Reilly2040's Blog

With the release of the new Radio Times, we’ve gotten our first (and quite a detailed) look at the new console room set for Matt Smith’s Doctor.

There’s plenty of pictures now up on the Radio Times website and I love what we’re seeing.  The console itself has more of a steampunk feel than the organic nature of the Eccleston/Tennant TARDIS which I love (although I’m not completely sure about the look of the central column.  I’ll need to see it onscreen, but in some pictures it looks a little busy for my tastes).

The room as a whole is absolutely beautiful.  I love the flowing nature of it, and for the first time, we’ve got several corridors heading off to other parts of the TARDIS.  In the new series, the TARDIS itself remains largely unexplored, so as a big fan of stories like Logopolis and Castrovalva, I hope this new design indicates we’ll be seeing more rooms and corridors than we have over the last five years.

The room is also huge with a great multilevel design.  The previous console room also had the console on a raised platform, but here that idea is taken further, with it being a more obvious second level to the room, letting us see the underside of the console with all its wires and cables.  It should make for some great scenes where the Doctor’s performing repairs or otherwise tinkering with the TARDIS systems.

Its a cracking set, and I can’t wait to see it properly, in the episode on Saturday.

The last Blackest Night issue of Green Lantern picks up straight after the reveals in Blackest Night #7, with Hal and co standing with the new White Lantern: Sinestro.

Backstory is the name of the game in this issue. With the white entity revealed in Blackest Night, this issue takes the opportunity to tie it into what we’ve been finding out about the emotional spectrum.

We discover that the entity emerged into the darkness of the universe, and created all the galaxies and stars (life effectively), creating Earth around the spot where it entered into our universe.   As life evolved on Earth, eventually one creature willed itself to move, becoming Ion.  From that point on, as various emotions were first felt, those creatures become the various entities of the emotional spectrum we’ve met, explaining their similarity in appearance to creatures found on Earth.

I’m still unsure how I feel about all this though.   Earth being the originator of all life doesn’t feel to me like it gells with some of the established facts of the DCU (like Maltus being the oldest planet, the Guardians the oldest beings etc).  Granted I guess life on Earth could be continually reinvented, with humanity only the most recent and successful dominant species, whereas other planets settled on a dominant species earlier.  Maltus has always been stated as being much older than Earth as a planet, but we could assume that DCU Earth is much, much older than the real life Earth.  Did the Guardians somehow cover up Earth’s true age along with everything else?

The other interesting thing, is the religous allegories Johns uses when giving us the origins of the other entities.  The avarice entity is revealed as a snake, pictured next to an apple, a clear reference to the Garden of Eden.  This has led to speculation that the blood shown for the rage entity is linked to Cain and Abel.  This is interesting, as we know that God exists in the DCU (the Spectre being proof enough, but we also saw Heaven during Kevin Smith’s Quiver storyline in Green Arrow).  That being said however, I’m not sure how well I think that links in with the previously cosmic stuff being used with this storyline.  It just feels like a bit of a jump in direction (sort of the reverse of Indiana Jones/Crystal Skull I guess).  Its an interesting idea though, to try and tie together the cosmic and religous sides of the DCU.  I’m just not sure how well it works (if that is indeed Geoff’s intent – I daresay this topic will turn up during the next round of convention panels).

However, with the entities being kidnapped by some unknown force, I’m assuming their nature is definitely something Geoff will be coming back to and expanding on soon.  I’m willing to keep an open mind as to what he’s doing here, but for now it seemed a little jarring.

That being said, it was nice to see the reveal of the various entities.   We’ve been teased by them for a while, and again I’ll be intrigued to see how they get dealt with in future issues.  That we now know they’re closely linked to Earth (and being captured by someone/thing) makes me assume that they’re the reason the New Guardians remain on Earth after Blackest Night, to try and track them down.

