Reilly2040's Blog

Since the two are closely linked, I’ll start by covering Green Lantern #48 which finishes filling in the story of how the Corps leaders get together, as Atrocitus and Larfleeze are saved from the Black Lanterns on Okaraa by the timely arrival of Hal, Sinestro, Carol, Indigo-1 and Saint Walker (with Ganthet and Sayd along for the ride). There’s some interesting ground covered in this issue, which focuses entirely on the group getting together.  Particularly interesting is the idea that the Guardians are actually responsible for the War of Light.  Of course, we know that Scar pushed them into challenging Larfleeze directly, although it was the Guardians themselves who were willing to sell out Ganthet and his Blue Lanterns.  When Hal hears this he’s none-too-impressed, vowing that once the Blackest Night is over, he’ll never work for the Guardians again.  How Johns plans on tackling this post-Blackest Night will be interesting indeed.

I also enjoyed the way Larfleeze was convinced to join up with the group.  Seeing Ganthet and Sayd, he automatically gets jealous about how the other Corps have Guardians and his doesn’t.  This leads to Sayd making a deal whereby she’ll be the Orange Guardian if he helps them out.  Again it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the long term and whether Sayd will have to uphold her side of the deal (I can see her potentially getting out of it, as Larfleeze tends to be easily distracted by anything else new that turns up).

And with the leaders of the various Corps all together, they’re in place for the start of Blackest Night #5…

With last issue being focused on the Flash and co trying to keep their heads above water while Hal assembled the various Corps together, this issue brings all the Lanterns together in a big way.  Starting out straight away with a role call of all the main Lanterns reciting their oathes, the Lanterns are quickly teleported to Coast City having discovered the Black Battery is no longer on Ryut.

And its just in time to help the various assembled heroes.  I have to say, there’s some great dialogue in this issue.  The interactions between Hal and the various Corps (with Hal’s dialogue revelling in the inherent silliness of the multi-coloured Lanterns) and with the Flashes was great.  Line of the issue for me was undoubtedly Barry and Kid Flash’s exchange regarding Bart calling Barry “Grandpa”.  Although the Captain Planet wink to the readers from Carol comes very close.

It was nice to see Wally turn up in this issue having previously only been referred to in the series.  And in his new costume no less.  With the delays to Flash: Rebirth I have to wonder what would’ve happened to Blackest Night had Rebirth #5 had slipped any further.  Would Blackest Night also have slipped, or would DC just have accepted Wally’s new costume premiering in Blackest Night?  Also, I notice than Ivan Reis has also picked up Ethan’s version of Bart’s Kid Flash costume and is drawing the boots as the simplified Flash-style boots as opposed to Bart’s more stylised pair.  I wonder if this is another running change that will stick.  On one hand I hope not as they were part of what made Bart’s outfit distinctive, although realistically they’d probably be a pain to run in.

With all the players in place, Geoff then successfully turns everything on its head, as the Corps combine their rings to create the white light of life, only to find it actually makes Nekron more powerful, not destroying him as they’d thought.  And its here that the plot revelations start hitting, with Black Lantern Batman making a brief appearance, and Nekron’s use of “Bruce Wayne” in quotes adding fire to the theory that the skeleton isn’t actually Bruce’s (although the fact the heroes believe it to be is obviously enough for it to act as the emotional tether for the Black Lanterns).

Nekron then explains exactly why there’s been a revolving door to death in the DCU, as its actually been him preventing the heroes from moving on fully, and setting them up to be resurrected, and further along his preparation for the Blackest Night.

There’s a lot been made of how this series would address death and resurrection in the DCU and lay out the rules going forward, and this is obviously the start of that.  I must admit, I really like the idea that there’s been a wider explanation behind all the DCU resurrections.  Okay, so its being retrofitted in, but it does make all the resurrections easier to swallow.   The only thing I’m not entirely sure about is how this actually works.  For example, Ollie was clearly seen in heaven, having passed into the afterlife in the Quiver storyline.  Although so was Barry and we know he was also in the Speedforce (clearly there must be some overlap between the Speedforce and Heaven in the DCU, both are versions of the afterlife, so I think it kinda works if you squint at it for long enough).  How Ollie being happy in Heaven works alongside Nekron’s revelation that he was preventing the deceased characters being judged I’m not quite sure.  Although I guess there’s always the fact that Quiver was pre-New Earth as well.

That’s fanboy nitpicking though, and ignoring it, this explanation feels right.  With Nekron’s comments about souls being judged and moving on beyond his grasp as well, we’re perhaps seeing the wider hints for how death/resurrection will work post-Blackest Night.

