Reilly2040's Blog

Tony Bedard’s debut Green Lantern Corps storyline continues strongly, as John Stewart is setup by the Alpha Lanterns, who aren’t happy that he turned down the offer to join their ranks originally.

After Ganthet got a lot of spotlight last month, this month Tony Bedard highlights John Stewart incredibly strongly. And having touched on his background as an architect last month, here we get another side of John spotlighted as his marine background comes to the fore as he infiltrates Grenda with Boodika. Sadly, for John, its a complete setup, as he’s trapped by the Alpha Lanterns who’ve taken over the planet, but none the less it was a great spotlight, and after John being more or less ignored for years after Rebirth, its really nice to see him getting this attention.

Its nice to see Tony Bedard working in various pieces of backstory we’ve had over the years such as John’s architect and marine backgrounds (albeit, the marine stuff seems to be a post-Rebirth/New Earth retcon to bring the character in line with the JLA animated series), but its nice to see the nod to the previous Boodika story that was in GLC, as John queries why Boodika would give up her soul the way she did (interestingly, John’s feelings about the Alpha Lanterns seem to be mirrored by Cyborg Superman in his voice over).

The reveal of Cyborg Superman being behind the Alphas made sense due to his previous connection with the manhunters, but I’m still curious to see what he’s planning, and more importantly how this will turn out for the Alpha Lanterns. As they convert more and more Green Lanterns into Alphas, they’ve very much become like the Cybermen or Borg, and I have to wonder if there’s going to be a way to restore these Lanterns once this is finished, or if they are now doomed to remain Alpha Lanterns or be killed. Certainly Tony Bedard is doing a great job introducing new Lanterns we’re quickly made to care for before they’re immediately grabbed and converted.

The scenes on Oa as Ganthet immediately recruits Kyle and Soranik’s help were good. Here we see Ganthet’s distrust of his fellow Guardians once again, as he admits to Kyle they’d spend too long debating or ignoring the issue, and Ganthet knows something needs done (similar to when he broke ranks and formed the Blue Lanterns to prepare for the Blackest Night). Again, Bedard also brings up previous story arcs here by raising the issue of Kyle’s lingering feelings for Jade. I’m not sure where that’s going, but with Jade back amongst the land of the living, it makes sense that this would trigger some of those old feelings in Kyle. That said, I hope this doesn’t lead to the breakup of Kyle and Soranik. They’ve not been together that long, and frankly Kyle deserves a break when it comes to his love life. And with Jade being off in the JLA, its not like there’s a reasonable chance of the characters getting back together.

So far I’m really enjoying Tony Bedard’s take on this core cast to the book. In the space of only two issues he’s nicely addressed first Ganthet and now John, and I assume Kyle will get a little of the spotlight next month to round off the triumvirate of main characters. I’ve been really impressed by these two issues and I’m really looking forward to seeing what else Tony has planned for this book.

Its also worth mentioning the art in the book.  I don’t recall seeing any of Ardian Syaf’s work before (although I could be mistaken), but I’m really loving his work here.  I don’t know if they’re keeping him on the book long term or not (I’ve a funny feeling I read about another artist for the next arc) but I’m definitely enjoying what I’m seeing.   Green Lantern has really been incredibly lucky since its relaunch that it continually gets some of the best writers and artists DC has working on it.

There’s no doubt there had been a lot of expectation here. Series openers and finales had been the sole territory of Russell T Davies since Doctor Who returns, and Moffat knocked his first series opener out of the park with The Eleventh Hour. So, what would he give us for a finale?

In many ways, Steven Moffat has stuck to quite an established format for the finale. The stakes are raised to “end of the universe” levels and there’s some big fanservice thrown in, be it Dalek fleets, Cybermen versus Daleks, or a massive Companion team up, RTD always new how to please the fans with spectacle. In that way, Steven Moffat has stuck to what people know, with a mammoth alliance of the Doctors old friends and enemies revealed towards the end of the episode, having joined forces in light of the oncoming universal extinction.

However he has also woven his own series feel in amongst this, with the fairytale theme of the series again present, in the form of a story about The Pandorica. An ancient box supposed to hold the most dangerous warrior in existence, having been tricked into it by a good wizard.