Nekron also steps up a bit more, in a shock move splitting Sinestro in two early into the issue.  It was a really effective shock moment.  Of course by the end of the issue, Sinestro’s back to normal, having been healed via his new powers, but it made for an effective moment.   And talking of Sinestro, its interesting to see the effect the White Entity has over him.  Previously we’ve only really seen possessions by Ion and Parallax.  Parallax, of course, capable to completely take over its host, while Ion merely compliments the host’s willpower, leaving them in control.  We also know the Zamarrons were afraid of the Predator getting loose, so I’m guessing if it joins with someone it could be bad news for them, although the Zamarrons seemed to have hope that Carol might be able to control it.

Sinestro meanwhile seems to be definitely affected by the White Entity.  At times it feels more like it speaking than him, as his whole attitude has changed, and it completely overwhelms his perspective of events, as he finds himself oblivious to the chaos going on around him as he gets sucked into the entity’s story of its existence and the creation of the other entities (resulting in Nekron getting the drop on him mentioned above).  Sinestro’s usually so much in control of things that its interesting to see him overwhelmed like this.

The stage is definitely set, not just for the conclusion to Blackest Night, but also for events to come afterwards.  With the Green Lantern portion of the story concluded, its a safe bet that further reveals about the entities, and longer-standing mysteries, like the backstory to the Indigo Tribe are being kept for future story arcs in Blackest Night.  Geoff Johns has said that this is just the conclusion to the first of the trilogy of trilogies he has planned, and I can believe that.  The emotional spectrum is well established now, allowing Geoff to explore it more fully over the next few years.  We’ve seen brief looks at some of the Corps, and glimpses at their powers via the Deputies in the spin-offs, but I’m really hoping we get a proper Blue Lantern focused storyline, in addition to finding out about the Indigos.  And what will the Star Sapphires do with their central battery destroyed and the Predator on the loose?  I think at this point, its clear Blackest Night is just the beginning of the story.

Now this was a packed issue.  Representing the last entry into Blackest Night for the Green Lantern Corps title, this issue, if anything, felt a little rushed, as a lot was crammed in before the final Blackest Night #8.

The various Lantern Corps in orbit (as seen in the preview) manage to thin out the numbers with a large Tholin Web-style tactic.  The idea that Guy’s a Trekkie adds a nice bit of humour into proceedings, and it provides a great visual with the various Lanterns working together.  However, from there, we delve into the character pieces of the issue, as Guy and Kyle’s situations become mirrored, with Guy facing off against Black Lantern Ice, while Kyle is found by Black Lantern Alex (complete with Black Lantern Fridge).

I must admit, I’m a little torn on the Black Lantern Alex scenes.  At this stage in the storyline “loved one returns as killer zombie” is played out, especially with us having gone through this with Kyle and Jade previously.  Alex also maintains one of those aspects of Kyle’s backstory that’s continually trotted out ever couple of years so he can get over her death again.

That said, I liked the way Tomasi approached it, incorporating the fridge added an over-the-top aspect to the appearance the prevented it becoming too schmaltzy, and by having the fairly trippy sequence where Kyle is sucked into the fridge it also added something new to the regular Black Lantern confrontation.

Guy’s fight against Tora was more straightforward in comparison, although was helped by us knowing that Tora is one of the resurrected Black Lanterns, so we’re left wondering if Guy will somehow manage to free her (as we’ve seen elsewhere).  As it turned out, I was quite surprised by how brutally the confrontation ended up, with Tora frozen, and then left shattered into pieces.

As a Black Lantern, I guess we can assume she reforms shortly after Guy leaves (and maybe we’ll see her catch up to him again in Blackest Night #8) but it was still a surprise as I’d really expected her to be either saved, or disabled in some way (like Green Arrow: frozen, but still intact).  The fact she was actually shattered was what surprised me.

That all alone would probably be enough to fill a regular issue, but not so here.  When last we saw in Blackest Night #7, the Anti Monitor had woken up within the Black Battery.

