Open season

There’s been some weird scheduling with the Green Lantern and associated books lately, with a lot of stuff coming at once, then some dead space. Rather than fill it with random retro reviews as I’ve done in the past, I’ve got another idea.

What kind of Green Lantern stuff do you want me to write about? Feel free to comment with your ideas, and we’ll go from there!

New Green Lantern movie collectibles, in brief

If you’re wondering why I didn’t do a report shortly after Toy Fair last week, it’s because there was just too much stuff to talk about. A truckload of Green Lantern film action figures, statues, props, and other licensed crap was unveiled at the show, and I’m just going to offer my comments on a few of the more notable items. Some of them might be a bit spoilery, so read on at your own risk.

• The power battery and power ring prop replicas. I’ve talked about the movie battery and ring before, and it was only a matter of time before DC Direct announced physical copies for fans to salivate over. Unfortunately, they’ve been marked up higher than the price of similar products simply because of the film. The battery is ludicrously expensive, but the ring is a bit more affordable. It’s still ten bucks more than the recently reannounced Honor Guard ring, though. We can only hope it looks as nice in reality as it does in the product photograph.
• The “Fallen Guardian” Krona figure. It had long been rumored that Krona was secretly the films primary antagonist, and that he’s pulling Parallax’s strings. This confirms it. Krona looks a lot more like a Grey than a Guardian, though. (The “Fallen Guardian” bit comes from his packaging, seen in the background here.)
• The Hal Jordan vs. Parallax “Final Showdown” two-pack. I need to single this one out because of how incredibly shitty it looks. (You’ll have to try and find an image on your own, as Mattel has been cracking down on their publication across the web.) I’m no fan of the giant space bug, but I’ll still admit that the CG renderings that have appeared looked interesting. But this piece of shit action figure? Cripes, it makes the godawful comic book version look good! I really hope that doesn’t reflect the final design we’ll see in the film.

The only collectibles I plan to buy are the ring prop replica and one of the smaller figures, just so I can get the toy ring that comes with them. Sorry, I just don’t have the space for all of this crap!

Brightest Day #20

Release Date: February 16, 2011
Cover Date: Late April 2011

Story: Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi
Pencils: Ivan Reis and Joe Prado
Inks: Julio Ferreira, Oclair Albert, Norm Rapmund, Marlo Alquiza, Andy Owens
Cover: Gary Frank
1:10 Variant Cover: Ivan Reis and Joe Prado

Boston Brand is brought to the beach to witness the battle between Aquaman and Siren’s forces, much to his disapproval. Aquaman may have lost his hand, but the timely arrival of Mera and Aquagirl helps bring him back to his senses. The real issue is getting Siren’s army off the beach, and Mera pushes herself to the limit to pull the tide back, drawing the enemy soldiers with it. Back in his element, Aquaman summons loads of undead sea life to deal with the aggressors. Aqualad uses his energy powers to reseal the Bermuda Triangle, but then Brand appears and seemingly vaporizes Aquaman.

This entire issue focused on the “Aquawar” and nothing else, which I had no real problem with. My gripe is that it wrapped up the war in a single issue. The conflict had been building throughout the series, but then the big battle is over and done with this fast? Even stretching it out with one more issue would have been satisfactory. Tying this up so quickly makes it seem like the war simply wasn’t that important, and that’s not what we were led to believe.

We see that the Entity was responsible for opening the Bermuda Triangle, once again proving the avatar of life has no problem causing many deaths in order to further its agenda. Enabling this whole conflict just to see what would happen to Aquaman is really messed up, especially considering the loss of human life. Isn’t the Entity’s whole plan right now to find someone to protect Earth and the various beings who live there, including humans?

Anyway, as with the Hawks, I harbor no illusions that Aquaman is actually dead. I’ve got a feeling that these heroes are all going to show up in glorious White Lantern form towards the end of Brightest Day in order to defeat the dark avatar, led by the new champion of life. (Who I still maintain will be Don Hall. Just driving that point home!)

This issue was just a dud. Great fight scenes, but the story just didn’t cut it.

Green Lantern Corps (Vol. 2) #57

Release Date: February 16, 2011
Cover Date: April 2011

Story: Tony Bedard
Pencils: Tyler Kirkham
Inks: Matt “Batt” Banning
Cover: Tyler Kirkham and Matt “Batt” Banning
1:10 Variant Cover: Ed Benes

Firestorm arrives on Qward to find that all hell has broken loose. Sinestro taunts the Weaponer while the Green Lanterns fight off the Sinestro Corps with Qwardian armaments. The battle is evenly matched on both sides, but Sinestro is focused on the Weaponer, whom he eventually defeats. Rather than killing his adversary, Sinestro offers the Weaponer a place within his Corps, which the Weaponer grudgingly accepts. Firestorm asks the Green Lanterns for help finding the White Lantern power battery, but Ganthet declines, as he needs them to help fight Krona.