The destruction of the TARDIS and the crack, obviously take centre stage in this story, as we open with a brilliant sequence in which the high profile guest stars of this series all feature in which Van Gogh has a vision of the coming destruction, and his painting of it is passed down through the years, before finally retrieved from Liz Ten by River Song. It was a fantastic opening to the episode, that immediately showed the level of planning that’s obviously gone into this story arc. Previously RTD always focused more on hints and teases rather than actual story arcs (and understandably so – you don’t want to scare off casual viewers), but I think this opening showed that we’re not just dealing with a 2-part finale that’s been teased, but rather the culmination of a story arc that’s been carefully planned throughout the run.

From there, we get a superb build up to the final scenes, as River, Amy and the Doctor find the Pandorica surprisingly quickly. Instead Steven Moffat wisely uses the slow unlocking of the Pandorica to ratchet up the tension, adding in a Cyberman attack for good measure.

And talking of the Cybermen, while they look the same (and refer to “all universes” being at threat, implying they’re definitely the Cybusmen), they’ve been updated slightly to be more in line with the originals. The Cyberhead trying to attach itself to Amy, and the reveal of the rotting skull inside it was a great horror moment, and shows they’ve evolved from the “brain in a box” Lumic originally designed. Personally I’m very glad by this, as I always thought that made them too robotic, versus the body horror aspect of the Cybermen (and so well captured by Star Trek’s Borg).

By this point, Matt Smith seems pretty comfortable with his take on the Doctor, and as always was a joy to watch as he scrabbled around trying to figure things out. His Doctor immediately drawn the mystery of the Pandorica, a thing he previously thought only a myth (in a similar way to how the Tenth Doctor was drawn to the mystery of the Satan Pit). It made a heck of a lot of sense that the alliance knew this would be how to ensnare him, and those final scenes of him being dragged into the Pandorica, as he desperately tries to argue that only he can stop the TARDIS exploding made for a powerful ending.

And to wrap everything off, we’ve got the much-speculated return of Rory, but with one heck of a twist. Obviously, something related to the crack allowed him to be reborn into this Auton version of his body, but the reveal that that’s what he was, as he struggled to stop himself killing Amy. Wow.

The only downside I can see to this awesome first part, is how part 2 must now live up to it. These two-part stories tend to be better judged as a whole, and traditionally part 1 tends to be an excellent setup. The trick is in coming up with a believable way out of the universe-threatening peril. However, Steven Moffat has been responsible for more than his fair share of quality 2-parters throughout the show’s run (most recently, the superb Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone), so my hopes are high that Saturday could well be one of the best series finales we’ve had.

Long time readers will know I always had a soft spot for Battlefield 2142 on the PC, being possibly my favourite online FPS game.

With some of my gaming now having shifted to the PS3 (in order to get the most out of next gen gaming despite my aging PC), the new Battlefield game, Bad Company 2 seemed like a logical purchase.

The multiplayer action is familiar for any fans of the series.  Conquest mode finds the player split into two teams, trying to capture and control various bases across the map.  The teams have a limited number of respawns, and the first to run out, loses.  So by controlling most of the bases, one team can force the other into a corner and pick them off much more quickly.

The other game type I must admit, I’ve not played as much, as I’ve been using the familiar Conquest mode to break myself back into the game, but it involves one team having to push forward, destroying a pair of terminals at each checkpoint to progress onto the next, while the other team holds them back.  Its been pretty fun when I’ve played it, but for now, the Conquest mode I find easier to get into (probably due to familiarity if nothing else).

As you’d expect the graphics are astounding, and the gameplay continues the now-traditional “accumulate points, gain levels and unlocks” style that previous Battlefield games and Call of Duty has.

New to this instalment of the franchise though, is a developed single player mode.  My previous experience with Battlefield was that single player consisted of a very restricted version of the multiplayer mode with bots.  Now though there’s a proper storyline that you play through.  They’ve obviously taken a leaf out of the Call of Duty play book here and its a welcome change.  I’ve not played through all the single player so far, but what I have played has been a lot of fun.

What the developers have done though, is tied the single player into the unlocks system, which is a nice touch.  As you play through levels in the single player, you can pick up new weapons off of recently-dispatched enemies.  As you find the new weapon types in each level, they get added to your available options in the multiplayer.  Its a nice touch, and a great added incentive to the single player.

