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Since the two are closely linked, I’ll start by covering Green Lantern #48 which finishes filling in the story of how the Corps leaders get together, as Atrocitus and Larfleeze are saved from the Black Lanterns on Okaraa by the timely arrival of Hal, Sinestro, Carol, Indigo-1 and Saint Walker (with Ganthet and Sayd along for the ride). There’s some interesting ground covered in this issue, which focuses entirely on the group getting together.  Particularly interesting is the idea that the Guardians are actually responsible for the War of Light.  Of course, we know that Scar pushed them into challenging Larfleeze directly, although it was the Guardians themselves who were willing to sell out Ganthet and his Blue Lanterns.  When Hal hears this he’s none-too-impressed, vowing that once the Blackest Night is over, he’ll never work for the Guardians again.  How Johns plans on tackling this post-Blackest Night will be interesting indeed.

I also enjoyed the way Larfleeze was convinced to join up with the group.  Seeing Ganthet and Sayd, he automatically gets jealous about how the other Corps have Guardians and his doesn’t.  This leads to Sayd making a deal whereby she’ll be the Orange Guardian if he helps them out.  Again it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the long term and whether Sayd will have to uphold her side of the deal (I can see her potentially getting out of it, as Larfleeze tends to be easily distracted by anything else new that turns up).

And with the leaders of the various Corps all together, they’re in place for the start of Blackest Night #5…

With last issue being focused on the Flash and co trying to keep their heads above water while Hal assembled the various Corps together, this issue brings all the Lanterns together in a big way.  Starting out straight away with a role call of all the main Lanterns reciting their oathes, the Lanterns are quickly teleported to Coast City having discovered the Black Battery is no longer on Ryut.

And its just in time to help the various assembled heroes.  I have to say, there’s some great dialogue in this issue.  The interactions between Hal and the various Corps (with Hal’s dialogue revelling in the inherent silliness of the multi-coloured Lanterns) and with the Flashes was great.  Line of the issue for me was undoubtedly Barry and Kid Flash’s exchange regarding Bart calling Barry “Grandpa”.  Although the Captain Planet wink to the readers from Carol comes very close.

It was nice to see Wally turn up in this issue having previously only been referred to in the series.  And in his new costume no less.  With the delays to Flash: Rebirth I have to wonder what would’ve happened to Blackest Night had Rebirth #5 had slipped any further.  Would Blackest Night also have slipped, or would DC just have accepted Wally’s new costume premiering in Blackest Night?  Also, I notice than Ivan Reis has also picked up Ethan’s version of Bart’s Kid Flash costume and is drawing the boots as the simplified Flash-style boots as opposed to Bart’s more stylised pair.  I wonder if this is another running change that will stick.  On one hand I hope not as they were part of what made Bart’s outfit distinctive, although realistically they’d probably be a pain to run in.

With all the players in place, Geoff then successfully turns everything on its head, as the Corps combine their rings to create the white light of life, only to find it actually makes Nekron more powerful, not destroying him as they’d thought.  And its here that the plot revelations start hitting, with Black Lantern Batman making a brief appearance, and Nekron’s use of “Bruce Wayne” in quotes adding fire to the theory that the skeleton isn’t actually Bruce’s (although the fact the heroes believe it to be is obviously enough for it to act as the emotional tether for the Black Lanterns).

Nekron then explains exactly why there’s been a revolving door to death in the DCU, as its actually been him preventing the heroes from moving on fully, and setting them up to be resurrected, and further along his preparation for the Blackest Night.

There’s a lot been made of how this series would address death and resurrection in the DCU and lay out the rules going forward, and this is obviously the start of that.  I must admit, I really like the idea that there’s been a wider explanation behind all the DCU resurrections.  Okay, so its being retrofitted in, but it does make all the resurrections easier to swallow.   The only thing I’m not entirely sure about is how this actually works.  For example, Ollie was clearly seen in heaven, having passed into the afterlife in the Quiver storyline.  Although so was Barry and we know he was also in the Speedforce (clearly there must be some overlap between the Speedforce and Heaven in the DCU, both are versions of the afterlife, so I think it kinda works if you squint at it for long enough).  How Ollie being happy in Heaven works alongside Nekron’s revelation that he was preventing the deceased characters being judged I’m not quite sure.  Although I guess there’s always the fact that Quiver was pre-New Earth as well.

