A really solid week this week with DC’s releases. Green Lantern Corps means I’ll be reiterating my usual “Peter Tomasi rules”-type review.

We pick up with part 2 of the Sins of the Sapphires arc. However, the story actually opens with Kryb, the Sinestro Corps member being hunted by Kyle and co, and we find her claiming the child of her latest victims, one of whom is a Green Lantern. Kryb is a brilliantly creepy creation. Its a really terrifying idea that she’s going around snatching all these kids and killing their parents. I’m not sure what happens to the kids she snatches, but I suspect its not going to be pleasant. Seeing the GLs led by Kyle catch up to her is powerful, and you know they’re not going to be easy on her. Especially given that she’s just killed a fellow Corps member.

The main meat of this month’s story though lies with Guy, Sodam and Arisia leading the Guardians to Zamaron on a “diplomatic mission”. Of course, ulterior motives are abound, and the Guardians are quick to admit to Guy that this is also a spy mission to see exactly what the Zamarons are up to. Things get worse when later on Scar admits to Sodam that he’s there to level the place if things go wrong.

Of course, the Guardians are their usual selves, and are only there to get their own way: the Zamarons immediately ceasing tapping the love portion of the emotional spectrum. The Zamarons, unsurprisingly telling them to get stuffed. This, combined with recent events in the title involving Kryb and others, result in the Guardians passing their latest of the new laws, forbidding Green Lanterns to get involved in physical relationships. Yup, that’s going to go down well. The fallout from this one is going to make the lethal force law look like a walk in the park.

We also see that the Zamarons have been capturing the missing Sinestro Corps rings, along with a few of the female members of the Sinestro Corps (notably Karu-Sil, and Fatality) and are attempting to purge them of their fear and instill them with love. Its another plan that’s probably not going to end well. The fact that the Zamarons are basically brainwashing them is quickly picked up, and serves to underline how the “positive” side of the spectrum has its own dangers. We know from the previous Star Sapphire storyline that tapping a power from the extreme end of the spectrum will cause that power to consume you (something Atrocious and his Red Lanterns are actually relishing), so you wonder exactly how its going to backfire on the Zamarons.

Another great issue. This title goes from strength to strength, and is easily a match for the main GL book. I’m really looking forward to seeing this latest law from the Guardians blow up in their faces.

The other big DC comic of the week for me, was Action Comics and the latest part of the New Krypton saga. The action picks up where the last issue of Superman left off, with Doomsday (and the implication being that Sam Lane has purposely sent Doomsday into the fray) crashing the meeting Clark setup between the Kryptonians and the UN.

Of course, while Doomsday has fought Clark to a standstill in the past, this time he’s up against a large group of Kryptonians and gets summarily pulverised, and its announced Doomsday’s finally dead. However, given that Doomsday’s whole origin revolves around him dying, and evolving so it doesn’t happen again, I imagine the next time he turns up he’s going to be very nasty to go up against. Perhaps this is Geoff Johns laying the seeds for revamping the character, who’s been increasingly overused since his first appearance, and has as a result lost some of his impact.

There was a big shock in this issue, in the form of the new Nightwing and Flamebird. Specifically Nightwing. Back in the Fortress of Solitude, we find a few of Zod’s troops trying to find the Phantom Zone Projector, so they can release Zod from his imprisonment (you know the whole situation with Zod is just going to get steadily nastier from here on), however before they can get to it, they’re stopped by Nightwing and Flamebird. However, the most interesting thing, is how they’re stopped. Specifically, when Nightwing uses his tactile telekinesis to dismantle one of Zod’s men’s gun.

Tactile Telekinesis is, of course, not a traditional Kryptonian power. The only character who’s shown it before is Kon-El, Superboy. And he only had it because he was an imperfect clone of Clark (infact, his DNA was a splice of Clark’s and Lex Luthor’s, however his Kryptonian DNA seemed to be becoming more dominant, with him displaying more and more of Clark’s powers, especially during the Teen Titans run).

