Green Lantern Corps #62 Review

3 out of 5

    First thing's first, I am suing this issue for false advertisement! This cover shows an angry John Steward using his ring and the bottom reads, "John Steward has killed a Lantern before, and he will do it again!" Sounds interesting, right? Sounds like something important might happen in this issue, right? WRONG! Nothing remotely close to that happens in this issue. That major disappointment aside, Green Lantern Corps #62 wasn't a horrible book.

    The story takes place right after the War of the Green Lanterns, and all of those involentary recruits that Krona forced into the Corps are giving up their rings and returning to their old lifes, except one. She wants to make a difference in her sector. The only problem is the rest of the Green Lanterns won't show here any respect, so she decides to take the council of the only Lantern more alienated than her, John Steward, the killer of Mogo. Blah Blah Blah, John Steward shows her the ropes and the whole issue wraps up nicely. No John Steward getting angry and trying to kill another Lantern.

    The script is written well, even if the actual story itself is a little boring. There is very little action in this issue and the action that did occur never really convinced me any of the characters were in danger. You do feel that John Steward is alienated by the rest of the Corps, which is one of the main themes of the issue, but I thought it was wierd that the little blue men did nothing to punish John. SPOILER!!!! I mean if Hal Jordan gets kicked out for killing a genocidal maniac that is mind controlling the entire Corps, then why would John not get kicked out for killing the argueably most important Lantern in the entire Corps? SPOILER OVER!!!!

    There is really nothing important to say about the art. It is servicable. That's it. Nothing special. Nothing really even pops out about it. It is just plain and average. Not bad. Not great.

    Overall this book was a disappointment because it failed to live up to it's cover, but the story inside was not that bad. Pick it up if you really like John Steward, but I really couldn't recomend it to you otherwise.

Green Lantern #67 Review



4 out of 5

    Finally, the War of the Green Lanterns is over! Man, that was a painful event to read, but I guess after half a decade of constant events, you are bound to run into one stinker. That being said, the last issue of the current volume of Green Lantern was actually really good! It managed to pack into it about three major suprises that I was really not expecting at all. That by itself is and indorsement to buy this issue.
    Geoff Johns, after being in an exposition heavy slump for the past few months, pulled off a pretty good script in this issue. You are not too bogged down with the heavy expostion of issues past, some action is thrown in as well as some intrigue, and finally some nagging plot threads of this volume are wrapped up, but they still couldn't wrap up them because... well... read the book and find out.
    I can never say anything wrong about Doug Mahnke and his pencils. That man is just talented and can put more people on a single panel than I thought was humanly possible! That said, some of the inks were a little off, but when you have fifty people inking an issue, then the color is bound to be a little off some places.
    This book has brought back my love for Green Lantern. Too bad it has to end and this is the last issue. I have always enjoyed the kind of goofy and crazy light show, space opera adventures that Green Lantern has brought to the table, and for the most part Geoff Johns has written a great story for the past 5 or so years in this book. Thus I am sad its ending. Wait... What? Green Lantern #1 in the relaunch is going to have the same author, same artist, and not really change from the current continuity it has been building for the past half a decade! Well what the hell is the point of setting it back to number one?!

Preview: Flashpoint: Green Arrow Industires

Here is a preview of Green Arrow Industries that is coming out this week.

New Justice League

Here is a picture of the new Justice League of America that will debut when DC relaunches in a couple of weeks!

