7.0 |
Overall Rating |
6.0 |
Green Lanterns Vol. 1: Rage Planet |
May 9, 2017 |
Green Lanterns Vol.1 Rage Planet is the first book in DC’s new Rebirth line for the Green Lantern run of comics. Unlike Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, which follows the stories of the much more established members of the ring slinging police force of the galaxy such as Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner, Green Lanterns follows the brand spanking new recruits of the Green Lanterns of Earth, Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz. Up until now both Cruz and Baz have only existed in the publications of other runs, such as Green lantern and the Justice League during the New 52 run. In the entirely new line, Green Lanterns, Cruz and Baz provided with the lime light of their own publication, which for readers doubles as the best possible starting point for picking up these characters. Right away this book jumps into a little bit of catch up for the main characters, basically reinforcing that these two are rookies and are learning alongside the readers, though the back stories and origins of both Cruz and Baz are more or less left as assumed knowledge which may or may not be a hurdle for some readers. Once the story proper gets rolling it leaps right into the two newbie ring singers investigating what is essentially a crack den, but for members of the rage powered Red Lantern Corp, and this is the track that this book will follow for the majority of this arch, hence the title Rage Planet. One of the other Hurdles that a story like this has to deal with when the characters are as new as they are here is that as well as developing the plot the writers also need to develop that characters alongside the main story arch, which sometimes isn’t a problem for much more well established characters like Batman or Hal Jordan, and that’s because for the majority of readers already know what the characters motivations are, this level of understanding is impossible when the protagonists are as new as Cruz and Baz. This means that for Green Lanterns Rage Planet the plot drives along are a s |
7.0 |
Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1: Sinestros Law |
May 9, 2017 |
Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1 Sinestro’s Law is DC’s opening act in their new Rebirth sage that takes over from their New 52 reboot, unlike The New 52, Rebirth isn’t a reboot, but rather a new launching off point for new readers that for the most part picks up where The New 52 left off. DC has tasked Robert Venditti with the writing of this first leg of the new line of stories for Hal Jordan, and alongside Venditti are Jordi Tarragona and Ethan van Sciver who take up the role of penciling the artwork for these stories. This story more or less picks up where The New 52 line left off with the Green Lanterns disappearing from the universe leaving one mighty power vacuum and Hal Jordan slowly loosing himself to the emotional spectrum, however all is not lost, Jordan is introduced from the start as an absolute force of will, strong enough to reconstitute himself and his own power ring just from his insurmountable force of willpower, however his reasons acting in this story are initially outlined clearly enough they often drift and waft a bit for the first half of the book or so. There is a Wonderful air of mystery and intrigue surrounding the introduction of Sinestro which drives the reader completely, as if being pulled by the nose by the readers own curiosity. This new Sinestro has all of the cunning and calculation precision typical of his character in past stories, but if anything Venditti adds a level of brutality that illustrates Senestro’s own conviction to him new cause of protector of order in the universe, and Jordi Tarragona and Ethan van Sciver’s penciling gives Sinestro a level of epicenes deserving of a character such as Sinestro. Vendetti doesn’t leave Hal and Sensestro to have all of the fun, with Vendetti’s writing we also see the return of the Green Lantern Corps and along with the Corps are Lantern veterans John Stewart and Guy Gardner. Guy Gardner is his typical breath of fresh air in an otherwise serious arch of s |
8.0 |
Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 1: Dark Trinity |
May 10, 2017 |
For what seems like the first time in this current run of DC comics Rebirth run Redhood &The Outlaws actually incorporates a proper, full-fledged, backstory that readers are able to pick up very easily and follow without too much, if any, assumed knowledge of the characters involved. The team behind this Rebirth line of Redhood and the Outlaws is headed up by writer Scott Lobdell and artist Dexter Soy with Verinica Gandini heading up the colouring. Scott Lobdell has managed to craft a truly interesting story centred around the character of Jason “Redhood” Todd that both introduces new readers to the character but also allows old time fans of the character to read along without getting bored or feeling like this is the same old origin story, just with a new coat of paint. Straight away the readers are presented with Lobdell’s intensions for this series with a quote straight from Jason Todd himself, “The Redhood can go places Batman cant”, and this is exactly what Lobdell sets out to achieve here, a character that is recognisable as a member of Batman’s Bat family but is wholly his own character with his own motivations and issues. The outlining and fleshing out of characters isn’t just saved for Jason, Artimis is also briefly outlined with her own origin, but feels like there is more to come with her character. Where Artimis’s writing lacks in a fully detailed backstory, she more than makes up for with her ability to make the read laugh, there are some panels involving her interactions with Jason and Bizzaro that are truly laugh out loud moments. Bizzaro is also written into this plot with enough care and awareness of his previous publication that the reader is never at a loss of who this character is and what they are meant to be doing in the story, and is also written with all of the charm and childlike wonderment of his original versions even if it is deliberately unclear if this is the same Bizzaro from the Forever Evil line of comics. A Sup |