Batman- The Grant Morrison Odyssey: New 52 Style V7

Part 1: Batman & Son
Part 2: Club of Heroes/Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul
Part 2.1: Devil-Bats & The Bridge to RIP
Part 3: RIP
Part 4: The Missing Chapter/Last Rites/Final Crisis
Part 5: Batman Reborn
Part 6:Blackest Knight/Batman vs. Robin
Part 7: Batman & Robin Must Die!!!
Part 8: Return of Bruce Wayne Part 1
Part 9: Return of Bruce Wayne Part 2
Part 10: Batman Inc. Part 1
Part 11: Batman Inc. Part 2

New 52 Part 1
New 52 Part 2
New 52 Part 3
New 52 Part 4
New 52 Part 5
New 52 Part 6

Honestly...how do you even talk about an issue that has a cover such as this one or an opening page like this:

Bruce, Dick, Tim, and Alfred...the pallbearers. One grave, a contrast to how we kicked off this adventure.  Here's a visual reminder if you don't remember:

There were two graves back in Batman Incorporated #1 (which was tagged as one month earlier), and here there is just the one.  So there is still the question of who's body fills in that second grave?

We kick back into the current situation with Bruce being confronted with the monster who killed his son, a monster who (unbeknownst to Bruce) is his son's clone. Just like Damian, the Heretic is arrogant and boasts how he killed "your son" with his sword.  Just as he did with Damian (who I believe could have beat him if not for the random bullets & arrows) Heretic seems to underestimate Bruce (his "father") during this fight. He assumes (as most do) that since he beat him before he could do so again, he even calls Bruce "weak and slow" before eating the Batman's fingers into his eyeballs.

Heretic, as Dick "Nightwing" Grayson struggles with Damian's death, even pulls a Bane-moment on Batman and threatens Bruce that he will "break your back".  It hearkens back to the fight-montage of not only the previous issue in which Heretic actually did pull Bane's backbreaking maneuver out on Damian (to no success), but also to Batman #497:

Nightwing jumps to the aid of Batman (as he once did waaaaay back in KnightsEnd):

...and the comic begins to meld flash-forwards in with the "NOW" of the book as we see the four pallbearers standing graveside in one panel while the next panel depicts Dick's battle with his "brother".

On one page we have Bruce eulogizing his son while on the next it is juxtaposed with the death of another member of Batman Incorporated, The Knight (Cyril Sheldrake):

There are several intriguing things about the Beryl sequence here.  First up, she takes on the identity of The Knight and the fact that she does so in front of Night Ranger further enhances the sequence by playing into the legacy idea behind Batman.  Batman first begot the Dick Grayson/Robin creature and eventually Grayson took on the Batman mantle. Theoretically, and if issues like Batman #666 and the recent Son of Batman mini-series are to be accepted as canon, Damian Wayne would have ultimately done the same.

Second, this Night Ranger (Johnny Riley) is another representation of a sidekick (formerly known as Scout) who took on the identity of his mentor.

Third, based on the final two panels of this page...

 ...there is something out there as far as Lazarus Pits go.  Last time we saw a Pit was during Batman & Robin (Vol. 1) #7-9 story arc but, based on this conversation and the fact that we saw some empty grave(s) before, there is a great deal of mileage in this topic.

As we previously saw, Alfred "let" Damian run out into the chaos that let to his death and Bruce, based on this amazing first panel from Burnham as well as his previous page, shows us just how much Bruce is mourning Damian/blaming Alfred. Is it Bruce protecting his life-long ally or is it blame falling on the wrong shoulders?  I suppose we will find out down the line...

It certainly comes off like Bruce protecting Alfred and given that the next two pages lay out how Leviathan aims to decimate the Wayne name, it certainly plays out that Bruce is looking to shield his ally.  Gotham, WayneCorp, it all comes under fire from Leviathan as they begin to broadcast their version of the "truth" city-wide.  It is public knowledge that the Wayne name is affiliated with Batman Incorporated and it is now public perception that Bruce's son has died AND that he has CLOSE connections to the terrorist organization.  It doesn't matter what level of truth these rumors hold, all that matters is that the rumors are out there; our 24/7 media cycle will do the damage itself...

The main reason for using this page is because of the 3rd panel and how it further illustrates the FUCKING AWFUL maternal nature of Talia Al Ghul.  What kind of parent tells their child, even if it is the clone of their child, to address them by their first name AND essentially says "I'm not your mother"?  A seriously damaged terrible human being of a mother...

And as she berates the Heretic for killing Damian, not on her order mind you, he actually stands up for himself and says "I watch. I listen. I learn. I am Batman now."  This is what Talia has introduced to the world, a version of Batman that she seems to have even less control over than the real thing...

Bruce is in the process of getting his arse handed to him as Heretic continues to lecture him, in an almost son-to-father fashion, about how he is younger/stronger/faster/bigger than his father/Batman.  We are looking at the battle of generations playing out before us. This is the Hulk-Batman decimating Batman-Classic before our eyes...a version of Batman, sans morals and restrictions, aiming to kill his predecessor right in front of we the reader!

There is a difference though. Our Batman-Classic has a family and that family saves him from death at the hands of his bastard child.  Unfortunately, simultaneously, his alter-ego is being decimated through political means; Leviathan's hands are everywhere:

Batman is illegal...as he was way back in Batman: Year One and again in the aftermath of Batman: War Games...and we see Jim Gordon having to hide his allegiances as a result.  Leviathan has turned Gotham against The Bat, at least to save its own skin, and men like Commissioner James Gordon are now having to conceal their connection as warrants are issued for men like Bruce Wayne.

Thankfully we have men & women like the members of Batman Inc who will battle on despite the odds in front of them. We have people like Nightwing, Dark Ranger, the new Knight, and Red Robin who maintain contact with the rest of the organization and keep things under control.  Despite Wingman/Red Hood/Jason Todd being captured by the All-Girls School of Death from Leviathan Strikes!, the unit (shown to be consisting of El Gaucho/Man of Bats/Red Raven/Nightrunner/The Batman of Japan) persists on "finishing it" as Dick Grayson says.

 


The final pages, looking at them with no words, carried completely by the powerful images presented by Chris Burnham, the angst/anger/rage/sadness is carried across in totality by what is on the page. While that final page may not have any sort of screaming sound effect, it doesn't even need one.  It is a page that demands the reader put the scream in there, it demands that Bruce Wayne be screaming loud enough to wake every damn bat in the cave.  After all, he just erased his son from existence and had a bit of release via Bat-Cow...

Green Lantern & The New 52: Pulling on Threads...

