The Red Lanterns have officially made their prescence felt this week. After much hyping, with ads all over the place in DC titles for the last couple of weeks, we got the first part of the Rage of the Red Lanterns storyline in this week’s Final Crisis “tie-in” (and again, its a tie-in that seems to lack any actual tying-in).

The story is great, and after the Secret Origin arc, its nice to have the main GL book (sort of) focusing on current events again. The Guardians have announced that Sinestro is to be taken to Korugar for execution, but the Red Lanterns want him for themselves. And in the middle of it all, is the Scarred Guardian, manipulating events for her own ends.

This one shot really seems to serve as a kick-start to the Blackest Night proceedings and will be picked up in the GL monthly. The Red Lanterns (as seen in the preview) are a pretty horrific bunch, and we see Hal’s surprise when he recognises Laira in amongst the group that attacks them. Both the Sinestro Corps and GLs fall pretty easily to the Reds as well, with the power of the red rings neutralising their rings stone dead, causing their force fields to drop, and them to catch fire. The red energy is played much more as a blunt weapon, with the Red Lanterns burning their foes, or engaging them in hand-to-hand.

Shane Davis excels on the art duties, and if they’re needing another artist to swap out with Ivan for an arc in the main GL book, I hope they get Davis. It’d be good to see more of his work on GL.

And, of course, the twist at the end, when Hal’s failing ring is suddenly boosted up to 200% by Saint Walker, the first of Ganthet’s Blue Lanterns, who Ganthet sent to keep an eye on them. It’ll be very interesting to see what his story is, especially since Ganthet was previously talking about how important it was to get someone specific for their first blue lantern. We have to assume that he was talking about Saint Walker.

Only complaint I’d really make is that suddenly the GL hunting the Anti-Monitor’s remains is shown as Ash and not Saarek. Although its likely she’s had both of them following separate leads (since Ash finds the Anti-Monitor’s armour, whereas Saarek seemed to have a lead on the Anti-Monitor himself). That’s really a minor niggle though in the face of an excellent opening chapter to this new arc. Really looking forward to seeing more of Saint Walker and the Red Lanterns in the next few months (and its a safe bet the Guardians aren’t going to be pleased with what Ganthet’s been up to).

With the Rage of the Red Lanterns Special coming out this week, the hype is building.  There’s a great new interview with Shane Davis on Newsarama where he discusses some of the ideas behind a few of the new Red Lanterns we’re going to see.

It really does look like this arc is going to be brutal. I imagine the GLs are going to be longing for the good, old days of the Sinestro Corps by the sounds of things.

I think Davis hits the nail firmly on the head regarding his comments about Sinestro as well. He’s got that great smug look because he does know more than the others as to what’s going on. He’s been preparing for the war of light for some time.

The solicits for January are up as well, with the GL issue concluding the Red Lanterns arc (I wonder what happens to Atrocious, interesting to note that like the Sinestro Corps War, both are ending with the leader of that Corps incapacitated in some way) and teasing the Orange Lanterns. We also get to find out the next of the 10 new laws the Guardians created during the Sinestro Corps War. With these continual fights against other Corps, you can only presume the GL’s ranks are getting a bit depleted. GLC noted the amount of recruitment they were going to have to do following the Sinestro Corps War, and we’ve still got Mongul et al on the loose, killing GL’s families and trying to re-solidify the Sinestro Corps. Its a safe bet the Red Lanterns are going to cause a fair amount of carnage, and then they’ll have the Orange Lanterns to deal with as well.

By the time they get to the Blackest Night, the four musketeers may be the only GLs left :-S Here’s hoping the Guardians’ diplomatic visit to the Zamarons over in GLC goes well, they could use the help. But then, the Guardians never were that diplomatic.

Ah well, Ganthet to the rescue

Newsarama have a preview for the upcoming Rage of the Red Lanterns one shot up here.

I’m loving the Red Lanterns so far. Laira’s recruitment was pretty brutal, and we know from the Star Saphires that the rings on the far end of the spectrum will exert a lot more influence over their bearers, so the look at Atrocious creating their central battery is suitably horrific. I’m really looking forward to this arc.