Review: Flashpoint: Reverse Flash #1

3 out of 5

    Over the past few years, Geoff Johns has gone through the DC Universe and has reimagined many of the Silver Age heroes and their arch-villians. He has done this with the Green Lantern and Sinestro, Aquaman and the Black Manta, and is now currently in the process of doing the same thing with the Flash and the Reverse Flash. Even though Scott Kolins is writting this issue, I can tell he is just following the outline given to him by Johns of what Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash, is suppossed to do.
    As far as the story goes in this issue, it reminds me a lot of the Reverse Flash's spotlight issue in Flash #9, which was coincidentally written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Scott Kolins, the writer of this book. If you do own Flash #9, then you really do not need to pick this up because it basically rehashes the same story. That said, the Reverse Flash is still a very interesting character. Scott Kolins does a good job of telling the reader the Reverse Flash's plight while also explaining why he has become the sick and twisted man that is hell bent on destorying Barry Allen's life. I would have truely enjoyed this issue if I had not already known the entire story that was inside it.
    As far as the art goes, I consider it a mixed bag. I personally enjoy the art inside this issue, but I can easily see how some people can detest it. Joel Gomez uses a style that is a cross between Francis Manapul and Fabrizio Florentino with the use of what could be watercolors in very scetchy outlines of people. The characters are all drawn well, but the backgrounds of all the scenes are very sparse and leave much to be desired.
    Overall, this book is an interesting insight into the mind of the Reverse Flash. If you own Flash #9, though, then you already heard everything that is in this book. So if you don't own Flash #9, I recommend this book, but if you do, then you basically already own it.

Green Lantern Relaunch Covers

Just in case you are living under a rock and have not seen the Green Lantern relaunch covers, then here they are.

Green Lantern #1

Writer: Geoff Johns

Artist: Doug Mahnke

Green Lantern Corps #1

Writer: PETER J. TOMASI

Artist: FERNANDO PASARIN and SCOTT HANNA

Green Lantern: New Guardians #1

Writer: TONY BEDARD

Artist: TYLER KIRKHAM

Red Lanterns #1

Writer: PETER MILLIGAN

Artist: ED BENES and ROB HUNTER



Green Lantern Animated Series Preview

Well, I guess it had to come at some point. Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, is here to defend the Earth and the Galaxy from Atrocitus and his Red Lantern Corps! Hopefully this show will be as good as some of the other DC animated shows, and not horrible like the movie.

Review: Batman #711

3 out of 5

    Overall, Tony Daniel's run in Batman has be an interesting and fun affair. Daniel has managed to incorporate the past into his stories, such as the Resurection of Ra's Al Ghul and The Long Halloween, and transitions them into fun new stories. With that being said, Batman #711 is not without it's flaws.
    In Batman #711, Gilda Dent and Mario Falcone are back in Gotham, and they are after Harvey Dent aka Two Face. In the last issue, they acually managed to capture and shot Two Face, but suprise, one of Batman's most famous villians did not die and now he is out for revenge. Together with the Riddler, Two Face begins to build an army to take on the Falcone Family. Now you notice that I said nothing about Batman. This is because he is only in about two pages of his own book, where he basically just walks around trying to piece together what is going on, and talk some sense into Catgirl, my least favorite character.
    Like I said earlier, I like the fact that Daniel is incorporating the past into his stories, but that really doesn't help if the said story sucks. Two Face losing his coin has been done before, and Two Face fighting the mafia has been done before. Everthing in this book can be read in another, better book. On top of that, some of the characters, like Gilda Dent and Mario Falcone are horrible stereotypes. Overall, the script was just not great, which is a shame because rest of Daniel's Batman run has been fantastic.
    Steve Scott shows up as the guest artist of this issue. He did a pretty decent job. The art is not super amazing, but it is not bad enough to bash in any way. It is just serviceable, which is fine. The emotions of the characters, especially Two Face, were easily picked up by the reader, and you got to see the events happen. That is about it.
    Overall, this issue was below Daniel's normal standard. Hopefully, Daniel can push the story forward and get back in his groove with the next issue.