That’s fanboy nitpicking though, and ignoring it, this explanation feels right.  With Nekron’s comments about souls being judged and moving on beyond his grasp as well, we’re perhaps seeing the wider hints for how death/resurrection will work post-Blackest Night.

And then the kicker.  As Nekron was the one who prevented them passing over, he still holds power over all the resurrected heroes, as he proves by sending the Black Rings to convert them fully into Black Lanterns.  Clearly Donna’s infection over in the Titans special was a tease that the resurrected heroes were still bound to Nekron, and the payoff here, with Diana, Donna, Clark etc all instantly turned into Black Lanterns is chilling.  The only two left trying to escape the Black Rings are Barry and Hal.

And that to me is something really nice about this mini series.  Its not about the “Trinity” of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman.  This is a Hal and Barry story that everyone else has just happened to get caught up in, and this cliff hanger positions the series to continue building on that partnership the way the first three issues did.  It does make sense, since this is the first big event since both Hal and Barry have been re-established in the DCU to put the focus on them working together again.  Of course it helps that they’re written so well by Geoff Johns, who’s clearly having the time of his life working with them both.

The next issue looks to be a real corker.  With the majority of the DCU’s heavy hitters now Black Lanterns, and Barry and Hal desperately trying to escape the same fate there’s a real “how will they get out of this one” been built up.  Interesting should be the development with Atom and Mera, who’ve been dragged into Black Lantern Damage’s ring by Black Lantern Jean Loring.  With Atom and Mera being the other significant pairing of this series, I can’t help but think that being shrunk down inside one of the rings is going to put them in a key position to help out in the next issue or two.

I really thought this issue was going to be tough to review.   Fortunately, having been spoiled to the big event yesterday, I had a day to process it in advance, which let me digest the issue without giving into fanboy rage.

So to get right to the main talking point of the issue.  Kyle dies.

As a Kyle fan, this isn’t something I was pleased to hear about.  With Kyle spending most of the Sinestro Corps War possessed by Parallax, and now getting killed off in Blackest Night, it was hard not to feel a little hard done by, as Hal races around the universe getting ready to save the day through his sheer silver aged awesomeness.

However, having time to digest it, and then read the issue with a clearer head, I’ve got to say, its a brilliant issue, and if this is indeed Kyle’s curtain call, then its not a bad one.

Kyle really gets to look the hero throughout the issue.  He takes charge of the Black Lantern assault on the central battery by coming up with the idea to release Vice and use the Red Lantern as a blunt instrument against the zombie hordes.    Then when Alpha Lantern Chaselon mucks everything up and is about to go nuclear, Kyle gets to play the hero, grabbing the Alpha battery and using it and sacrificing himself in order to take out all the Black Lanterns in the resulting explosion.

(Of course, presumably said Black Lanterns are just going to rise again, but it made for a good scene nonetheless).

Once again the Alpha Lanterns prove to be more trouble than they’re worth with Chaselon mucking up Kyle’s plan to use Vice (which was working and saving the central battery), and then refusing Salaak’s orders to withdraw, resulting in his own death and endangering others (finally killing Kyle) with his ruptured Alpha Battery.  I’m at the point where I just really, really want to see the Alpha Lanterns get their comeuppance.

Things are now nicely in place for Guy to fall as a Red Lantern next issue, with Kyle’s death presumably pushing him over the edge, and Vice’s ring on hand (pun unintended) to grab him, and from a larger plot point of view, we know that after Salaak, Guy and Kyle were the only things standing between the Alpha Lanterns and control of the GLC.  With Guy and Kyle gone, Salaak’s going to have to watch his back.

Special mention must go to the art in this issue.  Patrick Gleason really brought some of the best art he’s done to this issue.  The splash page of the Black Lanterns attacking the Central Battery was a great image, and Kyle’s final stand is beautifully drawn.  He also continues to excel at some of the freaky visuals, such as the Black Lantern construct that attempts to tear down the battery, and mention must go to both Gleason and Tomasi for the creepy image of the Green Lantern orphans, finally reunited with their parents as Black Lanterns.

With regards to Kyle’s death though, while its a good scene, I’m not counting him out yet.  This whole story is about the dead coming back, and I’ve speculated before that we’ll see some sort of mass resurrection at the end to bring back big names like the Hawks, Aquaman and J’onn.  No reason we can’t add Kyle to the list.

There’s also the cover to GLC #44, which shows Red Lantern Guy and features Kyle.  Now this could be symbolic for Kyle’s death having pushed Guy over the edge, or maybe a running change will swap Green Lantern Kyle for Black Lantern Kyle, but it still leaves things open.