As a side note though, I’m curious about the timeline. Hal mentions Orion’s death and the Alpha Lanterns sealing off Earth. Given that Hal was hauled away shortly afterwards, framed for the murder, I’m wondering how this will fit into the framework of Final Crisis.

Although there could easily have been a few days while the Alphas were investigating for the events of this book. It’ll probably be clear once we’ve got the full issue

It was a Green Lantern week this week, with both monthlies falling on the same week (not quite sure how they got synchronised).

Both delivered solid reads, although I’m slightly more inclined to say that GLC was my favourite issue of the two. We get the Star Saphires revisited as their role in Blackest Night starts to be revealed, some quaity character time with Guy and Tora, and Kyle and Soranik joining a group of GLs trying to track down the Sinestro Corps member they think is masterminding the recent attacks on the family members of GLs. Peter Tomasi as usual proves he has an excellent grasp of managing the large cast on this book, and its impressive how he’s managing to provide such a dense read. There’s so much going on.

As part of the Star Saphire build up we find a couple of newly weds, who’re enjoying a trip when their ship runs afoul of Mongul (I love how his severed arm hovers beside him courtesy of his rings). Mongul kills the husband, and leaves the wife alone. Trying to kill herself, unable to face life without her husband, the depth of her love attracts one of the newly formed Star Saphire rings. And we also learn the Zamarons seem to be trying to get the Guardians attention, causing them enlist Guy, Arisia and Sodam to escort them to the Zamaron homeworld.

There’s a lot going on here, and its a testiment to Peter Tomasi’s writing that it doesn’t all end up a jumble. Can’t wait for the next issue of this arc.

Meanwhile, over in GL, Geoff Johns brings the Secret Origin arc to a close.

I’ve been a bit unsure about this arc. While the Blackest Night background has been very nice, and I’ve loved the new take on Hal and Sinestro, its still managed to feel like a bit of a diversion from the Blackest Night buildup. However, there’s still a lot of good stuff here. The scene with Hal standing up to the Guardians, and accusing them of being afraid of the Lanterns is a great one, and I loved how the seeds of Sinestro’s fall were laid by Atrocious. I’m really looking forward to the Rage of the Red Lanterns arc picking up on these aspects of this story as they’ve been the bits I’ve enjoyed the most. Its interesting to see the Inversions manipulate Sinestro into his own downfall, in the same way they did Abin Sur.

The interesting thing that keeps getting underlined, is the notion that Sinestro is the Greatest Green Lantern of all. In previous runs, this is a role that had been assumed by Hal (after Sinestro’s fall) with the implication that Hal had exceeded Sinestro’s accomplishments. However I’m getting the vibe that that’s not necessarily the case anymore. Its certainly interesting when you consider that Sinestro’s primary motivations at the moment seem to be to change the GLC to prepare it for the oncoming Blackest Night. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Playing catchup here a bit. Wizard Universe has a great glimpse at some of Shane Davis’ Red Lantern designs for the upcoming special.

I love these small sneak peaks, and enjoyed the Final Crisis sketchbook in the same way. It looks like Davis has had as much fun designing Red Lanterns as Ethan Van Skiver did the Sinestro Corps, and similarly, it looks like there’s some pretty nasty characters here.

As I’ve said before here, I was a big fan of Mystery in Space, and Shane’s artwork on that series, so I’m really looking forward to seeing his work on Green Lantern. One thing you’ve got to say about GL is that since its relaunch, its been attracting some of the best artists DC have. At least, its certainly been attracting most of my favourites.

Geoff Johns has also been dropping some teases about the Black Lanterns, and confirmed that Ronnie Raymond (the previous Firestorm) is going to be a Black Lantern.   It’ll be interesting to see how the various DC heroes end up encorporated into the various Corps.   Something I suspect will play heavily into the discussions that had been mentioned before (by Dan Didio I think) as to whether Blackest Night is going to remain a GL-specific crossover, or be branched out into a DCU-wide crossover.   While the prospect of seeing various familiar characters recruited to the various Corps could be fun, I’d hope that even if it gets pitched as a universe-wide crossover, the structure is kept similar to Sinestro Corps, with the focus remaining on the GLs and only a strictly limited number of books containing the meat of the story.