Before I get to the meat of this one, let me take a second to harken back to my last Bat-Centric blog and point out another mention of Tim Drake as Robin from "Batman & Robin" that was pointed out to me by Brian Thomer aka @PAComicExaminer:

Also something else that has occurred to me in the light of the fact that in Batman #13 it is explicitly stated that The Joker is coming back after a year away which means that Detective Comics #1 was one year ago, which means any Zero issue story marked "One Year Ago" took place around the start of the New 52, which means Damian's "Year and a Half Ago" moment of meeting Bruce (while he was still Batman & before he disappeared for a year) took place around 6 months prior to the beginning of the New 52, which means he has only been Robin for very a short time at the start of the New 52, which means it would be quite difficult for Dick to have been Batman for a year, which means I am going to make my f'n head explode trying to make sense out of it meaning sometimes I wish I could still think like I did when I was a little kid and not really care about this all continuity making some semblance of sense. End scene...

Waiiiiiiiit a second, another thing came out during NYCC after I wrote that opening paragraph, something playing into all that.  Courtesy of Bleeding Cool, Dan DiDio, Jim Lee, and Bob Wayne claimed that Tim Drake was NEVER intended to be a Robin and that the trade edits were intended to maintain the status quo they wanted in the first place.  Okay well,  I'm not going to argue my personal feelings on the whole "Not Robin" idea but rather point out that both the 1st New 52 Batman collection AND Batman & Robin collection came out with references to Tim as Robin before the edited Teen Titans collection came out. 

SO if the "Not Robin" stance on Tim was ALWAYS intended, then who fucked up A YEAR AGO when the New 52 began and then fucked up again in May & June when the collections were released? I mean did the ball get dropped by numerous people here or did the top level forget to tell everyone else that Tim was never supposed to be a Robin?  Too much to get DC Comics to just say "yup, we fucked up"?  Regularly scheduled program time now...

I almost feel like I should start this off by saying that I am a big fan of Green Lantern with Geoff Johns at the helm.  Prior to the day I was given "Rebirth" as a gift, I hadn't really kept up with the adventures of GL in his own book and aside from reading Hal Jordan in "Death of Superman", the only GL I had every really known was Kyle Rayner via his inclusion on the JLA team first penned by Grant Morrison.

Suffice to say that I was hooked and quickly got my hands on the "Emerald Twilight" story to see what happened with Hal Jordan as I had experienced his villainous side in "Zero Hour" and other major stories like his sacrifice to reignite the sun in "Final Night" and his dawning as The Spectre in "Day of Judgement".

After reading "GL: Rebirth", I quickly snatched up all of the collections I could, caught up just in time for the finale of the "Sinestro Corps War", and have continued to read the core book as well as "Green Lantern Corps", "Emerald Warriors", "Red Lanterns", and "The New Guardians". From the original DCU into The New 52, I have followed the exploits of Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, and the rest of the GLC. 

I have enjoyed the story within the GL book probably more in the New 52 than I did in the latter months of the Original DCU. Sadly the same can't be said for GLC, The New Guardians, or Red Lanterns, at least not initially, but GLC & New Guardians have turned a corner for me in recent months.  Unfortunately I still find Red Lanterns to be a chore to read and if it wasn't for the manner in which I read it, I would have stopped long ago...

Now that the pleasantries and whatnot are out of the way, let me get down to the meat of the thing....my exploration of the threads that make up the current Green Lantern universe and what happens if you follow them back to their origins.

This is where the current face of the Green Lantern corner of the DCU was born...the day Coast City was annihilated by the machinations of The Cyborg Superman Hank Henshaw & Mongul.  Some would argue it began here...

...and that the story started there runs all the way through to this...

...and continues into the most recent issue #13. Yes, I do believe that that belief is right, but only partly right, even my thought that it began with the destruction of Coast City is only PART of the story.  See I firmly believe that the current face of the GL-verse, the face that Geoff Johns has worked so hard to construct, is quite dependant on a number of factors that pre-date his time in DC Comics and thus, obviously, pre-date the creation of the New 52.  This is not a statement on the quality of the New 52, this is not a judgement on the story that HAS Been told thus far in the last year.  Rather it is my look at the events of the Old DCU that played into the formation of the GL Johns-verse and my wondering how/if they fit into the New 52.

First up:

The Anti-Monitor & The Original Crisis.  This might seem like an odd place to begin but it is one of the two most essential elements of the current GL-scape in the New 52.  As we have learned over the last year, the events of Blackest Night still happened in some format in the world of the New 52.  Whether or not they are absolutely identical is not known, but highly unlikely given the involvement of the JSA members and the fact that the death of one Barry Allen (who obviously hasn't died in the the New 52) was a part of the story. 
Well at the core of the Blackest Night story, or rather at the core of the Black Lanterns was a certain BL Battery on the planet Ryut, the battery that powered the zombie tribe, just like the one on Oa powers the Green Lanterns.  Well the power source of that battery was none other than the Anti-Monitor!  How did he end up there you ask?

Well that makes another aspect of a certain old DCU story required in some format or another, and that story is none other than the Sinestro Corps War!  See in the Sinestro Corps War, the Anti-Monitor was part of an alliance of Sinestro, the Cyborg Superman, Superboy-Prime, and the Parallax entity (brought to "life" by possessing Kyle Rayner).  As the SCW neared its conclusion, the Anti-Monitor was near defeat following the detonation of the Central Yellow Lantern battery and was ultimately tossed into space by Superboy-Prime where the Anti-Monitor crash landed on Ryut and was consumed by the BL Battery.

Why did Superboy-Prime toss Anti-Monitor into space you ask?  Well that is also very dependant another aspect of the Old CU, probably the most important story in the history of the Old DCU actually, Crisis on Infinite Earths.  See Superboy-Prime was a resident of Earth-Prime where he was the only superhero of that Earth but it was destroyed by the Anti-Monitor during the Crisis.  Prime joined up with the heroes of Earth-One to stop Anti-Monitor but is exiled to a "paradise" dimension along with three others from alternate Earths including a Lois Lane & Superman from Earth-2 and Alexander Luthor from Earth-3.  Once there he grows frustrated and his punching of the walls of reality create changes including the resurrection of Jason Todd and inconsistent origins of Superman over the years. Eventually he, along with his trio, break free from their "prison" and the subsequent events are known as "Infinite Crisis".  In this crisis we see Superboy (the clone Superman) die, Superboy-Prime go nuts and kill a lot of people, and eventually get locked up inside the Science Cells on Oa.

Wait, what's up with the Superboy who is a clone of Superman you ask?

See that leads to the other story of the Old DCU that I believe is absolutely crucial to the mythos of the current GL-verse:

Superman died...killed at the hands of Doomsday, between the first issue of the New 52 Swamp Thing and recent comments by Grant Morrison at a comic-con, we can confirm that Superman died AND was in fact killed by Doomsday in the New 52.  Beyond that, the question is very much up in the air...well, to an extent.  It is safe to say that in the New 52, the Return/Reign of Superman story did NOT happen in anyway similar to how it happened in the Old DCU.  Superboy was only "born" around the time the New 52 started, meaning he could not have taken part in any story prior to this and Steel in the New 52 is not of the same origin as the original which we've seen in Grant Morrison's Action Comics. No clue if the Eradicator or Hank Henshaw have existed in the New 52, but in SOME FASHION this story needs to have taken place because it is where Coast City was blown up the Cyborg Superman & Mongul.

