Reilly2040's Blog

With all the fuss about Brightest Day, its easy to overlook the fact that DC actually have a second fortnightly series on the go, which is actually a Brightest Day tie-in itself: Justice League – Generation Lost.

When it was announced, I’d been really excited about the project, as it was focused on the old JLI team (or what was left of them).  They’ve long been fan-favourites as those books were filled with great characters and a brilliant sense of humour and dialogue.

However the first two issues I found to be a major disappointment.  Spinning out of Brightest Day, Max Lord performs his biggest mind control experiment ever, wiping all knowledge of his existence from the world.   The only ones left who know who he is are his old team mates from the JLI, Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Fire and Ice who must find some way to expose him.

The main problem with the first couple of issues was that they just seemed too serious.  The sparkle and wit that the team was associated with was gone, and I quickly lost all interest in the series.

However I then heard that things had picked up a bit, and not only that, I discovered that the series was being released every fortnight on the DC Comics iPhone application in line with the paper release.

This was ideal, as it provided a cheaper way to pick up the issues to give the series another chance.  And so I picked up issues 3 and 4.

We’re now up to issue 8, and the amount this series has turned around from those first two issues has been amazing.  The pacing has been great throughout, with the story moving on quickly as the team attempt to track down Maxwell Lord.

There’s been some interesting new elements thrown in as well. Blue Beetle Jamie Reyes joining the team was a bit of a no-brainer. He’s picked up Ted Koord’s legacy, and has worked with the JLI on several occassions. He’s also a character that DC are looking to push heavily, and this series presents an ideal place for him.

However more important was the addition of the new Rocket Red to the team. The Rocket Red who previously worked with the JLI was killed some time ago, and its a spot that’s long sat dormant on the team (although Mary Marvel would often be added as another heavy hitter).

The new Rocket Red has really brought that missing element to the book. Humour. Straight away from his debut issue, that spark that made the JLI so popular arrived with him. Between that and the nice pace of the book, as the team infiltrate Checkmate and we discover Captain Atom knows the true cost of letting Max run unchecked, this book has really clicked into place for me, becoming one I’m really looking forward to every fortnight. All credit to the writer Judd Winnick, its an incredible turn around for me.

I have to mention quickly the digital format, as its something I’ve been vocal about supporting on this blog for a while.   Don’t get me wrong, its absolutely not a replacement for a proper, physical comic book.   However, with me trying to cut back on books as $3.99 slowly becomes a more prominent price for new books, and storage space vanishes in my house, its a great option for picking up those books I might otherwise have skipped, and its great to see DC finally starting to make some headway with the digital stuff, rather than just leaving it to the pirates.

I like being able to log on with my iPod Touch every fortnight and download this book, however its still a bit disappointing to see that Generation Lost seems to be about the only book DC is doing this kind of regular release with. Marvel is still way ahead of them in this game, and I really hope that Generation Lost does well as a digital book, so that DC can be convinced to further support this medium.

With Blackest Night over, DC’s next spinoff series, Brightest Day begins this week with issue 0.

Intended very much as a teaser, this issue covers all the returned heroes and villains, setting up their plots for the coming year, starting with Deadman, who is now returned to life, and possesses a white ring, which appears to be allowing him to channel the power of the white entity to bring things back to life.  He’s also hearing a mysterious voice, which we can only assume is the entity itself, as he is teleported around by the ring, checking in on each of the returnees.  Much like when Sinestro joined with the white entity, I get the impression that the white light is a power that tends to affect its wielder rather than something that can be controlled like the other lights in the spectrum.

The other characters visited looked interesting for the most part.  I was surprised to see the Kyle/Jade/Soranik thing dealt with so quickly (although as I mentioned before, Jade is heading off to JLA, so this was probably the only real chance to address it).   I still think Peter Tomasi is over playing the Kyle/Soranik romance a little though.  I like that they’re together, and I think they go well together.  I just don’t think we’ve really seen that they’re as close as everyone keeps telling us they are.  Although that’s possibly an issue with the fact they’re both part of a large ensemble cast over in GLC, so their relationship doesn’t really have the breathing room that the likes of Kyle and Jade had.  Hopefully its something Tony Bedard will address in his run.   Kyle’s death gave Peter Tomasi a chance to explore their relationship a bit, but I still think there’s quite a bit of work to be done to really establish Soranik as Kyle’s big love.

Talking of Peter Tomasi, his writing was felt keenly here, with Miri being namechecked as having given Hawkwoman a piece of the Star Sapphire, and Hal and Guy visiting J’onn in his tomb on Mars (which had been established in the Final Crisis tie-in).  These were little touches, but really helped add to the “one universe” feel of events.

For the other characters there’s some interesting things going on.  Both Aquaman and Jade still show signs of Black Lantern infection, although Aquaman’s could possibly be more psychological.  We see the plot thread from Blackest Night of the original Hawks being in the Star Sapphire battery being picked up, with a mysterious group having located their remains, which seems to affect their current incarnations.  We also see Maxwell Lord’s mindwipe which we know will be played out in the new JLI fortnightly.  It all looks suitably intriguing and I think its safe to say I’m onboard with this series for now.