Here again, we see the series picking up on that plot point from the Titans tie-in, in that Dove is somehow channeling the white light and can disconnect the Black Lanterns.  The (temporary?) solution to the Anti-Monitor may be done quickly, but I loved how it brought together various threads.  We see the various Lanterns working together to hold back the Anti-Monitor.  We get Bedovian’s sniper skills brought into play again (as seen in the Sinestro Corps War), and Dove’s powers are captured by using her as the bullet to shoot the Anti-Monitor.  Its a nice tying together of various bits and pieces, even though the result is the Anti-Monitor back in the battery where he started (it’ll be interesting to see if this gets mentioned at all in Blackest Night #8).

As I say, an enjoyable issue, but it definitely felt like they were trying to do too much here.  Between dealing with the Black Lanterns in orbit, Alex, Ice, and then finally the Anti-Monitor it really felt like this could’ve used a second issue in which to breath.  Granted the storytelling is constrained by having to take place in between the events of Blackest Night #7 and #8, so that’s not really Tomasi’s fault.

A new edit of the series Fnarg/1/5/31 trailer appeared on Jonathan Ross tonight.  God it looks so brilliant “One day that’ll work”.

The clip with the library card that led up to that line as well was just fantastic.  I really can’t understate how much I’m looking forward to seeing Smith’s first full series at this point.

Edit:

And here’s the library clip in nice embedded Youtube.

The official DC blog, The Source, has posted up this story about the return of Batman Beyond.

The return of Terry McGuiness has been hotly rumoured for a while now.  DC had always said “No” for years, and then mysteriously swapped that to “wait and see” last year, which hinted something was in the works.

It’ll be interesting to see what direction they go with with the character.  Will it be true to the tone of the series, or will they take the opportunity to try and put a different spin on things?

It’ll also be interesting to see where it fits in with the continuity, as obviously JLU gave us the flashforward episode that served as a way to wrap up Batman Beyond, featuring a Bruce plagued by health problems, and an adult Terry discovering that Bruce was technically his biological father.  However my hope would be that the new miniseries gives us a more classic Batman Beyond setting (or perhaps even set a little while after the tv series to allow for some flexibility with the cast and the kinds of stories they could tell).

I can’t wait for this to come out.  I hope it does well and convinces DC to use Terry McGuiness a bit more.  In this days of the multiverse being back, there’s no real reason one of the 52 worlds couldn’t have Batman Beyond as its future.

As it says in the solicits, “The Return of Bruce Wayne starts here!”.  And boy, does it.

I’ve not read all of Morrison’s previous run on Batman, but I’ve read enough of the trades, and RIP itself to appreciate exactly how good this issue is.   Here we start to see Morrison’s masterplan unfurling, bringing together various plot threads from throughout his run.   We also get some interesting tidbits on Bruce’s family history that sets up the Return of Bruce Wayne series itself to be very interesting, as the question of how involved Bruce actually was in his own family history is raised.

There’s also some tantalising hints about Doctor Hurt, who terrorised Bruce throughout Batman RIP and who claimed to be Thomas Wayne, as we learn that there was a black sheep in the Wayne family, also called Thomas Wayne, who claimed to have summoned a demon.  Again, this is something I strongly suspect will feature in the Return of Bruce Wayne mini-series.  I’d be surprised if a time-lost Bruce didn’t stumble across Thomas, perhaps setting in motion Doctor Hurt’s plan against him in RIP.

It was really nice to see Dick, Damian and Alfred all working together to try and unravel the mystery of Bruce’s disappearance, looking for clues Bruce may have left throughout history in Wayne Manor and the Batcave.  The only slightly strange note here is that everyone suddenly knows that Bruce is lost in time thanks to the Omega Effect.  Its not actually clear when anyone found this out.  Granted Tim found the cave painting Bruce left behind, but that’s still a heck of a logical jump.

Damian’s development also continues to be a real draw in the series.  Here we get to see that he’s actually developed a fondness for Grayson, and his new role as Robin, as he questions what will happen to him once Bruce is back as Batman.  Dick’s ill-timed joke about the situation only makes things worse, as he doesn’t realise how much impact taking Damian under his wing has actually had on the boy.  Things only getting worse when Damian realises he’s been programmed by Talia to kill Dick, as Talia’s patience with Damian’s stint as Robin is at an end.    You really feel for what Damian’s going through, and its a testament to what an interesting and enjoyable character Morrison’s created.

