Green Lantern (vol.3) #118 (November, 1999)
"Women"
Writer - Ron Marz
Penciller - Darryl Banks
Inker - Anibal Rodriguez
Color & Separations - Rob Schwager
Letterers - Chris Eliopoulos
Assistant Editor - Harvey Richards
Editor - Kevin Dooley
Cover Price: $1.99
Just love this cover... I mean, look at Kyle's face as he tries to hold Donna and Jade apart! That's kinda the very definition of an s-eating grin, ain't it? It's like we can almost read his mind here.
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We open with Kyle in fantasy mode... making out with his ex-girlfriend, Donna Troy. In reality he's at a showing of his work at an art gallery with his current girlfriend Jade. Ya see, Donna decided to attend too, and the very sight of her got our Mr. Rayner's old juices flowin'. Jenny's not at all pleased, as you might imagine... not so much that Donna decided to show up, but for the fact that she knows Kyle's heart "skipped a beat" when he saw her. Kyle claims he needs "closure" with Donna... so Jenny storms out.
Donna and Kyle then reconnect... and it's rather awkward, for reasons we're about to go into. They run out of small-talk with the quickness... again, for reasons we're about to go into.
Donna seductively poses and recalls her time as a hero... which is a sorta clunky way to drop exposition, but it works in a pinch for folks unfamiliar with her character and story. She mentions having blamed herself for the death of her ex-husband T-Long and son Robert.
As they walk through the Village, Kyle finds a book of Anton Corbijn (a Dutch Photographer) photos that he'd wanted to get Donna for her birthday while they were together. He laughs about the lengths he went to to try and procure it... which is something that Donna has no recollection of.
Ya see, here's the thing... after a run-in with Dark Angel, Donna was stripped of all of her memories. The life she's living now is based on a reconstruction of Donna Troy from Wally West's memories. Kyle and Wally aren't exactly the best of buds here... so it's not really any surprise that the Kyle and Donna relationship might've gotten the short shrift when it came to the reconstruction info-dump.
Kyle attempts to give her the quick and dirty on their relationship... which kinda smells of desperation. It's as though he isn't sure what he wants. Does he want Donna back? Does Donna even want to be back? After all, she walked out on him. Is he happy with Jade? Is there any way he can have both? What I'm trying to say is, we've got quite the konflicted Kyle.
Donna then tells Kyle that he's not the only one who "moved on", since she's now knockin' boots with Roy "Speedy" "Arsenal" Harper. As you might imagine, this displeases Kyle greatly. To which, Donna throws Jenny in his face. This is such a weird scene... I mean, it's pretty great because it's so confusing. It's as though both Donna and Kyle are dealing with all of these unexpected bubbled up emotions... and their only "release" is to get mad at one another.
Well, maybe that's not their only release.
When Kyle asks if the kiss stirred any old memories, Donna drops the final insult with a "no". Donna suggests that the kiss was a mistake and suggests Kyle go find Jenny.
And so, Kyle proceeds to wander the streets... alone. This is where the Day of Judgment tie-in occurs. If you recall, Kyle had a brief run-in with Enchantress during the opening chapter. Well, here it is again... in long-form. For brevity's sake... they fight a bit, Kyle kvetches about getting home to his girlfriend... and Enchantress lets it slip that the End of the World is coming.
We wrap up back at Kyle and Jenny's apartment... where Jenny is waiting for her boyfriend to return. When he doesn't, she leaves him a note... and leaves.
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What a great issue... well, at least until the Day of Judgment stuff snuck in and ate up the last third of it.
I wanna talk about just how real the Donna and Kyle stuff felt... because, if we strip away the power rings and Gods and Dark Angels... we get some very human interaction here. Least I think so.
We have a couple of confused young people... neither really knows what they're looking for... or if they're happy with what they have. I mean, let's look at Kyle. Donna walks out on him... he meets and falls for Jade, they shack up... then Donna briefly strolls back in to his life, and he's left questioning everything. It looks like he's all but ready to drop Jade and run back to Donna... if only she were available.
