Reilly2040's Blog

So the end of the story is finally here.  Granted, we new through Blackest Night that Barry cheered up, Wally, Bart and co were still around, and Thawne was locked up in Iron Heights, so really it was just seeing how they got there.

Scarily I first talked about the solicit for this issue back in June last year.  EVS has since revealed that health issues were behind the delays to this series, which is entirely understandable, although I do think DC could’ve done more to get it back on track.  Instead the book is currently well known for its delays, and I hope that hasn’t damaged the relaunch of the Flash too badly.

The delays have been discussed to death, but instead I thought I’d mention the original solicit for the issue:

“In a battle along the outskirts of time, the secrets of the Speed Force have been revealed! The new archnemesis of those who ride the lightning is coming for Iris Allen. And the Barry Allen you knew is gone forever…or is he? What change does Wally West face? What destiny will Kid Flash choose? Prepare to meet a Flash Family that’s both familiar and different…and get to the starting line for the next epic adventures of the Speed Force!”

New archnemesis?  Well, nope.  Just the same old Reverse Flash who was revealed as the villain in #3.  Barry Allen we knew is gone forever?  No idea what that’s talking about.  What change does Wally West face?  None that I could see in this issue.  Unless they’re counting Thawne’s hints about his future.  What destiny will Kid Flash choose?  Nope.  Never happened.

I’m used to hyperbole and misdirection in the solicits, but this solicit seems pretty far off the issue we got.  Did something change?

As a final moan, I have to say I really am not a fan of the final cover.  Barry’s pose looks awkward, and as a fanboy gripe, Jay’s helmet is drawn wrong.  Its a pity that the series has ended with what I think is probably the weakest of the covers.

However, that aside, I actually really enjoyed this issue.   Without the need for a last-minute new villain, we get a neat wrap up to the menace of Thawne.  The fight to save Iris is well done, played against Thawne’s lightning bolt staff falling to the ground to underline how fast its all happening.  Also welcome was the way that Wally was key to the solution, helping Barry follow Thawne back in time using his knowledge and experience of the Speed Force.  Its not the first time in this series that Geoff’s played on the fact that Wally’s actually more knowledgeable on the nature of speed than Barry, and it helps to balance out the fact that Wally’s losing his place as the main Flash to Barry.  While Barry is undoubtedly going to learn more in his main series, at the moment its a good way to help differentiate the heroes and give both their strengths and weaknesses.   The fact that Thawne’s eventual defeat is using the booth from Rebirth #3 was a nice solution, using what was already in place.   And here, for the first time I actually liked an aspect of Johns’ Speedforce retcons, allowing them to depower Thawne, while acknowledging that as the source of the Negative Speedforce, its only temporary for as long as they can keep him immobile.   While I generally dislike the “Barry is the origin of the Speedforce” aspect to the story its an interesting idea that the main character can never be de-powered.

With Thawne locked up, the second half of the story shifts more towards teasing future events.  Its perhaps a shame that half of the issue is donated towards teases that don’t actually relate to the main story, but as I’m intending to pick up the monthly anyway, it didn’t really bother me that much.  I wonder if its a reflection of the original 5-issue solicitation of this series, or if its just down to Johns’ usual habit of building up his storylines and laying the groundwork for them well ahead of time.

I found Thawne’s comment to Wally about one of his children destroying his life interesting.  The obvious candidate is the de-powered Jai who will doubtlessly not be happy to have had his powers snatched away, while his sister is enjoying life as a full speedster.  But I wonder if this couldn’t be a misdirect.  Iris is very young so I have to wonder if she might not be responsible, doing something through inexperience or the like.  After all, Thawne never said one of Wally’s kids would become a villain.

The other big hint is towards multiple Zooms.  While locked up in Iron Heights, its revealed Thawne’s cell is next to Hunter Zolomon.  After Hunter had his powers stripped from him in Rogue’s Revenge, this was a great moment.  It’d really felt at the time that Hunter was being moved out of the way to make room for Thawne’s return, so for Geoff to pick up the character again so soon was welcome indeed.  I imagine that’s a reaction to the fact that Hunter was such a successful character and villain and so Geoff must’ve been keen to address his status as quickly as possible.  Between this scene and Abra Kadabra having dolls of both Zooms, it seems like a given that Hunter will be returning as Zoom at somepoint in the Flash’s future.  And now that’s been teased, Geoff can happily sit it to one side while he focuses on other plots, without worry about fanboy “what about Zooooooooom??????” questions every 5 minutes. (In fairness, I’d have been one of them asking it )

Something I’m less keen on, is the previously unrevealed second cave painting in Gorilla City that shows Thawne powering other speedsters in the same was as the painting Barry found in Blackest Night Flash (although that painting showed Barry and his family).  The hint of a “Zoom Corps” leaves me a little worried.  Professor Zoom returning and being the villain in Rebirth had been assumed after Geoff did the same thing with Sinestro in GL: Rebirth.  The yellow spectrum was introduced in much the same way as the negative Speed Force, and now a Zoom Corps just seems much too derivative of the Sinestro Corps War.   I don’t doubt that Geoff will probably have something planned that will greatly differentiate the stories, so I’ll wait and see what happens, but I worry that if Geoff does go down this route, he’ll just be seen as copying his own previous work.

A bit like Blackest Night Flash, I found this series to be a bit of a mixed bag.  It was certainly not helped by all the delays, and I really didn’t like the retcons about the nature of the speed force, which bogged down some of the middle issues.  That said, the emotional beats of the story worked well, especially Max’s return.  I’d still like to see more time given to the Barry/Bart relationship which keeps getting approached but doesn’t feel like its really being explored yet.  I’d love the monthly to have a whole issue given to the two characters getting to know each other.  With Geoff having had such a successful run on Wally’s series, I’m also hoping we’ll see Barry and Wally teaming up in the monthly, as opposed to Green Lantern where the book has remained almost completely focused on Hal (although I’d imagine Wally team ups will be shied away from for a while in order to establish Barry on his own properly, which I don’t have a problem with.  But with a plot thread surrounding Jai and Iris now hinted at directly, I’d presume Wally will have to feature in the book to some degree).