Why is it so integral that Coast City blew up?

Well Coast City's destruction is what set all the wheels in motion that brought us to this day as far as Hal Jordan's character go.  Hal went nuts following the events of Coast City, tried to use his ring to resurrect the city, but was shut down by the Guardians.  Hal then went to Oa to try and get the power he wanted and ultimately ends up killing all the Guardians save Ganthet as well as Lantern Killowog and the rogue Sinestro who had been imprisoned in the Green Lantern Battery.  Hal takes the name Parallax, tries to rewrite time in Zero Hour, sacrifices his life to reignite the sun in Final Night, becomes the Spectre in Day of Judgement, and that all lead to his resurrection in Rebirth. 

So within the story of Hal Jordan, just to get to what Geoff Johns established in Rebirth, we need Hal to decimate Oa (very likely because we saw a trashed Oa in the New 52 version of GLC #1 prior to Kyle Rayner getting his ring) and for Sinestro to be freed.  We need Hal to have been possessed by the Parallax entity, for it to have somehow survived his sacrifice to reignite the sun (as it did in the Old DCU) and for Hal to have been Spectre with the Parallax entity riding shotgun.

It has been established courtesy of Phantom Stranger #0 that The Spectre exists in the New 52 but, at least in its initial appearance, it is Jim Corrigan who is possessed by The Spectre.  Now this happens at some non-descript time but I couldn't imagine DC introducing Corrigan as the character in the Zero issue only to have him NOT still be Spectre in the following issues. 

I'm not even touching on the issues that play into the history of the assorted Earth GL's.  Did Xanshi still get destroyed in order to shape the character of John Stewart and actually give added weight to his destruction of Mogo (a pre-New 52 event btw)?  Was Kyle Rayner still possessed by the Ion entity or does his New 52 tag of Torchbearer have some different meaning?  Was Guy Gardner still in possession of a yellow ring at an earlier point in his career (it seems he was still possessed by a red ring)?

Those are all just pieces of the Old DCU that play heavily into the shape of the New 52 and while I've chosen to focus on the GL-Verse, specifically Hal Jordan, in this rant, I think it is safe to say that DC's decision to keep GL & Bat history relatively intact creates some problems with elements of the Old DCU.  For GL these are what I consider the key ingredients to have happened IN SOME FASHION for the shape of the current New 52 world:

1) The existence of an Anti-Monitor (power source for BL battery)
2) Coast City destroyed
3) Hal Jordan as Parallax, destroying Oa (partially confirmed)
4) Hal Jordan freeing Sinestro & Parallax entity from the Power Battery
5) Hal Jordan as Spectre
6) Sinestro Corps War happened
7) Blackest Night happened (this has been confirmed)
8) War of the Green Lanterns happened (Krona needs to exist for the events of Red Lanterns)

I am sure I am missing something here as I am trying to do this from memory as opposed to notes this time, but I hope you get the idea.  There are just certain key elements with the Old DCU that had to have happened in some fashion for the current Geoff Johns/GL-Verse to really make sense.  They don't have to be perfect, they don't have to have happened completely identical to the way they happened in the Old DCU, but they do have to have happened somehow. 

Coast City must die, Hal Jordan must have been evil...they are as important as Luke Skywalker seeing Obi-Wan die on the Death Star in "A New Hope" or Dexter being found in a pool of his mother's blood on "Dexter".  They are integral components of an origin story that I had hoped the Zero issues would be used to confirm or flesh out, but sadly that was not in any of the four GL series.  GL #0 told us the origin of a new character, New Guardians #0 gave us nothing origin-based, Red Lanterns #0 was a serious waste, and only GLC #0 gave us anything origin based and, while I enjoyed the look at Guy's back story, it did not fill in any of the blanks I have discussed above.

This isn't a cry for answers, not yet at least, rather this was just an exploration into how the Old DCU events could/should tie into the events of the New 52.  I will be very interested to see if DC Comics does anything to cement any aspects of the old world as part of the new, or if they find a way to rewrite these histories in a logical fashion.

Thus far they have done a subpar job with the Bat-world, creating inconsistencies in time and logic, particularly with the birth of Damian Wayne and their lack of a backbone on the Tim "Drake"/Robin situation as mentioned at the start of this rant.

I hope maybe, just maybe, they will solidify the ground on which the New 52 Green Lantern world is built rather than just the half-assed "everything still happened" explanation we have gotten over the last year.  I know it's a lot to cover in just 14 months of time, but I sincerely hope that maybe in the next 13 months the portrait of GL history is painted with more clarity.

Super Hero Summer Pt. 2 (definitely spoilers)

Here's a link to: Super Hero Summer Pt. 1

-----------------------------------

Yeah it's taken me awhile to get back to this I know, but what can I say...been wrapped up in reading Grant Morrison's "Supergods", started to reread "The Invisibles" but decided to wait until I can devote an entire day to immerse myself in that whole other world, also got my hands on Andrew Hickey's "An Incomprehensible Condition: Unauthorised Guide to Seven Soldiers", and have been trying to catch up on a lot of reading when it comes to "Flashpoint" and "Fear Itself" (yes I am ACTUALLY trying to read every tie-in for both events).  So suffice it to say (man I abuse that phrase) I haven't taken the additional time to sit down and go back over the other two movies, "Green Lantern" & "Captain America". 

So let's get this party started with:

"Green Lantern" opened up to the masses here in the United States on June 17th and I, of course, went to the midnight show once again.  There's just something about being in that environment, with fellow devotees to comic book lore, who are just excited to see their favorite ink-and-paper characters brought to life in live-action/CG glory.  Now this is the movie I was most excited to see, thusly the one I was also the most worried about.  The initial trailers did nothing to assuage my fears, seeming more like I was going to bear witness to a Ryan Reynolds comedy than a super hero action flick. 

Luckily the successive trailers showed me more of the film, and actually made me more excited to see it than I was with the first sneak peek.  So in I roll to the film and when the final credits rolled, I was left with a movie I enjoyed more than "Thor" but nowhere near as much as "X-Men: First Class". 

I was actually surprised by how Reynolds captured the Hal Jordan I would expect at this early juncture in his ring slinging.  I'm only a convert to the GL mythos with "Rebirth" and the Geoff Johns era so my touchstone for Hal's origins is the "Secret Origin" story from a few years back, but I felt like Reynolds got it pretty close.  There's some cheese to Reynold's acting sure, and add in the fact that I can't watch him without thinking about Van Wilder, but overall I feel like he captured the essence of a rookie Hal Jordan.

