Avengers & Rogues...spoilers contained within...

So I was going to write this blog last week (Wednesday) until someone told me they were curious to read my review/thoughts on "The Avengers" after I went to the Midnight show Thursday.  Gave me an excuse to put it off and also helped me realize that after my insane trip into Morrison-BatWorld for the better part of three months I think I'm better off doing this bi-weekly rather than every single week.  That's not to say there won't be months when I do it on back-to-back weeks if time/mood/inspiration strikes me but I'm planning on every other week.

Man the fake posters I found when I just Google searched "Avengers movie poster" are hilarious....

POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!!

Anyway, so my quick thoughts on the movie. I found it to be the most fun, exciting, and comic booky of ANY of the major comic book films that have been released since "Iron Man" really kicked off this phase.  I saw MAJOR because I still feel like "Scott Pilgrim" was the most comic booky of any comic book film ever...seriously, people turned into video game coins in that one....

As for "Avengers", I felt it totally embraced the insanity of the great comic book events without losing the character of the...characters...involved in the action.  Really that's a balance that most event comics can't find (I'm looking at you "Flashpoint", "Secret Invasion", "Siege", hell pretty much everything Marvel event save "Civil War").  The prerequisite hero vs. hero sequence, the utter destruction of New York City, death, banter, teasers, character growth, somehow Joss Whedon & Zak Penn managed to cram it all into the script for this one and not feel like any department was lacking. 

Everyone from Captain America to Black Widow to random SHIELD operatives got a moment of some kind. I was a big fan of how Agent Coulson reacted to Cap because it is a reaction you see from soldiers in the Marvel U from time to time. I loved the disparate opinions from NY's populous pertaining to The Avengers, I loved Hulk but more importantly I dug Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Tom Hiddleston was even more awesome here than in Thor, Jeremy Renner & Scarlett Johansson were great as Hawkeye & Black Widow fighting as "average" humans in the midst of truly god-like powers. 

A friend asked me why I didn't think of Tony Stark as a normal human when I said that and I guess it is, in part, because of the power of the Iron Man armor and in part to due to his truly superhuman intellect.  Widow &  Hawkeye are soldiers whereas the rest of the crew are technological/scientific/mythological gods....made me want to see Fury get down & dirty with the rest of the team too.

Banner felt like a barely restrained monster, Cap felt like a man not quite in sync with the times but also like the man who would never quit fighting that we know in the comics, Tony Stark was still the Tony Stark we have come to know in the Iron Man movies but yet we saw growth in his character through this movie as well.  We got more depth from Widow & Hawkeye than we had seen in their previous appearances, and Thor...well I think we saw a whole other side to Thor's character in his interactions with Loki. I could feel his desire for Loki to just be...better...

Never did I feel the movie dragged nor did I ever feel it was overstuffed with action or dialogue at any point.  It's pacing was great, it's storytelling was great, and the ultimate fight was amazing in that it wasn't JUST a fight, it also brought us character moments in the chaos.  That takes BOTH writing & acting skill....yeah, I typed "skrull" not "skill" there at first....

And the bonus scene...the first one I mean...that shit rocked my mind!!! I was jumping up and down inside to see Thanos on-screen!  I know it's a tease that probably means nothing to your average fan, but being I was at a midnight show along with a sold-out theater of diehards, the place went nuts! If it was a wrestling show a "holy shit" chant would have probably broken out....and the bonus bonus, well the fanboy in me popped for that too as it was a total Whedon or Bendisesque scene straight from the comics.  All praise to this movie and I can't wait until I see it again...hopefully not in the 3rd row from the screen this time though...

Now onto the other half of this blog, the original plan, a look at the very first exposure I ever had to Geoff Johns' run on The Flash ,"Rogue War"!!! 

Prior to being recommended this trade (thanks @KLaing509) my only exposure to Wally West was in Grant Morrison's (shocking I know) JLA where I found him very interesting, but not so much that I decided to pick up his book.  That was actually the case with pretty much every character (save Batman) that Grant had on the team; I dug them in JLA but didn't read their individual books.  So when I was basically told that I could get the book with a "satisfaction guarantee" I had no problem giving it a shot.  Suffice to say that I was not disappointed!

See what I didn't know upon starting this read is that "Rogue War" was the culmination of Geoff Johns' long-term story arc.  That has the potential to be a very detrimental thing for a reader but to my shock and to my happiness, this was a story that was extremely accessible from the get-go and in large part it was due to this:

Two pages of bios on the major characters involved in this story, heroes & villains alike, followed by a page of "What Has Gone Before" to bring people like me up to speed (no pun intended) with the events that set all this up.  But that's not all, the first couple chapters of the story introduced me to the back story on Mirror Master, on Heatwave, and briefly on the new Trickster. It gave two out of the three a history that rounded them out for someone as ignorant as myself to the Flash mythos.

I learned about how Mirror Master wasn't the stereotypical character that became a villain.  He didn't come from a terrible family, and even though he was an orphan, his home wasn't a terrible place. Aside from one other boy who is alluded to sexually abusing other children, it seems the orphanage was an overall good place.  It is when Evan (MM) is put into the position of being assaulted that we see what is inside the boy, as he kills the abusive kid before he can do to the future-MM what he did to others.  There's more to MM's back story than that, the story of what led him to become a Rogue, but that's just taste of the life Johns pulls you into in just a few pages.

Heatwave gets the same treatment, except we see him as a trouble kid from the get-go, one who  burns down his own home with his family in it, killed another kid who locked him in a freezer, but kept trying to right his life before giving into his pyromaniacal tendencies and becoming a Rogue. A natural rivalry with a Rogue known as Captain Cold, amongst other things, led to him going straight and it was that, combined with a stint in jail, that led to Heatwave joining the FBI alongside other reformed Rogues. 

And the story is set...two sets of Rogues, the criminal & the reformed, and my immediate assumption, with minimal clue as to what came before, is that that is the foundation of the "Rogue War". 

The mysteries are thrown at you right from the beginning as the reader joins, in mid-conversation, a talk between Captain Cold & and the new Captain Boomerang (thank you character bios!) about the identity of Boomerang's mother in relation to his super-speed powers. We also get introduced to another central conflict via a note from The Top to Cold...

Now before this turns into a lengthy page-by-page review of "Rogue War" let me just hit on some of what drew me into this book, what caused me to track down all the previous Johns' Flash trades, and why it makes me sad that Wally West is MIA in the New 52.

