Recently in Green Lantern Category

See More DC Universe Online Screenshots at IGN.com

We all know the development on DC Universe Online is taking forever, with no firm release date yet (sometime in 2010).

I was hoping that either Champions Online (PC only right now, XBox 360 coming later this year) or Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 would be worthy enough to tide us over in the meantime.  Alas, both games have mediocre reviews, with the theme generally being "more of the same, nothing new here to see".  I think the Marvel game is still worth playing, but I will wait until the priced drops to $30 or less.

Given the excitement that Green Lantern has generated over the past few years, how far will the DC game go to incorporate the GL mythos?  We've seen screenshots of Sinestro in his yellow uniform.  I wonder if you can create a bad guy and make him a member of the Sinestro Corps?

Surely the DCU game cannot have Red, Blue, Sapphire, or Indigo Lanterns?  Those are too recent.

Can the Flashes go so fast they become the one with the Speed Force?  Probably not.

Too many questions.  I hope the game will be released in the first quarter 2010.  Nuff said.

I though I had given up collecting monthly comics for good, but as Al Pacino (once said in Godfather III): "Every time I try to get out, they pull me back in."  Now I'm ordering comics through an online service and I've pretty much stopped reading digital stuff.  I'm getting Marvel and DC titles, including all of Geoff Johns work and Blackest Night.  Getting the monthlies isn't too bad--online services save a lot there.  The Blackest Night madness has triggered an addictive need to own every single issue of Green Lantern since Rebirth!

Sure, I could get the trades.  That would make very good sense, being cheaper and easier.  There's just something about the single issues I've got to have--maybe it's the thrill of the hunt.  From eBay to various comic stores in my area, I've managed to snag all GL issues except for #12 and #20.  Why is #12 (shown above with the Cyborg Superman cover) so hard to find?

Issue #20 is more understandable.  That's the first appearance of the blue, orange, red, and sapphire rings that have been featured during the past year in GL.  There's also a Tales of the Sinestro Corps story by Johns and Gibbons.  I think I was lucky to pickup issue #18 and #19 for a relatively cheap price--these issues also had Sinestro Corps backup stories.

This disease isn't contained to just the main title, no.  Of course, the Green Lantern Corps titles are in the back issue bins next to them.  First I started getting just the Corps issues tying into Sinestro Corps and Blackest Night.  Then I found a bunch of other Corps titles for a good price and now I have a near complete run of that as well.

Let this be a lesson to you kids.  Think you want to stop collecting comics?  You can try but they will eventually pull you back in.  It's cheaper to keep up your subscription plans.  Nuff said.

DC Comics has really reversed its creative slump during the last few months.  Wednesday Comics, Batman and Robin, Flash Rebirth are quality comics.  And of course, leading the way are Blackest Night and Green Lantern.

Green Lantern #45 veers away from Hal Jordan (while he is the spotlight in Blackest Night) to focus on Star Sapphire, Sinestro, and his fear-mongering corps on the Zamoran homeworld. 

This story really struck me as to how far Carol's character has grown.  In her early appearances as Star Sapphire, Carol was obsessed with Hal Jordan--to the point of battering down his resistance to becoming her mate!  The purple ring pretty much brainwashed Carol, who only reverted to her normal persona after being defeated in battle.  There's great subtext in all of this depending on which decade you read the stories.  In the 60s, it was about women's liberation and having the power to get what they wanted--only to have a man take it away!  Especially in the scene above (from Green Lantern 74, 1970) where Star Sapphire battles not only Green Lantern, but Sinestro as well.

Now in the current Green Lantern series, Geoff Johns has done a lot to explain why Carol has acted so crazy over the years.  The sapphire ring is so dominating to the bearer that they do become brainwashed.  Only Carol is able to resist the power, as she has had the most experience with it: "Stop trying to put me on autopilot."

As the cover promises, Carol throws down against Sinestro after he breaks free of the Zamoran purple prison.  I take some disagreement with Sinestro's statement ("I have never sought revenge against my former pupil through, you Carol...") because obviously he has done so.  But you have to think that Carol is terribly overmatched in this confrontation.  I had Bullseye/Elektra jitters all over again.

Fortunately, Carol's ring has a power more potent than creating purple constructs.  She traps Sinestro and causes him to remember his own lost love, who turns about to be the sister of Abin Sur!  Perhaps this has been established elsewhere, but it was the first time I knew who exactly he had married in the past.  With the recent revelation that Sinestro is the father of Soranik Natu in the Green Lantern Corps--Sinestro's story just keeps getting more wondrously complex.  We still don't know exactly how Arin Sur died...or at least I do not.  Was it from Sinestro's own hand, a la Darth Vader?

John Siuntres just speculated in a recent Word Balloon podcast that Sinestro might actually be "the greatest Green Lantern of them all" if somehow he turns around during the Blackest Night conflict.  It's possible, but I hope that Geoff Johns doesn't try to totally change Sinestro...he's just too much fun being evil.  Nuff said.

