Reviews: Red Lantern #3 and Stormwatch #3

So I've been following along with this relaunch like a diligent, loyal little DC soldier, and sometimes it has been VERY painful.  There were books that I abandoned right away (I, Vampire or Legion of Super-Heroes) for various reasons, but I've been loyal to most. I decided, however, that the magic #3 would be my cut-off.  Any series that hasn't impressed me enough in three issues (half a TPB story arc) doesn't deserve my time or money.  There's so much more out there, especially in some impressive indie titles I've discovered.  Maybe I'll revisit them when they become cheap digital downloads.

So this is the start of the Issue #3 run.  "May the odds be ever in your favor!"

It's New Comic Book Wednesday!

Carrie.. is so very.

Red Lantern #3


I continue to be impressed by this title as it explores the complexities of rage, vengeance and manipulation.  Atrocitus calls on babbling Red Lantern Bleez to control and unite his ever-rebelling corps of lanterns.  Perhaps he feels he can control her best, perhaps because her pain has made her utterly mad, but whatever his reason, he made his choice.

I like the creation story of Bleez and her "evolution" into re-sentience. For this to happen, she has to drown in the Blood Ocean of Ysmault, a death which, strangely, calms her mind but resurfaces all of her painful memories.  While the intention is to bring back a fuel to direct her rage, it's drawback is the clarity it brings to her mind. In the end, it's her agenda, not his, that she pursues, even if it is in submissive silence.

I just stepped out
of the salon.

Also intriguing is the story of her people and the birth of her rage.  Bleez is of the Havanian race (a blue-skinned, bird people) and she is a woman of divine beauty, purity and a flippant and ignorant cruelty. While suitors pursue her, she turns down all of their advances in the kindest way she knows how. "I'd rather be buried alive and be eaten by slugs than spend one night with you." Naturally, her suitors take offense and bait a Sinestro Corps member Ranx into chasing her.  However, when he's rejected, he doesn't tuck tail and flee.  He tortures Bleez, strips her wings to the bone and slaughters her family. Finding out her former suitors are to blame, she seeks vengeance.

Such behavior makes you think about revenge on a human level and how we treat those who have wronged us.  What happens when justice is not served? Even when it is, is the "eye for an eye" mentality a justified one?  The death penalty?  In a parallel Earth (Sector 2814) story, the reader is reminded of the two brothers, struggling to cope with the death/murder of their grandfather. One understands that revenge is not the answer while the other is hell bent on his own brand of retribution.  I can see where this one is going.

One MILLION dollars..

At the end, Atrocitus ponders (in a delightfully Dr. Evil way) if he made the right decision choosing Bleez as his second or if, even in her state of mental babble, she manipulated him into giving back her intellect so that she can bend the corps to her own will.  While he strokes the kitty, she sits, deified, while the rest of the Reds gather round, complacent.

I'm still torn about the Carrie-esque cover.  It sometimes makes me laugh trying to decide what decisions drive the cover art.  Issue #2 was very propaganda reminiscent while #2 looks more like a sci-fi/horror Maxim cover.

Decision: Keep.  This is probably one of the best books I've read in a while. 

---

Stormwatch #3

I had real hope for this title, especially with the promise of some strong, gay protagonists.  I want to like them, really I do.  But just because they're gay, doesn't make them compatible to me.  Or maybe they are and I just don't vibe with the crowd they hang around. Either way, I still support this title, but I'm not going to waste my time and money to follow it.

We're STILL in the midst of the same conflict introduced in Issue #1: some non-descript entity trying to take over some non-descript town in the middle of Nowhere, Colorado (literally) being fought by a team with some very non-descript powers.  Remember, this is the team that tries to hide from even the other superheroes. Very invisible.

I just have a hard time with superpowers like "talking to cities" and "sensing media" as weapons to fight the "scourge of the earth."  When the moon turns into a giant, all knowing eyeball creature (not OMAC), and an octopus-Goldblum-flyesque thing is destroying an entire town, I can't see what these "pansy powers" can do.  Hell, the only character with any real muscle (the gay one might I add), is sent into space for batting practice with some meteors.  It's a good thing the "scourge" absorbed all the other team members. Maybe now something will get done.  Wait!  The "media-whisperer" still lives. Aw, shucks.

The art is a little iffy, but again, I can't tell if the art is bad because the creatures are vague or the other way around.  But with the erratic story and the dark, poor illustrations, I get a little nauseous.  And then I saw something that made me lose it.  The "city talker," wearing culottes, had feet like Superboy.  That's it.  I'm done.

Decision: Toss.  I'll catch up with it later when digi-issues go cheap. Maybe it will get better.  Or if they break off and have a Midnighter title again, it will be worth picking up.

---

Watch out for mini-digi reviews soon!

