Green Lantern Corps #18 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Chriscross (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Gabe Eltaeb (colors)

The Story: John displays a tradition of planets dying on his watch.

The Review: No one who works in a creative field can produce greatness all the time.  We all know that, and yet it’s still a little shocking how someone can produce a masterpiece one day, then deliver a total dud another day.  It’s even more baffling when someone actually does both in the very same day.  A couple days ago, with Batman and Robin #18, Tomasi delivered what is now widely regarded to be one of the finest Batman issues of his or anyone’s career.

That same day saw the release of this issue of Green Lantern Corps, which presents Tomasi at his absolute worst.  This is unfortunate on a lot of levels, not the least being that it reinforces John Stewart’s status as DC’s least-favored Green Lantern.  In a title where he’s ostensibly co-leading with Guy Gardner, he already has a tough time competing with the more flamboyant and memorable antics of his partner.  This was an opportunity to give readers an idea of what makes him tick, and Tomasi almost completely fails in that regard.

Green Lantern Corps Annual #1 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (Writer), Chriscross, Scott Hanna, Marlo Alquiza (Artists), Wil Quintana (Colorist)

*Spoiler Alert*

The Story: Guy Gardner gets in gear to bring the fight to the guardians after being saved by Simon Baz and B’dg.

The Review: This is a big comic in nearly every aspect of the word. It is a long read, jam-packed full of action and intense development touted as the final chapter of Rise of the Third Army, bringing all the meticulous planning from all Green Lantern titles to a head. It is big, it is important, but is it any good?

From the very first page, one must not forget that it is a continuation of Green Lantern Corps, even though it incorporates many plot points from the other books. As such, most of the focus is on Guy Gardner, John Stewart and the other Lanterns. Considering the fact that it is a vital chapter, the final one in the storyline going on in the other books, does it make it kind of inaccessible to those who haven’t followed Green Lantern Corps?

Smallville #5 – Review

By: Bryan Q. Miller (story), Chriscross (pencils), Marc Deering (inks), Carrie Strachan (colors)

The Story: Just when you thought the teenage angst was gone, along comes a teen and angst.

The Review: Once you got used to the idea of seeing Superman on television (especially in the low-rent settings of a CW show—remember how often people would have to drive up to farm just to have a conversation?), the funnest part was the guest stars.  I’m not really talking about the actors so much as the parts they played.  For anyone longing for a live-action Justice League, seeing Aquaman or Cyborg or Lois Lane in an Amazon outfit was just irresistible.

The transfer from small screen to printed/digital page sucks a lot of the fun out of the experience, sadly.  For comic book fans, the appeal of guests and cameos on Smallville was seeing your favorite characters come to flesh-and-blood, grizzled and beautiful life.  It’s like how putting Clark in the cape and costume in a comic doesn’t really compare to putting Tom Welling as Clark in a genuinely stitched-and-sewn cape and costume on a high-def TV.

Action Comics #6 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Andy Kubert (penciller), John Dell (inker), Brad Anderson (colorist), Sholly Fisch (feature writer), Chriscross (feature artist), Jose Villarrubia (feature colorist)

The Story: Now you know where all those little voices in your head are coming from.

The Review: I don’t think I’m the only one, but I sometimes give Morrison a lot of flak for being purposely obscure in his writing.  The combination of his strange ideas, highly stylized choice of words, and loose playing with time and space often leave me bewildered, unsure if I’m reading genius or gobbledygook.

After reading this issue the first time around, I sat back, my mouth slightly agape, and murmured aloud, “Am I high, or is he?”  Maybe I read it too quickly or too carelessly, but I could not make head or tail of it.  On the second reading, I sat back again, this time my mouth pursed in thought.  All the pieces I had found so disjointed, wordy, and confusing the first time around had come together and made a deep impression on me.  Or, to be accurate, I should say it impressed me.

For one thing, Morrison amazes, as he regularly does, with the boundless enthusiasm and scope of his ideas.  Who else would come up with a plot involving tesseracts that allow objects to be bigger inside themselves than out, allowing Superman’s enemies to hide and plot within his very brain?  Who else can give a rocket ship character, actually making you feel invested in its fate?  When it comes to sheer creativity, this issue beats all preceding ones by a mile, and that alone makes it truly memorable for the first time since this series relaunched.

That’s not to say there aren’t flaws.  It’s still baffling why Morrison chooses to tell this particular tale smack-dab in the middle of a story arc where T-shirt Superman already has his hands full against the Collector of Worlds.  The fact that his rocket ship plays a significant part in the issue also throws you off track, since up until #3, the military still had it in their possession.  Also weird is the presence of Drekken, or Erik, or whoever that shapeshifting foe is; he doesn’t do much other than get in Superman’s way, and you never find out where he came from.

Action Comics #5 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Invasion of the Space Babies!  They’ll overwhelm you with their cuteness!

The Review: The coming of Superman to Earth as a babe rocketed from the doomed planet of Krypton is probably the origin story of origin stories, one which still retains a lot of its purity and sense of wonder to this day.  There’s just something inescapably poignant about the idea of a mother and father doing all they can to save their child, putting their trust in an unknown world to foster him, and him becoming its savior in return.