Of course, the signature of the Battlefield games has always been the ability to use vehicles in the various maps, and that’s present and as well-implemented as usual with the expected array of jeeps, tanks and planes to keep players happy.  It also provides a welcome break in the style of play from Modern Warfare.

In Modern Warfare, I would frequently find, if the map was being dominated, that the game would descend into a cycle of “spawn-die-spawn-die”.  With Battlefield, as you can choose your spawn point at another captured base, its a welcome break when things are getting pinned down, to just choose to spawn at a further away point, or specifically, the original deployment zone.  Then its a simple matter of grabbing a tank and trundling in to do some damage.  Its nice to be able to pull back in this way and rethink your strategy when things are getting nasty.

One final feature that I’ve got to comment on, is the new destructible scenery.  Its a brilliant addition to the gameplay, that makes you think more about your cover.   There’s no more digging into a rooftop with a sniper rifle for the game, if someone can roll up in a tank and collapse the building around you.  Or hiding behind a wooden fence only buys you a minute’s breathing room as the hail of incoming fire starts picking it away.   From either side, its a fun change in the game that either forces you to think quickly and move, or allows you to clear out some prime camping spots when you’re getting pinned down.

The online stats are present in force as well.   The stats were an area I found a little disappointing in Modern Warfare, probably as I’d been spoiled by Battlefield 2142 previously.  Maybe I’m just being sad, but I find it quite amusing and fun to be able to check out all the details of my play time, right down to the number of rounds fired, and I wish more games would offer up these kinds of facts and figures, with a convenient web interface (MMOs especially).

I’ve been very pleased with the game so far, and can see myself sticking with it for a good while.  So far, my main niggles about Modern Warfare 2 (slow finding games in the lobby, and getting hammered in games) seem to be less of an issue here.

http://www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/stats?persona=223206830&platform=ps3

After last week’s fairly heavy piece, this week brought us a lighter-hearted episode, as the Doctor finds himself stuck on Earth, living as a lodger in a house where the upstairs has something in it that causes people to vanish, and blocks the TARDIS from landing.

This was a really enjoyable episode.  Played mainly for laughs, Smith’s Doctor is the most alien he’s been.   Completely out of his depth having to live life as a human there’s a lot of broad laughs from the Doctor’s inability to fit in.  Despite the story’s origins as a Doctor Who Magazine comic strip, its still hard to imagine this story working with the 10th Doctor, who seemed so much more human by comparison.

In fact, in some ways, the  idea that this is the same Doctor who had Christmas dinner with the Tylers, and spent years exiled to Earth perhaps jars with the humour, but then it is pretty consistent for Smith’s Doctor, remembering his reaction to Amy’s pregnancy a few weeks ago.  Whereas the nineth to tenth Doctors saw a shift from a Doctor who barely tolerated other humans most of the time and loathed social interaction to one much more comfortable with it, the Doctor’s personality has now veered even further off in the other direction and he’s genuinely puzzled by it.

That being said, he’s not as entirely out of his depth as he looks.  He twigs to the feelings Craig and Sophie have for each other pretty quickly, and he’s certainly a dab hand at football (playing nicely to Matt Smith’s previous career).  I have to wonder how much of his dizziness is an act for other’s benefits.   Perhaps its not so much that this incarnation is worse at these interactions, perhaps he just finds playing up his alien-ness amusing?

James Corden is someone who’s on TV a lot these days, although I must admit I’ve only seen him in a few things.  Gavin and Stacey pretty much completely passed me by and I only caught the first episode of the much-maligned Horne and Corden sketch show.  Here though he was very much the straight man to the Doctor’s antics and I thought he came out of it brilliantly.   Corden’s relied very much on his comedic roles lately, so to see him playing a role straight was nice and underlined that he’s actually a good actor.

If I had one complaint though, it was mainly that I felt the script was much too heavy handed with the romance being Corden’s character of Craig and his friend Sophie.  As the episode went on, I started to find myself getting pulled out of it during these scenes, thinking to myself “Yes! We get it! They both fancy each other but are too scared to make the first move”.  That was probably the only bum note I really had with the story though.

The central threat to the episode was well done too.  The changing image of the figure beckoning people upstairs was creepy, and the reveal of the threat as an alien attempt at a TARDIS was fascinating.  Its perhaps a shame that it was so throwaway though.  This is the first time we’ve seen such a craft in the new series outside of the TARDIS, and even in the classic stories, the only race that came close to making a TARDIS were the Daleks (waaaay back in The Chase).    The fact a race has created something so very close, using the perception filter as a makeshift chameleon circuit, and even borrowing the central console design strikes me as worth a story in itself, rather than just a throwaway menace.