I guess after 52 I’ve tried to learn to not let deaths of characters I love knock me as much.   Back during 52, fandom went into outrage overload over Booster Gold’s death (later revealed to be an elaborate hoax he’d setup to allow him to operate freely as Supernova) and then later Animal Man’s death (resurrected by aliens the very next issue).  So with that in mind, I’m not ready to drop Green Lantern yet or anything.  We’re in the middle of a story here, and where exactly Geoff and Peter have planned for it to go remains to be seen.   I’m fairly optimistic that Kyle’s going to be back in short order, with this death serving to move various subplots on, and provide a nice big halfway-mark shock to the readers.  If he’s not brought back, then I might be a bit unhappy, but for now, I’ll see what comes next month.

Green Lantern #45 is a heckuva busy issue.  With last month’s Green Lantern #44 Geoff Johns was busy kick-starting Blackest Night by focusing on the Hal/Barry fight with the Black Lantern J’onn.   With Blackest Night now in full swing, he turns his attention back to the war of light, revisiting the various plot threads sparked during the earlier Rage of the Red Lanterns and Agent Orange arcs.

The John Stewart/Xanshi stuff was covered in the preview in its entirity.  Sadly we don’t get any other teases as to what the story is here.  We do know that this plot is due for some focus in the upcoming issues, however another page at least would’ve been nice here.  Its always a slight disappointment when a preview shows you an entire subplot.  Again though, this is largely due to the number of plot threads Geoff’s revisiting in this issue so its understandable.

The rest of the issue is filled full of the various Lanterns.  We get a bit more of the conflict on Zamaron, with Carol and Sinestro providing for quite an interesting battle of wills (if that’s the right word), as Sinestro plays on her character and mocks her for taking up the Star Sapphire purely to try and help Hal.  In reponse we get Carol briefly trapping Sinestro in one of the Sapphire’s conversion booths where we get an intriguing look at Sinestro and Abin Sur’s relationship, specifically in terms of Sinestro seeming interested in Abin’s sister.   Since we know the Abin is one of the Black Lanterns to rise, I’m guessing this is a plot we’ll be seeing sooner rather than later.  And even more interestingly, they’re interrupted by the arrival of the Black Lantern Sinestro Corps led by Black Lantern Amon Sur.  Its interesting that both Abin and his son have been risen as Black Lanterns, and surely that’s something Geoff is going to play with.

On Ysmault the Alpha and Lost Lanterns have retrieved Laira’s body but find themselves under attack from the Red Lanterns, but are also having problems with the Alpha Lanterns.  Boodikka is refusing to leave as her programming to terminate all enemies of the Corps is conflicting with the need to evacuate the planet.  Once again, we’re seeing the Guardian’s mistakes start to come back on them.   The Lost Lanterns say they’re going to have to force her to leave, but you can’t help but think she’ll react badly to that.  And then the Black Rings show up.  Laira is of course one of the first to rise as a Black Lantern, but given Ysmault’s population was nearly entirely wiped out by the Manhunters, you can’t help but think the Red, Alpha and Lost Lanterns are about to find themselves badly outnumbered.

The scenes with the Blue and Orange Lanterns though probably provided the biggest payoff.  Given the nature of the Orange Lanterns (they’re killed and Orange Lantern copies created), it always seemed like Larfleeze was going to be in a lot of trouble come Blackest Night, and here we see that come to pass as the Black Rings arrive on Okaara.

We’ve also got the continuing assault on Odym.  A nice touch, playing on how full of life the planet is, is the fact that the Black Rings sent there are just hovering in orbit.  There’s nothing on the planet for them currently, so they’re just waiting for something to die.  It gave us the really nice visual of the rings circling Odym like vultures.

I also liked the visual of the Orange Lanterns, with Larfleeze’s greed knowing no limits, having moved on from the idea of just grabbing a blue ring, to grabbing the whole central battery.  It was interesting that Ganthet wasn’t too concerned about the Battery though.  Granted, the Blackest Night has arrived, but you think his Corps being left powerless would concern him just a little, unless he’s betting on the Black Rings disrupting the Orange Lanterns as we saw in the final pages as he’s aware the Black Lanterns are the larger threat.