Because, she's with Roy. This is where it gets even more interesting. There's this odd passive-aggressive repartee here... Kyle wonders why she bothered to show up if she was already spoken for... not that their "getting back together" was ever really back on the table. Donna's defenses then kick in, and she calls Kyle out for shacking up with Jenny... when, really... she has no right to say anything about Kyle "moving on". She's the one that ended things.
It's this intensity... this weird, irrational intensity between the two that makes this such an incredible scene. All of these emotions bubbling to the surface... all of this regret... all of this confusion. It's really just so well done. They're mad at each other... but they're really grasping for reasons to be mad. I think we've all been there. Halfway through every sentence you blurt out, you ponder why you're even speaking at all. All you're doing is making things worse...
... or just dragging it out longer. Ya see, when we opened this story, the watchword was "closure". Kyle wanted closure with Donna due to the weird way their relationship broke down. Perhaps neither Kyle nor Donna is/was quite ready to "tie a bow" on their relationship. Closure... when you think about it, can be as drawn out a process as you allow for it to be. You can literally be in perpetual closure for the rest of your life, without actually "tying that bow".
I feel like Donna and Kyle might not have been ready to put their baggage behind them at this point. I mean, I'm no expert, but a romantic and passionate kiss (in the rain, even!) doesn't really say "we're done" to me.
But really, you guys... this was one hell of an issue, Marz and Banks deliver yet again... but then, Day of Judgment. We've already discussed that event in long-form... so, you can get my thoughts on it elsewhere on the blog. Basically, it didn't rock my socks... but I also can't get mad at it. In this issue though? It was most unwelcome. I would have loved another half-dozen pages of Kyle and Donna hashing it out... but, the crossover gods demanded the post-staples sacrifice... and unfortunately, they got it!
Overall... I'd say, even in spite of the shoe-horned crossover, this was an amazing issue... and one I would highly recommend. For your convenience, this bugger is available digitally.
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Day of Judgment #5 (November, 1999)
"Soul Search"
Writer - Geoff Johns
Penciller - Matt Smith
Breakdowns - Christopher Jones
Inker - Steve Mitchell
Colorist - James Sinclair
Separations - Jamison
Letters - Comicraft
Associate Editor - Tony Bedard
Editor - Dan Raspler
Special Thanks - Kevin Dooley
Cover Price: $2.50
Okay, let's put this one to bed!
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We open with Hal Jordan flying through the "inner being" of the Spectre... where he eventually comes across its current occupant, Asmodel. Outside, we pick up on our "evil Superman" cliffhanger... where he just vomits up Neron. Eh? Well, that was worth it.
And so, a battle begins. Oddly, Neron refers to the group calling themselves the "Sentinels of Magic" as... the Sentinels of Magic. I guess word travels fast! After some rough-and-tumble with Blue Devil and Captain Marvel, Neron swipes the Spear of Destiny... and uses it to pierce the Spectre.
Into the... inside, Neron joins the fray as a potential host for the Spirit of Vengeance. From the streets of Manhattan, the assembled heroes look on as the over-sized Spectre begins to seize. Suddenly, back inside, the Spectre entity lines its three "suitors" up, and wonders who to accept.
Each man pleads his case. Asmodel appeals to how similar he and the Spectre are as victims of lost status. Neron insists he would be the best teammate for the Spectre... in that between them, no souls will go unclaimed. Hal... well, Hal just cries. He reflects on his past transgressions... and his hope to eventually atone. Well, looks like he said the magic woid... because the Spectre choo-choo-chooses him!
Back on the street, Asmodel and Neron hit the pavement with a thud. The heroes look skyward... and get their first look at the brand-new Spectre!
Neron proceeds to sass him... which doesn't seem like the smartest course of action. He mocks the Spectre... even going as far as to refer to him as something of a subordinate. Hal don't take kindly to that... and locks him up in a lantern construct to yell at him some. Neron is suddenly sent back to "back where he came" by... the old Spectre-host, Jim Corrigan.
Jim wishes Hal the best... and informs him that some of the lost souls in Purgatory will finally be getting their appeal. He even takes Asmodel back to Heaven with him.
Overwhelmed, Hal takes his leave... but not before restoring Manhattan to its former glory.
