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IGN have released solicits for the August round of Blackest Night titles, including the first issues of the various tie-in miniseries.

It all looks excellent.  Green Lantern #45 will be dealing with the war of light, with Sinestro getting around to dealing with the Zamarons (who have been converting members of his Sinestro Corps to Star Saphires), only for all sides to find themselves under attack by the Black Lanterns.

The tie-ins look suitably disturbing.  With Batman (now with Dick Grayson under the cowl) facing off against the Black Lantern Flying Graysons, while Earth-2 Superman is in Smallville digging up Jonathan Kent.  Very pleased to see Peter Tomasi writing the Batman tie-in.  After his great Nightwing run, it’ll be very interesting to see how he approaches Dick’s new status quo.  

I’m still not keen on the whole Earth-2 Superman thing, although the solicit’s wording is interesting saying that he’s unearthed Jonathan Kent’s grave.  So Jonathan has not yet risen as a Black Lantern.  Does this mean that there’s a chance Jonathan will be spared turning up as a zombie somehow?   Presumably Clark will still be tied up with New Krypton at this point, so I wonder how he’ll play into this event (and will New Krypton find itself under attack from the rest of Krypton, brought back as Black Lanterns?).  As for the cover to Blackest Night: Titans #1…ewwwwwwwwww.

Meanwhile, Oa continues to take a kicking during Green Lantern Corps #39.   Having only just suffered the Sciencell riot, the Black Lantern rings start arriving and raising all the dead Lanterns from the Crypts as Black Lanterns.  I love this idea of Oa taking a real beating lately.  From the initial assault from the Sinestro Corps, through to the Sciencell Riot and now the Black Lanterns, Oa has been a real target lately, and I like the idea of seeing how the Guardians and Corps will react to it.   The last time this happened was back in Recharge, however the jump to one year later stole any real storytelling opportunities based around Oa’s vulnerability away (aside from the great scene of Guy viewing the new armour built around Oa).

The cover also gives front-and-centre to Katma Tui.  The Green Lantern #45 solicit mentions John confronting her and here we see her rising along with many familiar faces as a Black Lantern.  As I’ve mentioned before, I like these little pieces of interconnectedness between the two titles (such as Sinestro saying he has to find his daughter in GL, and then confronting Soranik in GLC), so the idea that we’ll see Black Lantern Katma Tui in GLC, only to setup her confrontation with John in GL appeals to me a lot.   And, of course, it’ll be nice to see John hopefully getting some decent page-time again.   While I know he’s the JLA’s Green Lantern, he’s been sorely over-looked in the main titles.

Out of all these, the only book I’m not really bothered about is the Titans tie-in as I’ve never been as attached to these characters and their history.  Although we’ll see if completism sets in when I see it on the shelves

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.

DC Comics have put up a preview for tomorrow’s Green Lantern Corps #34 here (pdf format).

Throughout the Sinestro Corps War, I was saying that I really wasn’t getting the love for Sodam Yat.  It felt he was being pushed on us, and into the role of Ion too quickly (and I still think he should’ve turned up earlier in the GLC series, maybe being partnered with Guy on a couple of missions).    However, in more recent stories the character’s starting to click for me.  I really liked his appearance in Legion of 3 Worlds, and here I was really surprised by how much I felt for him in this preview.    He looks really terrifying when he turns round and loses it at his mother.

I’d forgotten the mindwiping incident from his origin story, but its really effective here.  I’d never expected him to turn round and tell his mother to sod off, but it makes perfect sense.   Of course, the fact that its Mongul and the Sinestro Corps will probably be the reason Sodam and Arisia agree to go to Daxam.

I must admit, I’d seen the “Sodam and Arisia go to Daxam” plot in the solicits and though “Sodam, bleh”.  Having seen this preview, I’m now thinking it should be really good and I can’t wait to get the issue tomorrow.  

Still not sold on the Sodam/Arisia possible romance though.  Think I’d rather see that stay mentor/student.  Especially with Kyle and Soranik pairing off.

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.

DC is really kicking off the Blackest Night hype this month, with both the Origins and Omens mini-event thing, and full-page ads for the upcoming Agent Orange story in GL, and Emerald Eclipse in GLC. And with this issue, we have the first issue of Emerald Eclipse.

Peter Tomasi continues to well balance the cast of characters in GLC. We see things with Mongul come to a head as he decimates Daxam’s forces (using just his severed arm, in a really fun scene) and announces that Daxam will now be the new homeworld of the Sinestro Corps. He’s using the Daxamite’s own fear and prejudice against aliens as a natural source of fear for the rings to feed on.
Of course, Arkillo has something to say about Mongul’s attempts to take over the Sinestro Corps, so the two of them get ready to battle for leadership of the Corps.

