Green Lantern (1990) #178

June 29, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Homecoming? Part Three

Fatality faces down Green Lantern on the streets of New York!

Writer: Ron Marz
Pencils: Luke Ross
Inks: Rodney Ramos
Colors: Moose Baumann
Letters: Jared Fletcher
Editor: Peter Tomasi
Cover Art: Brandon Peterson
Publisher: DC Comics

With the knowledge that this entire franchise will be revamped and Hal Jordan will be reinstated in just a few months, reviewing this title almost feels like an exercise in futility, and that’s a real shame because this is one of the best Green Lantern storylines in the last two years. I’m enjoying this book more than I have since the Ion storyline, and it’s picking up steam just in time to get the ol’ heave-ho.

After a heartbreaking prologue sequence with John Stewart, we switch to where we left off last issue – a grieving, shattered Kyle Rayner is assaulted by the alien Green Lantern killer known as Fatality, who has a more specific agenda for him mind than she has in the past. Kyle has taken her down before, but when she manages to tag him with a drug that saps his willpower, he may be in for the fight of his life.

Except for the three-page prologue, this is a straight action issue, one long, drawn-out fight, and it takes a special talent to write a fight that long and still keep the book engaging. Marz does that. This is by no means the first time we’ve seen a Green Lantern story where his brain gets scrambled and his ability to use his power ring is compromised, but the inner monologue and the visuals of Kyle struggling to cope with this chemical attack really make it work. The issue ends with a revelation which, while not 100 percent shocking, is very satisfying, as it implies that this storyline will give real closure and a real capper to Kyle’s tenure as the number one Green Lantern.

Luke Ross does fantastic battle scenes and draws a great Green Lantern – he’s one of those artists that not enough people have heard of, but when you see his art, you start questioning why he doesn’t get more high-profile work. From Kyle’s ring constructs to his hallucinations under the influence of the drug, Ross has an attention to detail and a wealth of imagination that makes these pages click.

Only three issues left, and while I do feel confident Geoff Johns will serve up a good beginning to the next chapter of the ringslinger’s legacy, I still feel a little burnt by DC Comics for ending this title, especially now that it’s finally getting good again. Do yourself a favor – if you like Green Lantern but you’ve been turned off by the past few years of tripe, don’t wait for Hal to come back. Read these six issues, and see Kyle get his well-earned last hurrah.

Rating: 8/10

DC Countdown #1

March 28, 2005

Quick Rating: Incredible
Title: Countdown to Infinite Crisis

Someone has collected information on the greatest heroes in the world – and it’s up to one of the least grandiose to unravel the mystery.

Writers: Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka & Judd Winick
Pencils: Rags Morales, Ed Benes, Jesus Saiz, Ivan Reis & Phil Jimenez
Inks: Michael Bair, Ed Benes, Jimmy Palmiotti, Marc Campos & Andy Lanning
Colors: Moose Baumann, Hi-Fi, Paul Mounts, Guy Major & Steve Firchow
Letters: Nick J. Napolitano
Editor: Dan Didio
Cover Art: Jim Lee & Alex Ross
Publisher: DC Comics

When I reviewed Identity Crisis, particularly the first and last issues of that miniseries, I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut by a mule. The story told in that miniseries was heartbreaking, stomach-wrenching and emotionally exhausting, while still being one of the best stories I’ve read in years.

Reading this special makes the gut feeling from that comic feel like a minor stomach flu.

This issue is all spoiler, and there’s almost nothing I can say without tipping the hand of the writers. Someone has gathered information on DC’s greatest heroes. Who, how and for what purpose is something that I honestly, until I turned that page, never saw coming, but unlike the identity of the Identity Crisis murderer, this one wasn’t really that big a stretch to accept. It almost felt poetic, like this was something that’s been in the works for decades instead of just the last few years.

And after reading this, there can be absolutely no doubt that this title has been meticulously planned out over the last few years. There are threads picked up on this book from titles as disparate as Batman, Superman/Batman, Adam Strange and Birds of Prey, and of course, the entire issue hangs heavily under the spectre of Identity Crisis, but one who hasn’t read those respective series will be able to understand this book without problem. Furthermore, the groundwork is laid very neatly for the four miniseries that will lead into Infinite Crisis – those being The Omac Project, Villains United, Day of Vengeance and The Rann/Thanagar War.