And then the kicker.  As Nekron was the one who prevented them passing over, he still holds power over all the resurrected heroes, as he proves by sending the Black Rings to convert them fully into Black Lanterns.  Clearly Donna’s infection over in the Titans special was a tease that the resurrected heroes were still bound to Nekron, and the payoff here, with Diana, Donna, Clark etc all instantly turned into Black Lanterns is chilling.  The only two left trying to escape the Black Rings are Barry and Hal.

And that to me is something really nice about this mini series.  Its not about the “Trinity” of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman.  This is a Hal and Barry story that everyone else has just happened to get caught up in, and this cliff hanger positions the series to continue building on that partnership the way the first three issues did.  It does make sense, since this is the first big event since both Hal and Barry have been re-established in the DCU to put the focus on them working together again.  Of course it helps that they’re written so well by Geoff Johns, who’s clearly having the time of his life working with them both.

The next issue looks to be a real corker.  With the majority of the DCU’s heavy hitters now Black Lanterns, and Barry and Hal desperately trying to escape the same fate there’s a real “how will they get out of this one” been built up.  Interesting should be the development with Atom and Mera, who’ve been dragged into Black Lantern Damage’s ring by Black Lantern Jean Loring.  With Atom and Mera being the other significant pairing of this series, I can’t help but think that being shrunk down inside one of the rings is going to put them in a key position to help out in the next issue or two.

Now this looks good.

This series of Sarah Jane Adventures has really flown past.  I guess that’s the effect of the two episodes a week format, but I couldn’t believe it was already the finale.

And this year, it was the return of those favourite monsters, the Slitheen.  While their appearances in the parent show have always been controversial (I like them, but even I’ll happily admit that Aliens in London was a mess and the fart gags were too much), they seem to have found a much happier home here, and its really nice to see new monsters returning and being a big deal rather than just the classics like Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans etc (I feel similar about seeing the Judoon turn up again in the Stolen Earth, and here in the series opener).

Of course, it wasn’t just the Slitheen who turned up, but another family from Raxacoricofallapatorius, the Blathereen, who were more than happy to help Sarah Jane and co deal with the Slitheen, and then offered them the hand (claw?) of friendship in the form of a plant that could end world hunger.

Needless to say, the plant isn’t what it seems, and it doesn’t take long before its spores are infecting all of London and Luke is ill from exposure to them.

The nice thing is that pretty much everyone gets the chance to shine in this finale.  Well, ok Luke ends up ill, but he still appears more than he did in half the stories in this series, and I’m willing to put his illness down to Tommy Knight’s exams again (he may have been present, but it cut down on the number of lines he’d have had to learn at least).   Separating Clyde and Rani to deal with events at the school with K9′s help, while Sarah Jane and Mister Smith deal with the Blathereen worked really well.

All in all, I think Sarah Jane Adventures continues to improve with each series.  I can’t think of a single duff story this year, and its interesting how some of the less publicised stories (specifically the Haunted House one) actually emerged as some of the strongest this year.  From a rights point of view, it’ll be interesting to see if they manage to keep K9 around for series 4, and I certainly hope they do, as his snarky relationship with Mister Smith has been great fun, and I’d love to see more of it.

A great series.  Roll on series 4

With his presence noticeably absent for the last few stories, this two-parter gave Luke some much-needed focus this series.

That said, I’m not entirely sure it worked. I didn’t entirely buy his falling out with Sarah Jane although the idea of Luke becoming more like a normal teenager is an interesting one that deserves a bit more focus I think. And the way he finally saved the day by tricking the Mona Lisa into summoning K9 was quite clever I thought.

There’s been a lot of chatter online rotating around the main aspect of this story. The Mona Lisa. Be it the painting itself, and whether or not the story contradicts City of Death, or the portrayal of Mona Lisa the episodes attracted a fair amount of discussion.

For the first, I don’t see that it did contradict City of Death. We know that Leonardo painted seven copies of the painting for Count Scarlioni. There’s nothing to say that all seven weren’t painted with the tainted paints and wouldn’t have reacted in the same way once they got close to the Abomination. We never saw the blank canvas of the painting either, so its quite possible “This is a fake” was still written underneath.

I loved Suranne Jones as the Mona Lisa. Personally I loved that they played the character completely against expectation.  It was a great laugh and very entertaining  I also liked the visual of the characters trapped in the paintings.  It was similar to what was done in Fear Her, although I think here the idea was a bit more successful, and removing Sarah Jane from events to allow the kids to shine made for a nice change of pace.