That being said, the alien TARDIS was a really nice piece of design.  And I loved how it echoed the McGann console room (my favourite) with the pillars that curved in towards the console.

The lightweight nature of the story probably means that it won’t be one of the standouts of the series.  Highlights like the Eleventh Hour, Time of Angels and last week’s Vincent and the Doctor perhaps draw attention away from this episode, but it was none-the-less a really enjoyable, fun story.   No doubt to give us a slight respite before we plough straight into the first part of the finale on Saturday, which if the teaser is anything to go by, looks very, very epic.

Out of all the episodes in the series, this is probably the episode that had garnered a lot of the publicity prior to the actual series starting.  And that’s because of its high-profile writer, Richard Curtis.

The second “celebrity historical” of the year, finds the Doctor and Amy discovering a monster in one of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings, leading them back to visit him and find out what happened.

What follows is a particularly powerful story revolving, not around the mystery of the monster in the painting, but instead around the character of Vincent Van Gogh.  Here’s someone regarded as one of the best painters who ever lived, but in his own time, he’s a joke, thought mad by all that live around him, unable to generate even the slightest amount of interest in his work and his vision, and ultimately battling with the depression that this causes.

And its his unique vision which becomes the central conceit of the story.  He sees the world in such a singular way that he is aware of the things other people miss.  This is presented fairly literally (he can see the otherwise invisible monster) but also just as an eye for the details others overlook, such as when he sees the pain Amy is in, even though she herself has no memory of the loss of Rory (and there’s the wonderful look of remorse on the Doctor’s face when Vincent mentions this, a nice touch by Matt Smith).

The monster itself basically becomes an excuse for the focus on Van Gogh’s character and his struggles, although there is the nice twist that the monster itself was blind, another nod to Van Gogh’s vision being a focus of the story.

All this culminates in the great scene where the Doctor and Amy take Van Gogh back with them to 2010 to let him see his work being exhibited, and see how his art is loved and appreciated (with a great guest turn by Bill Nighy).  It was a surprising part of the episode for me, as I don’t think we’ve ever really see the Doctor do this before.  As Van Gogh starts to break down its hugely powerful, and then only underscored when they return and, despite Amy’s hopes that they turned things around for him, she discovers Van Gogh still committed suicide a few months later.  From the expression on the Doctor’s face, I have to assume he knew this would be the outcome all along, hence his willingness to give Van Gogh the little glimpse of the future.

This episode definitely stands out in the series so far for being a bit different to what we’ve had up until now.  With the monster taking such a major backseat to the guest star, it gave us a strong look into who Van Gogh was, I think this was possibly the strongest “celebrity historical” appearance to date, and it certainly gave us more insight into the man than, say, Churchill a few weeks before.

A great episode, and one that I think really stands out as a high point in the series.  The specific character-focused plot I think works particularly well as it provided a shift in tone from most other episodes, and there’s that magical moment where all the characters are staring at the night sky, and see it resolve into how Van Gogh sees it.

When Star Trek Online came out, I first had a trial account (as I wasn’t sure if it’d run on my PC or not). Once that expired and I needed a full retail key, I went to Steam and looked at the options available. There I could get the game, or for an extra tenner, I could get a Digital Deluxe edition that came with various exclusive items such as Classic Trek uniforms and an NX registry prefix for my ship.

I’m a sucker for classic Trek, so I jumped at the chance to get those uniforms and went for the deluxe package.

In this month’s engineering report however, it was announced that coming to the C-Store (the in-game micro transaction store filled with various fluff like extra character slots, extra bridge designs etc) were some of the various “exclusive” items.  So not only would people be able to buy my classic Trek uniforms, but also appearing were items available in other collectors editions like the TNG and DS9 uniforms, Borg bridge officers (think 7of9) and the original Constitution class as a starter ship.

This has sparked a lot of discussion online, with many people feeling betrayed by Cryptic.   After all these items were marked as exclusive, and many spent extra on multiple copies of the game in order to get all the extras.

My own opinion though, is slightly different.  Once I realised there was a micro-transaction store in the game, selling various ship costumes, bridges etc, I kind’ve knew this was going to be coming.  My immediate reaction was that “exclusive” would mean “only for a certain period of time”, and that Cryptic would be throwing away a source of income by not allowing people to purchase these extras.

Now, if the extras had been, for example, a variant Cryptic-designed uniform, then it would be easy to just leave it as exclusive to whatever version of the game.  However we’re talking about iconic things, like the various TV show and movie uniforms.   Of course, people are going to jump at the chance to pay a bit extra to get them.  For myself, I know I’ll be straight onto the C-Store (once my PC is fixed or replaced) in order to get the bits and pieces I’m missing.

I can appreciate that those who spent extra money are upset, and I know I was personally tempted to buy other copies of the game for the TNG and DS9 uniforms, but to me this was something that was inevitable so if I had bought the game, it would’ve been in the knowledge that I was just doing it to get them before everyone else (although I’ll admit I’m surprised it happened quite this soon).   With these kinds of things, I think you always have to assume that you’re only buying exclusivity for a certain period of time.   There’s a long history in computer games of exclusive items eventually turning up for purchase separately.

The exclusivity had been dubious prior to this as well, despite forum posters acting like this is a new thing.  Now, as I said, I paid an extra tenner for my edition, primarily due to the lure of classic Trek uniforms.  Yet not long after I got the game, this thread appeared on the forums.  Yup, my supposedly exclusive uniforms being given away with a magazine, via a website that anyone can access and get the uniforms from for free.  That thread in fact, is periodically bumped to ensure it remains on or near the front page, with other posters ensuring others get their free uniforms.   Cryptic allow the thread and the offer to continue, so it appears they don’t have a problem with it.

And there’s the Wrath of Khan uniforms.  Supposedly, you had to buy the Blueray editions of classic Trek, and yet a quick google will reveal the relevant code to get them.

Should I be shouting about getting a refund?  Possibly, but I got what I paid for, and enjoy just having the classic uniforms.  This way, other people that want to enjoy them, can as well.  To just moan that they’re not exclusive any more has a slight hint of wanting to appear special and better than others within the game.  For me, buying the deluxe edition was just a means to get a uniform I really wanted.

So, I’m not too angry about this, although admittedly that’s largely because it’ll just benefit me, due to the classic Trek uniforms already being freely available.  My items have long since lost their exclusivity, so from my perspective, this is just the others catching up (and I have to wonder, out of those complaining on the forums, how many used that website for the classic uniforms, and googled the Wrath of Khan code).

That all being said, I do think Cryptic could’ve maybe handled it better.  Primarily I do think the exclusives might’ve been better being things that were less iconic.  Cryptic-designed uniforms and starships for example.  The minute recognisable uniforms were in the game, there was always going to be a big demand for them to be more readily available.  However I can certainly appreciate that those same TV uniforms also made for a much bigger draw on the collectors editions.

I also think Cryptic have perhaps jumped the gun.  As much as I want the TNG and DS9 uniforms, I really didn’t expect to see them like this within the first year of the game.  And perhaps in the FAQs on the website, it could’ve been made clearer that the exclusivity was only going to be for a certain amount of time.

However, nonetheless, I look forward to the opportunity to login to the store and buy these extras.  There’s a lot of complaints online, but I strongly hope that they don’t influence the decision the release them in the C-Store.   After all, for those that got the TNG and DS9 uniforms in your boxset, at least I’m having to pay for them as well.  Everyone got my classic Trek uniforms for free.

I’ve got to admit, I really loved the opening scene to this issue. Dex-star and Atrocitus in the subway attacking the muggers was a great scene straight out of a horror movie, and its nice to see the Red Lanterns get a bit of focus. They’re a great, creepy variation on the other Corps and remain one of my favourite additions to the GL mythos in recent years.

Strangely then, we cut back to events seen in Brightest Day. Personally, I found these pages a bit annoying as they completely retreaded events from that book, not really adding anything, and the use of big splash pages to retell something that happened last week felt a bit like a waste. I appreciate that there’ll be people reading Green Lantern who are not reading Brightest Day, but I can’t help but think this could’ve been tackled differently so as to try and give the Brightest Day readers something as well. It’ll be interesting to see if this becomes a common issue as the story of the white lantern develops in both books, or if the storylines will diverge.

