Some house-cleaning duties first. My comic shop did NOT receive its copies of Invincible Iron Man #500, so I'll be reviewing that issue at a later date. This week's post will review Brightest Day #18, and Green Lantern Corps #56. At the conclusion of the review, we will be announcing our Spotlight for next week in addition to addressing some of our feedback.
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Brightest Day #18
With this week's issue of Brightest Day, one of the major storylines comes to a close, adding some seriosuly needed
depth to another. The first page of the issue is a silent tie-in to The Flash, wherein Captain Cold attacks Captain Boomerang for freeing the Reverse-Flash. (For those of you wondering why this scene is involved, the first story arc of The Flash - Dastardly Death of the Rogues - was branded a Brightest Day tie-in). The second page involves not-so-Deadman wondering why the White Ring is charging up, remarking that it feels like the day he died, but omniously states, "I don't think I'm the one who's going to die this time."
The rest of the issue is a fairly good fight on Zamaron, with the Hawks and Carol Ferris trying to take down the Predator. Eventuallly, the Hawks succeed, and Queen-lady is killed. At this moment, the White Light illuminates both Hawkman and Hawkwoman, and it speaks: "Mission Accomplished". Okay, not to be a nitpicker, but I went back and read Brightest Day #7, and I don't see how the Hawks accomplished the mission. Anyway, the Hawks are really happy, as they are finally together, and the curse forcing their numerous resurrections has been broken.
IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED, PLEASE SKIP TO THE NEXT REVIEW! MAJOR SPOILERS FOR BRIGHTEST DAY BELOW! HIGHLIGHT TEXT IF YOU WANT TO READ!
The Hawks are sent to Earth by Carol Ferris in order to get busy. In the midst of getting busy, the White Ring on Deadman's finger reaches 100%, and he is teleported to the Hawks. He rematerializes in a full White Lantern uniform, but finds that he can't move, and he has the White Ring aimed at the Hawks. After the Entity (read Blackest Night and Brightest Day #7 for more details on the Entity) orders the Hawks to spend their lives away from each other, and the Hawks tell the Entity to stuff it, the ring activates, and burns (I think) the Hawks to ashes. Deadman stands in the ashes completely shocked at what has just occurred.
SPOILER-FREE ZONE
Wow. To call this a turning point in the Brightest Day storyline would be an understatement. I CANNOT WAIT for the next issue. If you've been following Brightest Day, read this issue!
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So here's the thing that I've noticed about Green Lantern. Some writers haven't gotten it, but Geoff Johns, Pete Tomasi, and now Tony Bedard have got it.
SINESTRO IS A BADASS!
My god, this issue started kind of weak, with the Sinestro Corps moving to attack the Thunderers and Weaponers of Qward. The Green Lantern Corps attempted to defend Qward, without breaking their truce with the Sinestro Corps, in order to prevent another Sinestro Corps War. This, honestly, was really weak.
But all that changed when Sinestro himself entered the battlefield (in an ABSOLUTELY beautiful page). The Weaponer moves to attack Sinestro with a spear created by the White light, but Sinestro creates a wall of energy to stop the spear. Everyone is shocked when the spear fails to destroy the wall, and Bedard hits it out of the park with this little bit of dialogue: "I can see how you got the drop on these Green Lanterns. But now you face Sinestro!". The Weaponer attempts to attack Sinestro, but gets his ass kicked, until the Thunderers return armed to the teeth.
This issue sucked at the beginning, but Bedard can write Sinestro. MY god, can he write Sinestro. If you like Sinestro, and you don't care about this story, read this issue.
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This week, I received a special request from reader, "Neil S". Neil has asked that I write a small retrospective describing the essential storylines to prepare for the upcoming Red Lanterns series this June. Well, I think that's a great idea, and I will have that retrospective up by the end of the weekend.
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Stay tuned next week for our weekly reviews, and our Spotlight.
Next Week: Reviews of Captain America #614, Age of X: Alpha, and our Spotlight (tying into the Sinestro is a badass theme): The SINESTRO CORPS WAR!
Thanks for reading, and as always, feedback (nextlevelstaff@gmail.com) is welcome.
You can still read the spoiler part without highlighting! GAH.
ReplyDeleteGreat article though and can't wait to see what you do with Neil's request.
haha I know, I tried to match the colour, but the HTML was being stupid
ReplyDelete