In one 8 issue collection, Johns sucked me into the life of Wally West and a large part of the reason why is due to how...wholly...he fleshes out the life of the character.  From his relationship with wife Linda Park to his bond with the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick, to the larger role of the extended Flash family, the world of Wally West just feels full and wholly realized...like the life of an actual person.  Despite not being familiar with the whys, I can feel Linda's pain in the moment that she sees Zoom, I can sense Wally's disappointment in Piper, and his terror when the Zoom's take him back to the worst day of his life.

On the flip side, it's intriguing to see the twisted family dynamic that exists within The Rogues, how they take care of one another, how they operate within a certain standard of behavior and have self-imposed rules on the crimes they will commit.  It's fun...in a weird sort of way...to see another generation of Rogues and how the originals think they are ruining the name. 

Essentially, when it boils down to it,"Rogue War" is all about family and legacy.  Be it the Flash lineage, the Rogue Family Robinson, the Zoom's of present & future, or the little family of Wally & Linda West, this is a tale all about the ties that bind which makes the closing moments so much sweeter. 

Honestly, despite this being a story that's creeping on a decade-old, it's those reasons why I'm not really playing spoiler here for those who have never read it.  This is a truly emotional story and I'm afraid that knowing what happens would take away some of that impact.  If you've never read this, if you've never really experienced the Wally West Flash, please pick it up and see for yourself why it's such a sad thing that a character with so much depth has been left out of the New 52 picture. 

Wally West was the Flash that most fans my age grew up with, and as much as I've grown to like Barry Allen over the last 8 months (the pre-New 52 one bored me somewhat), for most of our lives he was just an inspirational figure, not a real character, unlike Hal Jordan who, even after his evil turn & death/Spectre resurrection was ALWAYS around, thus Kyle Rayner was never quite THE Green Lantern. But I digress....

Luckily Geoff Johns "Flash" has been/is being collected in Omnibus form by DC Comics so I strongly recommend you go check them out in my Amazon Store over there in the links.  You will thank me for it.  While you're at it, you should totally pick up Johns' "Teen Titans" run too and see why the New 52 Starfire has pissed off so many people...

Wally West: 1960 - 2011??

(I hope not)

Accessibility & Continuity Part 2 (AKA Random Speculation)

 

Okay, it wasn't a shock to me to read that at the beginning of October when Dan DiDio posted it to his Facebook.  I don't know about you, but given the simple fact that Barry Allen was alive AND never had a relationship with Iris West essentially screamed that the Original Crisis could not have happened.  Barry could not have perished in the fight against the Anti-Monitor only to be restored from the Speed Force later in "Final Crisis" because that whole swing was predicated on the Allen/West love. That love was the anchor that kept Barry holding on, just as it did for Wally West & Linda Park the times he got lost in the Speed Force.  At least that's how I am remembering it =)

So that got my brain rolling around....wondering what the complications, the fallout, the problems that could potentially present themselves with this edict that none of the Crisis events happened.  Spin that out even further, and I start to wonder what else could go "wrong" if certain key moments in the original DC Universe never happened in the New 52?  This is all purely speculative material on my part as very little about the past of the New 52 has been addressed thus far, and I am sure it will all unravel slowly.  What has been confirmed is very little: 

- Super heroes have been mainstream for something like 5 years

- JLA takes place around year one of that 5 year plan

- Action Comics takes place 5 years before that

- Brucie has been Batman longer than that by a few years

- Superman did die at some point based on Swamp Thing #1 

- Dick Grayson was still Batman for a year

- Jason Todd still died & got rebirthed

- There have still been 4 Robin's

- Hal still got his ring taken

- Sinestro still has his own Corps

- Atrocitus still has the corpse of Krona

- Hell, basically everything tied to the GL-Verse seems the same; I mean Kyle still gets his ring in an alley....

Okay, that is what I know so far that is still the same, but if we go back and start to monkey around with major events let us see how things can unravel.  Let start with a fun one, albeit one that was essentially stated has still happened....

Man that's still such an iconic cover...

Anyway, it can be surmised by these couple pages from "Swamp Thing #1":

...that Superman still suffered some form of "death" in this new continuity, maybe not at the hands of Doomsday, but his conversation with Alec Holland certainly implies that Supes died at some point in the last 10 years or however long it's been since he debuted.  But what would the ramifications have been (BASED ON OLD CONTINUITY) if Superman's death had never occured???  Well the extended conclusion..at least the part I will choose to focus on...is that the entire Green Lantern-verse could not exist in its present state without the Death/Return of Superman storyline.  Here's the play-by-play, in broad strokes:

1) Superman dies

2) 4 Guys looking like Supes run around one being an evil Cyborg

3) Cyborg Superman, along with evil alien Mongul, blow up Hal Jordan's hometown Coast City

4) Real Superman comes back so he, Hal, and the good Supermen beat up Cybory & Mongul for the win

5) Hal goes nuts after The Guardians stop him from recreating Coast City

6) Guardians free Sinestro to stop Hal

7) Hal "kills" Sinestro, destroys Central Power Battery, frees fear entity Parallax who bonds to Hal

8) Hal does a bunch of crazy stuff including trying to reset history & remake the universe

9) Hal sacrifices himself to reignite the sun, becomes Spectre, Parallax tries to take over Spectre

10) Hal is brought back to life, Sinestro is revealed to have never died, Parallax is stopped for now...

That is just a small part of the interweaving tapestry of the DCU without getting into the Sinestro Corps Wars, Infinite Crisis, or Blackest Night, just to cite a few examples, and how all of them are unfolding as they did originally were entirely dependent on Superman's death & Hal's craziness that followed.

So what's that picture there you ask?  Well that is the Anti-Monitor bursting out of the Black Lantern Battery towards the end of "Blackest Night".  Who the hell is the Anti-Monitor you continue?  Well the Anti-Monitor was the Big Bad from the "Original Crisis" who died at the end but whose body parts were used as tuning forks by Alexander Luthor from Earth-3 (a guy who survived the Crisis) during "Infinite Crisis" in a bid to recreate the Multiverse as Alex Luthor saw fit.  By the end of "IC", the multiverse was reborn and apparently so was The Anti-Monitor because he popped back up in "Sinestro Corps War".  In "SCW" he was eventually decimated by Superboy-Prime (Another survivor of both the "Original Crisis" & "Infinite Crisis") and tossed off into space.  Anti-Monitor's broken, dying body eventually landed in Sector 666 on the planet Ryutt and was enveloped by the Black Lantern Battery, which used his Anti-matter energy as fuel I suppose.  He's evicted back to the Anti-Matter universe by Nekron, pops up during "Brightest Day", and then we get a whole new 52...so does anyone else see the chain of events if the good old Anti-Monitor didn't exist, or rather if the "Original Crisis" didn't go down.