And throughout the book, with all this going on, we also have the mystery of Oberon Sexton.  Who Dick turned to for information about Doctor Hurt and the Black Hand, and who later turns up at Wayne Manor in time to keep Damian safe from a group about to attack.  Who he actually is is yet another mystery in this series.   This issue would certainly make me wonder if he’s actually Bruce (and if so, pairing him and Damian in the next issue should be interesting), but I also can’t help but wonder if that’s not a bit obvious for Grant Morrison.

As you can tell, there’s a heck of a lot going on in this single issue.  Its a real testament to the writing that none of this comes across as rushed, and all starts to tie together the last few years of Batman books so beautifully.  I’ve got high expectations for the rest of this story now, and I can’t wait for the Return of Bruce Wayne, even if I do think that DC could get another year out of Dick and Damian as Batman and Robin easily.  And that’s all down to the quality of the story being told here.

So typically, the night after I make a blog post hoping for more Classic Trek fan-pleasing stuff turning up in Star Trek Online, look what I bump into.  Awesome

Sadly it went down a little easy, as long as you avoided the front of it whenever it fired.  You get special torpedoes which when fired straight down its opening, will damage it.  If you miss, you have to refill them, but with your fellow starfleet ships distracting the machine itself, it doesn’t give you too much trouble.   Its a great fun mission, but it would be nice to see the Doomsday Machine as more of a payoff to a questline than a single quest.

Its things like this that make tie-in games great.  Throwing in things that are blatantly fan-pleasing may be an easy move but there’s no denying its also hugely effective

This mission ticks all the boxes.  Miral Paris (daughter of Voyager’s Tom Paris and Belanna Torres) has been kidnapped by genetically-modified Klingons.  Said Klingons then use the Guardian of Forever to travel back in time to the 23rd century where they plan to use her human/Klingon hybrid-ness to cure the flat-head syndrome that’s blighted them since the days of Enterprise season 4.

Needless to say, you’re not standing for this, so promptly chase them to the Guardian and follow them back, where you team up with the original USS Enterprise (under the temporary command of Commander Spock, since Kirk’s elsewhere).

Its great fun, and it helps that this mission is also the payoff for a long running storyline that sees you through most of your Lieutenant levels, building up the motivations and the extent of the Klingons plan over an extended period of time.  All the fanboy buttons are hit, culminating in fighting alongside the original Enterprise (nicely making use of the fact that Cryptic had hired Leonard Nimoy to voice parts of the game).

So far there’s been few moments as great as coming down that hill to see the Guardian of Forever in the distance.  I’m looking forward to seeing more of these kinds of things throughout the game.  Obviously Species 8472 have now turned up as part of the main plot to the game, and I daresay the Borg will appear again, but the Next Generation stuff has been well-served by games over the last decade or so, so the Classic Trek stuff is very welcome indeed and adds something a bit fresher to the game (ironic given how much the Guardian of Forever pre-dates the Borg).

With that mission complete, I’m waiting on the next story arc from Admiral Quinn to kick in.  In the meantime I’m considering some sight-seeing.  I may take my trusty USS New Zealand over to DS9 for a look-see.  And I really should go back to K7 and have another wander around it to see what else is there beyond the contacts (who can just be hailed from the ship anyway).  I need some better equipment and I need to find someone who’ll sell me it.

Sadly, Green Lantern Corps has been pushed back a week.  Not sure why, but in the meantime, IGN have put up a preview to tide us over.

Its certainly full of the same kind of manic, character-filled action we’ve come to expect from the GLC title during this event (and event before with the riot on Oa).  Taking place slap bang in the middle of Blackest Night #7, the action picks up just after the various Corps teleport in and the result is chaos as the 7 Corps attack the Black Lanterns, and each other.