Even more surprising to me was Blake Lively as Carol Ferris, shocking casting move given the MTV world she came from, and even more shocking the job she did as Carol.  Chalk it up to low expectations if you want, but I felt like she more than delivered on her end of things, particularly in Carol's scenes with Hal Jordan. 

Peter Sarsgaard was the best part of the movie for me though.  His Hector Hammond was creepy to the Nth degree, playing out his role as the abandoned son quite well, and I really felt like he could have carried the film as the sole villain with only enough Parallax to establish his malevolent presence as the larger threat to the GL Corps.  The movie only scraped the surface of what Hammond is capable of, but then again, just like Hal, he was so new to his powers that it makes sense he wouldn't have mastered his psionic abilities just yet.

I thought Mark Strong did as well a job as possible with Sinestro as he could with the screen time given.  He strongly establish the very regal nature of Sinestro, and captured his authoritarian demeanor quite well.  Strong brings to the screen a presence worthy of the "greatest Green Lantern", and the script developed a strong character...at least until that little between-credits scene that came out of nowhere and didn't fit into any of what had been established about Sinestro's character.  It was a moment to pop the comic book fans who know the future path of Sinestro, and to set-up a sequel.

Now as for the finer moments of the movie, I certainly appreciated little nods to the comics like the "Highball" & "Sapphire" tags on the helmets of Hal & Carol and playing Spot-The-Lantern during all the Oa scenes, but there was a certain something missing from the movie as a whole.  The space scenes were a tease, but I figure that's something intentional, and complaints I heard/read about Hal's limited use of his power ring aren't without merit, but then again we're also dealing with a guy in his first few days with the ring. 

Was it only a few days? Was it longer?  I don't know honestly, and maybe that's one of the issues with the movie....there's so much time spent in the set-up, that everything else just feels so compressed.  Hal travels to space, blows off the Guardians & his training, Hammond gets infected, Parallax rather abruptly descends on Earth, one off-handed comment about gravity sets up the end of the movie (really transparent, I honestly called that as the end of the big fight as soon as it was stated), and Carol pretty much figures out Hal's secret immediately.  That was a moment I really didn't mind though as sometimes it's nice for the female lead to actually not be fooled by something as simple as a mask.  GL-philes would tell you that the ring clouds the bearer's face to the general populus but it was a nice change to have Carol get it.

The big Parallax fight was...not so big given the immensity of the villain we're talking about here.  I immediately hated the character design as it just reminded me of the Galactus cloud from "FF: Rise Of The Silver Surfer", but resigned myself to someone along the lines of production not wanting a yellow bug to be the big bad of the GL-Verse.  And apparently killing off the main evil force of the GL comics in the first flick seemed an odd choice, but the movie didn't really establish the whole avatar of fear concept behind Parallax.  Guess that falls on Sinestro's shoulders which, as I stated earlier, didn't really fit with what had gone before.  The Sinestro presented throughout the movie was a staunch supporter of the Guardians and, despite their unwillingness to go along with his yellow ring idea, it was never even remotely hinted that Sinestro would turn his back on the Guardians or feel like he had something to prove by harnassing the power of fear.  It just did not fit at all within the confines of the character that had been presented for the previous two hours, and was truly just a fanboy moment tacked on to motivate a sequel.

So what did I take out of this movie in the end? One word: potential.  The groundwork was laid for at least one sequel but "Green Lantern" was certainly not the foundation in which to establish a whole DCU movie-verse a la Marvel Films & The Avengers franchise.  I foresee a Hal Jordan spending time on Oa to further train, I see a true space odyssey involving the whole GL Corps (who were teased just enough to establish some personalities), and I see a massive CG war between them & the Sinestro Corps.  Only problem is the chronological confines of cinema don't really allow for the time it would take for Sinestro to truly build a Corps of his own.  They would likely just...be....after a time gap between the 1st & 2nd films. 

That what's so wonderful about the medium of comics, Sinestro could fade away into the background for awhile after donning the yellow ring, popping up in snippets here & there as he recruits masters of fear to his Corps, but only after having a serious falling out with the Guardians over something that actually justifies the "greatest of the Lanterns" being expelled.

See that may actually be the problem with certain comics translated to movies.  As fans we take it for granted that people know the origin stories of every character, and while that may be true for certain characters like Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man who have transcended the medium and become part of our cultural lexicon, our fashion branding, and with logos so well known that even a child who has never read a comic book in their life recognizes what that "S" represents. 

Green Lantern is not one of those characters, which is what made him an odd choice for that first big non-Batman WB movie.  We wanted space-faring, ring-slinging high adventure right off the bat, but got relationship-establishment and origin stories instead...something for the masses.  Now, that doesn't necessarily excuse the shortcomings of the film, but it may play into the disappointment from certain things we expected to witness as viewers.  Yes we were kind of short-changed when it came to the amazing feats a GL ring is capable of, and maybe I'm being a little forgiving in accepting that it will be part of the inevitable...now being tagged as "gritty" (ugh) sequel.  Still, I think I'm more curious to see what sort of larger epic they lay out with the GL Movie-verse and hoping that it all ties together in the long run.  Perhaps that's a side effect of reading Geoff John's GL comic books  =)

But, I guess what it comes down is will I buy the Blu-Ray and rewatch it?  Of course I will, and not just because I'm a completist fanboy, but also so I can formulate a second opinion.  I haven't watched the movie since my initial viewing on day one, and am quite curious to see if my thoughts remain the same.  Hell I didn't mind "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" on the first theatrical viewing, but thought it total dross when I bought the Blu-Ray and was dumbfounded how I found anything enjoyable about it the first time around.  Repeat viewing can change your opinion after all...it took me three viewings in one day to realize that "Phantom Menace" was NOT a good movie.

So I will aim to come back this week with my thoughts on Captain America...hopefully that actually happens and it doesn't take two weeks to get my butt in gear!  In the mean time, I would also suggest you check out this little blog written by Greg Rucka as it pertains to "gritty": "Gritty" & Greg Rucka

Green Lantern: Rebirth

Well after starting at "Blackest Night" and working backwards to "Sinestro Corps War", I'm now back to where it all started for Geoff Johns epic: "Green Lantern: Rebirth".  It was here that Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, and Prentis Rollins laid the groundwork for everything that was to come over the next several years and in many ways rebuilt the foundation for the GL mythos.

On a side note, after seeing Rollins & Van Sciver in person at Wizard World Philly, I can say that EVS is one funny dude.  Rollins had a pretty dry sense of humor too that played well off of EVS and Shane Davis who was also on the panel.  Another random side note, Rollins & EVS worked on "New X-Men" together during Grant Morrison's epic run...

Welcome back from that commercial break and welcome to my look back at "GL: Rebirth" where everything started anew for Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps!

So for a little backstory for ya'll when this mini-series hit the stands, Hal Jordan was dead but "living" on as the host of the Spectre (a biblical Spirit of Vengeance) as a way to redeem himself for the evils committed as the villain Parallax. 