Next week:  Green Lantern #3

All images copyright DC Comics and used under guidelines of Fair Use

Reviews: Red Lantern #2, Stormwatch #2

Now that all the #1s are issued, the frenzy at Mile High Comics in Glendale has died down.  They're still busy, but they aren't selling out before noon anymore. Now that I've made it through, it's time to decide what to keep and what to let go.

It's New Comic Book Wednesday!

Red Lantern #2

From the cover of this issue, you know you are reading a book highly charged with political commentary.  When I saw it, I immediately thought "propaganda poster."  It has that artistic style, political feel and the simple message. Rage. And in this case, with the arm held high, rage clearly equals power.

SPOILER ALERT:  Attrocitus is still feeling the emptiness of his unrealized vengeance and is in pursuit of enacting retribution for those feeling unbridled rage.  His memories take him back to Ghan IX where Yeuver militants who came to help the citizens of the homeworld are now fighting against them.  In a move to exert their power they gun down some "armed hosiltes"  their sensors detected out in the open.  Too bad their sensors couldn't tell them the hostiles were children with sticks.  The Yeuvers slaughter two of the three children leaving the youngest, a girl, witness to the act and filled with an immense rage of her own.  It is this rage that fuels Attrocitus' vengeance, and the memory of his own family's slaughter that is it's origin.

Yup. Killing those kids. You should be really proud.

While the political commentary is blatantly obvious to me, I wonder how many readers just don't get the Middle-east parallel.  The images, the excuses, the behaviors are all called out in this series. Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking sides here.  I understand the complexities of war and the challenges that come along with fighting on a front, but I think all to often we don't see the selfishness, the removal from emotion, and the inappropriate actions that come with killing in the name of oil, or freedom, or peace.

Attrocitus asks many pointed, rhetorical questions as he narrates.  "How is one rage be more worthy of another?",  "How can one pain be worthy of more retribution?", and "Does rage simply beget more rage?" In the end, because of his nature and his red ring, he decides rage, vengeance and retribution must be enacted for the defenseless, those who cannot act for themselves.

However, I think it is the Yeuvar soldier, facing his own death at the hands of vengeance, who asks the most though-provoking question of all.  Here is a man who killed children in the name of war, who recognizes his mistake and understands what Attrocitus is there to do.  In one of his final breaths, he asks, "I have a wife and a small daughter.  Kill me and you'll be destroying their lives too.  Who will be an instrument of justice for them?"

Not to be repetitive, but the art continues to be spectacular, not only for its skill in representing form and shape, but also in the emotion that these images can bring out in the reader.  The slaughter of the children is graphic, but the moment where Rixx realizes her rage at the death of her brothers, that rage is clear in every line of the panel.  It's truly incredible.

I mostly try to read comics to escape the harsh reality of the world I live in, but it's nice to have examples of comics that challenge the political mainstream, that make the reader think, and that help to show nay-sayers that comics aren't just "kids' stuff."  And because we can all identify with rage in one form or another, I'll keep on readin' on.

---

Stormwatch #2

I will continue to follow this storyline, but I'll have to admit, from the get-go of this issue, I felt a little lack-luster.  First, I fault myself for not re-reading issue #1 to get me back in line with the story. Second, I fault the story for being a little chaotic to begin with.

SPOILER ALERT:  The story starts in chaos as the moon is coming alive and threatening the planet in an effort to "toughen up" the human race.  The entity there is invading Harry's mind, unaware Harry is actually invading his.  How else could he become more powerful and unseat Adam as the leader of Stormwatch. Meanwhile, back in Moscow, Martian Manhunter and his unconscious cohorts are now trying to recruit BOTH Apollo and Midnighter.  I'm not sure how they were so selective with Apollo and then, hey, "Why not join us, Midnighter?"

Stormwatch operates in such secrecy that they frame villains to protect the world from finding out they even exist. No one knows.  Even superheroes aren't in on the secret.  This intrigues me.  They cover up that an alien is targeting Stormwatch and Earth, by alerting the Justice League that some two-bit Fox-faced villain was causing some lunar disturbance.  In some instances, they border on the gray zone of villain or hero.  How is it OK to frame someone for your own protection.

Do you know how I know 

you're gay, Midnighter?
Maybe it's the carbon-
armored sheath for your VanDyk.

The sexual tension between Midnighter and Apollo is a little, well, gay.  Come on, Midnighter?  Stalker much?  You've been trailing Apollo for a year?  you know why he doesn't want to "come out" as a superhero?  Please.  Enlighten us.  It's understandable you want him all to yourself.  Who wouldn't?  But do you have to be such a creeper about it?  Do you know how I know you're gay, Midnighter? Maybe it's the carbon armored sheath for your VanDyk.

The artwork in this series remains on par.  It's not the most impressive I've ever seen, but it is FAR from the worst.  I'm glad they didn't go with some more graphic style (i.e. I, Vampire).  Anything that gets the more mainstream audience on board with the story helps.  Maybe by the time they "reveal" they gayness of not one, but two characters, the audience will already be hooked.