This book has an all-star team of artists doing the work. Each of the pencilers, from Identity Crisis’s Rags Morales on down, is doing top-notch work, and considering that each artist/inker team uses a different colorist, it’s even more incredible how neat and uniform this issue looks.

I’m still in shock. My stomach is in knots as a write this, because while I felt the last page of this issue coming from the very beginning, it still hit me like a Mack truck.

Make no mistake, friends. Identity Crisis was a warm-up.

And this is just the first round.

There’s a hell of a long way to go. And I’m starting to feel that getting there may produce some of the greatest comic book stories I’ve ever read.

Rating: 10/10

Green Lantern (1990 Series) #177

May 22, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Homecoming? Part Two

Kyle Rayner talks with Jade, while someone sends Fatality out to find him…

Writer: Ron Marz
Pencils: Luke Ross
Inks: Rodney Ramos
Colors: Moose Baumann
Letters: Jared Fletcher
Editor: Peter Tomasi
Cover Art: Brandon Peterson
Publisher: DC Comics

Ron Marz was the writer who ushered in Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern, who transformed him from a raw rookie to a strong, confident hero, and who proved that wearing the ring wasn’t an exclusive right of Hal Jordan, and it seems only fitting that he write the story that will evidently be the swan song of the title.

Kyle starts the issue taking out one of the few official “rogues” a Green Lantern has, the villain called Sonar, but the issue is really about him and his girlfriend Jade, and Kyle trying to reconcile the fact that the woman whose love kept him warm alone in outer space found another man while he was gone. This can’t have been an easy scene to write – Marz finds a very thin line between allowing us to feel Kyle’s grief and not making us hate Jade outright, but he pulls it off. As so often in breakups, it’s the wronged party that carries the agony in this scene, and anyone who’s ever been through a tough breakup for any reason can relate to this bit.

Meanwhile, a much nastier old foe, the Green Lantern –hunter named Fatality, has been sprung from prison for one reason: kill Kyle Rayner. Who got her out? Why does he hate Kyle? No telling, but we’ll certainly find out in the next four issues.

Luke Ross is a great superhero artist. The fight scene with Sonar is well-choreographed, the ring constructs are clever and inventive, and he draws a much more realistic (read: less buxom) rendition of Jade than Brandon Peterson does on the cover.

Although I’m sure Geoff Johns will do a fine job in whatever form the Green Lantern franchise takes this fall, I will miss this incarnation. Kyle has earned his place in the comic book pantheon and when written properly, like Ron Marz does, he’s still got a lot of stories left in him.

Rating: 8/10

Green Lantern (1990 Series) #176

April 24, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Homecoming? Part One

Kyle Rayner finally returns to Earth… but coming home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Writer: Ron Marz
Pencils: Luke Ross
Inks: Rodney Ramos
Colors: Moose Baumann
Letters: Ken Lopez
Editor: Peter Tomasi
Cover Art: Brandon Peterson
Publisher: DC Comics

After the train wreck that defined the last year or two of this title virtually anything would have to be an improvement, particularly the return of the writer that really made this title work for most of the 90s, Ron Marz. So it’s actually a little disappointing, if inevitable, that he spends most of this issue cleaning up the mess the last writer left.

Kyle Rayner after spending Lord-knows-how-long in outer space (this is in comic book time), returns home to find another man in the shower with his girlfriend, his place in the Justice League being filled without him, and basically feeling pretty superfluous. What’s worse, he doesn’t know it yet, but one of his nastiest old foes is about to get sprung from prison.

Although this is the part of the book that’s cleaning up after a highly unpleasant run, it’s also, oddly, some of the most relatable stuff. We’ve all returned somewhere after time away to find that things aren’t quite as we left – old friendships don’t connect as easy, old spots in our cliques have been filled in our absence. Marz puts Kyle through some very human, very accessible emotions.