If Crisis didn't happen, then there's no multiverse dilemma that brings Superboy-Prime, Alexander Luthor, or Anti-Monitor into the storyline. There's no Prime to toss the defeated corpse of Anti-Monitor into space for the Black Lantern Battery to attach itself to, meaning there's no power source for the battery to feed off of, meaning the whole "Blackest Night" story may not have even been possible.  And if there's no Crisis well then this moment has no basis for happening either:

The infamous punch from "Infinite Crisis" that DC could conveniently use to explain away any continuity issues from over the years.  Here's a list from Wiki of what changes these punches wrought:

- Jason Todd restored to life with everyone remembering his death

- Various origins of Superman

- Various incarnations of the Legion of Super Heroes since the Original Crisis

- Various incarnations of Hawkman

- Various origins of Donna Troy

- Multiple origins of the Metal Men

- Elasti-Girl & Negative Man restored to life; Chief restored to his original body & team's history reboot

- Hal Jordan was never an ex-con who served 90 days in jail for drunk driving

There are more continuity changes from "Infinite Crisis" you can read here, and you can read the ones from "Crisis on Infinite Earths" here, and then there is "Zero Hour" which, while not a crisis, wrought changes of its own you can read here. As you can see, DC loves to use these events to mess about with their own history....

Anyway, back to punching the walls...which may be some metaphorical artistic statement now that I think about it.

The most change for me as a fan has always been Jason Todd and his resurrection.  Yeah it's pretty goofy to think that punching the "walls of reality" enacted these cosmic changes, but it's comic books and we are discussing THE WALLS OF REALITY.  No stupider than implying that Barry Allen saving his mom would create such utter havoc to the world as we knew it...

So if the crisises never happened, then the wall never got punched, then what brought back Jason Todd?  In the "Red Hood & The Outlaws" book it is acknowledged that JT still died at some point and that The Joker did it...

So the question still to answered is if Superboy-Prime destroying the Walls Of Reality didn't resurrect JT then what did?  A mystery for the New 52 to answer in the coming months alongside "why is Barbara Gordon walking?" and "who decided to make Mr. Terrific suck?".

I could likely go on for hours pondering the various implications of the history of the New 52 in juxtaposition to the Old DCU, wondering if Bats still got his back broken, if Jack Drake still died the way he did in "Identity Crisis", or for that matter if "Identity Crisis" still happened in any form? How could Wally West apparently never existing make for problems? What about Donna Troy?  The Teen Titans?  The list of maybe's & what if's is quite endless, and I believe that a lot of the logistical problems that could potentially result from the new continuity in DC Comics stem from the Green Lantern corner of the universe. 

The GL-Verse seems, thus far, wholely unaffected by the new status quo of the DCU.  From what we have seen in GL, GLC, New Guardians, and Red Lanterns, everything that happened before still happened.  The Guardians were slaughtered at some point leading to Kyle getting the ring, Krona still slaughtered Atrocitus' people & and his corpse is still in Atrocitus' possession, which means the War of the GLs arc still happened, which means the New Guardians post-BN still existed, which means BN still happened, blah blah blah blah freakin' blah blah.  At least the logistical issues, due to the apparent lack of any real change within the Bat-verse (4 Robins, Damian's age, Batman Inc), only really have an impact on Gotham City.  The nightmare that could potentially be the GL-Verse is directly effected by, and in turn directly effects, the rest of the DCU. 

I don't find it entirely coincidental that the sub-verse with the least amount of change post-Flashpoint is the one headed up by Geoff Johns, arguably the most powerful creator in the company, but I am looking forward to seeing how the tapestry of this new DCU unfolds over the next few years.  And yes I do hope it is years, I want to see DC ride this out and not just cave in to any pressure to return things to pre-Flashpoint status quo.  They made the choice, they better stick with it. They more or less rode out the post-Crisis reboot for 26 years until Flashpoint with some tweeks here and there via "Zero Hour" and "Infinite Crisis", so I hope that the New 52 is at least giving some time to tell its story as well.

DC has not given themselves an easy task by trying to have their cake and it eat too in terms of pre- & post-Flashpoint continuity, acknowledging some moments but not others, some heroes but not others. It would likely have been easier on them creatively to start wholely from scratch with a "Year One"/"Man Of Steel" styled origin book for everyone, but that would actually prove far less interesting for me as a fan since I am kind of enjoying the continuity game, AND I am certain it would have resulted in an even louder reaction from the vocal minority.  It all makes me wish I could step into the brain of a DC Comics fan circa 1985 and see how they felt post-Crisis....

Oh, and as for DC's competition over there at Marvel, if I was part of that crew I think I would stand up and proudly state that Marvel Comics has never had to restort to whole-heartedly rebooting their continuity a single time, much less 2 or 3.  Marvel just creates a billion alternate realities if they want to run roughshod over their own history....

A Few Things Here & There (AKA I'm A Slacker)

So I am a slacker...it is certainly hard to argue that as it pertains to this blog lately.  Last blog is dated August 29th and I said I would come back THAT WEEK to deliver my thoughts on "Captain America: The First Avenger". Yeah, it's September 19th right now as I'm starting to write this.  That is definitely slacking, and to add to it, the Blu-Ray/DVD is apparently slated to come out in a month (October 25th according to www.comicbookmovie.com).  So I started thinking I should just wait until that release comes out, re-watch the film, and THEN finally get around to delivering my thoughts on what was my 2nd favorite comic book movie of 2011.  Then the question became, what to do with this blog as I sat down to write it this evening?  Sometimes I plan, sometimes I don't, sometimes I don't have the slightest thought in my head until I open up the page and just start typing. 

The last time that happened I wrote this: Cornucopia of Comments, and covered the upcoming Event books for 2011, price points, and digital downloads (legal or otherwise). Coincidentally, all three of those items are still viable as "Flashpoint" just wrapped up, "Fear Itself" is winding down, the New DC 52 launch brought up the pricing question again, and digital downloads became a topic once again as part of that New 52 initiative.  So I decided I would touch on some of those topics AND touch on the comic-related things that have occupied my time.