However, with that done, the larger GL-centric mystery from last issue of the mysterious figure collecting entities is brought back to the fore, nicely picking up on a major plot strand from Green Lantern Corps.  In that book, Sodam Yat had been forced to use the Ion power to transform Daxam’s red sun to yellow in order to allow his people to defeat the Sinestro Corps.   I’ve been waiting to see how this plot would play out (and had assumed it would form part of Blackest Night) so its nice to see it picked up.  Like the Mongul plot though, it also feels a bit of a shame that its resolved in a different book, and quite quickly.  For those reading Green Lantern and not Corps, Sodam’s situation with Daxam must’ve been quite puzzling.

There is though, the nice feeling of comeuppance.  The Daxamites have been portrayed as hugely xenophobic.  Murderously so, so to have them stripped quite brutally of their powers, as Ion is removed from Sodam and the sun turned red once again at least gives some resolution to that storyline.  There’s the niggling feeling that the super-powered Daxamites would’ve allowed for an interesting storyarc over in GLC, however I guess that’d be treading a lot of ground that the Superman books have recently covered with their big New Krypton storyline.

Very interesting is the insight we get into this mysterious figure.  We now know that despite the chains, they are not bound to Ysmault so may not be a prisoner in the strict sense I would’ve imagined based on last issue.  We can also now definitely see that they’re small of stature, which immediately suggests its a rogue Guardian.   Appa Ali Apsa leaps immediately to mind.  Of course, he appeared dead at the end of The Road Back, but that could be changed quite easily (and probably less dramatically than some of the retcons we’ve seen over the last few years).   The figure also displays a sense of justice in regards to the xenophobic Daxamites being stripped of their powers, and seems to almost care for Sodam and his sacrifice.  This could certainly point to it being a Guardian.  Why exactly they’re collecting the entities remains a mystery, but I would assume this is going to allow Sodam Yat to return in Peter Tomasi’s new Emerald Warriors book (since that’s the title featuring Arisia).

Overall though another good issue.  There’s still a strong feeling of a shared universe  and storyline between the GL books, with the GLC crossovers lately (Daxamites here, and the reprise of the Guy, Ganthet and Atrocitus scene in GLC) but both books are doing this while still building their own distinct storylines.    The white Lantern stuff I wasn’t sure about, and may be better left to Brightest Day, but the central mystery of the entities on Earth is strong, and it’ll be interesting to see how the team up with Atrocitus goes next month.

IGN once again comes up with the goods, this week in the form of a preview of this week’s Iron Man #27.

I’ve been meaning to blog about the current Iron Man storyline since #25, however a couple of things immediately jump out at me.

Firstly, its nice to see the issue of Pepper being Rescue being addressed.  To be honest, I really enjoyed her stint as an armoured hero during World’s Most Wanted, and her pain when she found out that she had to lose it all to save Tony was a great emotional moment from Matt Fraction.

That said, now Tony’s back, it really makes sense that she’d petition him for a new suit.  Tony’s arguments that he needs her running the company come across as a bit thin (he ran Stark Industries while moonlighting as Iron Man for years), so it’ll be interesting to see how this develops.

Another interesting thing is Tony’s assertion that he’s never made a suit to be primarily a weapon.  Granted Pepper immediately calls him on it with the Hulk Buster, but you just have to look at the cover of the book to see how much Tony’s kidding himself here.

Its also interesting though, as it once again seems like a bit of retconning (or at least, the character kidding himself).  Iron Man #25 for example had Tony playing up repulsor technology as this brilliant keystone power source, as well as telling Thor he’d never built his company up from scratch, and the big show of ditching the military contracts.

All these things work within the context of the story of course, but they also share the fact that they ignore past history.  Tony’s rebuilt his company from scratch several times over the course of the series, be it Stark Enterprises, Stark Solutions or now Stark Resilient (gotta admit, its not the best name he’s come up with either).  Repulsor tech was never that big a deal, and Tony cutting military contracts was a big thing from the get-go after getting caught by that landmine.

