into this situation, and he says that its ok, was really well played, and its very nice that he’s actually the one that solves the shuttle issue at the end of the story.

As I say though, Rush continues to steal the show for me.  His nervous breakdown was really well done, and reflected nicely the pressure that’s on him, as the only expert in Ancient tech to try and figure out these unfamiliar systems without anyone who’s really qualified or experienced to back him up.  Of course, his abrasive personality doesn’t really help matters, as people are inclined not to listen to his advice (such as not pushing every button on the ship just to see if its the self-destruct or not), and even less inclined to work alongside him.   An interesting aside to this seems to be  that its something he’s deliberately cultivating.  Over the course of these episodes, with death staring him in the face, we see him soften towards some of the other characters (notably apologising to Eli), however the minute the crisis is resolved, he immediately pushes away Young by hinting that he knew all along that the ship would survive.

As for that twist at the end, I have to say I’m not convinced.  I will accept that Rush might’ve had a suspicion that the ship was going to recharge, but I think his reaction when it happened was much too genuine.   I think its more about him trying to push people away from him, after whatever it was happened to his wife.

I noticed in the news this morning, that the ratings for this show are actually still going up.   That’s worth noting in my book.  I’m no expert, but in my experience, ratings usually start very, very high, and then slowly lose people over the first few episodes before evening out again (barring high publicised episodes with significant guest stars or something like that).   So far the ratings to still be increasing, really shows what a success this show is, and there’s obviously some really good word of mouth out there that’s pulling in more viewers each week.  Excellent stuff.

I must admit.  This final part surprised me.

Not for its quality.  Out of the three tie-ins thus far, its been the strongest for most of its issues (which is saying something, as all of them have been excellent).   No, what really surprised me was the brilliant use of Kon-El, Superboy.

Geoff Johns has been doing great work with the character in his soon-to-be-finished run on Adventure Comics, and here James Robinson really picks up that ball and runs with it, allowing Conner to emerge as the hero of the piece.   Especially nice was the scene addressing why Conner has been avoiding using his tactile TK over the last few years, explaining that he avoids it as he’s trying to be more like Superman.  Clark, of course, berates him for this, telling him he should use all his powers (especially when faced by emotion-eating zombies).  This tied in nicely to the story Geoff’s been telling I thought, with Conner measuring his own life experiences up against Clark’s and Lex’s.

The New Krypton segment I was less bothered about.  Almost an afterthought in the first two issues, its appearance here seems largely to explain why New Krypton isn’t more involved in the event and to remove all the extra Kryptonians from the story.  I do see the point of its inclusion, but it also feels out of place next to all the Smallville goings on.

In terms of the larger Blackest Night storyline, there’s a nice twist with the Medusa Mask.  In last issue, it and Psycho Pirate seemed to be the ultimate weapon for the Black Lanterns, able to instil any emotion in large groups of people with no effort, but here we see there’s a flipside to it, when Conner grabs the mask and uses it against Black Lantern Kal-L.  The result is that the black ring shuts down, saving the day.

This is pretty interesting, and again has me wondering about the potential resurrection of people currently running around as Black Lanterns.  I’ve previously speculated that in the final issue, when the white light is revealed (either through a “White Lantern” or the current Lanterns working together) that any Black Lanterns caught in it will be restored to life.  To me, the effect of the Medusa Mask on Kal-L (or perhaps more accurately, his ring) reinforces this.  I wonder if the Mask hadn’t shattered, and Conner had been able to keep using it on Kal-L, if we’d have seen Kal-L fully restored.  Of course, we know that Kal-L and Lois will be back in the Blackest Night: JSA mini-series, so it’ll be interesting to see if the nature of Kal-L’s defeat will be referenced there.

With the second story of Sarah Jane Adventures series 3, we find our story told in flashback format, as a schoolboy encounters  an older Rani, living alone and haunted by the past.  Prompted by him, Rani tells the story of the day everything went wrong.

I found this an overall enjoyable story.  The funfair was well used, and I liked the idea that the alien wasn’t actually evil, just unable to control its own power, having been separated from its ship which was itself attempting to self-repair having crashed many years ago.