Review: Flashpoint: Legion of Doom #1

1 out of 5

L.O.D. Pin gets a 5 out of 5

    Ok, first thing's first, I only bought this book for the L.O.D. pin that came with it. The book was just a bonus. That being said, let us get to the actual review.
    Flashpoint: Legion of Doom is about a villian I have never heard of before named Heatwave. Heatwave, if you cannot tell by his name, has a thing for fire. Heatwave loves fire so much that he actually wants to become fire. How can one do this, you may be asking yourself. Simple, kill one half of Firestorm and try to get the other half to fuse with you. Naturally, this incredibly stupid plan fails and Heatwave is sent to a massive prison created by Green Arrow Industries in the middle of the swamp. From there, I assume you can guess the story.
    Besides having a really generic prison escape story, Flashpoint: Legion of Doom suffers from a horrible script. Heatwave says some of the stupidest lines I have ever read in a comic book (This is coming from someone who has read Captain Britain and MI 13: Vampire State). I kid you not when I say,"I've got a hunger burning in my gut. The only way to stop it is to satisfy my appetite," is the opening line of the book! No, really? Are you sure, Heatwave? Trust me, Heatwave says some even more stupid things latter on.
    The script problems are a real shame because the art in this book is really not bad. Rodney Buchemi has done a really good job with his pencils which are complimented perfectly with Jose Marzan's inks. If Adam Glass had done some revisions, he could have easily redone the dialouge in a way that the art would not have to be changed, thus making this book readable. Alas, this book sucks and if it did not have the pin to go with it, then I would not recommend it to anyone.

Review: Flashpoint: Grodd of War

3 out of 5

    So Flashpoint has arrived and is changing characters left and right. Aquaman and Wonder Woman are genocidal maniacs, Deathstroke is a pirate, and Thomas Wayne has actually pulled off being a darker Batman than his son, Bruce. Like these previous characters, Gorilla Grodd has changed from his normal self in his own one shot title, Grodd of War.

    In normal DC continuity, Gorilla Grodd is a telepathic, talking gorilla that resides in Gorilla City in Africa, where he constantly tries and fails to overthrow his king and conquer the world. In Flashpoint continuity, Grodd actually succeeds. He has overthrown his king and led the armies of Gorilla City in conquering all of Africa, but that is not enough. Dispite Grodd's great accomplishments, almost no one outside of Africa has ever heard of him because they are too busy worrying about Aquaman sinking half of Europe and Wonder Woman conquering the British Isles.

    As far as the script goes, there are no real problems. The dialouge is servicable and shows Grodd's feelings of discontent to the reader. The story is really just backstory for Grodd because I assume he has a bigger role to play at some point in the main Flashpoint book. Just like in every other Flashpoint title, Grodd of War has a few amusing cameos in it. Catman is always entertaining. The art is very polished as well. Over all, the book is pretty good for a one shot backstory. If you have the money, then pick this up, but I don't think you will miss anything if you don't.

DC Comics on 6/29/2011

COMICS

• BATMAN INCORPORATED #7
• CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #61
• DETECTIVE COMICS #878
• FLASHPOINT: GREEN ARROW INDUSTRIES
• FLASHPOINT: HAL JORDAN #1 (OF 3)
• FLASHPOINT: PROJECT SUPERMAN #1 (OF 3)
• FLASHPOINT: THE CANTERBURY CRICKET
• GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #24
• GREEN LANTERN MOVIE PREQUEL: HAL JORDAN
• GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD WARRIORS #11
• JSA 80-PAGE GIANT 2011
• JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #52
• T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #8
• WONDER WOMAN #612
• XOMBI #4

TRADES

• AQUAMAN: DEATH OF A PRINCE
• BATMAN: KNIGHT AND SQUIRE
• RATCHET & CLANK
• RED ROBIN: HIT LIST
• T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS ARCHIVES VOL. 7

DC Comics on 6/22/2011

COMICS

• ACTION COMICS #902
• BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM #2 (OF 5)
• BRIGHTEST DAY AFTERMATH: THE SEARCH #1 (OF 3)
• FLASHPOINT: KID FLASH LOST #1 (OF 3)
• FLASHPOINT: LOIS LANE AND THE RESISTANCE #1 (OF 3)
• FLASHPOINT: REVERSE FLASH
• FLASHPOINT: THE OUTSIDER #1 (OF 3)
• GREEN ARROW #13
• JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #58
• THE OUTSIDERS #40
• THE SPIRIT #15
• SUPERMAN #712
• YOUNG JUSTICE #5
• ZATANNA #14

TRADES

• BATMAN: RED HOOD – THE LOST DAYS
• FIRST WAVE
• KANE & LYNCH
• POWER GIRL: BOMB SQUAD