The heroes celebrate their victory... and we get a pretty good shot of the Sentinels of Magic. Zatanna informs the crowd that they are free to applaud if they want. With lines like that, I wonder if this makes her the first ever Millennial? Hell, it was still the twentieth century when this came out... talk about being ahead of one's time!
We pop down to Hell... and learn that Neron has been "demoted". Something tells us this might've been Etrigan's plan all along. He's an easy character to write (besides the rhyming of course). If he wins... it's all according to plan, if he loses... well, that was his plan anyway!
After a brief scene with Zatanna accepting a date with that nerdy barkeep from wayyy back in issue #1, we meet up with the Quintessence... who give us the Animal House updates on our major players... which really makes me think this was all a pitch for a Sentinels of Magic series... which makes this overlong endeavor even that much more pointless.
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Well... I'm glad that's over.
Don't get me wrong... I can't get too mad at this story, because I feel like it's a story worth telling. My problems stem from the length and pacing of the thing.
When we talked about Millennium... which, holy smokes... was a year ago, I complained that so much of the action was going down in the tie-ins. We knew this because there were references to it in the main series. Here, I couldn't even venture to guess what was happening in the tie-ins. Did the whole Spear of Destiny thing happen "off campus"? I hope so, otherwise, the scenes we get here were... really lacking. Same with the Fate-hunt in Salem. Was that really just a single page search? Or did it happen in a tie-in?
I get that we enlightened "turn of the century" comic fans were supposed to be above such silly "comicbooky" things as editorial notes... but, ya know... sometimes things exist for a reason. I'd hate to think I was slighting this thing for the wrong reasons.
One thing I have no such qualms about is the over-reliance on cliffhangers... and the unsatisfying resolutions that followed. You can't end a book with "something" happening... then start the next with a "nevermind, everything's cool!". I mean, "evil Superman" lasted... two panels? Hell... most things in this event seem to last for two panels!
I'll spare y'all the broken record... suffice it to say, this could have been paced (and compacted) much better.
Is it worth checking out? Well, yeah... I think so. If you're a Hal-buff, or even Hal-curious... this is an important step in his retribution arc. It feels like a way to try and give the fans the "best of both worlds" in the context of the direction the DC Universe was heading at the time. For new fans, you've still got Kyle... for lapsed and seasoned fans, you get Hal too!
What we don't get is... a Sentinels of Magic series. Not that something of that sort would interest me in the slightest, because it wouldn't... but, after the hard push we get here... it seems strange that nothing really came of it.
Overall... as a series, it's bloated... over-reliant on lame cliffhangers... chock-full of weird "nothin' happenin'" cameo scenes... just not a pleasant experience if you're reading them one at a time. If you decide to take the plunge and read'em all at once, you might think differently. As a single-issue, this one has the most going for it. Outside of the cliffhanger-resolution, and the Sentinels-heavy end, this was a pretty enjoyable read!
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(Not the) Letters Page:
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Day of Judgment Solicitations:
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Day of Judgment #4 (November, 1999)
"The End of the World as We Know it"
Writer - Geoff Johns
Penciller - Matt Smith
Breakdowns - Christopher Jones
Inker - Steve Mitchell
Colorist - James Sinclair
Separations - Jamison
Letters - Comicraft
Associate Editor - Tony Bedard
Editor - Dan Raspler
Special Thanks - Kevin Dooley
Cover Price: $2.50
Penultimate Judgment!
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All around the world, heroes are taking the fight to the demons... including, in a rare post-Vertigo appearance, Animal Man! In Manhattan, the Spectre looms large... and looks to be belting out quite the chorus, while Alan Scott is knelt before the shards of Hal Jordan.
If you recall, yesterday... Hal returned to the mortal plane, and in his first move... he socked the Asmodel-Spectre in the jaw, only to be turned into glass... which shattered when it hit the ground. You might also remember a few days back where Asmodel-Spectre turned Superman into a pillar of salt. Well... this cliffhanger pays off similarly... which is to say, Hal Jordan is okay again!
Thanks to Doctor Fate! So that's why we were in Salem, eh?
Alan tells Hal that he can't do this alone... and suggests he settle his tea kettle, and stay focused. And so, Hal decides to strategize... sending some construct fighter jets to take on the Spectre's pestilence bugs. Unfortunately, it's been quite some time since Hal's last charged his ring... and purgatory-apparition or not, rules are rules.