I’m a big Firestorm fan, so I was thrilled when I heard that he’d be teaming up with the Green Lantern Corps. Once he arrived on Qward, you knew the shit was going to hit the fan…but it didn’t. Firestorm’s appearance in this issue was, sadly, a joke. He barely joined the fray, and since he’s considerably more powerful than any of the Lanterns, his arrival should have caused a major shift in the battle. Instead, it had no effect whatsoever. Ultimately, his presence was completely pointless. (I’m not the only one who was annoyed by this.)

There’s another big problem with the Firestorm subplot in this issue. Specifically, it’s Ganthet’s decision after the battle. Firestorm told them he’s searching for the White Lantern power battery, but Ganthet thinks that Krona is a larger threat. Wrong! Krona is a huge problem, indeed. But the White Lantern power battery is the Entity in physical form. If it’s destroyed, all life dies with it. That trumps everything else. Are we to believe that Ganthet is really that stupid?

Last but not least, we all knew Sinestro would win the fight. It was utterly predictable, and telegraphed over the past few issues. The Weaponer joining him was a nice twist, but the story still ended in a generic manner. It would have been much more interesting if Sinestro had been defeated (but not killed), or if both villains had fought to a standstill. It would have added more depth to both characters; instead, the ending just reduced them both to the same old bad-guy archetype.

Multiple problems aside, the issue did have a few saving graces. Tyler Kirkham’s battle illustrations looked fantastic, and seem to be improving over his last few issues. Most of the dialogue and other speech worked well, especially Soranik Natu’s thoughts about her father.

And now, for your random nit to pick: what happened to the white energy infusing the Weaponer’s shield? It’s there when Sinestro finally brings him down, but then it’s nowhere to be found after he joins the Sinestro Corps. I see no reason why it would have dissipated. Is someone else going to recover it, perhaps?

All told, Green Lantern Corps (Vol. 2) #57 was a pretty big disappointment. The obvious Sinestro victory nonwithstanding, the Firestorm subplot really brought it down.

Green Lantern (Vol. 4) #62

(This issue, and many others released this week, have a four-page “War of the Green Lanterns” preview in the back. I will not be covering that, as I’m sure it’ll be reprinted as part of the crossover itself.)

Release Date: February 16, 2011
Cover Date: March 2011

Story: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Doug Mahnke
Inks: Keith Champagne, Christian Alamy, Tom Nguyen
Cover: Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes
1:10 Variant Cover: Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy

Hal Jordan attempts to stop Krona, but is mercilessly beaten by the ancient villain. Even when Atrocitus shows up, it’s still not enough; Krona uses the Ophidian-possessed Hector Hammond to stop the heroes, and retrieves the Butcher from Atrocitus’ power battery. With six of the entities in his possession, Krona knocks everyone out with a massive blast, and Hal wakes on the JLA Watchtower. He and the other Corps representatives head out to find Krona, leaving his friends in the JLA behind.

It’s been a while since the last Green Lantern issue, and #62 makes up for that lost time with quite a bit of plot. While beating the snot out of Hal, Krona reveals that not only was he responsible for many Green Lantern technologies (like the power batteries, sciencells, and use of the pocket dimension), he figured out how to capture the entities in the first place. That’s why it’s so easy for him to do so now.

Krona’s obsession with emotion makes sense in this story, but it’s still very weak…because he’s never mentioned it before, in any of his other appearances. This issue makes it seem like it was his driving force in life, but considering his countless past skirmishes with the DC Universe have had nothing to do with the emotional spectrum, it still falls flat. Even if you try to accept it as a retcon, it still doesn’t make much sense.

An interesting touch was that the Guardians used to wear White Lantern symbols on their robes, not Green Lantern ones. This is of course yet another retcon, as they originally sported the Green Lantern symbol even before the Corps was created. The symbol originally came from them, not from some willpower entity that looks like a whale. In this new history, they wielded the white light as well as the green one, which is awfully strange.

A brief look into the future shows the Guardians speaking to a mysterious captive, who they seemingly want to set loose upon Hal Jordan (after the upcoming “War of the Green Lanterns”). Who is this new character? Its speech bubbles are very similar to Krona’s, but are colored green instead of yellow. Whoever it is, Ganthet and Krona imprisoned it billions of years ago. The silhouette appears to be hooded, but is still impossible to identify. It’s anyone’s guess at this point.

They also mention the “loss” of one of sector 2814′s Lanterns, but notice that they do not say “death,” nor do they say which color Lantern. Even if we assume that they’re talking about one of the other Green Lanterns from that sector — Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner — I seriously doubt they’ll be killed. Or if they are, they’ll be back in the land of the living in no time. My guess? Guy will finally be lost to his rage, and become a Red Lantern permanently.

Aside from the continual retcons, the only down note in this issue was Hal’s constant attempts at humor. They just don’t work, and as usual, his one-liners sounded awful and out of place. Seriously, leave the jokes to Kyle; it works a lot better with his character, especially Hal got knocked on his ass every time he opened his mouth.