Meanwhile, Kyle and Guy are having a heart-to-heart over Kyle’s latest mission, and more importantly the new law the Guardians have just instituted, which we learn has led to the resignation of over 200 Lanterns. Kyle attempts to talk around the issue with Guy, but we can see that Guy has figured out there’s something going on between Kyle and Soranik.

Kyle and Soranik have some nice scenes as well, directly dealing with Kyle’s post traumatic stress, showing him trying to deal with all the Lantern deaths recently by sketching them. Soranik takes Kyle to a chapel on Oa, suggesting that he paints a mural dedicated to the Corps to help him work through things. This is then picked up in the Origins and Omens backup, with Guy and a host of other GLs helping Kyle apply the base white coat to the building before he starts painting it in earnest.

Truth be told, these are probably the best scenes in the whole book. All the GLs coming together to help paint the chapel was really nice to see. There’s a strong bit of blackest night fore-shadowing where in a pot of black paint gets knocked over and forms a hand (along with pots of paint representing all the corps in its grip).

The only thing I thought was weird was when Kyle and Soranik kissed. Surely their rings would’ve issued them with a warning that they were in violation of the book of Oa? Either way its going to be very interesting to see the lasting effects of this law. So far they’ve only lost 200 Lanterns (truth be told I expected more, given that there’s over 7200 of them) however I suspect we’ve only just scratched the surface of the effects of this law. You have to presume that Kyle and Soranik’s relationship is going to come under fire soon, and Kyle’s got a lot of backing from his fellow lanterns as the torchbearer. It could backfire badly for the Guardians.

After the mysterious delays surrounding the release of GLC #31 in the UK, I was pleased to find things were back to normal this month, and GLC #32 was released yesterday.

But first a rant. This Faces of Evil thing. I’m not entirely sure what its all supposed to be about, but it was really annoying trying to find my DC titles on the racks yesterday, as they all looked the same, and had the title of the book faded out (to highlight the villain name). I’m not sure how making your books easier to pick out on the racks is a good thing, and if I hadn’t scribbled down the releases I wanted before heading in, I’d have been guaranteed to miss things.

Fortunately, aside from hiding their books, it doesn’t seem to be affecting any of the running storylines, and this month brings us the conclusion of the Sins of the Star Saphires arc. And I will say that the cover featuring Krybb is a very nice piece of work. Very creepy-looking.

For those worried that Kyle was being overshadowed in GLC lately, they’ll have been very happy with this issue. Despite Krybb putting the mind-whammy on him and his fellow GLs last month, Kyle “I held back a supernova with my willpower” Rayner quickly shakes off Krybb’s influence and reminds everyone that for 10 years, he was the premier GL in the DCU as he beats on Krybb, stuns his fellow GLs and purges them of her influence in a couple of pages.

Its a great conclusion to the story, and an especially strong issue for Kyle. Aside from kicking ass in the opening pages, we also get some nice character work. You really feel his pain when the GL is killed by Krybb, despite his best efforts to ensure no one dies. Peter Tomasi’s using Parallax’s possession of Kyle to great affect with this character arc. We also have an acknowledgement that there’s something between Kyle and Soranik, which could be very interesting if speculation that she’s Sinestro’s daughter turns out to be true.

And of course, this will also play off the third of the Guardian’s new laws. As I mentioned back when I was talking about GLC #31, its a hideous new law, and its effects are quickly felt as Salaak is flooded with rings returning to Oa after their owners have resigned from the Corps. I’m not sure how many there were, but it looks like a lot, and it’ll be interesting to see if this is going to noticably leave the GLC short-handed.

My only real complaint about this arc would probably be that despite the “Sins of the Star Saphires” title, the Star Saphires themselves didn’t have a whole lot to do. After the initial issues with the Guardians travelling to Zamaron, they were pushed very much to the background. Peter Tomasi’s clearly having much more fun with the Sinestro Corps. The scenes with the Star Saphire were interesting though, and gave us a look into how their powers might differ from the GLs (similar to the scenes with the Blue Lanterns in GL #36). I liked how the Saphire’s ring locked onto the GL couple as their love was in danger, and took Miri to them. With Fatality now a Star Saphire in Green Lantern, and Miri here, I’m hoping we don’t see the Saphires fade into the background and continue to explore them and their affect on the DCU prior to the War of Light.  There’s definitely the feeling that they’re being expanded far beyond their traditional villain role in the GL mythos.