All in all, it was very nice, to see the War of Light return center stage, and going by solicits, it looks like this is the aspect of the story that the main GL title will be focusing on from the duration of Blackest night.    You’ve got to admire the sheer number of subplots Geoff is managing in this issue, its just perhaps a shame that we don’t get a bit more of them due to the restriction in number of pages.  But then, they do say you should always leave people wanting more

Very much looking forward to the next issue, hopefully with a lot more of the John Stewart/Xanshi stuff, and it’ll be nice to see Ganthet’s Blue Lanterns get more involved.  Although Ganthet will need to try and get a Green Lantern in range of Odym unless the Black Lanterns on Okaraa can cause Larfleeze to retrieve his “Corps” and leave behind the Blue battery.

After two years of buildup, Blackest Night has finally arrived.

As Ganthet predicted during the Sinestro Corps War, the other Corps have risen and the War of Light is now in full swing, with the Alpha Lanterns attacking the Red Lanterns on Ysmault, Ganthet’s own Blue Lanterns under seige from Larfleeze and the Orange Lanterns, and the Green Lanterns and Star Saphires fighting the Sinestro Corps on various fronts.  But now, the Black Lanterns are rising.

This is an exceptional first issue.  After two years of hype, and a PR blitz by DC over the last few months with previews, action figures and interviews, it would’ve been so easy for this issue to disappoint even if it had been good.  But it doesn’t.  Not by a long shot.  This is Geoff Johns finally being able to tell the story he’s been building to.   Unlike Final Crisis there’s no slow buildup here.  We’ve had the buildup, and now its straight into the main event as the black rings seek out various prominent characters from across the DCU.

There’s real horror in the reveal of the Black Lanterns who are rising, especially on Oa where the entire crypt of deceased Green Lanterns is brought back to confront the GLs.  Line of the issue has to be Guy’s “What the #@$%?”.

Ivan Reis is at the top of his game here as well.  He’s always been my favourite Green Lantern artist, but here he takes things to another level.  He’s dealing with some fairly horrific visuals which are apart from the space opera stuff we’ve usually seen him do, and he handles it beautifully.  There’s various splash pages throughout that just caused me to stop and actually look at the detail, and appreciate them fully, be it Hal showing Barry images of all the heroes who’ve died while he was gone, the Black Lantern reveal on Oa, or the reveal of Ralph and Sue as Black Lanterns.  Its astounding work.

And having mentioned Barry, here Ivan reinforces something I felt while reading the Blackest Night #0 preview, that Ivan draws one of the best interpretations of Barry I’ve seen.  He really captures the feel of speed in the character in a way I don’t think any other artist has done for me.  I just love it.

One of my big worries was when Blackest Night got moved from being a Green Lantern event to a DCU-wide event.  With it being the third part in Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern trilogy, and with all the build up to the War of Light being very Green Lantern-centric, I was really worried that this would prove to be a poor pay off to the dangling Green Lantern plot threads.  I needn’t have worried though, as Geoff manages to do a sterling job of making this feel like the natural continuation of the Green Lantern storylines while interweaving the larger DC universe.  He features the Green Lanterns, while also paying attention to other characters throughout the DCU, and it all gells together wonderfully.   My only worry would really be that anyone not following Green Lantern for a while may get a bit lost by some of what’s going on.

This was a cracking start to DC’s big summer event.  This felt like it had all the impact of Secret Invasion #1 and there promises to be a lot of good stuff to come.  Roll on the next issues of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.

While overshadowed slightly by this week’s cracking issue of Captain Britain, its none the less another cracking part of Emerald Eclipse in Green Lantern Corps this month.

Picking up with last month’s revelation, we get the backstory to Sinestro and Soranik’s relationship, as Sinestro reveals how Soranik’s mother had been forced to hide her away from him when he had started to dominate Korugar and they’d started receiving death threats (and you have to wonder how much of it was to protect Soranik from Sinestro himself). There’s something very creepy about watching Sinestro stalk Soranik throughout her life, from giving her her distinctive facial tattoo(revealed to contain a tracker so he’d always be able to find her), to taking the photograph of her and her adoptive parents on her graduation day. Despite the creepiness, there’s an obvious amount of love for Soranik from Sinestro. We see them flying together, and him allowing her to play with his GL ring when she was young, and he comments on how he hopes the upcoming Blackest Night will allow them to fight side by side, before taking off for Daxam to deal with Mongul.

