w-west Comic Reviews

Much like the New Talent Showcase, Cursed Comics Cavalcade #1 is filled with beaming talent on all sides of the creative process.

This issue seems a bit familiar. It reminds me of Grant Morrison's The Return of Bruce Wayne. That's a good thing, even if its the same character. Doing the same thing is frowned upon, sure but its the things that Snyder does differently when playing with the history of Bruce Wayne that makes this a lot more interesting than just another potential flashback heavy story.

Next time, we get Emerald Sands and hopefully a resolution to a weird ending that left a lot to be desired.

Season 2 issue #1 gives us a great look at all the things Liam excels at. His dynamic camera angles and bold line work have always provided greatness for my eyeballs, but here he shines (with many thanks to Steve Oliff on colors) as his crowd shots rival Jimenez, his action panels sincerely draw fear even when the gist of the situation is still playing out to the reader.

The smattering of pinups are great too, the Rafael Granpa one a sugar buffet for my soul in particular. The sourcebook in the back featuring tons of known GLs is wonderful and the kind of thing I love about the Corps, especially as a young kid. Its a little out of place considering how much hardcore knowledge you have to have about the character to appreciate or even understand all these stories, but even so reading through them it reminded me of tons of great (and even not so great) stories Id totally forgotten about.Ultimate a bit weightless for my taste, even I was won over by this issues many charms. And perhaps most successful of all, Im going through back issues as we speak. A legion of top creators celebrating each of the characters weve loved forever. I dare you to not be smitten. To Green Lantern, heres to 80 more. Shine on you crazy diamond.

All in all, this was a good smooth fast paced read. We really had a three act story that was well constructed and was climaxed with a Karaoke invitation. How could I not praise this issue with a moment like that?

Points to the creative for providing an interesting issue of Simon vs Jessica, but points off for only leaving your villain with a page full of trash talk. I don't know how much we'll see of Sira, Nazir and Farid going forward but it will surely be interesting to see a Green Lantern series with fleshed out supporting characters that aren't superheroes. Good luck with that Sam Humphries, the pressure is on.

I'd also say that popping up at the shore is a little lame when you're building tension with every page previous. It feels less like Dunkirk and more like Transformers. Explosions now, suspense later. A story like this needs to feel more grounded, like the Sword to the leg scene. I say that while fully understanding that this is a Green Lantern comic and both Simon and Jessica are superheroes and whatever Jess may say, throwing a giant green fist at things is pretty much standard practices here. I get it. But a balance can be made, it just wasn't here.

Its just unfortunate that nothing in this issue blows me away and while all the information presented seems like its new reader friendly, it definitely relies on my previous knowledge of the Red Lanterns to care whether they have plans or not. Otherwise, I'd just be looking at two menacing looking aliens sitting on a pile of skulls with their cat promising a Red Dawn. Don't get me wrong, I love that name. The Red Dawn sounds awesome, I just don't think this issue did enough to sell me on it and certainly did not do a good job of distinguishing Sam Humphries voice from Geoff Johns who co-wrote this issue with him. I don't know who did what or how much input Johns truly had, but when Robson Rocha becomes the artist on this biweekly series with Green Lanterns #1, I'll be looking for Humhpries to make me a believer in him and these characters all over again.

Overall this is a real solid issue. Nothing to complain about unless b you were expecting John Stewart to be the star from the get go. No moments wasted here. Snyder brings the big guns out (courtesy of Green Lantern John Stewart) and they provide a blast of entertainment in this first issue.

This miniseries (mini-event?) will rely heavy on the character interactions (like all random teamups do) but it will be anchored by the incredible artwork of Francis Manapul.

Sinestro #12is a really nice book to look at and while the dialogue is a little dry, and the character logic is intentionally hidden, its a decent enough premise with high enough stakes (unless you're morally bankrupt) to keep my interest high. I'll be next month.

As I mentioned, probably a few times now, Bunn ends both storylines going through this series. Plots are on the backburner now as Bekka, Soranik, and Lyssa all get some spotlight in this issue and while its done well (excluding Lyssa's reveal of the being the planet destroyer and admitting that she'll betray him again if its for his betterment), I don't know what to expect next month. There was nothing here that screamed “You must come back next month!” There's nothing here more than character interactions to get me back. I fear Cullen may not have enough tricks up his sleeve to keep the momentum going up. See what I did there? Fear? You got it.

Overall this was probably the best look into Sinestro's past that DC has put out. Sure some of the more obvious tropes are here, but enough new layers are added to give old and new readers something to look forward to. So it looks like we won't be seeing Secret Origin II that would have featured Sinestro in a prominent role, this is a good replacement if that story never happens.

So briefly, that final page needs to be discussed, I guess. Sinestro came to Kahndaq for potential information on The Paling and finds their not-quite-dead mystery leader (The Pale Bishop) is a freaking Guardian of the Universe! These little guys will just not go away, will they?! Definitely a cliffhanger that should make things difficult for Sinestro and ramp up the amount of action this series desperately needs. I mean, besides Lyssa's unforgivable kick-landing, the only fight scene was Sinestro & Black Adam versus skeletons…Let that sink in a bit.

In the end, The Pale Bishop has a bunch of ships ready to unload on the Sinestro Corps. Probably would have been a bigger and better moment if we had either seen this roundup or not had been treated to the Wonder Woman pages.

Tale of two halves and a lot of inconsistency in the good makes for a not so good issue.

Unfortunately, there's not enough of that and more of the same issues are even more prevalent here. If we took out the DC heroes/villains and just kept it to Paling vs Corps, these interactions would be fan-fucking-tastic! If we got more Arkillo reacting to being a “hero”, more Lyssa Drak scratching the eyes out of her enemies and more Soranik guiding her little violent padawan around, then I'd be a happy fan. Well, there's always next month. After all, its Sinestro vs The Pale Bishop. One can only hope that things get better from here.

The art just slag a bit in the final pages, the DC heroes are still given too much screen time and the cliffhanger seems a bit weird, considering Sinestro could just rest easy for a week and be good again. Still, it doesn't take away from all the good karma that was built before then. This is one helluva issue.

But I guess you would consider that a small gripe right? I did previously state that I definitely enjoyed the Mongul officially returning scene and that the art was good so what's there to be upset about? Surely, I'm not still upset with the DCU cameos am I? Yes I am. Surely, I didn't cringe with Bullen's odd placement of Superman and Wonder Woman's potential affection for Bekka? Yes I did. The problems with this issue were that of old and still very minor. However, if this was basketball (see how I eventually made my way back to March Madness?) and you have three turnovers in a game, that's not the worst thing in the world but it looks particularly bad if you don't do anything positive to make people forget about all your bad. That is the best possible basketball analogy you could hope for when comparing this issue. You're welcome.

It's hard to write a review of the first issue. We got a lot of cool scenes and a lot of promise. As a fan of Bendis' (early)Uncanny X-Men series, I think he'll have a pretty good handle on these young characters. I'm anxiously awaiting the next issue. This creative is onto something, dare I say…wonderful? Yeah, wonderful.

The action in this issue is very very brief, but that doesn't mean the art took a backseat. Pat Gleason's portrayal of Cassie (and the rest of the team) is outstanding. Gleason makes the big bad evil guy look downright terrifying. When Amethyst attacks the bad guys, she literally brightens up the scene and beyond her quip, her motion livens up the entire page. I said last issue that Gleason was one helluva run right now in his career, and luckily us Young Justice fans get to experience that firsthand. Anyone viewing these pages has been blessed, this is Patrick Gleason showing off and wow does it look fantastic.