FLASHPOINT/NEW DC 52

"Flashpoint" was a bomb. I say this without having sat down to re-read it as one whole story, I say this without perusing the books prior to typing this, I say this solely based on the impact it had on me as a reader, and based on what it was intended to do as the set-up for the New 52.  As a long-time fan of Andy Kubert I can say the art was beautiful, the intial foundation of the story was intriguing, and the part of the story that pertained to parents & children was by far the most intriguing aspect. 

Unfortunately that was a small part of the story when all was said and done, only really played out in Thomas Wayne's desire to help Barry so he could bring Bruce back & in Barry's actions regarding his mother that somehow started this whole mess in the first place.  The problems came in every other aspect of this story: the Atlantis-Themyscira war, the Resistance, the tie-in books, et al.  How in the hell Barry keeping his mom alive causes Bruce to die, Kal El to become a test subject, Aquaman to turn into a bloodthirsty tyrant, and all the other fundamental changes to the DCU is not something ever explained in any fashion.  I certainly see how events could unfold like that, but it feels like an attempt by Johns to give Barry's existence as Flash such an importance as to rival Superman's impact on the heroes of the DCU.   The war means nothing in the long run, none of the tie-ins mean anything (I did actually read them all) and only the "Batman: Knight of Vengeance" book by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso was the least bit entertaining on its own.  It had nothing to do with the core story, didn't pretend like it would continue into Flashpoint #5 like all the rest, and served only to flesh out the character of Thomas Wayne seperate from the events that brought him to FP.  Hell, as a story it was better done that FP itself. 

The other big issue with FP was how it bridged the gap between the old DCU and the new, or rather how I feel it failed miserably to accomplish that goal.  The entire regenesis of the DCU was dumped into 2 pages that quite frankly didn't make any damn sense. Take a look for yourself:

Mystery woman says "The history of heroes was shattered into three long ago..." so go fix it Barry. The problems I have this page can be summed up with two numbers, two storylines: "52" & "Countdown".  Aren't there 52 Earths in the Multiverse? Wasn't it clearly established that the Wildstorm-verse existed on its own Earth (Earth-50 according to Wiki)?  Vertigo is even more confusing given that John Constantine now exists in both DC-proper & in the Vertigo line.  In the New 52 he's a young guy, in the Vertigo line he's older & married, so does this mean Vertigo-Hellblazer exists in the future? Does it exist on a seperate earth?  Does this mean I'm worrying too much about a fantasy world where there really aren't rules except those we (fans & creators) impose on them?  I just have questions, and I'm hoping they get answered in time as this story unfolds.  Because really, given the set-up thus far, it certainly seems like his will unfold into a long form mega-arc of some kind as Barry Allen eventually remembers his mission of fixing time as the mystery woman (who may or may not be the one from the FP issues of Booster Gold) stalks everyone in sight.

So that brings me to whole endgame of "Flashpoint" and my thoughts on its evolution so far: the New 52.  From "Action Comics" to "Detective Comics" to "Animal Man", it has only been two weeks of new #1's and it has been a mixed bag.  I haven't read them all, nor do I have any desire to, but what I have read has largely been enjoyable if not leaving me with a few questions about how this whole reboot/reset/restart works.  Simply based on the #1's I have read so far, it seems that the Bat-Family (save Barbara Gordon) and the GL-Verse are picking up exactly where they left off in August.  The main differences in Bat-Land are that Bruce is once again the only Batman & Batgirl is once again a Barbara Gordon sans wheelchair.  The only differences in GL-World, based on the two books released thus far, are...nothing.  Any reader could make guesses as to why it is that the brand that DC's Chief Creative Officer captains has apparently suffered the least from the New 52...

Anyway, while "JLA" may not have been the strongest launch book as far as long-term reader opinion seems to go, I for one feel like it was quite the right book for new readers.  It's got Jim Lee art, can never go wrong with that for my money, and a decent script depicting Bats & GL at their infancy of their relationship.  This is a book about HOW the Justice League comes together, about HOW the DCU is formed in this brave new world, and I am extremely interested in seeing how it unfolds, especially with Darkseid apparently looming as the big bad.  As for the rest of what I've experienced, I must say "Action Comics" had an energy & life I haven't experienced from a Supes book in quite some time, and given that I don't have any strong ties to the character, I feel like I'm on the ground floor of something good. "Detective Comics" shocked me, not just due to its cliffhanger ending, but due to the fact that Tony Daniel's run on "Batman" towards the end was not very good.  He still has some issues with pacing, occassionally his stories feel like there are panels missing, but his first 'Tec ish was a pleaseant read that has me looking forward to more.  "Batwoman", "Batgirl", "Green Lantern", "Red Lantern", all exceeded my expectations.  Can I possibly put into words how great it is to have JH Williams III art back in a monthly?  "Animal Man" & "Swamp Thing" were books I picked up based on the reputations of the writers (Jeff Lemire & Scott Snyder respectfully) and was blown away by the quality of the two books. On the downside, "Green Arrow" & "Grifter" were just bad, "Batwing" and "Suicide Squad" I am still up in the air about, as is also the case with "Resurrection Man", "Stormwatch", and a few others.  It has been a good start overall, and I am quite intrigued to see how this all plays out in the coming months.

FEAR ITSELF

So here we are 6 issues deep into FI, one issue to go; this story certainly has a stronger core book than FP, and it DEFINITELY has some stronger tie-ins books than FP, but on the whole thus far, it too has seemed like a bloated mess.  There are certainly parts fo FI that I dig, there is a definitive sense of everything going to hell with each issue, and it certainly feels like Cap is quickly watching it all slip away.  Matt Fraction has done a fine job of building elements of the larger story, but I've felt like that is all he's doing: building parts.  He introduces a Hulk element, but to get any resolution you have to go read "Hulk vs Dracula" or "Avengers", same can be said for every single one of The Worthy (who are appearing in every single book printed simultaneously).  That too makes for a bit of a pain because while it is kind of fun to watch Juggernaut's path of destruction from East Coast to West as he breaks away from The Thunderbolts & The Raft and ultimately ends up fighting the X-Men.  It's an interesting read, but can be quite confusing given that the issues are being released at the same time.  Each issue of FI, if read without the benefits of the tie-ins, seems like it has gaps in the story, as if major plot points are absent from the story because they went down in "Invincible Iron Man" or "Avengers" or "Journey into Mystery".  And even more sad to me was that the death of Bucky felt so...so unimportant, so off-handed that I honestly that it was a faux death like Superboy in "Infinite Crisis", a tease before the real death that would go down an ish or two later.  I don't mind there not being a mourning moment because our hereos are in the middle of a war, that can be saved for an aftermath issue, but I hate how blase the entire death scene felt.  I am a huge fan of Bucky as done by Brubaker in recent years, I loved him as Cap, and this death just didn't have a weight for me.  That made me sad...