And so, the Sentinels of Magic combine their powers to give Hal a proper recharge. Hal then assembles a very familiar army... the Green Lantern Corps!
Meanwhile in Space... Starfire has the Spear of Destiny, and has gone rather mad with the power. This threat lasts exactly one panel... S.T.R.I.P.E. nails her with some electric blasts, and Captain Marvel reclaims the relic.
In Hell faced with the threat of Nebiros, Faust empties out that bag of bones he'd been carrying around. The skeleton begins to reanimate, and comes together as... Blue Devil!
Topside, the construct Corps are pounding away at the Spectre, and in a neat bit... Hal tries to apologize to Kilowog. The big lug doesn't wanna hear it... they've got a job to do. At the same time, Captain Marvel and the gang returns with the Spear of Destiny.
Back in Hell, Blue Devil easily bests Nebiros... and the heroes jump to the task of reigniting the fires of frozen-over Hell. Faust notes that his good deed in vanquishing Nebiros has released his soul... for the first time in who knows how long, he is complete! We've still got a problem in that the hellfires refuse to light!
Faust realizes that the only way to spark it is to perform an act of true evil... and so, he slits the throat of the Enchantress! Wow, that's pretty hardcore. Whatever works though!
Topside... the battle continues to rage. After a brief skirmish with Etrigan, Captain Marvel plunges the Spear of Destiny into the Spectre's chest.
With Asmodel weakened... it's time for Hal to, in the words of Kilowog, "take his medicine".
At the same time, Superman and the Hell-lighters return. Kyle is pretty taken aback... thinking he'd just seen Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps (there's a book waiting to be... oh.) Anyhoo, Superman is acting weird... he kayos Batman and Kyle, and approaches the Spectre claiming that he will take the power. Well, that's right responsible of him! Oh... waitasec, he also wants all of the heroes' souls. Whoops.
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Some really neat scenes here... but still can't help but to feel that this is going on too long. I keep imagining this as a nice over-sized special... or maybe a prestige-format dealie. I think it would've read so much better that way. Perhaps I'm doing it (and myself) a disservice by insisting that I read these one at a time. Maybe if I just powered through, I'd receive it a bit better. Buuuuut, that's the cross we bear here at the Infinite Earths.
Let's start with the cliffhanger resolved... Hal goes to pieces, and suddenly he's back. I feel like this is kind of lazy... same with the Superman-as-salt cliffhanger. It's like, okay... how do we end this one? Oh, I know... we'll kill Superman. Cool... how do we walk that back? Well, next issue he just won't be dead anymore!
I guess when we're working with magic... it's easy enough a fix, but still... kinda lazy. Kinda feels like a cheat. Hal's just "okay" again. Another point for this to be a one-and-done... there'd be no need for these cheaty cliffhangers.
Now the cliffhanger going forward... Superman turned heel! Never having read this before, I can't pretend to know how this works itself out, but it stands to reason to guess that it will be resolved within the first couple of pages of the next issue. It's hard to get excited when we've already had a couple of cop-out resolutions.
Onto the awesome scenes! It was really cool seeing the Green Lantern Corps... especially since they weren't exactly "constructs". In Hal chatting up Kilowog, we can see that he had a "soul" or "consciousness" about him. It gave Hal the opportunity to (attempt to) make amends... which was something I really wanted to see. I do wish Kyle was able to get a better look at the Corps in action though.
The scene in Hell was... hit or miss. The Nebiros fight felt a bit like a throwaway... but it was necessary for what followed. Faust is a character I have very little investment in, so his soul returning didn't do all that much for me. Can't really hold that against it though... that's just me. His killing the Enchantress was interesting... I guess I dug it because I really can't stand the Enchantress. The character always annoyed me.
The Spear of Destiny bit... again, such an oddly-paced scene. I mean, we get Starfire overcome with the power... and she's zapped in the very next panel. Why even bother? Just get the damn Spear...
Overall... I'm gonna ride the fence here. I do think this is an important story... and there's a lot to like about it, but... the pacing here is a bit off-putting. I know I'm coming across like a broken record here, but... this didn't need five issues, and would have been better served as an over-sized one-shot... or maybe between Spectre and Demon Annuals or something. Anyhoo... we'll wrap this bugger up tomorrow.