We cut from there to the riot on Oa, which is in full swing. Patrick Gleason really captures the chaos going on, with the Green Lanterns struggling to keep everything contained. We get loads of cameos from the villains who were contained in the Sciencells as well, including Alex Nero. I wonder if he can still tap the Ion power or not…

The big events though are taking place on Daxam. Struggling to get the Daxamites motivated, Sodam has decided on a bold strategy. He’ll use his element of surprise to try and take down Mongul hoping that with their leader gone, the Sinestro Corps will be in disarray enough to give the Daxamites the edge and drive them from their world. While he’s lost his natural powers under Daxam’s red sun, Sodam is confident that with the Ion power, he can pull it off.

However, he’s not counted on Scar, who blocks his access to the Ion power. Its a really odd scene to be honest. Unlike Kyle, Sodam is deliberately restricted from accessing the power of Ion, and must request authorisation from his ring before he’s allowed to use it. Meaning that contrary to what we’ve thought, up until this issue, Sodam has actually just had normal GL powers (combined with his Kryptonian ones). It seems odd to me that his powers have been cut off in this way. Its perhaps not completely shocking, given how much the Guardians love being control freaks, but its strangely at odds with how Kyle was in the role. Of course, since Kyle was the torchbearer and responsible for resurrecting the Guardians, I guess they just trust him more than Sodam. I also wonder if its a safety mechanism to prevent someone else tapping the power like Nero did during the Ion series.

Fortunately Sodam’s ring suggests that a direct energy impact might be enough to override the block, and allow him temporary access to Ion. Chancing it, Sodam drops his shields, and allows Mongul to hit him with all he’s got. It works, and Ion is unleashed, and with the power dropping quickly, we get the surprising (and brilliant) move of Sodam flying straight into Daxam’s sun and re-energising it, turning it yellow.

I loved that ending. I never saw it coming, and its a stroke of genius. Its nice to see Sodam being smart and the promise of next issue having the Sinestro Corps facing a planet of people with Superman’s powers is brilliant. Its also nice to see the Ion power being used for a big feat. While we now know why Sodam hasn’t seemed particularly powerful, its always fun to see the Ion power do something impressive, be it re-energising Daxam’s sun, or Kyle’s containment of Nero back in Ion #6.

This story arc, more than anything else has really helped build Sodam’s place in the GLC. I’d said at the time that his introduction and ascension to the Ion power during the Sinestro Corps War felt too rushed, especially with the way Kyle was being booted from the role. However this arc has really allowed Peter Tomasi the chance to focus in on the character, and he’s all the much better for it. Still not convinced about the Sodam/Arisia relationship though, it’ll be interesting to see exactly where Tomasi plans on taking that.

IGN have put up the solicits for the first month (July) of Blackest Night, and its looking very, very good.

A very interesting aspect to these solicits its the two issues of GL in July. Hopefully this is a sign of Doug Mahnke having had a headstart on the art duties, and we know from final Crisis that he can produce good work in a hurry (something that’ll probably be key to GL during all this). I’m liking the look of his two covers a lot. He’ll probably not replace Ivan Reis as my favourite GL artist, but his artwork’s great, and he’s a fast worker, which will count for a lot given GL’s tendency to hit delays.

I’m guessing these issues pick up straight after what we’ve seen in Blackest Night #0, as that started with Barry and Hal at Bruce’s grave, and here we see them battling the Black Lantern J’onn by that same grave (and Black Hand there as well, although I’m guessing he escapes after issue #43 thanks to the arrival of the Zombie Martian Manhunter). I’m also interested to see that Peter Tomasi’s story arc with Mongul taking over the Sinestro Corps will be coming to a head in the main GL title, with the solicits teasing Sinestro vs Mongul.

 GLC meanwhile is the usual one issue that month (helps keep GL ahead in the numbering ) and its dealing with the aftermath of the Sciencell riots, with a new law being enacted (something that’s not as exciting as it used to be. I’m just sitting wondering what dumb decision the Guardians will make this time), and hints that its going to have serious implications for the Honour Guard Lanterns Kyle and Guy. The cover seems intriguing with Kilowog holding (offering?) a load of Green Lantern rings. Perhaps a sign of the heavy losses the GLC has taken recently, between the Sinestro Corps, Red Lanterns, and people quitting due to dumb laws?   Although given the blood on his hand, I’m guessing these Lanterns didn’t quit.  Despite the Guardian’s feelings towards Ganthet, with the hits their numbers have taken over the last year, they’re going to end up very glad of the Blue Lanterns help by the end of this.

Finally, and possibly what I’m looking forward to the most out of these solicits, is the Tales of the Corps specials. The solicits give us an idea of what stories to expect, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Saint Walker’s pilgrimage, and our first introduction to the Indigo Lanterns.

Yup, its yet another cracking issue of Green Lantern Corps by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. Are people getting bored reading me constantly gushing over this title?

Picking up on events from last issue, Red Lantern Vice is tearing through the Sciencells, much to the delight of the Sinestro Corps as Green Lantern Voz gets in his way. However, their delight soon changes when he turns on them.

Scar meanwhile releases the captured Sinestro Corps rings which fly back to their owners, as the rest of the Lanterns on Oa are alerted to the emergency and are led into the middle of the riot by Kyle, Guy and Kilowog.

Arisia and Sodam Yat arrive at Daxam, and quickly meet up with the refugees from Mongul’s takeover, led by Sodam’s father.  As we’d expect from his exchange with his mother last issue, Sodam’s not thrilled to be there, and wastes no time laying into his father and trying to kick the Daxamites into action.

There’s a heck of a lot to love in this issue.  The opening jailbreak sequence is action packed, and the art helps give it a real sense of urgency, with the red lantern running amok through the Sciencells as the rest of the GL’s rush in to try and contain things before they get out of hand.   We also learn that these events are taking place during the Agent Orange arc, as its noted that the Guardians are off-planet in the Vega System.

Which makes Scar’s appearance interesting.  Since she wasn’t with the other Guardians, does she get found out during the course of Agent Orange and end up in hiding from the other Guardians?  Potentially interesting developments afoot there I think.

Sodam Yat’s story also continues to be good.  I have to take my hat off to Peter Tomasi, as he’s really making me like the character now, whereas before I felt his introduction and promotion to Ion was far too rushed.   We’re still not seeing much impressive about his power however, despite him being Ion, and perhaps there’s some dialogue needed to address this?  Its easily explained that he’s not as experienced with the ring as Kyle is, or somesuch.  As it stands though, he’s really coming across as a standard GL.

However it was nice to see that panel of him swooping down on Daxam, with the green energy wings, and his heat vision burning through the various Sinestro Corps members.  Sodam Yat should be very powerful and scary, and I feel this panel actually acknowledged that.

There’s also an interesting spin being put on the Arisia/Sodam relationship.   Previous issues really felt (to me) like they were being pitched as a couple, however in this storyline Arisia’s being confronted with a much harsher side to Sodam, and one she obviously doesn’t like.  From his hardline dealings with the Daxamites (which I can’t really blame him for in fairness), to his admission that he’d have blown Zamarron apart just because a Guardian asked him to, Arisia seems to me to be a bit more afraid of Sodam in this issue.

The Sinestro Corps really shine here as well.  With Arkillo still smarting from his beatdown last issue, and eventually killing another Corps member just for mentioning Mongul’s name.  And the giant Sinestro Corps serpent encircling Daxam.  All great moments and imagery.   Tomasi’s obviously having a lot of fun expanding on the Sinestro Corps.

The final revelation in the book, is one a lot of people guessed, which kind of robs it of its power.  Soranik being Sinestro’s daughter was widely speculated after Rage of the Red Lanterns, however it does put Sinestro’s actions towards her during Sinestro Corps War into a new light, which I like.  It’ll be interesting to see where they go with this.   Soranik finding out Korugar’s greatest villain is her father is going to cause some issues.

Continuing on from the preview, we pick up on the conversation between Sodam Yat and his mother. Arisia’s obviously pretty appalled by Sodam’s reaction, but that seems to change once she hears about the mind-wiping, and what they did to Sodam’s alien friend.

Of course, the minute his mother mentions Mongul and the Sinestro Corps, Sodam’s attitude changes. Its a cap on a nice piece of character-work, that he immediately becomes all business, and points out that while he really couldn’t give a damn about Daxam, he’s sworn to protect people from the Sinestro Corps. But before he does, he points out to his mother that the only reason she was able to get help was because of his friend’s ship, and forces her to apologise to a ring-generated image of him. As we saw in the preview, this is a great scene and Sodam comes across really well here as a fully-realised character. We see him taking responsibility for Mongul still being alive (a character trait that can only help explain how messed up he is in Legion of 3 Worlds, if he’s always shouldering the responsibility for things like this), although I can’t help but think his “recon” mission is a really dumb idea.  Granted, he is Ion, but I’d still want at least Guy or Kyle tagging along. Arisia’s the veteran Lantern, but she really doesn’t come across that way here, happily agreeing to Sodam’s plan, even though she thinks they should take backup.  Sodam’s still a rookie Lantern, reliant in the sheer power Ion gives him.   Arisia’s a veteran, but they’re flying into a hornet’s nest of Sinestro Corps, and Mongul alone is a pretty major threat.