All that being said though, I can't help but feel a sense of anticipation for the final issue of FI given the fashion in which the most recent one ended.  Steve Rogers is a bad-ass, even in the face of ultimate doom, he is a general who you can't help but rally behind.  I want to see Cap go toe-to-toe with Sin and annihilate her.  Obviously she survives this ordeal given her appearance in the post-FI solicits, but that doesn't mean Rogers can't lay a beating on her on behalf of Bucky.  I want to see the Stark-armored hordes of Asgard go to war with The Worthy and for Thor to take his hammer upside the head of his, well his Uncle I guess it would be.  This truly looks like the big battle at the culmination of an action flick and I want to plop down my...whatever the hell Marvel decides to charge us for this double-sized final issue to see how it all comes crashing down.

SPIDER-ISLAND

In addition to "Fear Itself", Marvel also has the balls to run another giant crossover within the Spider-Man world that also has it's fair share of tie-in books.  "Spider-Island" may not have the sheer volume of books that FI does, but it is certainly giving it the old college try.  Since most books are wrapped up in FI in some fashion, Marvel just decided to put out a slew of mini's & one-shots to go along with SI 2011 (see now there's two SI's in Marvel's recent history with Secret Invasion, damn).   Can't say much about it, only reading the main ASM book which has been a fun read I guess, just find it ridiculous that Marvel is running two fairly large events simultaneously.  All I can say is that the humor of everyone having Spidey powers got old pretty quickly and I'm already tired of The Jackal.

DIGITAL DOWNLOADS

Not much to find in the way of numbers for the Same Day Downloads that have accompanied the New DC 52 books in the last 3 weeks (starting with JLA), but according to DC their App peaked at #4 for the top grossing Apps & they're very  happy with the business they've done.  I find it to be a wonderful idea on DC's part to get new books out the same day digitally & in print.  When the time comes that I have a cell phone that's actually capable of doing apps, I believe I will check this out at least once to see how I like it.  If you're interested in DC's endeavors with the digital downloads, here: DC Digital Downloads.

SUPERGODS

This is one of the many things that have occupied my time over the last couple weeks and distracted me from writing, hence why I picked it as the initial image for this blog.  I don't think it is an easy thing to sum up what this book is about because it really is all over the place. Covering various topics throughout the range of comic book history from "Watchmen" to "Dark Knight Returns" to "Marvelman" to "Seduction of Innocent" to "New Gods" to "X-Men" and a great deal more.  It's a real stream-of-consciousness look at comic books through the eyes & thoughts of one of the medium's most unique authors.  It can be a difficult read at times, he kind of jumps around in time when one topic (say the New Gods) leads him to another (like Final Crisis) even if they are decades apart, but all told I very much enjoyed the read.  The looks at Grant's personal moments, the things that have shaped him as an author...while not new to any devotee of his...are interesting nonetheless and possible the most interesting parts of the book.  You can feel Morrison's love the medium pour from the pages though, and it is that love that has me very intrigued about books like Jim Starlin's "Warlock", the Kree/Skrull War, & Alan Moore's "Marvelman".  I'd say creating interest in a reader to go find material that is fresh to them is an accomplishment in itself and thus "Supergods" is a job well done.

CASSANOVA: LUXURIA

My birthday just passed and I was gifted the 1st trade of Matt Fraction's "Casanova" by the same friend who gave me Warren Ellis' "Crooked Little Vein", "Red", and "Fell" to read.  I blew through it pretty quickly and I must say that I'm pretty impressed by it.  To date, I had only read Fraction's "Uncanny X-Men" run, as well as "Fear Itself", but had heard good things about this book.  I was quite excited to sit down & read it, and was not disappointed.  The story is out there for sure, dealing with alternate dimensions, odd sex dolls with downloadable personalities, patricide, and well...I guess it's not that odd for comic books after all.  Anyway, the art by Gabriel Ba enhanced that feeling of eccentricity and I am certainly going to look into picking up any other "Casanova" material that is available at the moment.  I recommend you do the same: Casanova Vol.1 on Amazon

AN INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONDITION

This one is another book, written by Andrew Hickey, and it's an analytical look at Grant Morrison's "Seven Soldiers".  I'm only maybe 1/3 of the way through the book and while it's an interesting read, I think it needs its own annotated analysis.  In just the first few chapters I have been exposed to references to String Theory, M-Theory, Freemasons, Adam & Eve, Newton's Theories, Arthurian legend, and a ridiculous amount more.  I've only gotten to the chapter about Zatanna's section of the mega-story and I'm already overwhelmed with the references in this book. It's good, it's educational, but I certainly am going to need to spend some time on Wikipedia to grasp some of this information.  A related adventure is what we call it around these parts.  If you're interested in Seven Soldiers or Grant Morrison, this one may be of interest to you: An Incomprehensible Condition on Lulu

THOR REVISED

So I bought "Thor" on Blu-Ray and I just want to say that my opinion of the movie has slightly changed upon viewing it a second, and third, time.  It has moved up the list to my 3rd favorite of the summer super-hero movies, surpassing "Green Lantern".  I guess I will have to wait until I re-watch that to see if my judgment holds up, but I think it's safe to say that "Thor" will maintain it's new slot.  I don't think I gave enough credit to the quality of the story initially, but in repeat viewing, it felt more like its own movie, and less like a set-up piece for "The Avenger" flick next year.  The acting was good, the supporting cast was a bit more fleshed out than I initially felt, and I think I can get into the Jane Foster/Thor dynamic a little more now.  Now I just need to rewatch "X-Men: First Class" to reaffirm how awesome it was in the first place.

Well, thanks for riding along while I revisited some topics and shed some light on what's been occupying my time in comic book land.  Looking forward to this week's New 52 books, and the next edition of Schism from Marvel.  Hopefully once that's all said and done I can stay on the ball and review it too. 

DCU Concerns...

This isn't going to be a lengthy blog, and it isn't one about anything in particular, just a random collection of thoughts I had while reading Flashpoint #3 and my concerns about the post-FP world and how it will effect certain characters. 