Is this signalling that Kon-El has somehow returned from the dead, after being killed by Superboy Prime during Infinite Crisis? I for one would be very happy if he is back, but his death seemed pretty final. However, if its not him, then I imagine a lot of Superboy fans are going to be very unhappy about this tease.

Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Smallville’s one of those series I’ve got a love/hate relationship with.   Sometimes its really brilliant, usually when dealing with elements of the Superman mythos, and other times its a real chore to sit through (most of the Clark/Lana stuff).

Catching the teaser for next week’s episode on Youtube though, its hard not to be excited about this:

I really hope this doesn’t turn out to be another Zod, because that looks spot on for Doomsday.

Lots of comics worth talking about this week.

Following Brainiac’s defeat in the latest issue of Action Comics, and Superman rescuing the not-so bottle city of Kandor, this special kicks off a major arc linking all three Superman family titles (Action Comics, Superman, Supergirl) together.

Very much dealing with the fallout from the Brainiac arc, we see Clark struggling to come to terms with his father’s death, before realising he has a job to do. In that, the bottle city of Kandor has been restored to full size in the arctic, and its up to Superman to try and ensure the 100,000 Kryptonians there can manage their powers and help them to integrate with humanity.

Its a great issue. The scenes with Clark at Jonathan’s funeral and its aftermatch are powerful, and played to show just how hard this is hitting him. We see him fantasising about killing Brainiac, and there’s an emotional page showing Ma Kent sitting alone down to dinner. Things then switch track to the arctic, where Superman speeds over before the Kryptonians absorb enough yellow sunlight and their powers kick in. We know from previous arcs that Kryptonians have had a decidedly dubious history with their powers, previously using them to become an all-powerful empire, before they realised the errors of their ways and went into a self-imposed exile on Krypton, away from the temptation of yellow suns.

There are some ominous hints right away. The Kryptonians are already refering to Earth as New Krypton, and you don’t really get the impression they’re listening when Clark tries to tell them that the planet is called Earth. One Kryptonian accidentally kills an endangered blue whale as he is unused to his powers. Clark’s experience on Earth means he knows this is going to be a big problem, but its obvious that he’s a lone voice in the crowd, and the reader can see that this is all going to go bady wrong.

We’ve also got Supergirl reuniting with her parents in a nice scene. Supergirl’s been a problem character since she was brought back, with a muddled history a 20 year old character would be proud of. This is a good creative team, so there’s real hope that they can finally give this character some direction.

With some of Zod’s troops also present in the city, you know things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. And we’ve also got the thought-dead Sam Lane recruiting Luthor to prepare for the inevitable problems with the Kryptonians. This is going to get nasty.

A powerful and ominous start to this arc. I may not be a regular buyer of the Super-titles, but I’m really looking forward to see how this plays out over the coming months. The bottle city of Kandor is a staple of the Superman mythos, so it’ll be interesting to see if the city ends up shrunken again by the end of this arc, and if so, what the circumstances will be.

Ok, I’ll get the negative stuff out of the way first.

For me, there’s a lot about this title I don’t like. I’m not a big fan of the Legion. I’ve seen them in various guest appearances, but they’ve never done anything for me. So why, I hear you ask, did you buy it?

Well, its got Superboy Prime in it for one. For another its hotly rumoured that Bart Allen will be getting resurrected in this story (at least, the lightning rod is due to be dealt with). As I like both of those characters, that’s two big draws.

Lastly, loath as I am to admit it, it does say “Final Crisis” on the front, and for my sins, I do find a tie-in hard to pass by.

So, I figured I’d check out the first issue at least.

However it does in many ways push a lot of the buttons for things I hate about tie-ins. For a start (and its a biggy), it doesn’t actually seem to tie in with Final Crisis at all.  From this first issue, I do have to think marketting it as a tie-in is a bit cheeky.  Giving DC the benefit of the doubt though, lets assume there is some kind of tie in in the upcoming issues (although I doubt it - seems to me that there’s enough story here without chucking the New Gods in as well).

