After reading the latest issue of Green Lantern, it occured to me that I haven't talked about the Blackest Night arc. Truth be told, I don't know why I haven't discussed it. The Blackest Night has been building up since, well, pretty much since before Abin Sur crash landed on Earth and gave the ring to that cocky little shit named Hal Jordan. More recently, though, in the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps War, the Anti-Monitor's body became a black power battery. So, in forbidden prophecy, there was going to be a war of light, which is occurring right now. Black power rings have been flying all through the universe, resurrecting a bunch of dead people, including Thomas and Martha Wayne, Kal L, and many other folks. In my best Vincent Price voice, "The dead shall rise!"
Once again, throughout the DC Universe (same with Brian Michael Bendis's abortion called the Marvel Universe), continuity is running kind of odd involving the other titles. But, we should all have some faith in good ol' Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi and the other GL writers. The core titles of the GL universe are fucking sweet recently. Sodom Yat plunged himself into the Daxamite sun, thus turning the star yellow and allowing his people to gain Superman strength power to fight off Mongul. There have been revelations of the other different color spectrums, leading to some pretty shady under-dealings that the Guardians have been up to in the past. Oh, yeah, friggin Oa pretty much blew up.
What is really neat about this issue is that it resolves the whole elephant in the room that no one in the book talked about due to all the other craziness going on involving the War of Light: "When is Sinestro going up against Mongul?" What makes this issue worth blogging abut is that Sinestro finally goes up against Mongul.
Since Jordan's arrival into the GL Corps, Sinestro was always labeled an ugly stepchild, even though he was always by far the most willful. Shit, the guy created his own frigging corps. Mongul has always been a bad-ass and was the guy that beat Hal Jordan's ass after he destroyed Jordan's home of Coast City. By design, the two characters are perfectly opposite.
After going against each other, Sinestro kills Mongul after telling him that when he created the Yellow rings, he created a failsafe that allows him to be energized by whoever wears it. Instead of having a dumb comic plot moment and leaving Mongul's body to be resurrected by a Black ring, Sinestro's body locks him in energy status painfully, waiting until the Black Lantern situation is resolved so Mongul can just die. Sinestro reclaims his role as leader of the Sinestro Corps and tells Jordan that he will be leading the fight against the Black Lanterns. In the nick of time, though, a Black-ring resurrected Abin Sur and his dead sister (Sinestro's ex-chick) show up at the end of the issue.
You know what is fucking awesome? This is simply ONE title in the core GL line. The other titles have more fun with the Earth Lanterns, but the other Green Lanterns are neck deep in shit with the other spectrum Lanterns. Some are investigating the Black Lantern itself, while others are dealing with damage control around the universe. Go read The Blackest Night arc, but stay away from the other shit, folks.
PS - It's a cold day in Hell when a DC Universe major event has better continuity than a Marvel Universe arc; RE: Dark Reign. Let's all thank Brian Bendis for fucking up The Hood, the Secret Warriors, and, uh...the Marvel Universe.
Ed Brubaker, you know how to write a comic book.
I just finished the 7th issue of Mark Millar's "Kick-Ass" and I have to admit that I am pretty much over the whole comic. When it first came out, it kind of just came out of the dark for me. I had heard no rumblings in the internet prior it to coming out so it was a pleasant surprise to read the first issue. But around issue #3 or so, Hollywood ended up scooping up rights before the story even ended. In 2003, in a time when comics were still slightly looked down upon, Hollywood did the same with "30 Days of Night", though the end of the arc wasn't released for retail purchase, it was ready to be shipped; only a contract was established, yet nothing was in production. The problem with the "Kick-Ass" movie is that they started FILMING the movie before the comic even wrapped up.
Now, I fucking LOATHE story arcs that are super sweet...then END. Many of my favorites, such as "Powers", have been stuck in limbo because writers get stuck writting a bunch of titles at the same time or end up having irregular releases. Shit, I JUST found out that "Planetary" isn't even over! Twenty-seven issues take well over eight plus years these days, I suppose. NOTE: Warren Ellis is a fucking genius and if he takes 10 years to release 12 issues, I trust that it'll give my brain a boner.
In the case of "Kick-Ass", though, what bugs me is that I don't know if I should keep reading the comic or if I should wait for the movie. This is a weird instance where the argument over which is better, the book or the movie, has no bounds. Both are being done parallel to each other. And honestly, as much as I love reading Millar's humor and looking at Romita's brilliant art (I think Red Mist's Camaro will kick the Batmobile's wang eight days out of any week), I think that I'm starting to anticipate the movie more. Reading the comics are pretty anti-climactic because the movie has been filming for quite some time and I just feel that the creators have invested creative output for the screenplay. The comic is just riding backseat.
So, a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost live in a loft...
So, Ex Machina has finally got to the nitty gritty of Mayor Hundred's origin. Guess what, folks? He was to be the hearld of an alien invasion. Sweet. It turns out that there are heralds of different colors; Green was to disable all the weapons (the mayor's ability to control machines); Violet was to control the animals (like the rats that ate lesbians and babies in strollers); Red destroyed crops. White was to control the minds of the humans, which got kick-started by Bradbury when he clocked the journalist in the head. Thanks alot, Bradbury.
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's third issue of "Batman and Robin" was kick-ass, naturally. I mean, c'mon. The first page has Dick dragging a goon on the ground while he's driving his motorcycle. Very reminiscient of "The Authority". What I love about the duo's work on this book (aside from the sweet sound-effects) is that Dick Grayson isn't fucking around. He is handling bad guys just like the Bruce beneath the cowl. It's gonna be interesting when the inevitable time comes when Bruce returns.
Speaking of sound-effects, "The Incredible Hercules" (or "Comic With The Funniest Sound Effects") is by far the best comic out right now. This issue had Hercules and his amnesiatic, youth-returned father agreeing to go on a mission to fight Malekith an evil elf. As usual, Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente of "Marvel Zombies" 3 and 4 (remember Machine Man doing that sweet jump, like Machete from Planet Terror?) whip on the story as Hercules agrees to help out Asgard by pretending to be Thor.
What has been bugging me about the "War of Kings" storyline is that it seems like the characters forgot all about the Annihilus and Ultron. Granted, the Inhumans didn't have jack shit to do with it, but it seems like people never talk about all the grief that the Nova Corps and the Guardians of the Galaxy had to go through to fix the universe. Especially Blastarr, who had a pretty kick-ass role in teaming up with the good dudes. Whatev...
This one time at Hillcrest San Diego in a gay club, I once told a transvetite "Talk to my hand 'cause my ears ain't listenin'!" S/he slapped my face and smeared my make-up. That incident was not nearly as explosive as what just happened on that comic page.