What was very effective was the re-introduction of Eobard Thawne as the Reverse Flash.  Very fond of the sound of his own voice, and very threatening in the scenes where he targeted Wally’s family.  Out of the two I still prefer the Hunter Zolomon Zoom but Thawne is been established as a key threat, and someone to be feared, and I look forward to the story that sees the return of both Zooms.

Now with everything setup for the monthly, I’m really hoping that this new direction for the Flash clicks into place.  The Flash has long been one of my favourite DC characters along with Green Lantern, so I really hope Geoff can enjoy the same kind of success with Barry Allen as his Wally West run had.

I must admit, I was very glad to finally have this issue in my hands.  The January skip month’s effects have really been hitting the event for me, as its really felt in a holding pattern with nothing particularly happening to move the story forward for the last couple of months.

And very nicely, a lot did happen in this issue.  The deputy Lanterns get a little page time, with Luthor getting out of control, showing how deputising him was a bad idea.  These scenes flowed on nicely to those in Green Lantern #51, so they worked really well I thought.

The focus though, was on some big reveals, which I was very glad to see.  There’s an interesting reveal regarding the Guardians, as Nekron taunts one before killing him.  A really nice touch was the Guardian being so old that he couldn’t even remember why they were guarding the universe anymore.

The fact that the insides of the Guardian reflected the colours of the emotional spectrum, and Nekron’s comments about how the Guardians are closest to the spectrum of all the races was interesting.  It also possibly helps explain how Ganthet and Sayd were able to switch Corps so easily.  Perhaps the Guardians naturally have the ability to use power from any of the lights, but over the eons they’ve repressed those abilities so much that now they can only access willpower.  By opening themselves to Hope, perhaps Ganthet and Sayd simply rediscovered their natural ability to wield the blue light.

I’m really intrigued to see where Geoff’s planning on going with the Guardians after the dust settles on all this.  Its been clear to the reader for a while that they’d lost their way (which the Guardians do an awful lot throughout the history of Green Lantern, you’d have thought they’d have learned by now), but this issue gives us insight into perhaps just how far that goes, and for how long.  I hope this is something Geoff’s planning on exploring post Blackest Night.  Or at least gives some pointers to Tony Bedard or Peter Tomasi to pick up on.

We also discover the big secret that the Guardians have kept hidden.  That infact, Earth is where all life started, and over the millennia they’ve tried to hide this fact and divert attention to Oa.  I do wonder what kinds of problems this throws up (why does life seem less evolved on Earth than on other worlds? Why is life more plentiful on Maltus than Earth?).  As a revelation I can’t help but think this opens up a lot of questions, so again, I’ll be interested to see where Johns takes this (I wonder if the fact the New Guardians stay on Earth will be related?).

As a direct spin-off of this revelation, its revealed that the secret the Guardians had buried on Earth was the existence of the White Entity, as Nekron raises it from the ground and starts attacking it, and by extension all life.   Hal quickly realises that someone needs to host the entity but is blocked in his attempt by Sinestro who claims it for himself, becoming the much-rumoured White Lantern.

The White Lantern has been a topic of some controversy ever since the Black Lantern first appeared at the end of Sinestro Corps War. I must admit to being against the idea, but that was back when I assumed Hal would end up in the role. However, as always Geoff proves he should be trusted. Sinestro being the White Lantern is a great move, and more importantly a natural one. Granted, its a natural move given his characterisation since Sinestro Corps War, so the readers of this series who aren’t reading it as a Green Lantern payoff may get a lot less from it.

Throughout Geoff’s Green Lantern run, rather than Hal, its always been emphasised that Sinestro was the greatest Green Lantern.  We’ve seen since Sinestro Corps War how all of Sinestro’s plans were meant to prepare the GLC for the upcoming Blackest Night.  He long ago realised that Abin Sur had indeed been onto something, and his rage when the white Entity is discovered, and he realises the scope of the Guardians lies is a powerful scene.  He realises that Abin Sur hadn’t targetted Earth by accident as he’d been onto the truth, and yet the Guardians covered it up and cast his friend as someone who’d lost his mind.  Sinestro being the one to pick up Abin Sur’s mission and claim the White Entity makes so much sense.  Geoff even teased it back in the build up to the Sinestro Corps War, when Lyssandra Drak mentioned that Sinestro would be the greatest (Green admittedly) Lantern once again.  Theres also a nice callout to the recent events of Green Lantern, where Sinestro blocks Hal, the same way that Hal prevented Sinestro joining with Parallax (also interesting as its an event that was completely confined to Green Lantern, so the reference here will perhaps confuse those not following that book).

However, again it’ll be interesting to see how Geoff continues this plot thread.  Presumably Sinestro will lose the entity at the end of Blackest Night reverting back to being a yellow lantern once again as part of the New Guardians.  There’s also the element of how unstable Sinestro can be.  While some of the events that drove him into what he became are understandable, and a tribute to Geoff’s making him such a multi-layered character, there’s still no denying all the horror he’s responsible for.   Now that he’s in possession of the White Entity of life, will he ironically become similar to Hal as Parallax?  Responsible for so many deaths, yet attempting to make amends for everything he’s done and justify them by trying to set things right?  That might be interesting, but I doubt it.  Sinestro sees himself as a big picture kind of guy and I doubt he shares Hal’s remorse over his actions.  As a move for the character though, there’s no denying that making him the White Lantern is an interesting one, and certainly far preferable to it being Hal.