For even more backstory, Hal's hometown of Coast City had been obliterated during the "Return of Superman" story arc by the Cyborg Superman & the alien Mongul.  This led directly into "Emerald Twilight" where, driven by grief, Hal attempted to use his ring to recreate the city.  The Guardians stripped him of his power, he flew off to Oa, murdered several Lanterns, destroyed the Central Power Battery, killed Sinestro whom the Guardians had released from banishment, and flew off while Kyle Rayner was chosen as the last GL.  Hal then tried to recreate the world to his liking in "Zero Hour", sacrificed himself to reignite the sun in "Final Night", and was selected as the host for Spectre in "Day of Judgment".  Whooooo, maybe all that backstory is why DC is jumping back to square one...but then again half the fun for me was back issue digging.  Story for another day....

Well in the trade format we jump into "GL: Rebirth" with a short prelude from "Wizard X" entitled "The Day Before", pretty self explanatory for when it takes place.  Kyle Rayner saves an alien planet whose inhabitants keep chanting something the ring translates as "Parallax is coming". During this little adventure, Kyle also throws out a seemingly innocent mention of how Sector 3600 was wiped out a long time ago.  Meanwhile Hal, in his human guise, watches an airshow which nearly turns into a disaster until the new Spectre saves a plane from crashing.  A little bit of internal argument between Hal as a GL & Parallax ends with The Spectre stating how this union is "...for the good of not just us, but the universe itself."  Then, with a close up on The Spectre's eye which looks like Parallax's face, he mutters "This pathetic fear-filled universe.".  And off we go...

Enter Chapter 1 and a scene very reminiscent of Abin Sur's (Hal's predecessor) crash on Earth as another space ship crash lands on Earth, only this time it contains a panicked Kyle Rayner telling the people who find him "Don't be afraid"...kind of funny coming from a GL really.  He can't use the ring, or rather won't, is accompanied by a coffin, and refers to himself as "the first GL to know what fear really is".  It's a statement that implies Kyle has felt fear, and in his continual need for self-deprecation, Kyle believes he is the first Lantern to do so.  But as the story goes on the reader will learn that it really means something deeper than that.

We get a look at Carol Ferris, Hal's past love interest, as she walks the abandoned airfield once owned by her father while talking to her husband.  Of course she stumbles on Hal's old plane.  This one page managed to convey everything a new reader needs to know about Carol's history, and the art in the last three panels also tells the reader all they need to know about Carol's connection to Hal Jordan.  EVS draws a perfect look of shock on her face as she stumbles on the plane and wipes away the dust.

That same art/dialogue combo nails it on the head as John Stewart (the 2nd Earth GL) & Guy Gardner  (a former Earth GL) are introduced into the story for the first time.  The meticulous detail of Stewart's construct, the look on his face as he says he used to trust Hal, it all gives you an idea of just who John is.  Guy's cocky (though false) self-assurance that John trusts him, the fact that he wears a shirt with his own logo on it, his tight "show off my muscles" t-shirt all give you an idea of who Gardner is as well.  The friendship between this two is immediately evident as well as they engage in a discussion, albeit one-sided, about Hal, the Green Lantern Corps, and all of John's shortcomings.  Guy can see all of John's faults but is oblivious...or lying...about his own. 

Enter: Hal Jordan as he joins John & Guy at a baseball game.  A perfectly normal, everyday, human thing to do...the problem though is that Hal isn't human anymore.  His mere presence provokes the entire audience, including Guy, to confess their sins (In my head, I always hear those last 3 words in Antonio Banderas' "Desperado" voice) to the Spirit of Vengeance. 

Jump on over to Green Arrow & his female sidekick Mia (not as random as you'd think) as the villain Black Hand bursts in looking for something using some kind of tool as a tracking device (for more on this read "GL: Secret Origin" & see how beautifully Johns mapped this out).  His target: a GL ring that Hal gave to Oliver Queen.  Black Hand, whom Ollie refers to as a loser, ends up with an arrow in his hand just in time for Hal (as The Spectre) to enter the room full of righteous vengeance.  The Spectre burns off the hand of Black Hand (see more planning ahead there from Johns), before departing with omnious words to Oliver...

Could not find an image that wasn't cut off, but in the missing panels Hal utters "It's getting hard to focus Ollie. I...there's something wrong.  None of this should've happened.  This isn't me.  This isn't who I am."  Freaky indeed...

Back to Guy & John at Gardner's bar called...egotistically unsurprising...Warriors.  There the discussion about Hal continues, with both men praising him in their own way (hell Guy has a statue of Jordan in his bar).  During the convo, Gardner has an attack of some kind and explodes, taking the bar & John with him while over on the left coast, a certain decimated city apparently returns from the dead! 

A seemingly random jump to Hector Hammond in Belle Reve Prison bridges the gap to the JLA Watchtower where Guy is being looked at by Martian Manhunter & Doctor Mid-Nite whilst Wonder Woman & others investigate the remains of Warriors.  The only thing left intact...that statue of Hal.  Alan Scott, the mystical GL, isn't feeling so hot and the Flash (Wally West) is speeding around the partially restored Coast City only to find, alongside Aquaman, one building whole: Hal Jordan's old apartment building.  All of this is enough for Batman to declare Hal has returned to his evil ways...that the jump from Parallax to The Spectre was planned as part of some larger scheme.  Unsuprisingly John Stewart is the man standing up for Hal as he nails the whole problem on the head...

As the first issue closes, Hal restores one last part of his past, Ferris Air, while Carol stands in the midst of the wreckage.  We also get the title of this first story, and I don't think it's a coincidence that it's entitled "Blackest Night".  Hot damn is that a lot of ground covered and that's just the first issue! It's like the first chapter of "Sinestro Corps War" in that Johns dumps damn near everything into the first issue to get the reader hooked in.  It certainly leaves the reader with that "what happens next" feeling...

The 2nd issue starts just as crazy as a green energy bursts forth from the GL battery on Oa with the words "Find him. Find Kyle Rayner" as it shoots off into space.  Oh yeah, and it trashes a Hal Jordan statue as it erupts from the battery.  Kyle is still out of it on Earth, being watched over by two guys who were trolling the New Mexico desert for aliens, while his internal dialogue continues to debate on whether or not to use the ring. A ring that keeps repeating "Parallax, Parallax is coming" by the way...

Back to Hal & Carol at the airfield where we get a flashback to the first day they met as children, the fateful day that Hal's father died right in front of him after passing his jacket down to Hal; the same jacket he has been wearing in the story thus far.  Hal elaborates to Carol essentially what he hinted at to Ollie, that something is clouding his judgment and making him doubt himself, making him afraid...