Secondly if we assume that Bart does indeed get resurrected in this mini, then why?  Well, it gets Flash fans like myself to buy a Legion book, who might’ve otherwise avoided it.   But with Wally coming back in JLA, Barry in Final Crisis, and Bart coming back in Legion, you do have to kind of wander if anything big ever happens in The Flash book itself (at least Bart had the decency to die in it).

So, a tie-in that doesn’t tie-in, and using unrelated characters to pull in readers.  Not off to a great start.

(ok, I know Bart’s from the 31st century, and XS will be in this.   I’m also aware that I didn’t complain about Superman characters turning up as main villains in the Sinestro Corps War.  Its a fanboy rant, it doesn’t need to make sense )

But none-the-less, I enjoyed this book.  Its written by Geoff Johns, with art by George Perez, so you know you’re buying a quality book, and it does a good job of bringing everyone up-to-date with the Legion’s background.

For me, there was more than enough Superboy Prime action to keep me happy.  He’s been accused of being a two-dimensional character, but for my money, he’s at least entertaining to read here.  The stuff in the Superman museum worked well, and there’s a nice twist with Superboy-Prime being not quite the footnote he thought in history.

There’s also an interesting bit where Superman declares they must redeem Superboy Prime.  This raises a whole load of questions (chief among them, did Superman not read Countdown? ), but I’m choosing to take it as Superman seeing this as their only choice.   He knows Superboy Prime is nigh-on unbeatable.   He’s been captured and escaped before, and killing is obviously not an option.   So instead he’s choosing to reach out to that part of Prime that’s Kal-El, who’s the same as he is.   Its an interesting idea, that the only way to beat Prime is to make him realise what he’s become.  Although I don’t see how the character could ever be truely redeemed.   He’s just done too much to be forgiven for it.

So, despite the negatives, this book rises above them by being a good read.  I’m still onboard for the next issue, but for me, there’s still the thing of my not being a Legion fan.  In many ways I suspect this book would be an ideal trade-wait for me.  That way I could save money, and still read the Superboy Prime and Bart stuff (if Bart does come back - it could still be a twist).   However, there’s that part of me that wants to be there when Bart comes back.  And to see what happens to Superboy Prime.

Its already been touched upon in the comments section, but having read the full article on Newsarama here I’m really excited about this story.

So after the current Brainiac arc (which has been excellent.  Another good sign for this upcoming story), Superman will rescue the city of Kandor from Brainiac, and its population moves to Earth.   You just know that’s not going to end well.

The teaser image introduces things in a really dramatic way.  Suddenly Earth is going to find itself with 100,000 new inhabitants, all with the powers of Superman.   However, the real kicker is that some of those inhabitants are members of Zod’s army, who were in Kandor when it was taken.  You can bet they’re not going to be well pleased when they find out what happened to the General.

There’s also the relationship between Superman and Supergirl.  She’s going to be pretty happy to be around her own people once again, and you get bet Superman’s going to feel more isolated than he ever has, as his human upbringing will invariably bring him into conflict with the other Kryptonians.

There’s plenty to be excited about in the preview image alone with new Kryptonian versions of Nightwing, Flamebird and Superwoman.

Granted, this means that the Superman titles are going to become one long crossover again (such as during the 90s) but I like Geoff Johns response that they’re going to make people want to buy all the issues, rather than forcing them.  Certainly this story looks like it could do the job.