A couple of nice side events from this issue as well.  Dove appears on the battlefield disconnecting Black Lanterns all around her.  So it appears that the power she was tapping was that of the white Entity.  And interestingly when she tries to affect the Black Lantern, it seems to wake up the Anti-Monitor inside, which should lead into the next issue of GLC, going by its variant cover.

Building on my comments from GL #51 as well, it was nice to see Black Hand and Nekron enter the action once again.  They’ve felt a little sidelined in this series, so seeing Nekron’s plans come round as he killed the Guardian and raised the entity to kill it (and all life) was nice.   Of course, when you think about it, the plan is pretty simple (raise dead, get 100% power to raise Nekron, Nekron kills Guardian to raise Entity and kills it) so I guess fitting that over the three issues since Nekron rose is a bit tricky.  With all the speculation that Blackest Night #8 will see a mass resurrection, I can’t help but wonder about Black Hand’s fate after all this.  Will he suffer (for him) the unimaginable torment of being returned to life?  Or, since he’s currently the black entity, or at least its host, will that allow him to remain, in effect the sole Black Lantern once all this is said and done?

One little nod I loved was when all the Corps appeared in space to help John.  I’m not sure how the maths works out  in terms of the number of Lanterns, but I loved the nod to Rebirth with Kilowog’s ring being the only one to make a noise, and then Kilowog snorting.  That was a great little touch.  In general the big arrival of all the Corps double splash page brought a big smile to my face.

A great issue, and nice to see the story move along again after two months.  I’m excited for the conclusion now, and it’ll be interesting to see how everyone reacts to Sinestro hosting the white entity.  There’s a lot of questions still standing regarding the fate of the Guardians and the entities, although now I’m thinking these will be dealt with in Green Lantern post-Blackest Night.  And of course the big thing we’re all waiting to see is what form the big resurrection will take.  We know that Professor Zoom and Aquaman at least are going to be back, so who else will join them?

I must admit, I think the initial run of three mini-series that tied into Blackest Night had an advantage over these later entries.  With the first 4 issues concerned only with Black Lanterns attacking and building up to Nekron’s return, they were freer to tell a story within themselves, unshackled by any other events in the main series.

However, of these later series, Flash and Wonder Woman are directly impacted by the main series, and so each issue ends up reflecting a different part of the status quo (for example, in Wonder Woman #1 she’s just battling Max Lord, in #2 she’s a Black Lantern, while in #3 she’s a Star Sapphire).  Granted, this allows them to expand on these events in more detail, but I’m not sure if it makes those miniseries more satisfying within themselves.

Blackest Night: Flash I found to be a bit of a conflicted story.  There were two main strands: Barry during Blackest Night, sounding the alarm and learning to be a Blue Lantern, and the Rogues, travelling to Iron Heights to do battle against the Black Lantern versions of their fallen comrades.

Really, the Rogue story could’ve been a mini-series within itself.  Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge was well received, and made for a good read, and I’m convinced the same could’ve been done here.  However as the story was sharing pages with the Flash tale, I felt it ended up a bit more rushed when it could’ve easily supported three issues on its own.

The Barry Allen story I was less fond of.  With Barry being a major figure in the main Blackest Night series, my immediate feeling was that it might’ve been interesting to use the tie-in to focus more on the Flash family, so we could see what was happening with Bart and Wally.  We finally got this in the third issue, and for my mind that was part of what made the third issue the most satisfying to read of the three.

Issue 2 however was more focused on Barry and the Blue Ring.  Now in fairness, this is an obvious choice to make.  Given the Blackest Night #6 cliffhanger, ignoring the opportunity to expand on those events would’ve seemed odd.  However my problem is that I’m not really buying into the idea of Blue Lantern Barry.  I find the Flash interesting enough on his own, and with Barry only recently returned I was enjoying his spotlight and seeing him using his speed powers in creative ways.  Given a blue ring, he feels like he becomes just another ring slinger, and less interesting as a result.  The constant (or at least it felt like it) repetition of the new Blue Lantern catchphrase “all will be well” throughout the issue started to grate as well.

Another aspect to Barry being a ring-slinger is that it seems to undermine being a Lantern somewhat.  Johns went to lengths to show in Rebirth and in the Sinestro Corps Wars that not just anyone can use a ring.  Sinestro had his recruits transported to Qward for extensive training, and Green Arrow struggled to make even a basic construct in Rebirth.  By having Barry running around, mastering his blue ring so easily it seems to devalue that power somewhat (more-so when you consider that Saint Walker had to sacrifice his entire family before being deemed hopeful enough to be able to handle a blue ring, although granted this is a ring issued under emergency circumstances).  I’ve found the Scarecrow and Luthor recruitment more successful as that seems more in tune with their characters, and is adding to them, although in fairness with at least Scarecrow you can also make the argument that he’s using the ring far too easily.

There’s some interesting events here as well.  We discover that Professor Zoom is locked up in Iron Heights (a disappointing scene given it slightly spoiled Zoom’s fate from Rebirth), and I liked the way the two Zooms confused the Black Lanterns.  I have to wonder what Geoff’s plans for Captain Boomerang are now though.  Owen as a character has always flitted between good and bad, but here he’s made pretty irredeemable, and then finally killed by his Black Lantern father.  I do wonder if this means we’re going to get an all-new Captain Boomerang?  If so it’ll be a shame that Owen was never fully capitalised on.  His origin as Bart’s half-brother was never explored, and the idea of him being a twist on a speedster supervillain likewise was never really used.  However given what he does in this issue, I can’t see him being brought back in any kind of sympathetic way.  Unless he gets brought back and set up as a (pardon the phrase) rogue element, with as big an axe to grind against the other Rogues as the Flash.  As a much darker character that’s after everyone, he could be interesting.

Overall, I found this series a bit of a mixed bag, but I did enjoy the last issue.  Its a pity we couldn’t have had more time donated to the Rogue story in a separate miniseries and more focus on the Flash family as a whole, but when we did get it, the story really kicked off.  I loved the scenes between Barry, Wally and Bart, and the way Barry brought back Bart worked well.  Its nice to see both Bart and Connor’s Black Lantern takeovers dealt with in tie-ins though.  Adds a bit more weight to them, and you can see that neither would really have affected the main series much (as its got a lot more going on).

I’ve followed the development of this game for a while.  Regular readers will know that I do like:

a) Star Trek

and

b) MMOs

so really, Star Trek Online was a no-brainer for me.

Sadly, then the minimum specs came out, and I realised my PC was very much scraping the bottom of the barrel and may not run it (AMD 64 3800, Nvidia 7900 GS, 2Gb RAM).  Fortunately a friend came to the rescue and passed on one of his 5 day demo keys so I could see if it would run.

The initial game download was a hefty 8Gb, however once that was done, I was able to get the game up and running.  Despite my iffy system spec, with all the settings at minimum (barring resolution which I’ve got at the lowest 16:9 setting rather than the lowest 4:3), the game runs surprisingly well.  Granted, there’s the occassional thing that takes a second to render, but so far its playable.  I wouldn’t want to head into too busy an instance though as that might push my luck.   I do have a better graphics card on order however, so that might let me make things a little quicker (and a shade prettier).

The game itself, I’m really impressed with so far.  It combines ship-based action with ground-based away teams.  So you’ll find yourself embroiled both in starship combat in outer space, and then beaming down to talk to colonists or beaming over to a ship you’ve just rescued to mop up straggling boarding parties.  It really adds something to the game, and I love having these two separate aspects to the gameplay.

The starship-based stuff reminds me a lot of a simplified Starfleet Command.  The ships are presented as slow-moving, with you having to take into account your different shield sections and weapon arcs when in combat.  You get control of your power balance, allowing you to favour your shields, weapons or engines as appropriate, and your bridge officers (as you recruit them) give you special abilities which can employ in combat such as a more powerful torpedo blast, or jamming enemy sensors.  As a big fan of Starfleet Command I’m enjoying these sections a lot.

Beaming down, you assemble an away team of your bridge crew and assorted redshirts and find yourself in familiar MMO territory running around maps, collecting items from boxes and crates, and using your weapons and special abilities to combat whoever might be in your away.  The advantage here is you have your AI away team for support, and they’ll use their own special abilities, or attempt to move into flanking positions as appropriate to give your side an advantage in combat.

For a Star Trek MMO, to be honest, the Starship sim side of things would’ve been enough for me.  But by adding in the ground-based stuff Cryptic have worked hard to capture the complete feel of a Star Trek adventure.  By adding it in, it allows you to explore colonies, and when visiting Earth you can dock in the main Starbase, and wander around purchasing upgrades and acquiring new missions.   The two styles of play feel well integrated to me and help make the MMO stand out (although I know that starships and their combat were also in Star Wars Galaxy, and its aspect of multiplayer ships is something I’d quite like to see added at some future point as the ship-based side of things becomes more developed).

One aspect of the game I’ve quickly come to love is that it feels more cooperative than a lot of MMOs I’ve played.  By this I don’t mean forming teams or parties, but more generally.  In most MMOs I’ve played there’s been the aspect of killstealling, whereby a player interferes in anothers combat, resulting in the XP being much lower for the player that started the encounter.  Its generally frowned upon as it slows the rate of levelling up for the “victim”.  Here random players taking part in each other’s missions and combat seems actively encouraged.  For example, two players entering a sector on the same mission will find themselves automatically sharing that mission.  So if the mission is to blow up 7 Klingon ships, a Klingon blown up by either player will count for both.  Similarly when beaming down you will find away teams can seemlessly consist of several real players and not just your usual AI bridge crew (although you do get a choice to refuse).  Its a system that I’ve so far found quite successful and adds to the feeling that its all one, big, happy fleet.  Granted it could be open to abuse, by players entering a mission and hanging back, letting others do all the work and reaping the rewards, but overall I think its a good idea, and the prospect of the odd player abusing it is less important than the cooperative feel it adds to the game.

Overall, while admittedly I’m not that far into the game, so far its striking me as having a lot of promise, and I can see myself getting really hooked on it, as I get into it and start figuring out the various aspects of the gameplay.  I also think, importantly, it seems like a solid basis.  To an extent, on launch it can be a little early to judge an MMO, and its only really after the first few updates have tweaked things, and added in the content that they couldn’t quite get ready in time that you start to get a bigger picture for where the game is going, however my feeling is that so far this game is offering a lot of fun, while also showing plenty of options for expansion in the form of new playable races, the obvious new sectors with associated missions, new ship classes and abilities.  There’s a lot of promise here, and I think I’ll definitely be sticking around for a while.

So its part 2 of the Spectre/Parallax showdown. And after being unsure about it last issue, how did it pan out?

Well, quite a bit happened here.  The actual Spectre/Parallax confrontation was pretty short.  Its unclear to me whether or not Johns actually intended to show Parallax as powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with the Spectre.  There’s the implication that the Black Lantern Spectre is actually a fake-out, with Parallax freeing the actual Spectre from inside the Black Lantern.  Presumably Black Lantern Spectre didn’t posses any of the actual Spectre’s power at all, which could explain Parallax standing up to him as opposed to getting squashed in short order.  Its a little unclear though, and I can’t remember if it’d contradict the Phantom Stranger tie-in or not, but going by Rebirth, it wouldn’t really make sense for Parallax to be able to take on the Spectre unaided.

With the Spectre freed, things quickly turn to freeing Hal from Parallax.  Here we see the Star Sapphires’ tethering powers come to the fore again, as Carol’s love allows her to tether to Hal and rip him free from Parallax.  We’ve seen these kinds of powers used a few times over in GLC, so to see it done here is a nice touch and adds to the links between the books to see the Star Sapphires used consistently like this.

Most interesting was what happened to Parallax, as he promptly vanishes as if pulled away, and there’s a cut to Hector Hammond who comments that someone has managed to capture Parallax.  It sounds like there’s another party involved in things who’s after the entities (who we know will play a part in the story).  It’ll be interesting to see who this turns out to be.  With only two issues left, introducing another party into things may not flow that well (similar to Mandrakk suddenly turning up in Final Crisis #7).

Another thought is that with Sodam Yat and Ion currently in Daxam’s sun, will this turn of events mean that Ion is also brought back into things?  And will that presumably also mean the return of Sodam Yat and the Daxamites depowered once again (surely a good thing for everyone).  Personally I hope so, although I’d hope that Peter Tomasi gets to address it in GLC in some way.  Since we’ve seen Yat as the last Guardian in Legion of 3 Worlds, the current Daxam situation is one I find myself just sitting waiting to see the conclusion to.  To be honest, I’d expected Sodam to make a dramatic return to help defend Oa from the Black Lanterns, and I’m slightly surprised his situations not been addressed yet.

However before all this, came probably my favourite part of the book.  I’m still very much undecided on the “DC characters with power rings” concept.  The Flash as a blue Lantern has had a lot of focus, and its really not working for me.  However more successful I think are the villains.  So the opening of this issue focusing on Larfleeze and Luthor I really liked.  The pairing of them both with the orange light is quite a fun idea, with both desperate to possess it in its entirety.

It also provides a non-comedic moment for Larfleeze where he threatens Lex and points out that he gave up his birthright for the Orange light.  Firstly, I’m intrigued to know if that birthright is going to be significant, however its also nice as Larfleeze has frequently been the comedy relief since his initial Agent Orange arc, so its nice to see him being back to being portrayed as a threat briefly again.  There’s also though the nice character beat (and setup for the upcoming New Guardians arc) that sees Larfleeze realise that Earth can be quite a greedy place, and might be worth his interest.

The teasing doesn’t end there either.  Atrocitous decides the Spectre should be the new red entity, and attempts to convert him into a Red Lantern.  The Spectre shrugs this off however, but does point out that he’s met the red entity, and warns Atrocitous against trying to find it.  And interesting hint, and the Spectre’s warning echoes the fear of the Zamarrons that the Predator (also an entity from the far end of the emotional spectrum) would be freed.  With the way things are going, its surely only a matter of time before we see what the Spectre was talking about.

Also nice this issue was to see  Nekron step up.  Since he turned up, he hasn’t actually done an awful lot.  So to see him step in against the Spectre was very gratifying.  With all the buildup to 100% in the first half of Blackest Night, Nekron hasn’t really done much worth talking about.  Of course it can be argued that “Spectre jobs to the villain” is a bit of a cliche in DC Comics to establish a big threat, however I can overlook it here as it at least gave Nekron something to do.   However with Blackest Night #7 due out, I suspect Nekron is going to feature a lot more heavily in that.

So, despite my feeling unsure about Green Lantern #50, I thought this issue delivered well.  The story didn’t necessarily move on much (I think its arguable that Blackest Night hit a holding pattern due to the January skip month being introduced), however there are a few interesting pieces of groundwork in place for the main series, or future GL issues to pick up on.

I love the Metal Gear Solid games.  Metal Gear Solid was one of the first games I bought with my PS1, and after holding out on the PS2 for over a year, the release of MGS2 had me running out to the local branch of Game.  So now I’ve finally got a PS3, MGS4 was a must-play.

Following on from MGS2 (Metal Gear Solid 3 being a prequel that filled in some of the backstory) the action picks up several years later.  Snake is suffering from accelerated aging as a result of being a clone, but is pressed back into action when Liquid Ocelot finally resurfaces.

For people familiar with MGS2, you’ll find yourself in familiar territory.  The plot is fantastically complicated.  I hadn’t played the MGS games in years (thinking about it, possibly a good 8 years or so), so trying to remember everything that happened was a bit of a struggle.  I’d played the game through a lot, so most of the stuff about the Patriots I could remember, but I eventually had to cave and check wikipedia to figure out who Sonny was for example.  The other stalwart of the series is the long cutscenes.  In Metal Gear Solid 1 every boss took about 20 minutes to die, as they had to tell you their life story first.  In Metal Gear Solid 2 the cutscenes got even longer, especially in the later parts of the game as Raiden starts to find out about the Patriots and Arsenal Gear.

In Metal Gear Solid 4, there is, at least, one new innovation in the cutscenes.  A pause button, and its so very welcome.   I remember playing MGS2 and thinking “I’d better switch it off in 5 minutes” only to hit a cutscene and be trapped until it was finished (or risk having to go back to an earlier save).  In MGS4, if you hit a cutscene (and some of them are incredibly long – on completing the game, I was sitting for about an hour watching the various cutscenes at the end of the game) you can at least pause it to nip out to the loo, or if you’re replaying you can skip them entirely.

To help make the briefings more interesting, there’s also a really nice level of interactivity.  While the main characters are chatting, you can flick to alternate security cameras, or even to the Metal Gear that follows you around in missions and then drive it around the area.  Its a really nice feature, that helps underline just how nice the graphics are as these highly-detailed cutscenes are just being rendered on the fly with the graphics engine rather than the pre-rendered scenes you used to get in games.

However, while the cutscenes can sometimes give you the feeling you’re watching the game rather than playing it, what about the gameplay itself?