Its nice to see John featured in the action.  Its a nice way of working towards his move to permanent cast member of GLC.  It looks like the Xanshi plotline could well be resolved in GLC though, which is a bit jarring, since all its other development was in the Green Lantern title.  Its a similar situation to Peter Tomasi’s Mongul storyline being resolved by Johns over in GL.  Its a bit of a shame the plot threads get picked up in a different book.  Although given the events of Blackest Night, it follows well enough, and I imagine that most readers will be picking up both books at the moment anyway.

The cover shows Ice versus Guy which should be interesting.  Quite a few of these tie-ins have seen these “living” Black Lanterns dealt with in some way, be it freed completely like Connor and Bart, or simply incapacitated like Ollie.  So I have to wonder if Guy (with the help of some of the other Lanterns) will be able to break Nekron’s control of Ice.   My immediate thought is a Star Sapphire tether may be able to help Guy get through to her.  Although using the rings on Ice without severing the connection could be dodgy (although we haven’t seen what effect that would actually have on one of these Black Lanterns).

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens here.  Not forgetting that the variant cover has the Anti-Monitor turning up.  I’m guessing this’ll actually play out as a tease for a larger appearance in Blackest Night #8 (or even picked up in the next issue of Green Lantern), but it’ll be interesting to see what actually happens in this issue.  I’m hoping Ice comes out of it ok.  Her relationship with Guy is a good one, but sadly one that’s been tricky to use due to the characters being in different franchises lately (although I’m not exactly sure where else Ice has been turning up in the DCU).

With the Black Lanterns on Oa dealt with by Mogo, and the GLC due to make the leap to Earth in time for Blackest Night #7, its no surprise that the focus of this issue is dealing with Guy’s red ring infection.

And again, its ultimately Mogo that comes to the rescue, as he forces Guy to face his demons, before finally purging Guy of the red ring, albeit not completely.  In the meantime Kyle and the others try their best to help out, but there’s not really a lot they can do.  There’s a nice nod to the Green Lantern arc, where Munk tells Kyle the only real way to get rid of a red ring, is with a Blue Lantern, but Munk’s low on power and unable to teleport one to them, and the red energy makes holding Guy down long enough to take him to a Blue lantern nearly impossible.

There’s been some criticism of padding in the GL titles over the last month or two, undoubtedly caused by the January skip month introduced in the main Blackest Night miniseries.  Certainly the Spectre/Parallax storyline felt a bit out of place in the main Green Lantern title, and here, while the story does flow well, its noticeable that very little actually happens, beyond Guy’s red ring infection being dealt with.  The use of Mogo for the second time in two issues to fix things jumps out as well, and you can’t help but wonder if initially this would’ve all happened in one issue, with Mogo absorbing the Black Lanterns and Guy at the same time, only to then spit out the cured Guy.

Mogo does make the point though that he’s unable to completely purge the red lantern energy from Guy’s system.  What this actually means is unclear (let’s be honest, Guy’s not known for his calm temperament at the best of times), but with Peter Tomasi taking Guy over to the new Emerald Warriors title, I imagine we’re seeing something being dropped in that’ll be picked up there as presumably it’ll become a problem that needs Guy to seek out a Blue Lantern for help purging the red energy completely.

The end of the issue ties in neatly to the main events in Blackest Night, with some new Indigo Lanterns turning up to teleport everyone to Earth (just in time to save John Stewart).

Overall a good issue, but with Peter Tomasi dedicating a whole issue to Kyle’s resurrection only a few issues ago, this felt a little like a repeat of that same trick, only focused on Guy.  Its slightly less satisfying too, as there the combined efforts of the various Lanterns paid off with them able to resurrect Kyle.  Here’s the Lanterns are actually powerless to do anything, until Mogo steps in.

There is some nice character work, with Kyle’s desperation to save Guy echoing Guy’s when Kyle was about to be claimed by the Black Rings, although with the two characters getting split into different books in two issues, I don’t think it really added much to their relationship at this stage.  As I say, you have to wonder if this was all originally planned to happen in one issue, rather than the two we ended up with.  It was still an enjoyable read as I’d expect from Peter Tomasi, and jarred me less than the Parallax stuff, but  there was a definite feeling of repetition to the events here.