Well, some of the others that caught my eye anyway

First off, Rann-Thanagar Holy War #6.  Its back!!!! Going from the cover, Adam Strange has his Planet Heist kit back.  Yay

JSA #20 features the New Earth JSA and the Earth-2 JSA with Power Girl torn between the two.   I’m really looking forward to this storyline, as is probably most of DC fandom.  But I’m still really intrigued to see how this Earth-2 JSA is going to be approached.    As I’ve mentioned before, the Earth-2 JSA shouldn’t be the Golden Age JSA, so I’m wondering how they’re going to reconcile this.   Earth-2 in 52 was shown to have some kind of link to events on new Earth (both Kryptonians missing), but it also showed differences to the classic Earth-2 we see here.  Of course, there was obviously something going on with Earth-2 during Infinite Crisis (it was the only unpopulated world, E-2 Lois and E-2 Wonder Woman seemed to hint at being drawn somewhere - in the trade at least), so I wonder if this story arc will start to address that.

Booster Gold has a new writer in October in the form of Rick Remender. I’ve not read any of his other stuff (off the top of my head), but I love the sound of this arc, with Daniel unwittingly being possessed by Starro. It sounds like the kind of light-hearted adventure that suits this series down to the ground.

The Tangent Comics crossover is another mini I’m really loving (although it has been pointed out that the JLA really didn’t come out of the last issue looking that great. Powergirl versus Powergirl should be an entertaining matchup and I’m really intrigued to see where this series takes the Tangent Universe. I’ve been really enjoying the trades they’ve been releasing and re-casting Superman as the villain makes a lot of sense for the character.

Finally, the Superman titles explore the fallout of the Brainiac story, with 100,000 Kryptonians living on Earth.    Sounds like a really interesting story setup.  I guess I’ll be picking up the titles for a little while after the Brainiac arc ends.  It certainly gives them a lot of scope to really dig into where Clark sits in between both cultures.  Supergirl’s part in the story should be incredibly interesting, as I imagine she’s going to be really pleased to be around Kryptonians again (especially since this iteration of the character has really struggled to find her feet on Earth).

Yup. October’s going to be an expensive month for this DC fan.

Its no secret that the “Thy Kingdom Come” arc in JSA was dragging for me, and I was thinking of trade-waiting on JSA. However the Gog storyline has really turned that around for me.

I’m enjoying the idea of a God from the Third World having survived, and its a nice counterpoint to the fuss being made over the death of the New Gods of the Fourth World, and their rebirth as the Fifth World Gods over in Final Crisis. I’m also enjoying the idea that this is actually a benevolent deity. Ok, its probably going to go wrong at somepoint, but for now I’m enjoying how this series played against the expectations that the JSA would have a huge fight on their hands, and instead Gog is actually improving the lives of people around the world.

And we now know how Power Girl ends up on Earth-2, as Gog starts helping out the members of the JSA, including sending Power Girl “home”. (Interestingly, its mentioned that the portal was temporal in nature - perhaps explaining why the Annual has the golden age Earth-2 depicted, rather than the “52″ Earth-2?).

Another Geoff Johns title that’s turned around for me (ironically on his last issue) is Booster Gold. Again, I’d mentioned before how I just wan’t as into the Blue and Gold plot as I’d have liked to be, but I really enjoyed this epilogue issue. Batman’s talk with Booster was a great character defining moment, and the photos from The Killing Joke being used was a big surprise (as was the fact that Batman knew all along that Booster would grow into being a proper hero).

Rip allowing Booster a win was a great moment as well, as he manages to save Booster’s sister from her death (back in Booster’s first series), which is also nice as, having recently read that series, I did feel that we never got a chance to really know the character before she was killed. That and the reveal of Rip’s true identity has given this series a nice setup as a “family” book, moreso than other DC family books, such as The Flash. While Jeff and Geoff may be moving on, I hope we get an announcement soon as to the new creative team and permanent future of the title.

And that final page. Ted survived? Or someone else grabbed the Black Beetle scarab? Certainly it suggests that Ted managed to cheat death afterall.

My last Geoff Johns title this week was the second part of the Brainiac storyline in Action Comics.

This part continues from the strong part 1, as Kara tells Clark that everything he knew about Brainiac was wrong. Up until now, he’s only faced probes that Brainiac’s sent out, copies of his own program. She knows this as no-one has ever faced Brainiac himself. Clark heads out to try and find Brainiac, to see if he can recover the lost city of Kandor, as he releases it represents the chance for he and Kara to be around other Kryptonians. He finds Brainiac in the middle of attacking another planet, but it doesn’t go well.

What I probably love most about this reinvention of Brainiac, is how creepy they’re making him. Gary Frank’s art is adding a really alien air to Brainiac and his ship which is incredibly effective. I’m really enjoying this plot, and can’t wait for part 3.

Its also nice to see Supergirl interacting with Clark. I picked up her solo book for a while, but really the character was just awful, and I was really questioning why they’d brought her back to such a fan fare, when it was obvious they didn’t have a clue what to do with her. Geoff Johns has now spoken of the plan to bring her book more closely in with the other Superman titles, and if it means that she’ll be characterised more as we see here, then I think it’ll help a lot.

I’ve been a bit unsure about Geoff Johns’ Superman run. Superman is one of those characters that I enjoy, but I’m not a big enough fan to invest in buying his book every month. I think, much like Batman, if I did start buying his monthly title, it’d spiral out of control, until I was buying all his monthly books, and so was broke and homeless.

However, I do like picking up the odd mini-series or arc that looks interesting. I picked up Last Son, but while there was some nice ideas (I liked the addition of Chris Kent, pity that it turned into such a mess), and the revamped story for Zod, Ursa and Non was really interesting (especially Non’s backstory and link to Jor-El). However, that particular story’s lateness killed it for me, and stuff like the Legion of Superheroes, I’m just not really bothered about.

However, the teases for the Brainiac storyline caught my attention, and I’ve always found Brainiac one of Superman’s more interesting villains. Luthor is good, if over-used a lot of the time, and Zod has been badly-handled over the years (I’m looking at you Smallville). But there’s always been something creepy and (appropriately) alien about Brainiac. I loved his reinvention as a Kryptonian supercomputer in Superman TAS, and his portrayal in Smallville was really good too.

This was a really good first issue. The setup with Brainiac was really creepy, and I enjoyed the flashback to Kryptonite with Kandor being stolen. It’ll be interesting to see how this storyline handles the character, and if they can sort out the muddle he’s become. I tend to get a bit confused by his nature, as Brainiac is commonly shown as a supercomputer of some description, despite starting out as an alien scientist.

A great 10th issue from Booster Gold as well. If I’m honest, much like JSA this title’s been struggling to keep my attention for the last while. I really enjoyed the first arc, with Booster travelling back in time to protect the Justice League from nefarious time travellers, but this arc with Blue Beetle and the alternate time line just seemed to lack the fun of the first 6 issues, and was really dragging for me (surprising, given how few issues its actually been running for). This was a fun story though. Mister Mind popping up was a surprise, but another nice tie in to 52, and Ted’s final sacrifice was touching (although I was holding out hope that they’d broken time enough that Ted would somehow survive, but be forced to keep his existence a secret, so as not to change things further).

I’m really interested to see what happens to this title after the DC 1,000,000 issue. We know that Jeff Katz and Geoff Johns are moving on, but there’s not been any hint as to who might be taking over (which fuelled rumours of a relaunch as Blue and Gold, with the resurrection Ted Koord). I’m hoping whoever it is, captures the fun of the first 6 issues.

It was a great comics week last week. First up was Final Crisis #1, which I’ve already talked about and I enjoyed.

Next up was Green Lantern 31.   I admit, I wasn’t really looking forward to the retelling of Hal’s origin.   However Johns is doing a reasonable job of interweaving in new elements that play into the Blackest Night prophecy, while also establishing a new friendship between Abin Sur and Sinestro that’s added a new level to the mythology.