Less successful I thought was the framing device set in the future.  While effective in part 1, towards the end, the resolution of the plot, whereby an errant comment from Rani results in Sarah Jane and co vanishing from her life, I thought felt a bit tacked on.  It would’ve been nice if there had been a bit more build up to it in the present day sequences I think.

It was nice though, having an episode that focused on Rani.  The fact she feels like she’s just a standin for Maria was well done, and nicely contrasted with her best friend from her old home, who similarly feels abandoned, only by Rani who’s told him all the stories of her adventures with Sarah Jane, while he’s been left behind.

There were some nice treats in this story as well, as we’re teased with the Doctor’s appearance in the next story, but we also get a couple of quick clips of the third and fourth Doctors as the ship views Sarah Jane’s timeline.

I also liked the twist concerning “the darkness”.  Throughout Doctor Who and Torchwood over the last three/four years, whenever something ominous is happening, there’s always characters standing around saying “the darkness is coming!!!!”.   It was effective the first couple of times, but now (for me at least) its played out, so I was groaning when the ship started talking about the darkness in Sarah Jane’s mind.

So when it was turned on its head, and revealed that the darkness was the black hole, which the ship needed to power its systems, I was happily surprised.  A nice misdirection there, and also it meant that K9 was coming back full time.  It was great to see him come back to the attic, and the snippiness towards him from Mr Smith was fun.  Of course, both characters fullfill basically the same role, so it’ll be interesting to see how K9 and Mr Smith are used over the coming episodes.

With the finale of Strange Adventures DC have now moved Captain Comet and Adam Strange over to the R.E.B.E.L.S. book.

The title is new to me, but its been getting a lot of acclaim, and with soaking up these two characters (especially Adam Strange), and a well-publicised upcoming Blackest Night tie-in, it seems obvious to me that DC is leverage the book as  a cornerstone of their cosmic storylines.

The current story arc revolves around a reinvention of the classic DC menace, Starro.  While I’m coming into the story late, I’m still managing to follow roughly what’s going on, as Starro has been revealed as an alien dictator who uses the evil mind-controlling starfish we’re used to, to enslave worlds.  Brainiac 2 has been separated from LEGION somehow and is now being thrown together with a ragtag group to fight off Starro, to which end he’s now recruited Adam and Comet.

Interestingly here Adam is identified by Kanjar Ro as being from New Rann, so I guess the plot line of the secret survival of the Rannian population has been dropped.  That’s understandable here though, given these are two characters coming into another ongoing storyline.  I can always keep my fingers crossed for a mini-series down the line that tackles some of the dangling plotlines left by the Starlin series.

So far I’ve picked up this issue, and the Annual which filled in the backstory of Starro, and the series seems pretty enjoyable.  I’m not that up on the history of LEGION or REBELs, so there’s going to be a bit of a learning curve, although so far I can see there’s going to be a lot of fun with Brainiac 2, who’s a complete git.  I’m looking forward to the next issues in this and see where it goes.  Of course, my main interest is with Comet and Adam Strange, but there’s a good story going on here, and like Peter Tomasi over in Green Lantern Corps, I can’t help but be impressed by how the writer is juggling an incredibly large cast.

After 12 issues, the strong of Tony Stark being on the run from Norman Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R. has finally come to an end.

I must admit.  As much as I really enjoy Fraction’s work on this book, I’m unsure how I actually feel about this conclusion at the moment.  The run has been filled with great moments.  Pepper, Maria and Natasha make a great team, and the twist of Madam Masque being in the Rescue armour was a great moment.  Watching Norman crow about how good a day he was having while the three women were in his headquarters causing havoc (including J.A.R.V.I.S. trashing all of Norman’s captured suits of Iron Man armour) was great.

Another highlight was the final Tony/Norman fight.  By this point, Tony’s virtually incapable of putting one foot in front of the other, and is wearing only his original Iron Man armour, while Norman’s at the top of his game, yet despite everything being in Norman’s favour, we see Tony’s victory as Osborn is outsmarted, revealed on television pummelling the defenceless Tony and discovering that the information he was so desperate for no longer exists.

