Level 2 - Week of 01/01/11

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, and Welcome to The Next Level. We are your source for comic book opinions and debates. I’m your host Stefan, and I’ll be here with you discussing Comic Books, Video Games, and other items of note. Please note, for a purely gaming blog, I'd recommend Pwning Pat's Game Blog.

This week's post will be reviewing The Flash #8 and Green Lantern #61.
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The Flash #8

This week's issue was a profile of Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash. For those of you not quite in the know, this incarnation of the Reverse Flash wields the power of the Negative Speed Force (as revealed in The Flash: Rebirth). One of the major differences between the Positive Speed Force (the source of power of The Flash family) and the Negative Speed Force, is that the Negative Speed Force allows for a form a time travel that allows history to be changed. While a key point in The Flash Rebirth, this plot point had been left alone...until this issue.

Early into the issue, it seemed fairly ordinary as it began to tell the origin story of the Reverse Flash. The dialogue seemed simple and to-the-point, until a few pages in, when the book begins a rewind effect. This effect shows earlier panels from the book with reversed lettering and red lightning across the pages (red lightning being a sign of the Negative Speed Force at work). This pattern ran throughout the book, as every obstacle a young Eobard Thawne encountered was erased by red lightning. The issue closes with Thawne discovering the uniform of the original Flash and declaring he will be the Flash of his timeframe (the 25th Century), while the Eobard Thawne freed from Iron Heights in the previous issue is shown to be the man who had been removing the obstacles from his own life in his past (and our future...ugh, time travel makes tenses difficult).

The issue concludes with an examination of the Negative Speed Force, including an ominous line of dialogue hinting that when mastered, it would unleash far more devastating abilities. I don't know about you, but I highly enjoyed this issue, and continue to highly enjoy this series. I've got high hopes for the upcoming Flashpoint miniseries. For those of you who are not fully aware of the Flash's universe, I'd recommend reading The Flash Rebirth, and then The Flash - Dastardly Death of the Rogues, to get caught up.


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Green Lantern #61

I've gotta say, after last issue's reveal, I was really excited knowing that the next issue would be coming out so soon in relation to the previous. Then, I read the issue. Don't get me wrong, the issue was fantastic, and I loved it, but I was really hoping for a bit more story. Instead, we get a side story focusing on Atroticus and the Butcher. At first glace, it would appear to be a simple profile story, similar to the issue above, but in reality this book played out much differently.

First, we get a fairly interesting struggle between the Butcher and the Spectre. For those of you who have been following Green Lantern since Rebirth, seeing Spectre battle an emotional entity provides a sense of satisfaction denied to us in the Spectre/Parallax fight of Green Lantern #50/51, and is amazingly drawn. The Butcher takes a human host for the fight, but is drawn to Atroticus. Atroticus shows why he is the leader of the Red Lantern Corps and traps the Butcher. The following sequence with the Spectre attempting to Judge the former host of the Butcher and Atroticus' attempts to stop him is fantastically written as both an examination of Atroticus himself, and an examination of retaliatory punishment in general.

However, it does lead to the only misstep of the book. The following is a mild Spoiler for last month's issue of Green Lantern. The Spectre refuses to judge Atroticus because his mission "against Krona is a Holy one". I'm sorry, but what the hell does that mean? Yes, it makes me want to read next month's issue and all, but come on, give me a bit more than that!

All in all, this book seems to be slowly building to the War of the Green Lanterns, and I cannot wait.

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Thanks for reading, and as always, feedback is welcome.