I do still hold onto my reservations about the “Hal Origin” parts of the story.  Most of them are things we’ve seen before and don’t really add anything new.   Granted the removal of the drunk driving from Emerald Dawn will please many (I personally enjoyed that series, but I can see the complaint), however some of Johns’ small retcons do niggle me in a fanboy way (no GL symbol on first getting the ring was previously a post-Rebirth thing - now its been retconned in as the way its always been.  Similarly all the GLs now sport the Rebirth-tweaking of Hal’s logo.  Really small things, but they do pull me out of the story slightly.  Still, this is New Earth, not the post-Crisis DCU).

I am enjoying the arc though, however without the Blackest Night stuff, it would be a fairy dull aftermath to the Sinestro Corps.

Morrison and Quitely’s All Star Superman had its penultimate issue hit the stands, and once again, its a doozy, that sees Superman putting his affairs in order as he knows he’s getting closer to death.

Everthing about this series just fits the “All Star” tag perfectly, and in a way that All Star Batman & Robin can only dream of.   While that later title is a parody of the Batman mythos, this really embraces everything that makes Superman popular, and then ramps it up.  Definitely a series I’ll pick the trades up for once the final issue is out.  If Final Crisis is half as good as this has been, then we’re all in for a treat.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #29 sees the main story moving on now that the crossover Vektor has moved onto the Dark Times title.  The main cast are back in force, and picking up from the plot threads sown in Vektor, Zhane and the crew head to the Sith artifacts repository held by the Jedi Covenant.

While the art has improved from the Vektor crossover, its still a far cry from the quality this series had when it started, which is a shame.  However, unemcumbered by the crossover, it was great to have Jarael and the rest of the regulars rejoining the action.

While John Jackson Miller did his best to tie Vektor into his ongoing plot threads, it still had felt like too much of a diversion from this title’s story, so its great to have all the plot threads returning.   There’s definitely a feeling from this arc of things moving towards some kind of endgame.  Lucien Dray is now on the Jedi Council, although Master Vandar is smart enough to know that they need to keep an eye on them.  And with Zhane now on the offensive, determined to prove the machinations of the Covenant, clear his name, and bring them to justice for murdering his classmates, it really feels like its all kicking off.

Ok, the final installment in my comics-talk for today.

Green Lantern #29, the first part of the Secret Origins storyline. Its definitely a change of pace from what we’ve had over the last 6 months or so. Johns moves the pace away from the epic to spend a bit of time getting into Hal’s head. I enjoyed the issue, although parts of it were just expanding on what had been established in issues 1-6, and I’m not convinced it needed retelling aready. Issues 1-6 spelled out fine for me that Hal had joined the Air Force against his mother’s wishes, and when she fell ill he go himself discharged by decking General Stone. We’d already seen him get to the hospital too late to see her, so to an extent this to me felt like trying to spell-out what had been said before.

It was enjoyable enough though, and this is only part one of the story so there’s no doubt that the rest of it will cover some new ground. I suspect this issue was more setup for what’s to come in the story. The glimpse of Abin Sur trying to get more information on the Blackest Night from the Empire of Tears was interesting ad I suspect we’ll see a lot more of this, especially once Sinestro turns up to train Hal. The scene with John I was a bit unsure about though. While its always nice to see John turn up in this book, it seemed strange to have John sticking up for a guy that was clearly out-of-line, marine or not. Again though, I suspect this will be followed up in future issues.

All-Star Superman was another cracking issue from Grant Morrison. While All-Star Batman remains readable in only a train crash-like manner, Morrison and Quietly have nailed what people were expecting from an All-Star line. Taking everything classic and iconic with the character and enhancing it.

The over-arching theme of Superman’s death playing strongly into this issue. With Superman writing his last will and testament while also trying to close off the loose threads in his life, shown in this issue with him finding a resolution for the people of Kandor that finally frees them from their bottle. The stuff with Superman creating a new universe to see how Earth will cope without him and creating our own world in the process was just brilliant.

Its a great book. Its just a pity its not a full monthly.