The other highpoint of this issue is without a doubt the Mongul/Arkillo fight.  Its really brutal and plays out well over several pages.   I loved the moments like when Arkillo stabs a metal spike through Mongul, and Mongul just turns around and rams it straight back into Arkillo, with it still sticking out of his own body.  As expected, Arkillo ends up defeated but the fight was definitely satisfying.  

There’s a nice moment with Kyle and Soranik, discussing their relationship and what could happen if they get caught, and Kyle is pretty defiant that as long as he can help people, and their relationship won’t affect that, he’s not giving up his ring.   Its nice to see Peter Tomasi handling Kyle’s character as an artist though.  Its something that can get overlooked in amongst all the space-drama so its nice to see that aspect being tackled straight on.

The end of the issue sets up events on Oa nicely.  Part of Scar’s plan involves crippling Oa, so to that end she frees Vice, the recently captured Red Lantern, brought in by Salaak and Kilowog after the attack on Sinestro’s transport.   It does show up a big problem with the Red Lanterns.   Oa’s pretty reliant on confining people in the Sciencells, but they get disolved by the red flame, and they presumably can’t remove a Red Lantern’s ring without killing them.   It’ll be interesting to see how this gets addressed, I’m presuming with them setting up a separate containment facility for Red Lanterns. 

Of course, Vice has just broken out and the Sciencells are filled with Sinestro Corps members.   So it looks like the next few issues are going to be pretty action-packed.

This month brings the conclusion of the “Rage of the Red Lanterns” arc. Well, I say conclusion, but really this feels more like the end of part 1 of “The War of Light”.

I do now get the feeling that rather than being a specific event in the GL titles, the War of Light will more be an umbrella title for everything that’s currently going on with the different groups of Lanterns, both in this title, and GLC, which will probably come to ahead during the Blackest Night event.

Events pick up from the last issue, with Hal’s will struggling against the red ring. He attacks the blue lanterns with a red-flame fighter jet, which allows them to realise his willpower is attempting to fight the ring (as other red lanterns are incapable of forming constructs). Its nice to see that technically the red energy can form constructs like the other Lanterns, its just that it overpowers the Red Lanterns so much they don’t have the willpower to do it.

Saint Walker finds himself facing off against Atrocious, who reveals that the Blue Lanterns are now powerless, as hope is useless without willpower, and so the Blue Lanterns need to be within range of a Green Lantern for their rings to work. With Hal being overpowered by the red ring, his GL ring has shutdown leaving the Blue Lanterns defenseless.

Or so Atrocious thinks, as Saint Walker vaults past him and gives his blue ring to Hal. The blue ring destroys the red ring, and restores Hal’s heart and blood, allowing Hal’s GL ring (and the blue lantern rings) to reactivate. Hal is able to beat back the red lanterns, however he is now caught somewhere between a blue lantern and a green lantern.

Meanwhile, with their power being drained by the red flame, Sinestro and his Corpsmen take advantage of the distraction to retreat back to Qward. Here, we get a nice nod to the events in GLC, as Sinestro comments on Mongul’s attempted coup. However with Atrocious’ comments about his daughter, Sinestro’s priority is now returning to Korugar, while he orders his loyal Corpsmen to gather any others that have stood against Mongul and wait for him on the darkside of Daxam’s moon.

This is another great issue, however as I say, doesn’t really read as a conclusion, but more just another instalment in the war of light, to be continued next month (indeed, we get a couple of pages teasing the next Agent Orange arc, and it seems that Agent Orange has a history with the Guardians).

I am slightly confused as to the continuity though. We know that Rage of the Red Lanterns takes place between Final Crisis #1 and #2. Presumably now, Agent Orange will as well. I’m hoping that at somepoint there’s going to be a noticable break in the storyline wherein the events of Final Crisis can play out, as Hal appeared in the later issues of Final Crisis, and as near as we could tell was still a regular GL (maybe he was hiding a blue ring?).  I’m guessing this will be addressed during the Agent Orange storyline.