As any one reading comic books knows by now (and as I pondered in an earlier blog (52 Number Ones...), DC is bringing a whole batch of #1's to the buying audience in September following the close of Flashpoint, and starting with a Geoff Johns-penned & Jim Lee-drawn JLA book (hence the image above).  Regardless of my thoughts on putting two paragons of timeliness on your flagship book (that's sarcasm btw), it is a whole lot of exciting craziness going in on the DCU and it is prompting a lot of speculation, the most prominent fear I would say being the potential demise of Superman & Lois Lane's marriage. 

Honestly, about that, I could care less....I'm a Batman guy, have been for a long time now and nothing is going to change that.  I trust in the creative teams behind the various Bat-books to craft a story that doesn't insult the fans like me who have been reading for decades and may bring some new readers to the pages of this character I have come to treasure so much.  With each additional piece of information that is put out there by DC regarding this reboot, reset, restart, or whatever you want to label it, my initial fears of total disregard for history have been mostly assuaged.  And despite that fact that Grant Morrison will NOT be helming a single Bat-Book for the first time since 2006, I think it will still do okay.

It's not the story I worry about, rather it is the fate of a certain batch of characters that I have grown attached to but who have yet to be named in any of the solicits for September's relaunch.  The first:

Batgirl IV aka Stephanie Brown

I think Stephanie Brown has benefited from the post-"Death of Bruce Wayne" world moreso than any character in the entire Bat-Corner of the DCU.  It's been cool as hell to see Dick Grayson step into the cowl but largely he's been the same Dick (laugh it up) that he's always been for the most part.  The Red Robin identity of Tim Drake has been an interesting growth process as he's taken all the best, and some of the worst aspects of Bruce, Dick, & Jason Todd, incorporated them into his own identity. Damian has been an interesting little snot since his debut at the start of Grant's opus and his growth has been one of the high points of the last several years, but I stand by my belief that no character in the Bat-Family has become more beloved (by comparison to where she started) than Stephanie Brown.  Bryan Q. Miller's handling of Steph has evolved her from a character most fans hated, or at least were indifferent about, and turned her into a well-rounded adult who is atypical of any other character in the Cave.  Steph is the only character attempting to have a real life, to go to school and have friends, she still has to lie to her mom, but is now finally being pulled into her "Batman Inc." role hinted at months ago.  No longer is she defined by Tim Drake, or the whole death/resurrection thing, but rather she has grown into her own character capable of carrying a book on her own.  Steph is the star, despite the, basically every issue, appearance of Oracle, or the occassional dip into the pool filled up with the rest of the Family.  Who would have ever thought the Cluemaster's daughter, the friggin' Spoiler would be that character.  Major kudos to Miller for crafting this character and to DC for allowing him the opportunity. 

It is because of all those reason that I worry for Stephanie Brown's future in light of Barbara Gordon's return to the Batgirl tights.  There's no mention of her in any Bat-books, nothing in Birds of Prey, so I hope that all the work put into building her up hasn't all been for naught in the DCnU.  In the vein of Batgirl, my other worry is....

Batgirl III aka Cassandra Cain

...Steph's predecessor as Batgirl, Cassandra Cain.  The formerly mute daughter of the assassin David Cain who became Batgirl following Huntress' failed tenure during "No Man's Land" and who would go on to rock the house in my opinion.  I always thought she was a great character, and one with loads of potential that was only barely tapped when the decision to turn her bad was made.  Buuuut as if that wasn't damaging enough, the decision to then have her be all mind-controlled by Deathstroke only did more damage to Cassie.  Then she became a good guy again after being freed from Deathstroke's mind control, was recruited to The Outsiders by Bruce, disappeared when he "died" but not before passing her costume off to Stephanie, and is only now...after several years off the radar...coming back into the Bat Family.  Retroactively Cassie's whole disapperance was part of Bruce's post-mortem orders, but it was Tim Drake who kept in contact apparently and traveled to Hong Kong to offer her a costume.  In the past couple months, Cassie has adopted the name of Black Bat, begun serving as a Batman Inc. operative, and is now back in Gotham during the "Gates of Gotham" mini-series. 

Just like Stephanie, there doesn't appear to be a place for Cassie in this post-FP DC Universe as of yet, and just like Stephanie Brown, I am hoping that is only a short term thing as I fell like she would be a perfect fit for this new "Red Hood & The Outlaws" series.  I want her to remain viable, and visible, not because there has been some tremendous work to make her relevant, but rather because I see so much potential for the character after so much time away from the spotlight.  Cassie Cain hasn't seen monthly appearances in years, she fits the bill perfectly for DC's diversification initiative (a mute asian, female), and is another character who offers up something fresh to the Bat-World.

My next worry isn't just one characters, it's 6...or 7....or 8 depending on the issue...

Gail Simone's "Secret Six"!  I've written about my love for this book in the past (Secret Six Blog) and now with no sign of its survival, I am a sad puppy.  I won't go into the detail I did in the blog (see that's an internal plug right there), but suffice it to say that the characterization, the stories, the interpersonal relationship developed by Simone have done wonders for a lot of characters that were going nowhere, had lost their way, or were just plain useless to most.  New life has been breathed into Bane and Catman, Ragdoll has been turned into an amazingly rich character, as have Scandal Savage and Deadshot, and a fucking Shark has been the highlight of the past year.  He's like Groot for the S6 or something (read the most recent incarnation of "Guardians of the Galaxy" for Groot). 

So while it warms my heart to see a couple of these characters still kicking around in the new "Suicide Squad" book, I am saddened to see that they will not be a unit, and I am hoping that Bane in particular is not relegated once more to just being the guy who broke Batman's back once upon a time.  The relationship between him and Scandal has been a highlight of the run, and I would love to know where Simone was heading, if she even had an idea for the culmination.

And that's probably the thing that hurts the most with the entire new 52 relaunch, all of the unfinished work.  I'm sure it wasn't a terribly difficult thing for a writer to wrap up a short term story in time for the September renumberings, but I'm just as sure that most writers had long term plans for their books that just got squashed by this relaunchbootstart.  Which brings me to my biggest story concern stemming from this....