After some quite lengthy delays, Flash: Rebirth issue 5 finally came out this week.

I’ll say it now, I think this is the best issue of Rebirth so far.  The pace finally felt right to me, and it built on the Zoom stuff from issue 4 well, and resolved some of the lingering subplots.

Most of the issue is taken up with the fight against Zoom and the subsequent revelations.  Professor Zoom takes great pleasure in telling Barry how he’s been time travelling back and changing the past, affecting Barry’s personal history, and explaining things like Barry’s mother’s death (prior to Rebirth, Barry’s parents had both been alive).  It also explains why Barry’s mood has been so affected since the start of the series, as its explained as nothing to do with Barry struggling to adapt to being back, but infact his mood was a side affect of Zoom’s continual changing of Barry’s history (which was presumably happening off panel during the first few issues).

We also get the Flash family re-established for the franchise going forward.  Max, of course, returned last issue but this issue also brought the much-heralded revamp to Wally’s outfit (to solve the issue of Wally and Barry’s outfits being so similar visually).

I must admit, I was slightly dreading the revamp, half-expecting it to be some modification of his old Kid Flash outfit that a lot of fans have such affection for.  Thankfully though, this wasn’t the case, with the costume only receiving slight tweaks, and still recognisably being a “Flash” costume.  The changes work well, and it reminds me of the Return of Barry Allen storyline, which never ran into the issue of the characters looking similar, due to the dark red used in Wally’s “shiney” outfit he was wearing at the time.  Its also interesting to note the lifts from Wally’s outfit as seen in the JLU cartoon, with his belt and chest logo (possibly the only part of the update I’m not sure on.  I prefer the normal lightning bolt) being from that variation of the costume.  I’m definitely pleased with this updated look for Wally.

The other development I was very pleased with, was Iris West’s transformation into the new Impulse.  Its a move that had been signposted throughout the series, with her hero-worship of Bart and Zoom’s comments about the twins’ connection to the speedforce last issue, and I for one am really pleased to see not only Iris turned into a proper speedster, but also that she’s adopted Bart’s old identity.  It adds another nice link to the chain of the Flash legacy.

It also nicely places the characters for the upcoming monthlies.  Presumably Iris will be in Wally’s co-feature, but also sets her up for appearances in Bart’s Kid Flash book.  I think it’ll be quite interesting to see how Bart deals with her following in his footsteps and it could be quite amusing  And you have to assume it’ll not be long before Jai starts to resent the fact that he’s been left powerless by Iris taking on their previously-shared Speedforce connection.

Speaking of Bart, it was interesting watching his interactions with Max.  Bart’s grown a lot since Max was trapped in the Speedforce, and it was interesting to see how sometimes he was ahead of what Max was telling him, with Max attempting to guide him as he did when he was Impulse.  It was a nice way of showing that not only has Max been out of the loop for a while, but also how much Bart’s developed as a hero.  It does promise that their relationship in the upcoming Kid Flash monthly will have evolved beyond their relationship in Bart’s original Impulse book, and it’ll be interesting to see what direction the writer takes there.

Overall, this was a great issue.  I’m glad to see that the second half of this series has improved a lot over the first.  I’m still not entirely sure this series has been a success for me overall, but these later issues are at least ticking the right boxes.  I look forward to the last issue, and I really hope it doesn’t suffer the crippling delays this issue did.  Interestingly, the solicit mentions some new threat to the Speedsters, which I’d really expected to get some hint of here.  Throwing in a new villain in the last issue seems a little Final Crisis to me, which suddenly had Mandrak turn up and felt a bit forced (even if you had read Superman: Beyond), so I’m intrigued to see what this actually means.

With the Assault on Black Reach set, and the extra bits and pieces I’d been buying, I’ve been painting quite a few Marines and Orks since I started collecting Warhammer. So I decided it was time to pick up something a bit different for a change, and to give me some variety in my projects, between my remaining marines and Orks.

I had been looking at picking up some Necrons. The idea of undead robot skeletons who are tough as all get out definitely appeals, and I can see myself at least getting a set of the warriors at somepoint. However, instead I decided to go with the Tau. Their battlesuits have a great anime-type feel, and I really liked the look of the Firewarriors. So I decided that if I was going to properly get into a third army, then the Tau probably offered the most variety when compared to the Necrons.

My first purchase was a set of Firewarriors, and my first attempt at assembling and painting one of them can be seen above.   I’ve now ended up leaping in and getting the Battleforce set however, due to an offer that made getting it quite cheap.  The one above isn’t quite complete yet.  I may have a go at highlighting it a bit (still not got the hang of that), and there’s some detail to be added to the gun, but its basically there.  Painting it has been quite fun so far though and suitably different to the Marines and Orks.  I am discovering that trying to glue two arms and a gun together and to the torso is quite awkward (also true for some of the marines I’ve been building).  I’ll need to try and figure out the knack to that.

I’m really looking forward to building up the rest.  It looks like there’s scope for real variety in their poses, especially when compared to the Marines tactical squad I’ve got.  I love how there’s some crouched legs in the kit for example (I’ve not got into the proper modifying yet).  The giant Devilfish APC looks like it should be quite challenging as well.  So far my vehicle experience has been limited to the smaller bikes, so building something that size and then painting it should be interesting (I suspect I may need more paint).

Fresh from having to introduce Captain Comet and Adam Strange into the REBELS title last month, this month writer Tony Bedard has to contend with the Blackest Night now catching up with his little corner of the DCU.

I have to actually take my hat off to Bedard here.  He successfully brings in a summary of the ongoing storyline,  introducing key characters, and then brings in the Blackest Night and make it all seem like a natural beat in the story.  The issue is pitched very much as an entry point to new readers while still moving the the plot forward.  And Tony takes full advantage of the Blackest Night by bringing the various Corps into the plot as well.

And in doing so, he also gives us a different look at events.  We’re very used to seeing the War of Light through the eyes of the Green Lanterns, be it Hal over in Green Lantern, or Guy and Kyle in the Corps book.  Here Adam Strange is relating to Dox and the rest of the REBELS what’s going on, and we get a feel for the impact the war of light has through the eyes of those not directly involved.  There’s a great line where Adam points out that single Green Lantern ring can lay waste to a planet, and so he’s terrified by the thought of all these other Corps running around without the morality of the GLs.

As I mentioned above, what this issue does hugely successfully is incorporating the Blackest Night backdrop into its own-going story.  All too often with these large company-wide crossovers, a series will find its ongoing plot-lines disrupted by the event, however here, the Blackest Night events happen around the main plot, as just another thing the REBELS must contend with as Starro manages to lower the shield containing his forces.  And the final page just worked incredibly well as a brilliant moment while further tying the book into the larger company-wide events in a way most of the other tie-ins have avoided thus far.

This is definitely a comic to check out.  The way Tony Bedard manges to weave together the shopping list of plot elements and characters is impressive in its own right, and next issue promises to be really interesting, as the power Adam Strange was so afraid of has landed right in the hands of Dox.

Now that was rather good.

The production team had previous said that Planet of the Dead had deliberately been a light-hearted runaround to compensate for how dark the remaining specials were going to be, and Waters of Mars did not disappoint.

From the outset it was obvious we were in for something different, as from the moment the Doctor realises where and when he is, he’s desperate to leave, but at odds with his own curiousity and tendency to interfere.  This eventually builds up to a wonderfully powerful scene with the Doctor walking away from the base, haunted by the chatter of the base crew trying to escape from the Water, and in some cases, failing.  The pain on the Doctor’s face there is very affecting, and leads directly into his subsequent actions.

And what a surprise they were.  I was expecting the Doctor to surprise us, but to the extent that he does, was downright scary.  We’re presented with the Doctor having a breakdown, and the responsibility of being the last of the Time Lords finally weighs on him too much and pushes him over the edge.

Back as far as New Earth, the 10th Doctor has set himself up as the ultimate authority in the universe and here that is his undoing.  He’s on  his own and (as Donna said in Runaway Bride) needs someone to stop him, and more than that, just keep him grounded and give him a friend.  Donna’s eventual fate affected the Doctor briefly and has put him on this slope where he’s pushed away all those that could’ve helped him.  We can only hope that his realisation of what he’s done, combined with the glimpse of Ood Sigma has led the Doctor to realise just how much he’s hurting and needs help.

I guess back in the day, the Doctor could always be more relaxed in his interference.  Despite his protests, there would’ve been a reassurance that should he push things too far, the Time Lords would’ve stepped in.  The loss of those Time Lords have finally forced the Doctor to face up to the responsibilities he always ran away from, and perhaps now the Time Lord’s policy of non-interference doesn’t look so nonsensical.   Perhaps the reason they ignored all those evils in the universe, was simply because they knew that eventually they would be tempted to abuse their power in the way the Doctor now has, and ultimately become much worse than anything they’d previously stopped.   Much easier to have the Doctor running around, who they can clamp down on should they need to.

