Picked up Green Lantern 16, Green Lantern Corps 16, and Justice League 16 ( Throne of Atlantis tie-in)
Man...it's been a slow burn but Green Lantern is finally paying off. For about 3 months, we've been getting acquainted with Simon Baz, a Lebanese-American. I'll talk more about Baz, but suffice to say, I like him. We haven't seen enough of him for me to consider him a new favorite, but he proves himself in this issue to be selfless if somewhat flawed and reckless.
Baz teams up with B'dg aka the squirrel green lantern, who's come to Earth to find Hal or Sinestro and warn them that the Guardians have turned on the Corps. Baz decides that since he was chosen by the ring, he must do the right thing and help the Green Lanterns fight back the Guardians and their new fiendishly creepy third army. Honestly, a lot of this issue focuses on Baz's guilt. We get the sense that he isn't a bad guy, but he's made mistakes that have cost him a lot. And this issue has a lot of Baz trying to face down his problems instead of running away from them. Now that he has a Green Lantern guiding him, Baz should be a more than capable asset against the Guardians.
I was perturbed by one thing though. Green Lantern Corps' initial arc delt with the concept of a race of Keepers that protected the GL's power batteries. According to this story, when a GL puts their battery in a pocket dimension, it gets teleported to the keeper's home planet so they may watch over it. They had a huge falling out, and now the GL have to find their own method of storing their batteries. Well, in this issue Baz pulls his battery out of a pocket dimension, with no mention to the Keepers revolt. WTF!?
tl;dr, NIT PICKING!!!!
Oh also, Baz totally breaks the rules of the game and does something no Green Lantern has ever done before. It was a very powerful scene and part of the reason I liked this issue so much. But if I told you, it'd take all the shock value out of it. Also we get more B'dg!!!!! When a character garners enough attention to wind up on Robot Chicken due to their obscurity, you know I'll love them. All and all, I really enjoyed this issue.
8/10
Green Lantern Corps 16
Similar to how GL is focusing on Baz, GL Corps 16 is focused on Guy Gardner, the fiery red head loud mouth of the Corps. Oh wait...yeah he kinda got booted out last issue didn't he? Man...well, that doesn't keep him from being any less of a belligerent raging badass as he teams up with his cop brother and sister to prevent their precinct from being over run from the Third Army! I've really been digging the use of Guy Gardner's family. They are a tight-knit group and it's great having Guy interact with someone other than the Corps. Most of the issue deals with Guy being ring less and the menace of the Third Army closing in. Luckily, Simon Baz and B'dg show up and help save the day. In a way that was kinda awesome.
Good issue. Art could have been better, but that's my only real complaint.
7/10
Justice League 16
Justice League 16 is basically Aquaman issue 15.75. Hey remember how people mock Aquaman and Atlantis for being useless fish people who just herp and derp around? Yeah...well as someone puts it in the issue and I'm very roughly parapharsing "We've already lost thousands of people and most of our major cities are flooded and the Atlantians haven't even attacked yet! This issue really plays up the strength the Atlantians and their threat as an offensive force. The action is split between the Justice League taking the fight to Ocean Master and Cyborg trying to save Dr. Shin, the only man who knows enough about Atlantis to stop them. The Atlanteans are out for blood. And damn it feels good. The League is pushed to their limit, and relationships are strained as Aquaman has to once again choose between his home or his people.
If they story wasn't enough, Joe Prado ( Aquaman's former artist) is absolutely killing it in Justice League! It's just so...gorgeous! The way he draws the Atlanteans makes their crustacean like armor and their gigantic war machines very lifelike...but alien. Oh and he even references Aquaman's past costumes in the Atlantean infantry. Heck there are a lot of Aquam It looks like the JL is going to need some serious help...and the final page has a big reveal that is going to change how the post New 52 JL does things.
( There was also the matter of the back-up following the character of Shazam. It is short and very satisfying, but I don't want to spend very much time covering it. Suffice to say it was pretty good.)
Seriously, I'm recommending a comic that heavily features Aquaman. Why aren't you buying it right now?
9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment