This week's post will feature last week's Brightest Day #21 and Green Lantern #63.
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Brightest Day #21
The issue begins with the superhero community responding to the deaths of Hawkman, Hawkwoman, and Aquaman, attempting to deduce the reason for their destruction by the White Ring. Hawk (not to be confused with the above dead characters, but instead the personification of War, and one half of the "Hawk and Dove" duo) openly suggests that the Deadman (and by extension the White Ring) is in fact hunting all those resurrected at the end of Blackest Night.
The second half of this issue was dedicated to the Martian Manhunter's struggle with D'Kay. Angrily lashing out, J'onn is able to open D'Kay to the thoughts of everyone on Earth. However, D'Kay gains the upper hand when it is reveal that the majority of these thoughts are corrupted by the impending rise of the Dark Avatar spoken of in earlier issues of the series. In response, J'onn drives D'Kay into the sun, killing her, and gaining his own "Mission Accomplished" splash. The White Light asks J'onn to choose which world he will defend: Earth or Mars. J'onn chooses Earth, and heads to Star City, where he is found by Deadman. However, instead of the ring incinerating him, it simply speaks: "The Earth Has Accepted You", while sucking him into the ground.
Despite the high-octane action of the previous issues, with Aquawar and the destruction of the Hawks, this issue fell flat. The Martian Manhunter story hasn't been touched on in so long that I honestly forgot all about it. I was hoping it would have stayed forgotten. That said, the impending rise of the Dark Avatar has me excited.
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Green Lantern #63
The issue begins with a two page flashback sequence to before Krona and the rest of the Maltusians (who later became the Guardians) had their falling out. He talks with Ganthet about harnessing emotion, and after stating that he is preparing to look into the past to view the creation of the universe, the other Guardians have him arrested (using Manhunters). By the way, an interesting note, the mark of the Guardians? The White Light. Hmmm...
The issue moves into the present with the Guardian Council ordering Salaak to arrest Hal Jordan on charges of treason against the Green Lantern Corps. Hal is in deep space with the remaining New Guardians attempting to trace Krona. They travel to Ryut and discover that while regrouping after the attack on Earth, Krona has captured the Predator and now controls all the Emotional Entities. On Ryut, they discover the Book of the Black, which activates in the presence of the New Guardians, allowing them to see to the Manhunters attempting to capture Krona eons ago. Krona fashions a makeshift weapon, a gauntlet, to fight the Manhunters. He stumbles and falls, but is able to activate the gauntlet by "letting fear flow...and overcom[ing] it". His eyes glow green, and the gauntlet destroys all the Manhunters but one. Krona then manipulates the systems of the surviving Manhunter, and orders them to destroy all life in Sector 666. When captured and questioned, Krona states that he did this to point out the errors in an unfeeling police force. He says that he "wept for every single life that was extinguished", but he knows that the Guardians "did not shed a tear". Upon examining the gauntlet, Krona states that it is useless to the unfeeling Guardians, but soon, the will beware his power: The Lantern's Light. The issue ends with the Book of the Black revealing a page of the four Earth based Green Lanterns, with the tagline: There will only be three.
Wow. This issue is probably the most pivotal in recent years. We've now established:
- Krona created the prototype for the Green Lantern ring
- Krona was responsible for the Massacre of Sector 666
- Hal Jordan has been charged with treason against the Green Lantern Corps
- The War of the Green Lanterns is almost certainly going to be: AWESOME!
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Thoughts? Questions? Feedback is always welcome. Leave a comment or email nextlevelstaff@gmail.com
ARGH, I accidently read the Green Latern bit and now spoiled it for myself. *derp*
ReplyDeleteThat was going to happen anyways though, we all know that.
GREAT REVIEW AS ALWAYS!!