The other aspects of the story were equally successful.  The water monsters were creepy, and terrifying in the way that a single droplet of water would turn people into them.  The most effective deaths by far being Steffi’s (as she is trapped in the room with the water pouring in, watching a video message from her children knowing her fate is inescapable) and Roman’s, as he tells the others to go on without him after a single drop falls on him.

And there was even a nod to the Ice Warriors

This was a superb setup for the final two-parter.  I can’t wait to see what they’ve got planned, and I’m very glad to see the return of John Simm as the Master.

I was on Twitter the other day when Stephen Fry tweeted about the ChartJackers.   Its a single put together entirely through the goodwill and contributions of the online community with all proceeds going to Children in Need.  There’s more info through BBC Switch who’ve followed their efforts.

Worth 79p surely? http://tinyurl.com/CJBuySong

I really thought this issue was going to be tough to review.   Fortunately, having been spoiled to the big event yesterday, I had a day to process it in advance, which let me digest the issue without giving into fanboy rage.

So to get right to the main talking point of the issue.  Kyle dies.

As a Kyle fan, this isn’t something I was pleased to hear about.  With Kyle spending most of the Sinestro Corps War possessed by Parallax, and now getting killed off in Blackest Night, it was hard not to feel a little hard done by, as Hal races around the universe getting ready to save the day through his sheer silver aged awesomeness.

However, having time to digest it, and then read the issue with a clearer head, I’ve got to say, its a brilliant issue, and if this is indeed Kyle’s curtain call, then its not a bad one.

Kyle really gets to look the hero throughout the issue.  He takes charge of the Black Lantern assault on the central battery by coming up with the idea to release Vice and use the Red Lantern as a blunt instrument against the zombie hordes.    Then when Alpha Lantern Chaselon mucks everything up and is about to go nuclear, Kyle gets to play the hero, grabbing the Alpha battery and using it and sacrificing himself in order to take out all the Black Lanterns in the resulting explosion.

(Of course, presumably said Black Lanterns are just going to rise again, but it made for a good scene nonetheless).

Once again the Alpha Lanterns prove to be more trouble than they’re worth with Chaselon mucking up Kyle’s plan to use Vice (which was working and saving the central battery), and then refusing Salaak’s orders to withdraw, resulting in his own death and endangering others (finally killing Kyle) with his ruptured Alpha Battery.  I’m at the point where I just really, really want to see the Alpha Lanterns get their comeuppance.

Things are now nicely in place for Guy to fall as a Red Lantern next issue, with Kyle’s death presumably pushing him over the edge, and Vice’s ring on hand (pun unintended) to grab him, and from a larger plot point of view, we know that after Salaak, Guy and Kyle were the only things standing between the Alpha Lanterns and control of the GLC.  With Guy and Kyle gone, Salaak’s going to have to watch his back.

Special mention must go to the art in this issue.  Patrick Gleason really brought some of the best art he’s done to this issue.  The splash page of the Black Lanterns attacking the Central Battery was a great image, and Kyle’s final stand is beautifully drawn.  He also continues to excel at some of the freaky visuals, such as the Black Lantern construct that attempts to tear down the battery, and mention must go to both Gleason and Tomasi for the creepy image of the Green Lantern orphans, finally reunited with their parents as Black Lanterns.

With regards to Kyle’s death though, while its a good scene, I’m not counting him out yet.  This whole story is about the dead coming back, and I’ve speculated before that we’ll see some sort of mass resurrection at the end to bring back big names like the Hawks, Aquaman and J’onn.  No reason we can’t add Kyle to the list.

There’s also the cover to GLC #44, which shows Red Lantern Guy and features Kyle.  Now this could be symbolic for Kyle’s death having pushed Guy over the edge, or maybe a running change will swap Green Lantern Kyle for Black Lantern Kyle, but it still leaves things open.

I guess after 52 I’ve tried to learn to not let deaths of characters I love knock me as much.   Back during 52, fandom went into outrage overload over Booster Gold’s death (later revealed to be an elaborate hoax he’d setup to allow him to operate freely as Supernova) and then later Animal Man’s death (resurrected by aliens the very next issue).  So with that in mind, I’m not ready to drop Green Lantern yet or anything.  We’re in the middle of a story here, and where exactly Geoff and Peter have planned for it to go remains to be seen.   I’m fairly optimistic that Kyle’s going to be back in short order, with this death serving to move various subplots on, and provide a nice big halfway-mark shock to the readers.  If he’s not brought back, then I might be a bit unhappy, but for now, I’ll see what comes next month.