...the whole concept of Batman Incorporated.  See this was the brainchild baby of Grant Morrison, and the supposed culmination of years of planning.  Well now we've got Grant shifted over to "Action Comics", leaving the Bat-Franchise without him for the first time since he started "Batman & Son" in 2006, and that Batman Inc. title on hiatus until sometime in 2012.  Now to say that putting a Grant Morrison book on hiatus is just begging for it to never be completed would be an understatement given his history of delays, false starts, and never weres, but I hold out hope regardless. 

My concern, given that we've been led to believe Bruce going public still happened & Batman Incorporated is still in existence, is that the whole idea of Batman Inc. will ultimately fall by the wayside.  Aside from the "Batwing" comic (a barely touched on character I just don't get giving a book to considering the amount of time they spent establishing Nightrunner), none of the new books seem to embrace the concept.  Hell, "Batman Inc." is the only one of the current books that really employs the international flavor as it is...well "Red Robin" to a lesser degree, a much lesser degree. Without Grant to explore the idea of corporatizing Batman, where will this leave Batman Inc. as a concept?  I'm hoping it doesn't just fizzle out, especially not before Grant wraps up his Leviathan arc in 2012, and that Scott Snyder & Tony Daniel (I honestly don't give a damn about David Finch) continue to incorporate...Incorporated...into their future.

Well that ended up a lot longer than I thought it would be....not really shocking given how wordy I tend to be.  Anyway, I guess in September we will begin to see what the future holds for our favorite imaginary friends...and Batman too.  He's real.

Oh yeah, and I know I tend to avoid wrestling related stuff here, but check out my friend Eric Santamaria's Wrestling Roundtable when you get a chance...

Blackest Night: One Year Later

In conjunction with the one year anniversary of Blackest Night's resolution, in light of Free Comic Book Day just passing (2009 saw Blackest Night #0's release), and because I bought the Hardcover upon finding out the DC had ceased soliciting it, I decided to reread DC Comics line-wide crossover from 2009/2010!  So here's what a look at what I thought while going over this story for the first time in a year.

Now let me start by saying I ONLY read the core mini-series this time; not the Green Lantern or Green Lantern Corps issues, not the 7 different mini-series that tied in, and not the dozens of other issues that bore the Blackest Night logo on their covers between June 2009 - May 2010.  My choice was done with purpose, not because I didn't want to dig through 20+ boxes of books to get all the issues out (although that may have played a part honestly), but because I wanted to see how Geoff Johns story read by itself without the addition of any outside stories.  In short, it was a mixed bag.

First, a little backstory for the uninitiated.  Blackest Night was the culmination of several years of story built on the part of GL author extraordinaire Geoff Johns.  Johns, ever since bringing Hal Jordan back in "GL Rebirth" had crafted an opus of sorts with various peaks and valleys.  The first major peak was in the "Sinestro Corps War" and the close of that excellent story also marked the beginning of the build to "Blackest Night". 



The ensuing two years built up the ground work for BN between the issues of GL and GLC by introducing the Blue, Orange, and Red Lantern Corps; restoring the Star Sapphires to prominence, setting up the Black Lantern Corps via Black Hand, and teasing the existence of an Indigo Tribe.  The Blackest Night was upon the DCU shortly after "Final Crisis" came to an end and the apparent death of Bruce Wayne was one of the final catalysts.  In fact the entire zero issue is devoted to two formerly dead guys, Hal Jordan and the newly-resurrected Barry Allen (in their Flash & GL gear), conversing over the unmarked grave of Bruce.  After they leave, Black Hand robs the grave and steals the skull from the casket and we are underway! The start of Blackest Night #1 continues from #0 with Black Hand unleashing the black rings, but then it goes into the opposite direction, all daylight and happiness on what has been named a day of rememberance for the heroes that had died.

Then the fun and chaos begins!  The dead heroes of the DCU are resurrected en masse as evil Black Lanterns intent on, quite literally, stealing hearts.  Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, Jade, Aquaman...anyone that could elicit an emotional response from the living was resurrected save for the original Dove.  When the rings tried to bring him back they were denied and the message "Don Hall Of Earth At Peace" was spit out.  Hell, Johns even broke my heart by finally, OFFICIALLY, declaring the Jean Paul Valley Azrael dead when he wandered the streets as a BL in BN #4 :c(



Unfortunately there isn't really an explanation given in the specific issue for why the original Dove wasn't able to be resurrected (Johns did say we would learn more here) and there wasn't really one given during the whole of BN.  Was it written in one of the tie-ins?  The problem of Dove is just one example of not having blanks filled in without reading the tie-ins but I will get back to that after I'm done singing praises.

The guts to so brutally murder Hawkman and Hawkgirl in the close of the first issue using the Dibny's, the horror of death all the way across the DCU, the way in which the characters so often take it for granted that people will come back, all those things are right in the readers' face from jump street.  And the scene so wonderfully rendered by Ivan Reis in which Hal shows Barry everyone who has died in his absence just drove it home.  The first issue had me clamoring for more and damn did it keep delivering.

Although the shock of seeing the dead heroes return wore off pretty quickly, the awesomeness of zombie sharks was pretty damn cool!  And the visual of Deadman begging to stay dead was just so...powerful.  That one single page did more for Deadman than anything else I had ever read him in, and it served as a perfect moment in light of his future (something else I get to later).  The constant onslaught of the BL's, the omnipresent feeling of doom, the inevitability of death all hung over every panel of this comic when I was able to read it in one lump.  The countdown to 100% that accompanied every page only served to enhance the impending feeling of dread as the reader wondered what the hell was going to happen when the meter was full. 

Don't let me forget the art of Ivan Reis & Oclair Albert...in large part due to the art, I felt every emotion...particularly when Firestorm (a character I have very little familiarity with) was forced to kill his own girlfriend under the control of BL Firestorm.  That art served to really show you how huge a deal it was that The Spectre was corrupted, the grotesquery of Black Hand, the ugliness of death personified by the BL's, and the fear in that moment when Nekron comes to Earth.

Then there is the moment where the tablecloth is really pulled out from under the heroes with the line "Bruce Wayne of Earth...




In that moment every hero who had ever been resurrected, every one who had every cheated death, fell victim to the Black Rings.  Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Kid Flash, and more all succumb to the power of the Black.  Hal Jordan & Barry Allen figure out a way to break the tether between themselves and the rings by jumping just slightly ahead in time.  Meanwhile out in space...