These things also have another thing in common.  They’re all big parts of the current movie series.  So its clear that the tail’s wagging the dog to an extent, and that in order to make the comics accessible for the audience who’ve found the character via the movies that these aspects are being brought in.   For the most part, I can happily live with it, and as I say, within the context of these books its well written and works.  But it’d still be nice if it died down a bit now this new direction was in place, and Tony claiming he’s never built the suit as a weapon is straight from the movies and blatant rubbish.   At least, as I say, Tony’s called on it, which does feel a bit like Matt Fraction throwing a bone to the longer-term fans who’re having to ignore continuity a bit for the sake of the movies.  And for that, I’m glad

And talking of War Machine, I notice aspects of the movie design have crept into his new armour.  No surprise though, and as a fan of the character, its just nice to see him having a recurring role in the books again lately.

Of course, its not like any of this is new.  Spider-Man gaining organic web shooters for example?  And it does make sense to capitalise on the movies in this way.  I can’t complain about that really, but its more just the way its presented with all this movie-based stuff suddenly appearing.

I will say though, fanboy continuity niggles aside, I’ve been very much enjoying this current storyline.  After all the Dark Reign stuff, Matt Fraction is once again showing his solid grasp of Tony’s character, and while its not original, its still always fun to see Tony flexing his mental muscles to rebuild his company.  The inclusion of the Hammer sisters has been interesting so far and yes, while its another way of referencing the movies, Justin Hammer was always a good nemesis for Tony, so its nice to see his daughters being established to give Tony a corporate enemy.  Something he’s not had as often as he maybe should have over the years.

One final niggle however.  I wonder when we’re going to get the new armour properly showcased?  I miss the days when the new suit would show off all its capabilities against Iron Monger or Firepower.  So far we haven’t really seen much of what this suit can do at all.

Returning monsters seem to be a bit of a theme in this series of Doctor Who, with the Daleks and Weeping Angels having already made appearances, and the Cybermen having been trailed for the series finale. However for this two-parter it was the return of a villain not seen since the 80s, in the form of the Silurians.

The Silurians have long been one of my favourite groups of Doctor Who monsters, and their return had been rumoured for a while.  The concept of a monster that’s not actually an “alien”, that previously was the dominant life form on Earth and wants it back is a strong one.  And with the advent of the Sea Devils, the idea of different types of Silurian was introduced, making them easy to be re-invented for the modern series.

This two-parter was interesting in how much it felt like a love letter to the Pertwee era.  The drilling project evoked memories of Inferno, and nicely used that same idea as a way to explain this group of Silurians waking up.  Part 1 also felt a lot like build up, with the Doctor’s net of cameras providing a great “A-Team moment”, but ultimately proved to be so much padding when it was immediately rendered useless.  A bit more successful in that regard was part 2, which provided the payoff for much of the setup, but then this is a common thing in 2-parters (most recently, The End of Time is a great example of a part 1 that was probably lacking when taken on its own, but part 2 brings everything together).

For the Silurians themselves, I found them incredibly well realised.  While I was initially disappointed that they looked more human than previous incarnations, their characterisation was spot on, and the lack of a full-head mask (as previous Silurians and Sea Devils had) certainly allowed the actors to shine more.  Indeed some of the emotion of the second part would’ve probably been lost if the actors’ faces had been buried under a tonne of latex.  The idea of the battle mask though I thought was a nice compromise in this regard.

A staple of the Silurian stories, the morality, was also present.  Be it the Doctor’s rage at the Brigadier blowing up the Silurian base, or Davison’s “There should’ve been another way”, the Silurians and humans meeting never ends well, and the same is true here, as the desperate mother is goaded into killing Alaya on the surface, while Alaya’s sister Restac is desperate to wipe out humanity even before she finds out about her sister’s death.  Neither side is in the right here, with the Doctor stuck in the middle,  and that’s something that rung very true for a Silurian story.  Unlike previous stories though, this tries to end on a more hopeful note, with the Silurians due to reawaken in 1000 years to try again with the hope that both sides will be more ready to live together.

Outside of the main Silurian plot though, we find the main arc of the series moving on as well.  The crack’s sudden appearance initially felt quite forced (although it does seem consistent that the crack only turns up after the Doctor and Amy have been in a certain place for a period of time – save the initial crack in Eleventh Hour) but it became vital to what happened next, as Rory was killed by Restac and then absorbed by the crack, wiping him from history.  It all felt incredibly quick and brutal, as the characters were also running from the gas, and the follow up scene with the Doctor forcing Amy to remember him was powerfully acted by both of them.