Up to the Watchtower where the JLA/JSA are looking for Hal, Alan Scott is getting sicker, and Batman is being Batman.  Zatanna locates The Spectre energies, the JLA heads off to confront Hal and find him still at the airfield.  Upon confrontation, John Stewart freaks out and blasts everyone standing on the airfield!  He goes hardcore, blasting Superman in his eyes with green energy as John's ring now begins to repeat the mantra "Parallax is coming".  At the Watchtower, GA's ring duplicates itself and the new ring bonds to Guy Gardner...

That ring also keeps repeating the same phrase, as is Kyle's when we cut back to him finally recovering as he starts to explain that the yellow impurity has a name just in time for the future Drill Instructor of the GLC Kilowog to make his appearance.  Obviously acting...wrong, Wog is encouraging Kyle to use the ring, making the connection that this unusual behavior from John, Guy, and Wog is linked to ring usage.  The big cliffhanger hits when that green energy from the start of chapter 2 finally finds Kyle and is revealed to be Guardian Ganthet!  Not only that, but we find out that contained within the coffin Kyle came to Earth with is: Hal Jordan!

Chapter 3 opens with Ganthet trying to convince Kilowog to stand down as Kyle provides the info dump for the uninitiated as to the little blue guy's background.  One sentence pretty much sums it up: "Ganthet could crack the planet in half with a thought."  This stand-off also gives us what is for me the absolute coolest image of Kilowog ever put to paper:

The display of power from Ganthet as he fends of Wog is only a fraction of what the Guardian has to offer, but more importantly, Kyle finally uses his ring.  During that one page we begin to understand why the last GL hasn't used it thus far, "It's reaching into my soul again.", but what "IT" is isn't something quite known yet.  This....IT...also gives Kyle a look at what's happening with John Stewart at that moment and allows the reader to see what's gone down without devoting pages to it.  Nice touch...

Jump to Coast City & Hal Jordan as he's walked away from the JLA/JSA battle with John and finally gets an idea himself of what's really going on here.  A visit to his old apartment, a look at an old Lantern Battery, and the reflection of Parallax in the green tell him (and the reader) some of what we need to know.

Back to Kyle & Ganthet as they continue to fight the only GL whose ring makes noise (you didn't forget Kilowog already did you?), while the Guardian explains to Kyle that his ability to know fear, his "flaw", is the only thing keeping him from ending up like 'Wog & John. 

Kyle takes Hal's body and heads to the Watchtower where he assumes they will be safe while Hal battles for his very sanity with Parallax & The Spectre.  Kyle, greeted by a recovering GA, offers an explanation to Ollie (and to the reader) for what is really going on here, and we get our required massive info dump. First the truth about Parallax:

A yellow fear-eating creature traveling the universe that The Guardians eventually captured and stored within the Central Power Battery on Oa.  Over time Parallax became known as nothing more than the yellow impurity.  The Fear Entity's presence within the battery made the rings weak against its corresponding color. I actually think this is a brillant explanation for what essentially was a case of the ring being too powerful thus needing a weakness built-in (like Supes & Kryptonite essentially).

It's also the primary reason why a person with a GL ring must be a being capable of overcoming great fear in order to master the little green circle.  But nothing can last forever, and Parallax used the ring as a conduit to slowly poison the "Greatest Green Lantern", Hal Jordan, and it first showed in the white hair Hal had in his later days as a GL before Coast City (another great way to explain what came before!). 

The clincher was obviously Coast City's destruction and it was reinforced by Hal's assault on Oa, and murder of fellow GL's, not to mention snapping Sinestro's neck when the Guardians released him from his prison inside the Central Battery to fight Hal (another important story beat from the past).  Essentially Parallax is an entity latched onto Hal's soul, and even his death to reignite the sun didn't save him from Parallax.  As the next few pages show, it ultimately just gave Parallax access to the Spectre...and the big question, what woke Parallax up in the first place?

And that is how we close the third chapter!  Ain't this dude dead?!?!?  Well the first page of part 4 essentially consists of Kyle (who has largely been our narrator throughout) explaining how much of a badass Sinestro is...the only one of Hal's old enemies that Guy Gardner doesn't mock.  Sinestro honestly admits...while he's trashing the Watchtower...he never understood his yellow power until the Guardians imprisoned him alongside Parallax, essentially making him the master of fear, and setting the wheels of their own fate into motion.  Makes me wonder if the Guardians were essentially fulfilling the prophecies of the Book of Oa simply because they were prophecy?

Back on Earth, Parallax assaults Ganthet as he battles the possessed Lanterns but the owerwhelming power of the Guardian frees them from fear's control, and gives time for the collected heroes of Earth to join the fray.  At the Watchtower, Kyle & GA battle Sinestro and I think this may be the first "alley rat" reference from Sinestro towards Kyle but don't quote me on that. This little fight offers up another awesome moment after Ollie tries to charge up a GL ring...

Not only does that awesomeness happen but in the follow-up panel Ollie asks if the exhaustion and confusion he feels after using the ring...barely...is what Kyle feels like when he forces his willpower into the ring.  Kyle's response of "Every time" tells the reader more about how using the ring actually feels than any story before it, and Ollie's "Damn" is pretty much how the reader feels after seeing it.  Again, recognition must be given to EVS and crew for the bang-up artistic job on these panels.  Lesser artists would not have been able to convey these facials and all the emotions wrapped up in it...

On Earth we get the JL(S)A battle with Parallax along with the little bit of information that the reason Alan Scott was feeling sick was because the fear entity was trying to worm its way into his life as well but the differences between the GLC & his ring made it difficult.  Finally the Spectre helps Hal fight the Parallax influence, freeing them both, leaving Spectre free to find a new host and Hal...well Jordan is dead after all, he's off to somewhere.  Parallax, on the other hand, is still quite alive and hops into the body of Guardian Ganthet!  As for Hal, well the ring he left with GA comes in handy as Jordan's soul finds its way to the body on the Watchtower, and the "greatest gl" is restored!

And with the penultimate issue it is on!  Hal Jordan vs. Sinestro on the freakin' moon and we get the core (no pun) of what will drive this story for some time ahead.  Free will(power) vs. rule of fear...and one of the coolest things this chapter offers is a flashback to the first day Hal & Sinestro met.  Now I can't double check my "Secret Origin" HC to verify this because it is currently in the hands of a friend, but I do believe this exact pair of pages is part of the "SO" story...

In just a few pages Hal Jordan manages to show everyone why he was considered the greatest as he takes it to Sinestro AND verbally berates Sinestro for his disrespect of Kyle.  We also get the moment that scarred Sinestro forever as Kyle returns to the fight and embeds a ton of arrows into the wannabe dictator's back in the shape of the GL ring.  Sinestro escapes to the Anti-Matter Universe as the fight closes and we get another moment as a free Hal Jordan officially meets Kyle Rayner.  Tried to find an image...got this...