The scope of just what is heading for Earth is amazing, and once again the art just captures the stark terror of how much death is on the way.  The moment where Ganthet makes himself a member, followed by his splitting of the rings, provided some great moments as well in which each of the rings find another host.  The Scarecrow getting the Yellow Ring was a great nod to a moment earlier in the GL series, Lex Luthor getting the Orange Ring was perfect, and Mera as a Red Lantern was awesome.  Much like Deadman, she was a character that truly benefitted from this series in terms of exposure and generated interest.  Hell, I bought her action figure...in part due to it containing a Dex Starr to be honest...


How can you not love that Kitty Face?

Anyway, the ultimate reveal of Nekron's desire to destroy The Entity...the source of existence itself...and the immediate reactions of Sinestro to take on the White Lantern responsibility as his own was epic.  Here is a man who has strived to bring order to the universe (at least his version of order), had been evicted from the GLC, formed his own Corps, sought to expose the Guardians as frauds, and now thinks he can use the power of the WL to justify his belief that he is the greatest Lantern of them all.  It's no wonder the power abandoned him, thankfully cause it allowed for a supercool visual of the resurrected heroes (Superman et al) to become WL's for a moment to win the day.  Oh yeah, the Anti-Monitor comes back too...big stuff, just like a mega event-wide crossover should have! 

And as if that wasn't enough...we get the resurrection of 12 of the heroes who were dead prior to BN (well the Hawks died in the first issue but you get the idea), and set the table for the Brightest Day to come with the White Lantern popping up on the very last page of the very last issue.   The immediate future of the DCU was established and damn if I wasn't interested.  Oh yeah, and to bring everything full circle...Hal Jordan & Barry Allen (this time in civvies) meet once again over the Wayne grave to discuss how they now accept Tim Drake's belief that Bruce is alive! 

Damn did this story have some great moments, and damn is it so much better to read it as a whole than it was to read it monthly...with delays...with that month gap, and with a lot of negativity from the internet if I recall correctly.  No worry about reading a thousand tie-in issues, no concern with breaking the bank just trying to follow the story, just me and the comics.  I applaud Geoff Johns and company for their work on this mini-series because you can see how much of their heart & soul was on the page.  This book piqued my interest in Deadman, in Mera, in the fate of a dozen characters that I didn't really care one way or the other about prior to BN.  It set-up the next year of DC comics, and with the background resurrection of one Reverse Flash (as well as some time travel), it set-up this year's story in "Flashpoint".  The tease of Bruce Wayne's fate and the purpose of the 12's resurrections set up the larger DCU, and the intro of the various Corps laid the groundwork for the next year of GL-centric books as well. 

If I recall correctly, BN got a lot of flack because fans felt like the end was nothing more than set up for another story.  Well that is still true upon reading it again one year later, but that is by no means a bad thing.  The DCU is one cohesive universe, and the events of one thing...especially something as major as BN...should lay the foundation for what comes next.  The story of the Blackest Night has its conclusion in these pages, and a satisfying conclusion at that.  But of course there is going to be fallout from the event, hell if there wasn't than fans would just complain about that instead.  Gone, long gone at that, are the days where a comic book event happens and there are no lasting repurcussions.  I don't know if that day every truly existed....maybe in the Marvel Comics Annuals like "Atlantis Attacks" or "Evolutionary War".

Now despite all my praise, there are negatives to the book as well.  Chief among them, the tie-ins and their importance.  There are certain parts of BN that just don't read so well unless you have knowledge of the events within Green Lantern & Green Lantern Corps in particular.  Now, that's not entirely surprising given that this was born as a GL-centric story that enveloped the DCU as a whole, but it doesn't make the reading any smoother for someone unfamiliar with GL who only picked up the book because of its line-wide influence. 

Still it is the mini-series (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Titans, & JSA) that are the most irritating and in particular the Bats, Supes, and WW ones.  In an event like this, you just want to scream "where are they?" and I frequently feel it becomes a neccessity in DC crossovers to find ways to write them out for extended periods (in particular Superman due to his power levels).  But to answer the question of where they are, you have to read their mini, or in the case of Wonder Woman to see what happened with her, Mera, & the black ring.  If you want to know why Donna Troy is half a BL, or what's up with Dove, read the Titans mini.  Reverse Flash (who is barely acknowledged in the main series) then go to Flash's mini.  So on and so forth...you can claim it only fleshes out the core story, but in reading ONLY the core story, it certainly feels like there are holes, very important holes. 

Most of my other complaints at the time of initial release just faded away with this read-thru.  Sure it felt like a Skittles commercial when there were multiples of every Lantern fighting Nekron, and to the cynical it probably felt like an advertisment for DC Direct when all these characters got rings (and in fact all the special lanterns did get figures), but it was cool as all hell to see Orange Lex & Blue Flash!  Hell if I had the opportunity to write such a universe-spanning saga as this, I would definitely have my fair share of geek-out moments like this:

I think, in hindsight, one of my favorite parts of BN was in fact how well it set-up the post-BN world.  The Brightest Day maxi-series & Justice League: Generation Lost (two generally excellent books IMO) both came directly from this, as well as a bunch of other books of varying quality (Titans probably being the worst) that expounded on the purpose of each resurrected character.  It laid the framework for the War of the Lanterns raging in the GL-centric books currently, it put the question of "Who's buried in Bruce's tomb?" out there for Grant Morrison to answer, and gave us the generally great Luthor-centric run on Action Comics! 

I think that the GL/GLC series as a whole has been one of the consistently best books on the shelves since I started reading it at "Sinestro Corps War" (after "Rebirth" was given to me), and upon reading what I missed, I can safely say it's been one of the best books out there since GL's return to the racks.  Hell, I think the reason GL & GLC has gotten so much grief from the intentionally bitter internet since BN is because of how awesome everything was on the road to Blackest Night.  It's hard to battle with your own success, especially success of such a high level as that which Johns achieved leading up to BN.  I for one have wholely dug everything that has come since BN, and am looking forward to what the future brings post-War of the Lanterns. 

Johns' Green Lantern is one of the books I encourage people to read, and BN is the culmination of the first four years of hard work he...along with Peter Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Ivan Reis, Doug Mahnke, and many many others...put into creating the GL-verse.  Pick up Blackest Night, pick up all of Johns' GL work for that matter, and experience one of the best sagas in comics today!  Click on the link below to invest in some quality reading material: Geoff Johns GL on Amazon.

And if you want to help me pay some bills, or are just looking for some older comics, including Geoff Johns' GL run from "Sinestro Corps War" to "Brightest Day" (which includes Blackest Night), check out my Ebay Auctions HERE!