I support superheroes, I support teams, and I support the gays.  I'll keep supporting this because the story and intrigue keep me wondering.  And I'm still hoping to see some hot man-on-man action.

---

Watch out for this week's mini-digis: Action Comics #2, Green Arrow #2; Huntress #1 and The Last of the Greats #1.

Next week:  Batgirl #2, Green Lantern #2, and Superboy #2

All images copyright DC Comics and used under guidelines of Fair Use

Reviews: Stormwatch#1 and GA#1

It's "New Comic Book Wednesday!"

As DC continues to release #1s of all its revamped AND new titles, I'm playing along.  Here's what I've been anxiously awaiting this week.

Stormwatch #1

I have been dying for this one to come out primarily because of the characters being brought up from the DC "minors."  Although I have never followed The Midnighter, I know of him. And Apollo.  I feel like a Noob starting something completely new, but one thing I like about the DC relaunch is that none of them (so far) start at the beginning.  It isn't a string of "Origin" comics.  

In Stormwatch, a team of super powered monitors have been protecting the planets for centuries and they have discovered an alien force that is threatening the earth and has the power to defeat Superman.  Their mission is to save Earth. One member of their team, The Martian Manhunter, explains that he works with the Justice League when the world needs a hero, but he works with Stormwatch when they need a warrior.  And they are looking to recruit a man on earth even more powerful than Supes.

Enter Apollo, a closet case.  He has tremendous power, he's even used it to fight and defeat the man of steel, but he is not interested in being a hero.  He wants to be left alone to live his normal, quiet life.  But Stormwatch knows his ability and knows they need him to save Earth.

This is one story I'm hoping does NOT change from the characters as they exist in Wildstorm comics, for you see, Midnighter and Apollo are a couple.  Yes.  Strong, masculine, male heroes. And gay. Such men do exist.  And here in their own mainstream series.  I'm hoping it continues to be epic.

Now, I suppose I'm being picky, but you have a headquarters lurking in hyperspace, you have technology to monitor the entire universe and you have humanoids with amazing abilities to run the entire operation. And the best names you can come up with are Angie, Harry and Adam? I guess that a world as fantastic and creative as this could have some names that are a little more unique.

I'm also not so keen on the art, but I can certainly live with it.  I get really finicky when comic art borders on watercolor realism.  I recognize that Alex Ross is a tremendous artist, but I do not like his for for comics.  There are times in this, especially in close up details, that Miguel Sepulveda seems to be approaching that line.  And then there's feet.  One character is barefoot and it looks like he's walking on stumps.  I recommend some practice in that area, especially if this guy is ALWAYS barefoot.

Overall, cheers for Stormwatch as a first issue.  I'll continue to read even if it ends up only to follow the Midnighter/Apollo relationship.  

Green Arrow #1
I have been drawn to Green Arrow since early college for his Batman-like origin.  He's just a guy in a suit. Avenging the death of his parents.  He has no powers but does possess amazing skills.   I don't know why I liked him better than Batman (maybe it was the color green or the phenomenal van dyck he always sported), but Green Arrow shot his arrow through my heart.

But making Oliver Queen look like the glamorized CW version detracts from his appeal.  Don't get me wrong.  Justin Hartley is one FINE specimen as a man as Oliver Queen, Arthur Curry or... Justin Hartley, but when it comes to the Oliver Queen on the printed page, he just isn't it.  Disappointment #1.

Now, I've only ever followed GA peripherally, so I don't know which elements are brought from previous stories and which are part of the overall re-write. In this version, Queen Industries is based in Seattle (not Star City) and when I really got to know Green Arrow, he didn't have an "eye-in-the-sky" team helping him pinpoint crime.  As I read through it, I somehow felt like I was reading a modified version of a Smallville episode. Here, his Chloe is called Naomi, although she may as well be called the Oracle or even "Angie" (Yes, the Engineer from Stormwatch). Disappointment #2.

SPOILER ALERT:  The story seemed a tad bit convoluted.  Green arrow is in pursuit of an awkward trio of criminals who video their attacks and post them online.  He confronts them on a yacht party where they are caught and sent to prison.  As he resumes life at Q-Core, the arrested criminals are broken out by a team of villains.  One looks strangely like Claude Rains' Wolfman.  Writer J.T Krul tried to put way too much into a far too ridiculous story.  Disappointment #3.

The only other element that rubs me the wrong way, in all of the New 52 so far, is that every costume seems made of scaled (yes, like fish scales) armor. Somehow superheroes in armor seems wrong.

And finally, I lied.  Yesterday I said I'd buy all The New 52 #1s in print.  However, I decided there were some titles I'd test drive in digital, so I logged on from home and downloaded a few.  I'll talk about them another day.