I used to have time to read my comics in a coffee shop. Now I have to read them in the bathroom. Then I write reviews of them. I wash my hands in between.
GREEN LANTERN 28/ RED LANTERNS 28
And the latest in the innovations brought to the comics page
by the New 52 is….a FLIPBOOK! So you get to read two reviews for the price of
one and I get to try to figure out why the hell they bothered in the first
place.
So the storylines in Green Lantern and Red Lanterns happen
to be sort of dovetailing and to take advantage of that and to introduce a
SHOCKING new Red Lantern, DC took both books and slapped them together into
one. I am trying to understand here. What is this achieving? Besides annoying
all the OCD collectors who have to buy two identical books to have full runs of
both titles instead of two different ones like normal? The cover price is still
the same. Both stories are 20 pages long. It’s not like the story would have
been lost if they were two separate books in the same week, or even a week
apart. It’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma baked into a crispy flour tortilla
of a conundrum.
Also: I don’t read the book, or even any Superman titles,
but nobody knows who Supergirl is in the New 52? Really? That’s a thing? I mean
Hal Jordan is a member of the Justice League for frank’s sake. And a Galactic
Police Officer. You’d think he MIGHT know there’s a 2nd Kryptonian
running around loose. If someone can enlighten me to this situation, please do.
Or maybe I’ll go on Wikipedia. Whatever.
So regardless of the in-universe plausibility of the above
and the marketing minds behind the layout, there’s some nice stuff happening
here. I’ve always liked the Guy Gardner/ Ice (non) relationship. Even in the
old Bwah-ha-ha days it felt really genuine, kind of sad and totally relatable.
New 52-wise is no exception. He sought her out last issue to try to make amends
(very vague about their New 52 past, but the mentioned beats seem very similar)
and continues into this one. After he’s proved himself as being able to
*mostly* control his anger, she gives him a speech I myself and I’m sure most
of the hopelessly looking for love comic fans in the world have heard: “You
don’t get to decide whether we’re going to be together—not alone. That’s a
decision we would both have to make.” As if THAT’S not heart (that’s been
replaced with rage blood) wrenching enough, she goes on to do the WORST thing
possible to a guy—give him hope. “This isn’t never. It’s just not right now.” Ugh.
Why Gardner didn’t turn into a Blue Lantern of Hope right then and there I
don’t know. Now he’s gonna pine for her. And never move on. Blargh.
Anyway, the hapless band of Reds heads back to Ysmault
where, they are told, some Greens are sniffing around. Hal and a couple of his
boys have brought Red Lantern Supergirl there after she was discovered raging
through a random space sector by a couple of other Lanterns. In an attempt to
figure out what the hell she was, they had brought her back to Mogo which was a
no go. So now Hal has taken her to Red Lantern homeworld to yell at Guy for
making new Reds. Once they realize Supergirl is a bigger issue than their own
personal business they work together to get her into the lake of blood so she
can get some of herself back. While she’s in the lake, Hal and Guy have some
man to man talking about how Guy actually fits in with the Reds and that Hal
sending him there wasn’t a bad thing. Hal lets the Reds continue to patrol
Sector 2814 but leaves Simon Baz on earth to keep the peace there. They have a
very mature conversation without any flying off the handle or yelling, which is
significant character growth for the both of them lately. So this issue kinda
reestablishes their working relationship until Supergirl pops out of the lake
and they realize, holy crap, we may have put a crazy rage ring on one of
Superman’s family members. Guy makes an ‘I’m screwed’ face and that’s the
issue. Along the way we see Atrocitus and his new band of Reds confront and
screw with Bleez and Rankorr some and are reminded that Atrocitus made and
released 9 more rings before Guy kicked him out so that after Supergirl, there
still may be 8 other new Reds in the universe they have to deal with.
This book, while unnecessarily packaged, does a great job of
setting status quos and teasing future trouble to come, which, when you get
right down to it, that’s what you want a comic (or two) to deliver. Along with
a sweet Motorhead haircut and mustache combo on your lead.
Mission.
Accomplished.
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