I'm really hot on Blackest Night.  It's revived my enthusiasm for DC Comics...it's even spurred me to collect all the single issues for that title, as well as Green Lantern, GLC, Flash Rebirth, etc.

I can see why Barry Allen had to be revived.  In scenes like the following, where a Flash needs to interact with Hal Jordan, it just feels better if it's Hal's peer, Barry.  As they say in this splash page from Green Lantern #43, they are both cops, after all!

But here's something even greater: the new speed effect for The Flash.  It's a ghost effect showing the after images the Flash leaves in his wake.

Ethan Van Sciver talked about this in one of his recent interviews, that he was charged with designing a new speed effect.  During the Golden Age, the Flash's speed effect was portrayed with multiple images of him doing something.  In the Silver Age, Carmine Infantino drew the character with trailing speed lines that looked great in the 1960s.  For the modern era, Wally West had those effects, plus a blurring of what was going on around him.

Now with digital computer art, this new ghosting trick, combined with the traditional methods, really makes the Flash's power new and exciting.  This panel by Ivan Reis shows you all of them.  The colors also blur to give you that notion of speed.

Even when the Flash isn't fighting, just turning his head, it still looks fantastic.

The art in both Green Lantern books is really top notch.  Now I am wondering who the artist will be for the regular Flash title, once Flash Rebirth is done.  I'm thinking that DC Comics should tap Ivan Reis when Blackest Night is over.  What do you think?  Nuff said.

Here's the trailer for the next animated DC Universe direct to video film, Green Lantern: First Flight.

Looks like a must buy.  The release date is July 28, 2009.  Nuff said.

Gerry Conway's Last Days of Animal Man #2 continues Buddy Baker's descent into old age.  His powers are failing when he needs them the most, and in the cliffhanger from the previous issue, he needs help.  Who shows up to save Buddy?  Green Lantern.  But not any Green Lantern you already know.  This is an undetermined future in the DC Universe, and a cetacean GL is now in charge of our space sector!  I found this creature to be the most intriguing Lantern since Mojo (the sentient planet GL).  He has a similar problem to Mojo: how does he wear a ring?  In this case, it's embedded in his belly.

Chris Batista continues to do a superb job on the artwork.  I think it was challenging for him to figure out how this creature would operate the ring and use his powers.  The Mirror Master's daughter Prismatik shows up to kill Buddy, and she's quite a twisted piece of work.

Gerry Conway fans are going to want to check out his recent podcast interview with John Siuntres on Word Balloon.  I've been dying to know why Conway has returned to comics after years working in television, and the answer seems to be that comics just allow more freedom.  When Conway left comics over 15 years ago, he felt somewhat burned out on the medium.  Now he's recharged, as Last Days proves, he still knows how to tell a good story.  Siuntres also asks Conway about working with Roy Thomas on the early Marvel monsters books and the Death of Gwen Stacy story in Amazing Spider-Man.  Great interview.  Nuff said.

Green Lantern Volume Two--the one starring Hal Jordan--had a terrific run during the 1980s.  Len Wein, Dave Gibbons, and Steve Englehart worked on the series during this period.  John Stewart even became the lead character for a period of time.  But it started winding down and losing sales despite the array of talent.

Green Lantern #167 has Jordan with his finger raised as he stands among the Guardians of the Universe.  This cover epitomizes the greatest thing about Jordan's character.  He's a Galactic cop reporting to the ultimate authority, but Jordan's always been rebellious, never afraid to the Guardians when they've made a bonehead decision.

In this run of stories, the writers had discovered the mythology surrounding the GL Corps was a goldmine of material.  The series changed its title to "The Green Lantern Corps" with issue 201 in an effort to boost sales.

The GL Corps only lasted 24 issues.  It was fitting that Gil Kane, the man who worked on the first issue back in the 1960s, drew the final cover to GL Corps #224.  After an epic battle with Sinestro, the great power battery of the Corps was left "diminished but not extinguished" in the words of the lone surviving Guardian.  There was enough power left to equip Jordan with a ring.  The rest of the Corps were powerless and dispersed to live normal lives. 

This cover is a fitting tribute to the end of the series, with Jordan saluting the battery and his friends in a state of shock.  Nuff said.

DC Comics Final Night mini-series was published in 1996--which killed off Hal Jordan (as Parallax) in the concluding chapter.  As we all know, Hal Jordan never left the DC Universe, he was always around as the Spectre until Green Lantern: Rebirth.  As a memorial tribute to the hero they maligned, DC published a special "Green Lantern Gallery", loaded with pin-ups of the Silver Age Green Lantern.  This cover jam was a real treat, featuring three generations of Green Lanterns, drawn by the artists who created them!  Gil Kane on Hal Jordan, Marty Nodell on Alan Scott, and Daryl Banks on Kyle Rayner.  All of them topped off with inks by the great Kevin Nowlan.  What a cover, whoever owns this one is very lucky!  Nuff said.