Luke Ross does a very nice job on the artwork. The opening splash page of Alan Scott, the first GL, is a beautiful piece of work that I’d hang on the wall as a poster. He follows this up with a two-page spread of the Green Lantern Corps circa 1986 or so, then Kyle in his old costume, sort of giving us a visual history of the entire franchise and bringing us up to speed before we launch into this issue’s story. To top it off, we get a great cover by Marz’s former CrossGen colleague Brandon Peterson – there’s a nice computer spacescape there that looks really lovely and makes me long for his Chimera series.

This series has a long way to go to crawl out of the pit that it’s been in lately, but Marz takes some pretty solid strides. Hopefully next month he’ll be able to spend less time mopping up and more time telling a new story of his own. Once that happens, this ought to be a good, solid comic book again.

Rating: 7/10

Batman: City of Light #3

December 1, 2003

Quick Rating: Average

Batman sits vigil for a comatose boy while attacks on Gotham City call Batgirl to the fray..

Writer: The Pander Brothers & Mark Paniccia
Pencils: The Pander Brothers
Inks: Alvaro Lopez
Colors: Moose Baumann
Letters: Janice Chiang
Editor: Bob Schreck
Cover Art: The Pander Brothers & Moose Baumann
Publisher: DC Comics

Coming in on the third issue of a miniseries is never the best idea, but this one gives me enough to sort of piece the story together. Batman’s city is falling apart, with Wayne Industries holdings apparently being the target of malicious bombings. Batman is out of the game, though, sitting at the side of a hospitalized boy whose chances for survival appear slim. It seems this is one child Batman could not save.

Batgirl takes up the slack, investigating the bombings and finding cryptic, glowing clues. Meanwhile, a developer that is responsible for a glowing “Neo-Gotham” is plotting to demonstrate the dark side of the city. The Neo-Gotham is plaguing the Batman somehow, taking up residence in his mind, starting to control him.

This story has a weird sci-fi angle that isn’t my favorite for Batman. The artwork, however is rather good. The Pander Brothers draw a suitably dark Batman, while still doing a good job with the brilliant light-city of Neo-Gotham.

It’s nice to see some use getting made of Batgirl – something to ground this special in the current DCU as opposed to the nebulous, in-between time that a lot of Batman miniseries seem to occupy.

This isn’t a bad book, but it doesn’t really seem to add too much to the Batman saga either. In the end, it unfortunately feels like just another miniseries.

Rating: 5/10

Green Lantern #170 (1990 Series)

October 25, 2003

Quick Rating: Poor
Title: Greetings From Sector 2814

Kyle Rayner sends a message home to the friends he left on Earth, forcing Jade to decide exactly what she wants to say back.

Writer: Benjamin Raab
Pencils: Chris McLoughlin
Inks: David Roach
Colors: Moose Baumann
Letters: Kurt Hathaway
Editor: Bob Schreck
Cover Art: Ariel Olivetti
Publisher: DC Comics

In one of my favorite novels, The Princess Bride, William Goldman writes with the conceit that he is abridging another writer’s work. At one point, he “abridges” an entire chapter because nothing happened in it. The chapter was summed up as, “What with one thing or another, five years passed.”

The best way to sum up Green Lantern #170 is to say, “What with one thing or another, two weeks passed.”

Absolutely nothing happens in this issue. Lianna, the Amazonian Guardian of the Universe, comes to Earth with a message from self-exiled Green Lantern Kyle Rayner. The first half of this issue is Kyle’s message, during which he recaps everything that has happened to him in the past dozen issues or so. In the second half of the book, Kyle’s friends record their messages to him, in which they recap everything that has happened to them in the past dozen issues or so. At the end of the issue, absolutely nothing has changed. The one effort at development in the last three pages just hits the readers over the head with a point that anyone who has read the last two issues knew already.

McLoughlin’s artwork is passable, but many of the characters look way too old, particularly Jade and the Flash, whose costume was also off-model. On the plus side, we do get a beautiful cover by Ariel Olivetti, which is the only new thing in the entire issue.

Perhaps this was an effort to provide a jump-on point for new readers. Every title needs that once in a while. The trick is to do that in such a way that doesn’t make regular readers feel like they’ve blown $2.25 on 22 pages of information they already knew.

Rating: 3/10