Kyle doubts himself, but as John & Guy said when this all started, Hal is the type of man to make you believe even in the most dire circumstances.  And the situation certainly is as we head back to Earth where Parallax has possessed Ganthet.  But before we get anywhere, Bats has something to say but so does Hal's fist...

The fight rages on and in the midst Johns' give us a wonderful description of just how all four Earth Lanterns & Kilowog function as GL's, how their personalities come out in their constructs, and how they all empower each other.  This fight is where the rebirth of the Corps begins.

Parallax is resecured inside the Central Battery, the Guardians return on Oa, Guy Gardner admits he missed it all, and Batman leaves well enough alone (for now at least).  We return once more to Hector Hammond as he deliver some ominous warnings about the future, Hal meets up with Carol to tell her he has plans that don't involve Ferris Air, and most importantly Hal & Ollie reconnect while Jordan reconnects with his lantern and that Oath GA can't quite remember...

So wow...just wow.  No wonder this was such a high selling book (the first issue went through four printing & sold a total of 156,975 copies; the second issue went through two printings & sold 122,221 copies. The subsequent issues sold 106,523, 108,077, 115,006, and 114,354 copies, respectively...thanks Wiki!), and so critically well received.  It set the foundation for everything that has been delivered the last few years in the GL-Verse from "Sinestro Corps Wars" to "Blackest Night", it laid down the base of the emotional spectrum, and gave explanation for elements of the past that didn't quite fit or just weren't ever given detail.  I think my favorite little throwaway line was Ganthet, the eventual creator of the Blue (Hope) Lanterns stating that "Hope is meaningless against fear...willpower is our only weapon."  See even the Guardians can grow...maybe not physically but emotionally, psychologically if they want to.

This is a trade that comes with the highest recommendation from yours truly.  Prior to reading this book my only knowledge of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern was his involvement in "Return of Superman" and the "Emerald Twilight" story arc.  Kyle Rayner was the GL that I knew and read, the one that I grew somewhat attached to while Hal Jordan was the hero turned villain trying to "fix" the world. 

The sheer power of Johns' writing and the beauty of EVS' art in this 6 issue arc are what drew me to Hal Jordan.  When I was given this trade as a gift, it was just as Sinestro Corps War was beginning I believe so I quickly got all the other trades I could find and took advantage of a big sale at my local shop to get the first 5-6 parts of "SCW" thatI had missed.  I don't regret it for a second and trust me neither will you.

So if you found your way here because of the movie, or if you're just curious about Green Lantern's history, this is the place where it all started again: "Green Lantern: Rebirth".  It's the place where it could all start for you too...

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For my other Blogs on the GL-Verse check out these:

Blackest Night

Sinestro Corps War Part 1

Sinestro Corps War Part 2

And if you're interested enough to buy them (I don't make any money): Green Lantern on Amazon

The Sinestro Corps War Revisited: Part Two!

If you haven't read Part One, here it is: Sinestro Corps War Revisited Part One

When we last left our intrepid green brigade, Kyle Rayner (possessed by Parallax) was hovering outside the balcony of Hal Jordan's brother's house while we discover that the Sinestro Corps isn't after Oa (the center of the Universe), they are after Earth (the center of the Multiverse).  But given the way this story has been set-up, alternating between issues of GL & GLC, Vol. 2 picks up with the Green Lantern Corps as they fight to save Mogo from the SC & their own living planet Ranx.  This chapter is a great example of how the Corps functions as a unit, as evidenced by Lantern Green Man using the knowledge from his home planet as a means for Mogo to protect himself.  This part also bring up the prophecy surrounding Lantern Yat and shows the reader how the Corps reacts to the new law of the Book of Oa that enables lethal force to be used.  Suffice to say the level of violence, already quite high given the ruthless nature of the SC, is jacked up even further.  Still, it's not something that sits well with every member of the GLC but before the impact of this change can really sink in, the Corps is caught up to speed on the events of the the previous chapter as they learn of the assault on Earth.

Finally, after several chapters of just hanging out on the moon biding his time, Superboy-Prime joins the fray as the SC encroaches on Earth.  This image is very reminiscent of one I put in my Blackest Night blog (although that would probably be vice versa if I was doing this in chronological order), and I think that's completely intentional.

This next chapter is the turning point in so many ways for the Earth GL's, but it also lays out fairly clearly what Sinestro's desires are when it comes to Earth.  He wants to "create a symbol of terror that will was over the universe.  I want the universe controlled with order.  And I want all to realize that control comes not out of love, compassion, or hope, but out of fear."  Suffice to say that the real world overtones of this saga are hard to miss, especially given the time frame in which this story was originally written.  What's the threat level associated with yellow again? (Threat Level yellow = a significant risk of terrorist attacks, thanks wikipedia)

Anywho, this is the moment of truth for Kyle Rayner when, as Parallax, he faces off against a powerless Hal Jordan while Guy Gardner chases down the painting Kyle mentioned in the first part of SCW.  Upon absorbing Hal, we get to see Parallax in the yellow & black of the Sinestro Corps for the first time, and it's a damn imposing figure...

This issue also marks the merging of the GLC story line & the GL story line as the Corps finally makes it to Earth, saving Guy in dramatic fashion from a SC attack as he quests for the painting.  It's also the issue, given that we're on Earth, in which the other heroes join the fray.  Remember Hal's words after the fight with Zoom that started this whole shebang?  Well looks like he was as wrong as it gets...

What proceeds is an internal battle as Kyle & Hal fight to free Kyle of Parallax's influence. Now this is where I feel like I should bring up the Tales Of The Sinestro Corps books and whether or not they were essential to the core story.  With Blackest Night there was A LOT of tie-in material, most of which was non-essential, but the 6 mini's had some story beats that were necessary to get the full picture.  The SC Tales, of which there were only 3, are a mix...the reason I bring it up here is because the Parallax one focuses on Kyle's struggle prior to this AND gives some context for just why this painting is such a big deal in Kyle's life.    None of this material is printed in the collected SCW, rather given its own collection and I'm only intending to mention it when there's something "missing" from the story proper.

Back to our regularly scheduled program: Kyle & Hal fight their way free of Parallax, Ganthet & Sayd store its essence within the lantern batteries of Kyle, Hal, Guy, & John Stewart, and Kyle...who is no longer the host for Ion...is given a proper GL ring.  The panels of the four Earth GL's reciting the oath over images of the SC's domination (in particular the Statue of Liberty replaced by Sinestro) are quite powerful.

Jump to the GLC as they head to Earth, but first the Guardians make it known they intend to reassign the Ion power, albeit earlier than they intended.  Arkillo and Killowog get their rematch, and in quite a brutal moment, the GLC's drill instructor takes Arkillo's finger and his ring along with it!  Now I'm going to have to take a look at his post-SCW appearances to see if this missing digit is actually still missing.  Dude loses his tongue and a finger....sucks to be him.