It’s a great story, but one that’s been told and retold so often, and with so little variation in the telling, that it’s become a bit tiresome to hear.  Weariness is the predominant feeling you get when reading through the first half of this issue.  For anyone who knows anything about the Superman mythos, nothing Grant Morrison writes will surprise you.  The classic details are all here, untwisted, and while that’s a relief on a lot of levels, it’s also rather dull to read.

The changes Morrison introduces to the story are few and subtle in nature.  Lara has a more critical role in Kal-El’s sojourn to Earth; she helped Jor-El build the saving rocket, and she’s the one who arrives at their last, desperate option to save their son when Jor-El freezes.  You discover that before they put Kal into the rocket, they attempted to save themselves by escaping into the Phantom Zone, only to find it already occupied by the worst of Krypton’s sadists.

While a lot of the issue is at least readable, if not refreshing, Morrison dives into some very exotic turns of phrase when writing the voice of the rocket’s Brainiac A.I.  I’ve never liked it much when Morrison puts on his beat poet hat; it just seems distracting and sometimes confusing: “Then blinding gulfs of superspace.  Of un-time.  Exquisite calculations.  The last son of Krypton dreams.  And searching.  And now!”

And that’s before you get to the completely baffling sequence involving a time-traveling chase of the Anti-Superman Army by Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and grown-up, body-suited Superman (as opposed to folksy Superman).  This scene not only breaks into the middle of the “Collector of Worlds” arc (which doesn’t continue this issue), it delivers puzzling language of its own: “This, all the K in the universe—the colored isotopes synthi-K and Kryptonium…”

Supergirl #67 – Review

By: Kelly Sue DeConnick (writer), Chriscross (penciller), Marc Deering (inker), Blond (colorist)

The Story: Think Ghostbusters meets the Goonies, with a splash of the Breakfast Club.

The Review: In my review of Zatanna #13, I mentioned that a supporting cast can really make a title, a point worth elaborating.  No matter how strong a star, they can’t carry an entire issue on their backs all the time.  Getting a few other people into the mix breaks up the story, keeps you from stalling in one place for too long, and adds any number of possibilities to send the plot into an unexpectedly wonderful direction.

DeConnick clearly understands the value of giving everyone something important to do, even the ones who probably (well, definitely—this is the end of the line for the series, after all) will never show up again.  Even though Professor Ivo’s bank of the absolute finest genetic potential humanity has to offer doesn’t really go anywhere out of the ordinary, the story zips along and keeps you interested, in no small part due to the antics of the non-capes in this issue.

Remember, you have a crew of geeky geniuses (the two things aren’t always synonymous), and they’re in a sewer with a bunch of mechanical junk lying around.  Put them together, and you have a pump capable of funneling sewage water to drown a pack of robotic rats, and several stun guns with various vacuum cleaner attachments for their muzzles.  Now you have a Supergirl rescue squad, which means the threshold for danger gets that much higher.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #2 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Cafu (penciller), Bit (inker), Santiago Arcas (colorist), Chriscross (flashback artist), Brad Anderson (flashback colorist)

The Story: The newest set of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents embark on their first mission, accompanied by their retainers, the feisty Colleen and the smooth-even-under-pressure Toby.  Agent Lightning gets the first move, and as he experiences for himself his overwhelming new powers, his motivation to become one of the short-lived agents comes to light.

The Review: For a writer, the debut of a superhero team can be overwhelming.  Not only are you responsible for establishing a team dynamic and overarching mission for them, there’s also the myriad personalities and baggage each member comes with.  To make a great team comic, every one of these has to be given proper attention.  For Nick Spencer, the task is made both easier and harder by the recruitment of completely new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.  They may not have a thick set of continuity issues to wade through, but coming up with all-new continuity is no walk in the park.

Spencer chose to use his first story arc to offer in-depth looks at his Agents, meaning a sacrifice in a substantial amount of action in favor of enormous character and world-building.  For the most part, his ploy succeeds, thanks to his gift for dramatic storytelling.

This issue focuses on Lightning, AKA Henry Cosgei, Olympic runner turned tech-enhanced government hero.  Switching between almost journalistic exposition and brief glimpses into the most important moments of Henry’s life, Spencer almost instantly gives Lightning a rich backstory and a pretty good reason to be on the team.  What’s really impressive is how even in the midst of recounting Henry’s story with sympathy, Spencer manages to lay a few quiet clues that something more sinister is working behind the scenes to make these Agents as they are.

Whereas the previous issue gave us the grisly aftermath of using T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents tech, the actual experience of using it is on full display here.  Now, the concept of “powers that kill you” is pretty old, but Spencer’s execution of it works really well on a number of levels.  Rather than showing the lifespan-shortening effect through physical symptoms (blood coming out of various openings of the body is a popular mainstay), the psychological sensations of feeling the end of your life drawing closer is displayed.  It’s nigh-impossible to take the price of being a T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent lightly after reading this chilling sequence.  Color me yellow, but it reads like one of my top twenty nightmares.

Besides the intense character work on Lightning, Toby and Collen get some page-time to banter and show some enjoyable personality quirks—a good choice, since they’ll be serving as constants linking the big-picture plotline of this arc together.  It’s a bold move, starring the bureaucratic agents while the actual superpowers simmer on the backburner.  Thank God their dialogue plays well (“I just sounded like a stupid American there, didn’t I?”  “Just there, yeah.”), and double-duties as both humor and exposing mission logistics.