Despite this though, I’m left feeling slightly unsatisfied.  This story was 12 issues long, so while its no Clone Saga, that’s still a long story in modern terms, where most aim for six issues in order to fit trade paperback requirements.  Despite this long run though, it feels like we end on yet another cliffhanger.  Tony is now in a vegetative state, having erased the contents of his memory, and his body is a prisoner in the HAMMER helicarrier.  We still don’t know what’s on the hard drive Maria and co were so desperate to retrieve (although its a fair bet it relates to however Tony’s going to get out of this mess in time for the upcoming Seige event).   Despite the story’s length, there’s still the feeling that the main beats aren’t resolved, which is a bit frustrating.    Given the status at the end of the issue, with Norman having chased Tony around the globe for nothing, and having lost all his Starktech except for his one suit of Iron Patriot armour, it should’ve felt like more of a win for Tony.  Instead it all felt a bit “too be continued”, a real shame after 12 issues.

However, I don’t want to be too down on this.  I don’t doubt that whatever happens next is going to be very interesting indeed, as we see Tony’s friends getting in touch with Donald Blake, who happens to be the executor of Tony’s Estate according to his will, in addition to being the secret identity of a certain god of thunder.  So its obvious all we’ve really seen is the conclusion of stage 1 of a larger plan (again, we have Fraction playing on Tony’s ability to think three steps ahead).

This has been a great ride.  Matt Fraction’s done a great job of showing Tony’s descent as his intelligence slowly left him.  He’s also greatly captured Norman Osborn’s character showing how dangerous and deranged he can be (witness his right-hand woman freaking out over how Norman’s going to kill them all when he learns of Pepper’s escape).  There’s a great supporting cast in place here, and so all we really need is to see exactly what Tony’s got up his sleeve for how he’ll get out of this.  And then, of course, I have to presume that we’ll be getting one of those great Iron Man moments as we have the unveiling of a redesigned suit of armour (since the Extremis suit is now useless).  With the damage done to the character during Civil War (a good idea, badly handled in my opinion), its hard not to really feel for Tony as he desperately tries to string together a coherent thought while Norman is pounding on his armour, and that is possibly the greatest strength of this run.  Its made Tony Stark a character that you’re cheering for again.

Sarah Jane Adventures is back, and after so little new Who this year it was bliss to have a Judoon stomping around the place (I’m really not sure if Torchwood counted.  It was very much its own show this year).

I quite like the strategy they’re using this year, giving us two episodes of Sarah Jane a week.  As SJA stories are all two-parters it makes a lot of sense, and since we’ll shortly be getting Dreamland and the final specials for the tenth Doctor not dragging out the run of Sarah Jane Adventures makes a degree of sense.

For this series opener itself, I thought it was a great start.  Borrowing from the previous formula, the show brings back a prominent alien from Doctor Who to help kickstart things.  With the Slitheen and the Sontarans in previous series, this year it was the turn of the Judoon, which was great for me as they’re a favourite of mine.

The writers had a lot of fun with the Judoon.  They built on their previous appearances by making them absolute sticklers for the letter of the law, even those local laws (whereas previously they weren’t too concerned about local laws, and came across more as hired thugs in some regards).  Having the Judoon refusing to leave the car behind until the gang had paid and displayed for example, I thought was a great laugh.   Similarly, there was a nice visual gag with the Judoon driving around in a Police car.  We also had the return of the Judoon’s bureaucracy, with the Judoon handing over official paperwork for commandeering the car.

Less successful was possibly the comedy stuff with Rani’s parents.  I like them, but they felt a little forced in in the second episode.  Especially with all the funny aspects to the Judoon’s role, it seemed a bit redundant to also have Rani’s parents also having comedy adventures at the same time.

However, that’s a deeply minor niggle.  We also had a really nice spaceship design in the second part, an interesting villain, and Liz Sladen clearly enjoying the chance to play Sarah as possessed by said villain.