Well, its been a good couple of weeks, with Green Lantern #28 last week, and Green Lantern Corps #22 this week.

As shown in the preview, we got our first Red Lanterns in GL. The Empire of Tears are setup as the Guardians for the Red Lanterns, and (unsurprisingly) Laira became the first recruit we’ve seen.

The interesting thing was Laira’s recruitment. In a similar way to the yellow rings, the red rings don’t give you a lot of choice in your recruitment (athough Batman was able to force off a yellow ring, using a combination of will-power, and previous exposure to a GL ring). However, the red rings are a lot more violent. It looked like it was virtually burning itself onto her finger, and then she started vomitting up the red energy. It was an incredibly powerful scene, and I’m really looking forward to seeing more about the red lanterns in the upcoming story arc.

And, of course, we also got a tidbit about the Orange Lanterns (it’ll be interesting to see if most of the Corps are identified by their colours - or if we’ll get more different names a la the Sinestro Corps). I’ll be interested to see what happens with them, and when we’ll start seeing hints about the Indigo Lanterns.

This week, we got the second part of the Boodikka Alpha Lantern story. I’ve basically covered my feelings about this arc in a previous post (in a nutshell, I’m not a huge fan of the character, but I think its good to spend a couple of issues focusing on other Lanterns, and its a good companion piece to the main Alpha Lantern storyline in GL), however I’ll also say again that I really enjoyed the writing and art in these issues.

I hope Sterling Gates gets another GL gig soon (maybe similarly, filling in on a 2-issue arc spotlighting a GL outside of Kyle and Guy), and I really liked Nelson’s artwork. More from this team please.

So, I’ve just been reading the ComicBloc forums this morning, and noticed this post from Geoff Johns.

I’d previously said I wasn’t too bothered about the upcoming Secret Origins arc. I should’ve had more faith in Geoff really

I’m now officially looking forward to it. Abin Sur’s always fun to go back to, and exploring Sinestro’s connections to the Red Lanterns (which ties in nicely with this week’s preview) sounds interesting.

Looking forward to reading that interview. Sounds like there should be a lot of good stuff in it.

Comics Continuum have a preview for the new issue of GL up (strange not to see it onNewsarama). Looks good, and we now know how the Empire of Tears is going to fit into The Final Night.

Its great seeing Sinestro’s plan falling into place after The Sinestro Corps War. Hal’s reactions to the Alpha Lanterns are spot on. It’ll be nice to see if any of the other GLs catch onto how Sinstro’s played them.

Comics Continuum: DC Comics First Looks

This week’s DC previews are now up at Newsarama. Looks to be a great week with GL #24 and Booster Gold #3.

I love the panels of Hal racing to his brother’s house to stop Parallax. Since Kyle’s shown in his new GL duds on the cover to the next issue, hopefully this week will see Kyle and Hal exorcising “the bug”.

Looks like Superman Prime might be getting some action in this issue as well. I’m really interested in his one-shot as there are a lot of questions under this character’s current direction. Although I can’t help but feel that his and the Anti-Monitor’s involvement in this storyline will end up as a tease towards Final Crisis.

Also of interest is this week’s Lying in the Gutters, which has a green-lighted rumour for the Red Lanterns making there first appearance in next month’s GL #25. I must admit, while excited to see how it plays out, I’m also concerned that the Green Lantern Corps itself is going to end up diluted by all these other Corps kicking around. Although given that Geoff Johns has said we’re only on part 2 of a 3-part event, I imagine by the end of it, we’ll be left with the GL Corps as a unique entity, at least in this universe.

Booster Gold looks great as well. I’m really enjoying this title so far, and the mystery regarding Supernova is hotting up. I must admit though, I find the idea of Daniel just using the suit to get really good at X-box Live, and possibly mucking up Booster’s ancestry as a result quite amusing