The Anti-Monitor makes his way to Earth, and starts blasting away, hitting Sodam Yat and there's this odd moment in which Sodam seems like a robot as his eyes glow red and he comes back to life.  It's just wierd, but it does lead to the Guardians infusing Yat with the Ion entity...

...which is followed up by SuperboyPrime's Tales of the SC issue that isn't discussed or mentioned, so it seems totally random that he is now without the armor.  It also makes you wonder what the hell happened to him in between panels. Oh yeah, and unfortunately the art for this chapter just sucks....sucks in the next part too.

The next part is mix of flashback and fight as we learn about Sodam Yat's origins on Daxam while he's busy getting pulped by Prime in one of the bloodiest, no make that the bloodiest fight, of the entire SCW.  The last couple panels of the fight just throw ichor all over the place and, I would surmise because he's potentially too powerful, Ion gets a weakness in the form of lead poisoning (something else I have to check on to verify that it's maintained post-SCW).  So we end this chapter with the uber-powerful Prime holding the lifeless body of Yat as Guy & John take aim. 

So we begin the final chapter of the SCW with a real look at the war with these two images...

 

From the looks of it, this war has brought every GL and damn near every hero on Earth to the fight.  But before the Earth GL's, fresh off the Parallax fight, rejoin the larger battle they are filled in on the Prophecy of the Blackest Night by Ganthet & Sayd.  It's as close to full disclosure as the Guardians, even Ganthet, are likely to get as they elaborate on the different Corps that will pop-up between SCW & BN. We even get this nifty image of the War of Light that is foretold in the Book of Oa.



 So with all that in mind, Hal attempts to save his family by having them evacuate Coast City but they, along with the rest of the residents of town, illuminate green lights in the window as a show of support.  We also see the the Anti-Monitor at work as he attempts to make a meal out of the positive matter energy of Earth.  Then all hell really breaks loose!  The Lost Lanterns come to the aid of Hal Jordan as he battles Sinestro in space, the Guardians (in a call back to the original Crisis) battle the Anti-Monitor, Guy Gardner gets sick from Despotellis, Amon Sur turns tail and runs when he realizes the GLC can kill, and Hal & Kyle realize that truth about Sinestro.

All he has wanted was to force the GLC to change, and with the institution of the Lethal Force Law, Sinestro sees that he has already won.  Sinestro speaks of his loyalty to the idea of the GLC, and in some ways all he has done has been in attempt to push change upon the Corps; changes that could truly allow the GLC to police the universe, or in Sinestro's words "The Universe will fear Green Lanterns, and the Universe will be better for it."

Back on Earth a moment that will change the future of the GLC, indeed the entire DCU, goes down as the Anti-Monitor burns one of the Guardians with his touch.  That Guardian would eventually become known as Scar, and serve as a mole within the Guardians, working for Nekron, and steering events towards The Blackest Night.  It's just one more example of how intricately Geoff Johns has laid out his GL opus...

An increasingly sick Guy & John Stewart use the Yellow Lantern Battery as a bomb to stop the Anti-Monitor, trapping the Cyborg Superman within, and seemingly granting his death wish which Henshaw meets with a "thank you" to the GLs.   Hal & Kyle both end up with 0% power in their rings, they turn Sinestro's toys against him to drain his power ring, and the fight goes hand-to-hand.  Superboy-Prime single-handedly ends the threat of the Anti-Monitor by flinging his shell into space.  Natu heals Guy using the GLC's own sentient virus, Hal beats Sinestro, a Guardian sacrifices his life to seemingly stop Prime, and the fight finally comes to a close.

The wrap-up sees Coast City's population boom, we discover Prime has been transported into the Multi-Verse, the Guardians mention initiating the 2nd new Law into the Book of Oa, Sayd & Ganthet officially spawn the Blue Ring of Hope, Cyborg Supes is unwillingly resurrected by his Manhunters, the remains of the Anti-Monitor crash land on a dark planet, and the last thing we see on the final page of the SCW....

The Blackest Night is upon us...

So upon finishing the SCW my first thought is....damn that was intense!  Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons, and Peter Tomasi threw everything they had at the reader and it made for a truly emotional, impactful, gut wrenching story that not only was excellent on it's own, but it also serves as a guide stone for the future of the GL-Verse.  Just within this story you have:

- The Prophecy of the Blackest Night/War of the Light

- The Other Corps Explained

- Origin of Scar

- Anti-Monitor Set-Up In the Black Lantern Battery

- Guy Joking About Wearing Other Rings

- The 10 New Laws In The Book Of Oa (only 6 have been revealed to date)

- Earth = Center Of Multi-Verse

- Superboy Prime in Multi-Verse (Plays Out In Final Crisis & Blackest Night)

There are certainly more set-up points as well, but those are just the ones that were on the tip of my proverbial tongue.  In the same fashion that this set-up "Blackest Night" and BN led into "War of the Green Lanterns", "Sinestro Corps War" was the result of two years of build that all started in "GL: Rebirth".  Johns has proven quite masterful at sowing the seeds of his future storylines within events while simultaneously paying off the build-up, and this is a skill not easy to come by.  All too frequently an event comic can feel as if it was nothing more than a bridge to the next event, and not provide a payoff of its own.  For me that was not the case with BN, nor was it the case with SCW. 

In the initial reading, I felt like this paid off all the build and it made me excited for the future of the GL-verse.  Reading it back now, after having seen how all the set-up paid off, I find it even more amazing how much was really in the meat of this story.  And that's just within the realm of the comic book, not saying anything  of the real world implications of this story.

The character of Sinestro invokes the images of dictators from across the years, I believe Guy even calls him "Adolf" at one point, and his mission to rule by fear is one that strikes close to home in a world where we have seen our lives changed because of fear.  Fear of terror attacks has caused the general population here in the United States to WILLING give up their rights under the guise of homeland security.  This consistent state fear of is perpetuated by the terror alert color schematics, by "enhanced" airport security, by constant rumors of terrorist attacks, and by having a boogieman lurking out in the desert for nearly a decade.  It's nothing new, the idea of government using fear tactics to their advantage...the red scare of communism, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, and that's just me using the US government as an example. 

The world that Sinestro wishes to create is one in which rule of fear is taking to its ultimate extreme, but it is one that is plausible.  The opposite argument, in the form of the GLC and as evidenced by Coast City's rally, is that it is through our own willpower that we can fight this sort of fear-based tyranny, and that it can really only be done if we stand together. 

I find it a rare thing in comics that you get a story that speaks to you on a real level, and makes you think about things that actually happen in the "real world".  This was one of those stories, and in the same way Marvel's "Civil War" broached some serious issues, so did "Sinestro Corps War".  Just because it's a comic book, doesn't mean it can't...or rather won't...force you to ask questions.

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Got everything from Geoff John's GL run covering "Sinestro Corps War" thru "Brightest Day" on my EBay Store: My Ebay Store