Well, its classic Metal Gear Solid.  Enphasis remains on stealth, but with a few new wrinkles.   As opposed to the contained environments of Shadow Moses Island and the Big Shell from the previous games, there’s a much bigger feeling of openness in the areas in this game, and the ways to avoid being detected aren’t always as obvious as a result.  Whereas previously there would be a convenient stack of boxes to hide behind, now the scenery doesn’t always lend itself to obvious hiding places.  To help compensate though, Snake’s got a new trick in the form of a suit which can automatically change to appropriately camouflage against whatever surface you’re standing beside.  Its a nice, dynamic system and again, you can see the camouflage patterns remaining on Snake’s outfit even through the cutscenes which is a nice touch.

The soliton radar from the previous games is absent this time, replaced by a new invention of Otacon’s called the “Solid Eye”.  Taking the form of an eyepatch, it provides a new radar system, which while it doesn’t provide the cone of vision of the old radar, does come with various settings, including night vision.  The only limitation though, is that using things like night vision will run down its power, leaving you without a radar until it recharges.  Also, having the solid eye means that Snake looks that much more like Big Boss, which is a nice touch.

In addition to the solid eye, you also have your own Metal Gear following you around which adds another aspect to the gameplay.  Normally its invisible, however you can activate it and use it to access areas Snake is unable to access on his own, or sneak past enemies that Snake wouldn’t have been able to get around.   I must admit, playing the game on easy, I didn’t use it a whole lot, but I can see how it could be very useful on the higher difficulty levels, and on my second play through I’m determined to try and get more use out of it.

It goes without saying that the graphics in this game are fantastic, however there’s also a real atmosphere to what’s going on.  Whether you’re trying to sneak around the war-torn middle east, follow someone around a city or the climatic fight against Liquid Ocelot these things are perfectly realised, with the final fight especially having a real epic and dramatic quality that you’d expect from the series.

As the conclusion to the Patriots (and most likely Solid Snake’s) storyline, its also nice to see all the returning characters.  Most of the MGS cast turn up throughout the game, and Vamp’s storyline from MGS2 is picked up on.  However, brilliantly there was also the return to Shadow Moses Island in the fourth act. There was a real nostalgia buzz to being back in those familiar locations and it all builds to you getting to control Metal Gear Rex, which amazingly still works despite the kicking it took in MGS, and then fight Ocelot who’s in MGS2′s Metal Gear Ray.  Complete fan service, but so much fun and one of my favourite sequences from the game.

All in all, I really enjoyed the game, but that was always going to be a given.  I’m keen to go back and replay it on higher difficulty levels so I get more out of the gameplay now that I’ve seen the cutscenes and know the story.  While a side of me still prefers running around facilities like Shadow Moses and the Big Shell to some of the open areas of this game, there’s a lot of new aspects to the gameplay here that I’m looking forward to playing with more.

I am wondering, if we can expect an expanded edition like MGS2 Substance.  I always loved the VR missions and that kind of thing.  And if they added in some trophies that’d be good.  Having played a few games on my PS3 now I missed them popping up.

So the post-Dark Reign landscape of the Marvel universe is slowly starting to take shape, and with the latest solicits on IGN there are a few surprises.

The Heroic Age Magazine #1 cover presents an interesting line up.  Some are obvious.  We’ve got Black Widow (currently appearing all over the Marvel Universe for several months – she must have gotten Wolverine’s agent – and will no doubt enjoy a big push come the release of Iron Man 2), Spider-Man, Thor and of course, Tony in his new Iron Man armour.

But most interesting in the lineup (and seen in the Avengers posters the other week) is Captain America, who appears to still be Bucky.  With Steve’s return and headlining Seige it seemed obvious that this was Steve back as Cap, with Bucky hopefully finding a new costumed identity of some description.   Instead its looking like Bucky will be staying on for a bit (hopefully not as a misdirect, only to get killed in issue 1 spurring Steve donning the costume again).

I for one am very happy if Bucky is staying on as Cap for a while longer.  He’s been generally well accepted in the role, helped enormously by the strength of Ed Brubaker’s writing in first re-establishing his character and making him interesting, and then slowly bringing him into the role, showing his own unease at taking on Steve’s legacy.  When Cap Reborn was announced, I felt that there was still life yet in Bucky as Captain America, so this is a welcome move.   I wonder if it means that there’s other plans in place for Steve.  I imagine, for example, that they’ll be needing someone to helm the HAMMER replacement once Norman’s booted out.

However, even more excitingly for me, as an Iron Man fan, is the solicitation for Rescue.  A new series starring Pepper Potts, back in her armour once again.  Pepper’s storyline has been incredibly strong under Matt Fraction’s writing during World’s Most Wanted and Stark Dissassembled, and you really felt for her when it was revealled that Tony’s revival would not only rip away her repulsor generator, but also involved ripping apart her Rescue armour.   Seeing Pepper enjoy the chance to finally be a superhero herself, after supporting Tony for so long was a great side-plot by Fraction so, much like Bucky as Cap, I’m really happy to see Marvel giving Rescue some more room to be explored.   Who’d have thought I’d be excited at the thought of a Pepper Potts series?

Finally, in amongst the various Deadpool solicitations (I love the character, but I know I’m not alone in fearing Marvel are pushing this one too far), I notice he’s got a team-up with Captain Britain.  I’m not sure if Captain Britain’s appeared since the Paul Cornell series was axed, but it’ll be interesting to see if any of MI-13 turn up or are referenced.  I hope so, as I’d hate to see Marvel throw away that team.

Originally I really wasn’t going to get Modern Warfare 2.

Initially I was put off by the RRP.  £55 is a heck of a lot of money for one game.  Thankfully most places are selling it for more normal prices.