There’s plenty of action with the various Corps (we see the Star Saphires recruiting Carol) and the reveal of the weakness in the Blue Lanterns puts an interesting spin on things. When we heard Ganthet wanted to recruit Hal as leader of the blue lanterns, we’d assumed it was as a blue lantern. With what we now know, its perhaps reasonable to assume that Ganthet had intended Hal to remain a Green Lantern, so that the Blue Lanterns would always have one with them, to ensure their rings would work. Or alternatively, Ganthet had intended for Hal to wear both rings as he now does? Its certainly going to be interesting to see what happens to Hal next issue.  Upcoming solicits suggest he’ll be hanging onto the blue ring for at least this next arc however.

Its nice to see John turn up during the Origins and Omens backup. Again we’re seeing some focus on his background as a sniper, and this story seems to take place after the Agent Orange storyline (hopefully indicating there will be a bit of a break between it and Blackest Night in terms of continuity). Here he’s got Fatality in his sights, who’s now been converted to a Star Saphire. Very interested to see where this goes as I always enjoyed John and Fatality during Winnick’s run on volume 3. John’s not had a huge amount to do in the GL titles lately (although he at least appears in JLA), so it’ll be good to catch up with him during all this craziness with the various Lanterns.

Its a great issue, and I can’t wait for next month.  With everything gearing up for Blackest Night, these books can’t come fast enough.

The May solicits are up at Newsarama, and there’s some interesting things in store that month.

First up, it looks like there’s no issue of GL.  Well that sucks, especially with them building up the Blackest Night at the moment.  I daresay the issue will be more than worth the wait, but I hope its the last delay for a while.   They’d done a cracking job of getting the delays sorted out after Infinite Crisis with the one-arc-on, one-arc-off rotation for Ivan and a guest artist.  Its a shame to see them creeping back into the title (although, in fairness they’ve already hit the Rage of the Red Lanterns arc).

GLC sounds excellent though, with a riot in the Sciencells leading to GLs versus Sinestros versus Red Lanterns. Wonder how that comes about. I think I’m right in saying that as it stands, its only yellow Lanterns in the Sciencells at the moment, so either the GLs manage to capture some Red Lanterns at the end of the current story arc in GL, or the Red Lanterns attack Oa looking to get some revenge over the Sinestro Corps. Either way, we’ve just seen just this kind of showdown taking place on Ysamault (only with the two blue Lanterns thrown in). The idea of this conflict taking place on Oa itself adds a level of danger to things, but it’ll be interesting to see how it comes about.

Strange Adventures is another no-brainer for me. I’ve been loving Jim Starlins take on the other side of the DCU’s cosmic tales, so I’m interested to see where he’s going to take things in this series. The idea of Rann being rebuilt in secret that he setup in the last series will be interesting to see played out here. Its looking like it’ll be a reduced cast as well, without the Hawks, or Space Team from the previous book.

Another no-brainer is Power Girl #1. I previously blogged about looking forward to this series here, and so I’m glad to see it finally hitting the shelves.

Of course, we now know that my speculation about it being set on Earth-2 was way off, although how Power Girl’s trip to that alternate world will affect this series will remain to be seen.  I personally felt the Earth-2 stuff in JSA didn’t really work (I’m sure I’ve previously ranted about the mess Earth-2 is in the DCU at the moment) but if this series can do something good with that mini-arc, then so much the better.

Of course, in the comments we’ve already mentioned the latest developments in the Superman New Krypton arc.  Just what could have led Superman to the point of joining up with Zod’s army on New Krypton?  I’m really not sure what I think of this direction, but we’ll see how it goes.  While I appreciate them taking Superman off in a bold new direction, I’m not sure how much I’m actually interested in Superman taking a prolonged stay on New Krypton, especially if he ends up in their army of all things.   I’m going to give it a few issues though to see what I think of the direction.

Other things that caught my eye are the Battle for the Cowl books (most of them I’ll be skipping for budget reasons, but I’ll probably nab the Oracle mini, even if I’m terrified for what it’ll do to the excellent Birds of Prey series).  Flash Rebirth #2 finds Barry Allen hiding yet another Dark Secret.  Again, not sure what to make of this solicit.  Is it really necessary to have Barry hiding a dark secret?  Afterall, Geoff did that fairly recently during Identity Crisis.

Final Crisis Aftermath Run and Dance should be interesting as well.  I’m interested to see what they do with the Human Flame (although again, perhaps similar to the recent Rogues storyline following Bart’s death?), and The Super Young Team were a lot of fun in Final Crisis, so what happens to them next should be fun.