"To Build a Better Lantern" by Peter Tomasi
The Kilowog story is a good setup for the character, establishing him as a hardass drill instructor, but sadly, he's only in a third of the story. The story also has a subplot, which is more of the plot, that shows Atey, a pre-cognitive Green Lantern, going to the Guardians and warning them that something bad was coming. This establishes another important part of the Green Lantern mythos: the Guardians are dicks. Cutting back to Kilowog and his recruits, they are attacked late one night by The Spider Guild (every comic, cartoon, live action, or anything series has a Spider guild... Every. Single. One). After they all are killed and or webbed, Kilowog deactivates the simulator. He then chastises the rookies but is called off for an emergency. He meets with Tomar Re, who tells him that Abin Sur is dead... and that there's a new Green Lantern chosen from a backwoods primitive world. Spoiler: Its Hal Jordan of Earth. Duh. The art here is nice and although I'm not crazy about the character design here, I get that its supposed to look like the movie. Overall B+"Forbidden Planet" by Marc Guggenheim and Cliff Richards
Tomar Re is really given a lot of personality not afforded to him in the comics in this issue and its nice. He is shown to be patient, intelligent, and fascinated by primitive cultures. He is given a mission from Salaak to go out and hunt down a wanted killer, who has killed over a billion people living on a distant moon. As he heads out to help with the relief efforts, the damage upsets him so much that his skin begins to glow reddish (foreshadowing?) with rage as he chases off after the criminal's ship. He takes out the boosters and the criminal escapes the crashing ship, and begins firing. Tomar hears something, that we do not know, but it does cause him to worry, and as we all know, fear weakens Green Lanterns. As he is being beaten, Tomar finds the courage to capture the criminal. The criminal points to his ships wreckage, showing some surviving hostages. Tomar has to make a choice as he doesn't have enough power to carry all of them. He calls for help to come for the survivors and takes the criminal, hoping he will be forgiven if anything happens to those people, and hopes that his choice hasn't brought about the world's doom. Its a good issue and the art is better than Kilowog's but the story seems to be missing something. A-"A Small, Unremarkable Planet" by Michael Green and Patrick Gleason
Abin Sur's entry is a prime example of a great story with just bad dialogue. We meet Abin, 20 years ago, catching up with a fleeing smuggler, who is actually just trying to get supplies to his people, so Abin lets him go. However, something that was latched on the ship pulls off and crashes to Earth, a planet Abin has never been to, but is too primitive for his tastes. We then meet the real hero of this story in Private Amanda Waller, a soldier over in Desert Storm. She heads out upon hearing the crash and checks out what's going on, while Abin slips into the Earth, unnoticed. Turns out this piece is actually a mechavore, that bonds with all machines it can. So, after a few moments, we have a tank-humvee-assault rifle washing machine-plane creature, that will henceforth be called Thawp. Thawp is chasing after Amanda, trying to kill her as Abin just watches. I will repeat: The "greatest Green Lantern" just watches as a woman is chased by this creature. It works out, since Amanda doesn't need help. Tricking the creature to get close to a truck full of live ordinances, and upon attacking Thawp is blown up, knocking Waller out. Abin thinks this is fascinating, and grabs all the pieces and jets out to throw them into the sun. Amanda is found, and because of what she's experienced, she is inducted into the Department of Extranormal Operations. This ending for her seems really forced and I'm not a fan at all of it. Cut to the present, where Abin is dying and releases his ring to find the best replacement. The art here is just ok, but its a decent story. B.
That does it for this segment. Off to the midnight premiere later. Take us out, Cardboard Predator...
No comments:
Post a Comment