This week's post will feature The Flash #9 and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #7. Following the reviews, I will be announcing the a contest for the next Spotlight!
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The Flash #9
I was never a big fan of the Flash. For me, the concept was that of a man who runs really fast. Why is that interesting? A friend of mine then suggested I read Geoff Johns' run on The Flash after noticing how much I enjoyed the Geoff Johns' Green Lantern run. I did. And I haven't looked back since.
This issue is billed as the "Road to Flashpoint". Essentially, we have two smaller arcs taking place within the issue. In the first arc, Barry Allen has planned to go to a picnic with his wife and the Wests, but is called away on police business. The Elongated Kid has been killed. But strangely, he's not a kid anymore... He's really really old. Barry then calls his wife to inform her why he won't be attending the picnic. When Iris comments that he could have easily run over and told her in person in half the time the phone call took, Barry reveals that after the Mirror shattered (See The Dastardly Death of the Rogues HC), he'd been having second thoughts after seeing his mother alive, as she should have been, before the machinations of Professor Zoom. He then heads back to the crime lab to contact an old analyst friend of his, who had left Central City PD.
The second arc shows the new speedster Hot Pursuit travelling back in time, looking for fuel and Barry Allen. At this point, the two arcs intersect, as Hot Pursuit finds Allen working at his desk. When Allen dons the Flash garb and chases after Hot Pursuit, Hot Pursuit stops, and reveals that (*SPOILER ALERT*) he is in fact a chronally displaced Barry Allen looking to stop the "single greatest time anomaly to ever threaten reality".
I felt this issue moved fairly slow, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. See, after the shattering of the Mirror in Dastardly Death of the Rogues, one of the Rogues mentioned that what it did was plant a seed of doubt. It's nice to see the seed slowly grow. The Hot Pursuit design is kind of weird, as it had sort of a "Ken The Eagle" feel to me. But I really liked the idea of a Speedsteer who needed a vehicle to obtain his speed, as Hot Pursuit is a cop on a modified motorcycle. I really liked it, but it's also not a starting point. By the way, take a look at the image below, and tell me what you think of the Hot Pursuit design.
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Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #7
This issue was really one note. It wasn't bad as a stand alone, but it leads to something that REALLY pissed me off, and I'll get into that in a second.
Basically, Guy spends the entire first half of this issue trying to free himself, before finally tapping into his Red Lantern powers. Zardor and Guy end up in a fairly epic battle, but Zardor gets the upper hand leaving the returning Kilowog and Arisia to save him. During this combat, Zardor's mind-snake-thing manages to purge Krona's influence from Sodam Yat, who is then revealed to be the receptacle for the stolen Green Lantern energies (as he's the only Lantern with the ability to hold so much power because he was host to Ion for quite a while). Zardor and Sodam begin to escape, and Guy accesses his Killshot protocol to kill Sodam to prevent any further power drain. Arisia slams into Guy, preventing the beam from connecting, and allowing Zardor and Sodam to escape. Guy argues with Arisia, and then ends the argument with thanking her and Kilowog for saving him.
Okay, now with that out of the way, I need to explain something. This was the last issue of a story arc. In that respect, it did it's job very very well. Guy being forced into the Red Lantern abilites that he didn't want, and the abduction of Sodam by Zardor seem like they will be plot points in the future. My biggest complaint is the fact that the next arc on the book is the War of the Green Lanterns. But we have no real foreshadowing toward it. I mean, I know thanks to Guy's blood vomit what's supposed to happen, but what will this war be about, and why will it happen? Is Sodam's abduction related to the war? What about the third sect of Lanterns (led by Sodam), how will they play into the war? There are too many questions, and not in the good way.
HOWEVER, I understand that next week is Green Lantern #62, and shortly thereafter is the first issue of the War of the Green Lanterns. It's entirely possible that they cleared the slate to allow for new plot points, which would be entertaining. So I'm reserving judgement, but am totally willing to eat crow if I'm wrong.
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Stay tuned next week for our weekly reviews, and our Spotlight! This will be the first week that I will be accepting votes for the Spotlight, so please leave a comment or send us an email with your vote. The only requirements are that I will ask for you to send in the issue numbers (if applicable) and why you feel that the story deserves a Spotlight segment. I will reveal the winner on February 18th, and will then post the spotlight on February 25th.
Thoughts? Questions? Feedback is always welcome. Leave a comment or email nextlevelstaff@gmail.com
Interesting, I can't say I'm a big Flash fan myself either but I may just have to pick up that issue. It sounds interesting (for once as Flash seems boring to me).
ReplyDeleteYou should cover the whole ~Fantastic Four~ situation next!