This was a really strong start, and I can’t wait for the next story.  Of course, we’ve also got some big events coming up, with K9 returning for a larger role, and the 10th Doctor appearing at the halfway point.

War! Huh! What is it good for?  Well, a rollicking issue of GLC for a start.

Its all-out chaos on Oa.  With the Black Lantern assault in full swing, Peter Tomasi deftly jumps between the different main characters of the series, ensuring all get their chance to shine in this latest issue.   While this issue doesn’t really move the story forward, it doesn’t matter, as its obvious that the focus for this issue was simply to focus on the Oa under seige aspect of the storyline.   On one hand you’ve got Soranik and Iolande struggling to save the wounded members of the GLC (from the previous Sciencell riot), while Guy fights against Black Lantern Ke’han and Kyle is still facing off against Black Lantern Jade.

While neither part of the story gets more than a couple of pages, the story still succeeds in leaving you feeling everyone got their chance to shine.   Its something that didn’t quite work in this month’s Green Lantern, where John only got a single page and that plot left me feeling unsatisfied.   Here, despite the Lanterns being solely on the defensive, it still feels like each character had their due, and the story still moves forward, the Indigo-2 arriving in time to ward off the Black Lantern Children.

The Black Lantern children themselves are quite a dark creation.  They’re obviously the children Kryb had been searching for with Miri, having now died of starvation.  And this is after Kryb killing their (Green Lantern) parents and taking them for her own.  They’re quite a powerful storyline of the dangers of being in the Corps, and with Kryb and Miri on their trail, it’ll be interesting to see how this plotline develops.  If nothing else, we’ve now got an Indigo Lantern on Oa, and with a Sinestro Corps member and a Star Saphire in pursuit, then it points to things evening up against the Black Lanterns on Oa.

The third part of the Stargate Universe pilot aired last night, completing the story of the Icarus base survivors attempting to fix the air filtration system on the Destiny.

The episode again provided plenty of food for thought though in terms of the larger story, specifically when it comes to communication with Earth.

Despite my initial thoughts, the Ancient communications device is quickly broken out by Colonel Young so he can check in with Earth and update them on their status.  It also provides Chloe with the opportunity to tell her mother about her father’s death in the previous episode.

The way the communications device works is by swapping the conciousness of its users on either end.  So in this case, we had Young body-swapping with Colonel Telford.  As well as allowing Young to check in with Earth, it also allowed Telford (who was originally supposed to be leading the expedition) to get his first look at the situation on the Destiny, and it was clear he wasn’t happy with how things were being run (which in fairness to the character, was understandable, since he was the one specially trained for the mission, so he should have a better idea of how some situations should be tackled).

This led me to thinking though.  I wonder how long it takes before its suggested that there’s a longer term body swap via the communications device.   The Destiny crew is a hodge-podge of characters who survived the Icarus base attack versus, for example, the specially picked team that went through the gate during the Atlantis expedition.  Currently for example, the crew is light on medical staff, so maybe there’ll be the issue of whether or not some of the less experienced crew swap out with a senior surgeon for example.   With the number of injuries on board, it would at least make sense to do this kind of thing regularly, or have someone swap for a couple of weeks while the worst of the cases are dealt with.    I can’t help but think there’ll have to be some sort of limitation introduced into the device, beyond the moral dilemma of loaning your body out to someone else and living in theirs for an extended period.   It does look like there’s only a couple of the devices as well, so that will help provide limits to its use.

Interestingly as well, its confirmed that Rush did indeed contact Earth in the previous episode.  So despite appearances, maybe he’s not as shifty as originally feared (although we only know that he made contact, not necessarily the he was put in charge as he claimed).

There’s also the mystery of the swirling dust cloud that helped Scott locate the limestone they needed to fix the air system.  Was that a natural inhabitant of the planet, or was it maybe an ascended Ancient helping them along?  That kind of interference would be unusual for the Ancients though.   And in the final parting shot of the episode, we see some kind of shuttle detaching itself from the Destiny while in FTL.  Is this pointing at a new alien race that have not only located the Destiny, but also have the same kind of advanced FTL technology?  Surely a bad thing for the crew.

Aside from these, the other thing I’ve really gotten a feel of as I’ve mulled over this pilot, is how much the Destiny is a character in this show.  Much moreso than Atlantis was in the previous series.   Whereas Atlantis was purely a setting the characters inhabited, the Destiny has its own mission.  The crew are merely passengers that the ship will help out if asked nicely (such as Rush telling the Destiny about the need to fix the air system).    While stopped, the Destiny is only willing to stay for so long without leaving, and while Rush stumbled upon a way to buy a little extra time in this episode, from the way the ship was creaking and groaning, it really didn’t sound happy about its mission being stalled.

I really hope this is something the writers continue to play with.  The TARDIS has long been treated as a character in Doctor Who, as opposed to just the transportation with a mind of its own, and moods, and its something that will really add to the alien nature of the Destiny.   I really hope we don’t soon see the crew starting to get more and more control and understanding of the Destiny’s systems.  I quite like the idea that they’re merely passengers stranded on this ship, rather than a proper crew.

When I first got back into comics in a big way, it wasn’t Green Lantern that did it.  It wasn’t even DC.

Nope, it was Spider-Man.  Specifically, the Clone Saga.  A time of huge controversy in the Spider-titles as what started as an interesting idea, got thrown wildly out of control by marketing excess.   By the time the dust settled, the various elements introduced were brushed away with a seemingly unspoken promise at Marvel to never speak of it again.

A great shame though, as for all the problems with the Clone Saga it had its highlights as well.  Aunt May’s death was a beautifully written issue that moved the character of Peter Parker forward, Kaine was a compelling new villain, and Ben Reilly a brilliant new character that added something new to the franchise by giving Peter a brother.   I’ve always maintained that the whole thing went wrong only when phrases involving the words “one, true” came into the mix.  Until that point it had been great fun having the two brothers running around.  Something that was briefly recaptured towards the end of the story albeit with Ben now in the Spider-Man role rather than as the Scarlet Spider.

Despite the unravelling of the Clone Saga I actually stuck with the Spider-titles for a while afterwards, only eventually dropping them in protest over Aunt May’s resurrection.  It was a horrible story and a worse retcon.  And subsequent storylines such as Mary Jane’s “death”, Spider-totems, Sins Past and One More Day only served to underline my decision to walk away.

Until now.  Now they’ve managed to do the one thing guaranteed to bring me back to the fold.  The Clone Saga is back, and not just in the form of the new mini-series that started this month.  Nope, its turned up in Amazing Spider-Man as well, with flashbacks to Ben Reilly, and Kaine himself appearing (and due to be the focus of a story in this week’s Web of Spider-Man).  For me, this is really exciting, and makes so much more sense than the previous “pretend it never happened” ethos.  Obviously, partly this will be due to the amount of time that’s passed, so now readers and fans of the clone saga will be the writing professionals, so why shouldn’t Marvel embrace those pieces of the storyline (which occupied a fair chunk of the 90s) that actually worked?

Of course, sadly this is all unlikely to result in Ben Reilly actually coming back (a pity as I’d love new stories with Ben back as the Scarlet Spider), but the return of Kaine should be very interesting, as he was always a powerful opponent and his very personal links to Peter should be interesting to see what he’s actually up to.

And of course, I have to mention the first issue of the Clone Saga mini-series, which is re-presenting the series, altered to present something more along the ideas of the original writers.  It was definitely fun to see the story being revisited, although I personally found the first issue a little rushed.  Its hard to criticise it for that though, given it was trying to set the scene, and had to incorporate about a years worth of events in the Spider-titles in order to get the reader to the point where the main story of the Clone Saga can be told.   It was definitely fun to see the new spin on Peter and Ben’s meeting and it was so nice to see the characters working together again.   I’ll be very interested to see what the rest of the series brings, especially now the necessary evil of catching the reader up is out of the way.