However when the footage of the now-infamous airport level was released, I was really put off.  In a way, that was a testament to to the developers, but for me it was too realistic, and I had no interest in playing something like that.  I don’t mind playing games like GTA or the like, because I’ve always viewed there being an almost cartoony aspect to a lot of the violence.  However Call of Duty has always prided itself on its realism, and for me they got it too right, and it felt a little to much like they were trying to generate some controversy.  I didn’t see why it couldn’t have been a cut scene.  Yes, the ability to completely skip the level is built into the game, and you’re prompted about it when you start a campaign, and again before the level itself, but to be honest, if you do skip it, it derails the story, as the events in that level are pretty vital to what happens next.

However, despite this, I’ve still ended up with the game.  I’d played it at someone else’s house, mostly split-screen multiplayer and enjoyed that part of the game immensely.  With most of my friends buying it and raving about the online play, I was starting to crack before I was finally bought the game as a gift.

So outside of that level?

Well, the game is brilliant.  The single player storyline carries on well from the first game, and is filled with great characters, and epic moments.  Visually, its stunning as well, and the storyline seems designed to take advantage of the visuals and effects the next generation consoles can offer.

There’s also a Special Ops mode, which can be played either solo, or cooperatively with a friend or online.  It presents a series of challenging missions, all of which have the roots in the single player campaign, but they provide a great way to get a quick fix with more of a focus to them than the regular online modes.  There’s a great amount of variety in the missions, with the mission where you’re at the sub base defending your position with sniper rifles and claymores being a personal favourite.

The online play is, of course, what is going to get the most milage in the game.  There’s a wide variety of game modes, and the now-standard system of levels and unlocks is in place.  You’re able to unlock a wide variety of weapons and equipment, not just through gaining levels, but also through completing a series of specific challenges, which really add to the experience of the online play as you’re not just running around trying to kill other players or capture a flag.

Overall, I really love playing the game online.  The basic Team Deathmatch has been my game of choice, as I quite like the idea that not all the other players are trying to kill me.    However it has to be said, the online play swings wildly between incredibly fun, and a complete waste of time.

The infrastructure in place for the online play is excellent.  The maps are varied, the selection of equipment and challenges extensive, and the killstreak rewards add a lot to the gameplay.  However I’ve found game balance can be a real issue.  Its not unheard of to have a team of level range 18-30 in against a team of range 50-70.  There doesn’t appear to be anything in place to mix things up depending on the players own abilities.

It also doesn’t help that I’m not brilliant at these games.  I enjoy them, and I think I can be passable at them, but when it comes down to it, my reflexes and hand/eye coordination is no match for most of the people playing this game.   A large percentage of the online playerbase is incredibly, incredibly good at this kind of game, and have been playing it a lot, so now they now know all the maps like the back of their hand.  This means if you’re a new player, or not as good, then online play can just be an exercise in frustration as you spawn-die-spawn-die in a never-ending loop.  It does mean that some days playing Modern Warfare 2 online is just an exercise in frustration, and I’ve ended up quitting the game more than once as a result.

To be fair, that’s not a problem with Modern Warfare 2.  Its an issue with all these types of games.  I remember my one attempt to play the first Modern Warfare online.  The game had been out for a good while, so the rest of the player base was really established.   After 5 dull minutes of constantly watching respawn timers after being repeatedly killed, I quit and never bothered with the online play ever again.  However, saying that, online play is where a lot of longevity for these games is now, and when you factor in the cost of the game, that’s an issue worth considering.   In an ideal world it’d be nice to see some level-restricted game modes added for example.  World at War did this by having a Bootcamp option where only people level 1-8 could play, in order to let them get started without being sniped by level 70s and I thought it was a great idea.

Despite the ups and downs of online play though, I still find myself drawn to it, as when you manage to end up in with a decently matched group, its so much fun.   And for those days, when you just can’t be bothered with online play, then you’ve got the option of the special ops, or the single player.  Or heck, if you still want that online experience without the constant respawning, there’s the option to play the single player campaign co-operatively with people online, so there’s loads of gameplay options.

Modern Warfare 2 is a brilliant game.  The only real issue I’ve got with it remains that airport level, however everything else surrounding it is incredibly well crafted.

But when will they do a version of Nazi Zombies for it?  That was the best part of World at War.  :D

Well, that’s been some big GL news today.  Following Blackest Night, with the launch of Brightest Day, there’s some cast changes afoot as a third Green Lantern ongoing is launched in the form of Emerald Warriors.

Ok, firstly, I don’t think “Emerald Warriors” is that brilliant a title, however moving on.   The franchise has clearly had the legs for a third ongoing ever since the relaunch in Rebirth.  Kyle’s Ion series was originally slated as an ongoing before it was changed to a maxi-series for creative reasons to fit in with Geoff’s plans for the Sinestro Corps War and Green Lantern as a whole.  Ion sold just as well as GLC did at the time, so it proved the audience was there for a third book, so I’m glad to see DC and the GL franchise are finally at the point of launching it (even if my wallet is less pleased).

I’m sad to see Tomasi and Gleason leaving GLC behind, although with Tomasi moving onto Emerald Warriors, we’re guaranteed it’ll be worth reading.  And the great news of Tony Bedard taking over the writing duties on GLC fills me with confidence.  I love his work on REBELS, and its a very similar book  dealing with a large cast of cosmic characters.  Its a natural progression for Bedard.  Its a shame for REBELS, but with the Starro plot wrapping up, its a natural place for a changeover to occur.

As for the cast.  Well principally it sounds like EW is basically going to be Guy’s book, as he leaves GLC.  However the comments in the interview at The Source make me wonder if, while starring Guy, the addition of this third book isn’t also allowing the chance to split up GLC’s very large cast, to hand some off as recurring characters to Emerald Warriors, rather than try to fit everyone into GLC.