The only story that didn’t really work for me was the Hawk and Dove one.  I know Dove’s the avatar of peace, but still the fact Hawk killed her sister I’d have thought was worth mentioning.  Granted, its a plot strand that could’ve ended up being too similar to the Ronnie/Jason Firestorm one, but it could also have been an opportunity to play out a similar story from two different angles.   Regardless, the fact its completely ignored bothered me, something only made worse by the shot of Hawk and Dove kissing in the final page teaser.  We know that both of these characters will be appearing in the new Birds of Prey series though, so I’m hopeful that Gail Simone will be able to use them in an interesting way, where hopefully it’ll be addressed.   One thing that was name-checked was Dove’s connection to the white light, so I’m guessing that means that particular plot thread will be a part of Brightest Day.

Overall, this was a really strong start.  Despite none of the returned characters being ones I’m particularly invested in, I was still suitably interested in what was going on, and I’m intrigued to see where some of the plot strands go.  Johns and Tomasi remain two of my favourite writers in DC with their Green Lantern output, so the fact they’re writing this series was always going to make it a big draw to me, regardless of its prominent place in the DCU.  It also looks interesting as it looks like they’re trying to combine 52 and Countdown, to provide a distinct story that also serves as the backbone to various events and books throughout the DCU.  It’ll be interesting to see how that works out, but with two of the top writers working on it, I’ve got high hopes for this series.

I can’t help but think there’s something I’ve forgotten to blog about.  Oh yeah, Blackest Night #8

Over the last few years, big comic book event mini-series have been a bit of a mixed bag.  Infinite Crisis flagged towards the end, and parts didn’t really make sense without the tie ins.  Civil War basically turned Tony Stark into Marvel’s most successful supervillain, and had some big inconsistencies in how the registration act was portrayed.  Final Crisis flopped badly having a slow pace and delays, and again really needed one of its tie-ins to make sense at the end (even though I enjoyed it), Secret Invasion suffered from a lot of padding as most of the heroes mucked about in the Savage Land for about 5 issues doing very little.

Blackest Night has bucked the trend though.   There was some definite padding around the middle (after Nekron appeared he didn’t really do much, and I remain unconvinced by the Deputies and suspect they could’ve been removed without changing things), however despite this it still maintained its pace well throughout the run.  Johns crafted an exciting story, and Ivan Reis art shone in every issue.

The final issue didn’t really provide much in the way of surprises, save for maybe a couple of the resurrections.    I’d speculated that the white entity wasn’t quite the solution to everything, and that turned out to be the case.  Instead harnessing its power to form a White Lantern Corps (with Hal at the lead obviously) formed from the (alive) heroes that had been turned into Black Lanterns.  Deadman turns out to be pivotal, identifying Black Hand as key to Nekron’s plans (and explaining why previous attempts to destroy the battery or Nekron failed).  The White Lanterns turn their power on Black Hand restoring him to life.  Black Hand then starts generating white rings, which firstly defeat Nekron and return the Anti-Monitor to life (severing Nekron’s power source).   Further white rings follow, resurrecting some of the surrounding Black Lanterns, giving us the characters we knew would be coming back.

Of course, Aquaman, the Hawks, Firestorm and J’onn weren’t much of a surprise.  Likewise Professor Zoom, who was guaranteed as coming back after Rebirth.  However a few twists were thrown in with Jade, Maxwell Lord and Deadman being brought back.  Maxwell Lord will be the focus of the upcoming JLI fortnightly series, and it’ll be interesting to see how Jade/Kyle/Soranik is addressed (although given we know she’s joining Robinson’s JLA I imagine that’ll quickly be done and dusted).

Deadman remains more interesting though.  He’s the only resurrected character shown wearing a white ring at the end, and with a white lantern turning up on Earth, its a safe bet he’s going to remain a pivotal character.

Of course, this is the nature of events these days, with quite a few things in the conclusion in fact setting up future storylines, be it Green Lantern or Brightest Day (which promises to follow the resurrected characters and explore the reason they were brought back and no one else).  However whereas in Flash: Rebirth this felt quite jarring in the final issue, here it still felt like we were getting a strong finale to the Blackest Night storyline.

I especially liked the comments from Hal that Nekron’s claims to be behind their resurrections weren’t entirely the truth.  It tied events in better with what we’d seen in the likes of Green Lantern: Rebirth and Green Arrow: Quiver (given that in both we see Hal and Ollie respectively have to decide to return to the land of the living).

Overall, this was a great conclusion to what was undoubtedly the strongest event from DC in some time.  The impact this will have on the DCU remains to be seen (dead being dead I don’t expect to last, as with the white power battery out there, I suspect that aspect of the story is still being played out), however as a mini-series it maintained a strong pace throughout, and kept up a high level of quality with the same creative team all the way through.  DC are obviously proud of the success of this series, and rightly so.

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.