That said, I don’t think we’ve seen the end of Rory.  The idea that time can be rewritten is integral to the crack, so I suspect he’ll be seen again at the end of the series.  That the Doctor’s pulled what appears to be a piece of the TARDIS from the crack could point to things being changed.  Does that mean the TARDIS got destroyed?  I can’t see that happening in the finale.  So either that gets changed, or the piece of the TARDIS is a red herring (or the outer shell is damaged but is restored).  My money would be on the cause of the crack (TARDIS destruction) being changed though, which could have interesting side effects on the rest of this series (its been suggested before that we’ll revisit key points in the series in the finale causing us to see events in a new light).  Time changing is a big part of what’s going on here and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

This week brought us the first issue of Green Lantern Corps by new writer Tony Bedard, and it was a great start to his run.

Interestingly though, the issue opened with an expansion on the scene we saw a month ago in Green Lantern, as Guy goes to Ysmault with Ganthet.  The expansion of the scene is slight, but gives us a little more insight, and makes it clear that Guy only found out what was going on as they were going there.  Ganthet knows there’s some new threat looming in the wake of the Blackest Night, and so he’s having to recruit Guy and Atrocitus to combat it.  The nature of this threat, and why it was Guy he recruited rather than Hal or Kyle (who he’s traditionally been shown to be closer to) we’ll have to see.

Things quickly move on to establishing the new cast for the book.  The opening scene is built on by showing Ganthet approach the other Guardians about becoming GL of sector zero.  Its interesting, as it shows Ganthet reiterating that the Guardians need to change their ways (of course, Ganthet is the one who needs to do this the least), but also because we see Ganthet forging his own power battery.  We’re now pretty used to the rings duplicating themselves, so to see this as a manual process felt quite different.  Of course, its only the rings we’ve seen duplicate, and its never really been established where the batteries come from.  Kyle’s we know is a fragment of the original central power battery, but aside from that all we’ve had was Salaak complaining about how much the batteries cost to replace when Hal destroyed his in his fight against the Shark at the beginning of volume 4.  So perhaps the fact that they require such work to manufacture is why Salaak was so unhappy?

I also have to suspect that Ganthet forging his own ring and battery is going to be significant, beyond being a cool scene.  The fact that its only his power that’s gone into it, and we know he’s planning to betray the Corps in some way, so I have to assume he’s done this to ensure his battery will lack any of the Guardians safe guards that they may use against the other Lanterns.

This issue also establishes  John as another new part of the main cast.  Its slightly odd, in that nothing is made of John moving from his assignment on Earth to Oa, but aside from that, its nice to see him in this book.  I’ve always liked seeing him interact with Kyle since the volume 3 run, and drawing on his background as an architect in the light of the recent widespread destruction on Oa made a lot of sense.

As a niggle though, while its a good scene between John and Ganthet discussing the new architecture on Oa, Ganthet’s comments about the buildings being a million years old would seem to completely ignore Oa’s destruction and reformation during Kyle’s run.  Both being fairly big events.  Possibly just a piece of backstory Tony Bedard didn’t know, but it jumped out as a mistake, and grates a little, especially in light of Kyle’s run being overlooked so often (including the recent deaths of most of Kyle’s signature villains).

Of course, we can probably explain it by saying that the reformed buildings shared the same appearance as the previous ones (I must admit I haven’t read the Last Will and Testament of Hal Jordan though, so I don’t know if this would be contradicted there).   Alternatively I guess you could say that Oa’s destruction never happened in this New Earth continuity.  And in fairness, Ganthet’s been really busy lately so maybe he just made a genuine mistake

With the new cast introduced, this issue also kicks off a new story arc picking up on the lingering threat of the Alpha Lanterns.  Its a nice spooky start, with the Alphas slowly capturing regular Green Lanterns and converting them into Alpha Lanterns.   I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out, and I can see the Alpha Lanterns ending up on Biot with the Manhunters.  We’ve seen them get more out of control since they were introduced, and Salaak slapping them down during Blackest Night obviously has pushed them to try and take over.  When they get (presumably) stopped, the surviving Alpha Lanterns travelling to Biot and becoming part of the Manhunters would make a lot of sense.

Its a great sign that the only complaint I can make about this first issue is one continuity niggle.  I look forward to seeing what Tony Bedard brings us now that Ganthet and John are in place, and this Alpha Lantern storyline is certainly off to a good start.