However saying that, what about GLC.  Well its losing Guy (and possibly Kilowog as a regular going by the interview) however its gaining John Stewart and Green Lantern Ganthet.   This strikes me as good news.  While the Kyle fan in me would’ve obviously loved for him to get the new book and added focus, Guy’s enduring popularity across GL fandom makes him an obvious choice.  And the combination of Kyle, John and Ganthet was a strong cast during Kyle’s later issues of his run in GL.  I’m very, very happy that John is finally getting a proper home in the GL books, as he’s been largely ignored ever since Rebirth, so hopefully this will give him a proper chance to shine and be developed as a character.

As for Ganthet.  Well, he and Kyle have always had a good relationship, so I’ll be keen to see that built on.  And he does possess a unique status as one of the only Guardians you can actually trust, so him having an active role in a monthly is a welcome thing.  His new status quo is very odd though.  While sporting a green ring currently in Blackest Night, this is just part of the 24 hour deputising thing, so you have to wonder what happens that results in him keeping the ring.  Also how does the ring relate to his own powers?   Will he still have his powers as a Guardian as well (and are those Willpower or Hope based these days)?  And what of the Blue Lantern Corps?  Who’s acting as their Guardian?

What might be interesting is if this is a deliberate move by the Guardians to learn from their mistakes.  Ever since Rebirth they reverted to their aloof  “we know best” personalities, and its backfired on them badly.  Perhaps Ganthet’s new role as an Honour Guard GL is to build a bridge between the Guardians and the Green Lanterns, more for the benefit of keeping the Guardians linked to what’s actually going on and grounded, than anything else.  That’d be an interesting way to go.  And of course, its entirely possible Ganthet will lose his own powers and have to rely on the ring.  A Guardian being stripped of his powers has happened before.

This is a very good time for Green Lantern.  With three books, the franchise has never been healthier, and the rejigging of the casts in the two Corps books should help keep things fresh and carve out a distinct new direction after Blackest Night.

Has it really been 25 issues since The Sinestro Corps War finished and Blackest Night was teased?  Time flies when you’re having fun

After John’s misadventures on Xanshi last issue, its straight back into the main action of Blackest Night here, with Hal and the rest of the New Guardians (as the group of Hal, Atrocitious, Sinestro, Carol etc are being called) as well as the new recruits (Wonder Woman, Barry etc) facing the hoards of Black Lanterns.

Things quickly take a turn for the worse (as impossible as that seems) when the Black Lantern Spectre turns up looking to judge Hal.  The Spectre’s power (currently contained by its Black Lantern host) is pretty vast, and Hal is almost transformed into a Black Lantern himself, before Ganthet and Sayd manage to free him (and he quickly returns the favour).

Thinking quickly and realising that they need something to give them an edge over the Spectre, Hal has Ganthet grab the Earth Lantern’s power batteries and releases Parallax from within them, rejoining with the fear entity to gain the edge they need to stand against the Spectre.

To be honest, I’m a little unsure about this issue.  Largely because the nature of Parallax and the power level of the Spectre.  As originally presented, Parallax had no real power of its own beyond corrupting its host.  Parallax originally had Hal absorb the power of the central battery, and then in Rebirth Parallax attempts to first get control of the Spectre’s power, and then later Ganthet’s (leading to the confusion about power levels above).  This all suggests Parallax’s own power levels aren’t really that brilliant.

Then comes Sinestro Corps War, and the Parallax-infected Kyle is shown to still possess powers.  Despite no longer having either his GL ring, or the powers of Ion.  So where did all that power come from?  Apparently Parallax.  So why did Parallax need to absorb the central power battery etc?

So this idea that Parallax is the only thing that can challenge the Spectre is not something I can entirely buy into.  I don’t see how Parallax is such a threat to something of the Spectre’s power levels.  I’m hoping it’ll be some variation of Parallax’s corrupting influence, capturing the Spectre’s fears somehow, rather than Parallax suddenly being some awesome powerhouse, so I’ll have to wait until next issue to see how this pays off.  But as it stands, in the midst of everything else going on, releasing Parallax again doesn’t seem like Hal’s best idea ever.

I’m quite surprised Parallax has been let out of the bag again so soon, although we have heard hints that the various entities will play into Blackest Night.  Another surprise was that this issue read very quickly.  As the 50th issue its oversized and $3.99, yet for some reason it didn’t really feel that the story was that dense to me.

Another thing I should mention is Carol kissing Hal.  Geoff has obviously been positioning Carol back as a major part of Hal’s love life since the initial Star Sapphire story and the reveal of her divorce.   While Hal and Carol are a classic DC couple, Geoff previously introduced Cowgirl at the start of volume 4 as an alternate love interest, and since the war of light kicked off, its really seemed like she’s been quietly dropped, which is a shame as I thought she was an interesting character.  Hopefully once this is over, Hal will spend a bit more time on Earth and we’ll maybe see her again.  That’s not really a complaint against the events in this book though.  I hope that Johns is actually setting up a more tangled love life for Hal, with him being pulled between Cowgirl and Carol and the different aspects of his life as a pilot and a Green Lantern.

That all sounds a bit negative though.  I didn’t really dislike this issue.  The only real complaint I can make is that the Spectre/Parallax stuff just feels like a diversion from the main events of Blackest Night, and a throwback to Rebirth that I didn’t really feel was needed.  I’d have been happy if Parallax and Spectre were left in Hal’s past.  Saying that, freeing Parallax in this way plays into Johns’ take on Hal as being someone who’s overly (perhaps even dangerously) cocky and doesn’t always think through the results of his actions and that’s a take on the character I’ve actually been enjoying.

Much like Kyle’s death over in GLC I suspect this issue will be better viewed next month, once I have a better idea where this storyline is actually going.  Although that’s a bit of a shame in an oversized anniversary issue.

I will say though, I really love the Larfleeze/Luthor interactions.  Larfleeze trying to get the orange ring back from Lex is a great comedy moment