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Day of Judgment #3 (November, 1999)
"Choosing Sides"
Writer - Geoff Johns
Penciller - Matt Smith
Breakdowns - Christopher Jones
Inker - Steve Mitchell
Colors - James Sinclair
Separations - Jamison
Letters - Comicraft
Associate Editor - Tony Bedard
Editor - Dan Raspler
Special Thanks - Kevin Dooley
Cover Price: $2.50
Hmm... that credits list seems to be getting longer and longer, doesn't it?
The only reason I know it's not a contemporary Marvel book is because the list isn't twice as long and consisting mostly of "editors"... and, of course, skatey-eight hundred variant cover artists.
Anyhoo... let's bust on through the halfway point!
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We open on Earth, where Batman and the Topsiders continue to do battle with the hellions. Meanwhile, the Spectre brainstorms on how he might reclaim his power from Xanadu's crystal. We also learn that Captain Marvel, at the urging of the Phantom Stranger, is leading a crew into space to fetch the Spear of Destiny... which must be the right plan, because Asmodel responds to it by... zapping the Stranger's face off!
Up in space, we join Cap, who is flanked by Star(fire) and S.T.R.I.P.E. They locate the Spear lodged in some "space junk", however as they make their approach... they find that they're not alone. Enter, Soviet Cosmonaut Zombies!
Back to Purgatory, where Hal Jordan is pleading his case to return to "home" to help out his pals. Alan Scott considers it for a moment... and agrees that Hal's the only other person he knows (besides Jim Corrigan) with enough willpower to control the Spectre. Hal's pleased... but will not return as Parallax. He changes into his Green Lantern duds for the trek home. Just then... the hordes of Purgatory attack! They'd already claimed Hal as one of their's... and aren't hip to the jive of letting him go.
Meanwhile, in Hell... the heroes are in the River Styx. I think I neglected to mention yesterday that Charon's Ferry capsized... so, uh... the ferry capsized. While in the drink, the heroes are haunted by their worst fears... and thankfully this only goes on for a couple of pages. I feel like they'd have tried to get a couple of issues out of such a thing nowadays!
Topside... in Manhattan, the heroes continue to fight off the hordes, while protecting Xanadu's crystal. We get a strange bit where it's revealed that Dr. Occult is really his partner Rose... in disguise? Feels kinda random... it also really feels like they're just dying to spin-off a Sentinels of Magic series.
We shift scenes to Salam, where Jay Garrick leads a team set on tracking down Dr. Fate... annnnnnnd, they find him. That's about it.
Back in Purgatory, the heroes (flanked by some "old friends") are able to hold off the hordes, and with the aid of Supergirl's flaming angel wings, Zauriel is able to use his holy blade to cut through the very fabric of the place to send them home.
In Hell, the heroes finally arrive at the City of Dis. Once inside, they are greeted by the demon Nebiros... who appears to really want their souls... but that's a battle we won't see until later.
In Manhattan, Etrigan finally decides to stop watching... and get involved. He rushes Madame Xanadu who... just gives him her crystal?! Is she under mind-control? Is she enchanted? Well, no... she's "seen the future" and knows that a savior is on the way. Her holding onto the Spectre's "essence" no longer matters.
In space... Cap's team takes out the dead Russians innnnn... two panels. More like a panel and a half... really, so pointless. Anyhoo, Starfire yanks the Spear of Destiny out of the space junk... and that's it.
Back on Earth, Asmodel is repowered... and promises that today is Earth's Day of Judgment (hey, that's the name of this book!). The heroes all look to Xanadu like "What the hell--?" At that moment, the Purgatory Pals arrive... with the Earth's savior... Hal Jordan! There's a sense of relief... from everyone except Batman, naturally.
And so, Hal heads right to Asmodel... and socks him in the face! This proves to be a rather stupid move, as it turns his fist into a sort of glass...
... which spreads, turning his entire body into glass... which, hits the ground and shatters! Whoops...
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Now... as much as I'm coming around to this series... I can't shake the feeling that it didn't need to be a series! This could have just as easily been told in a done-in-one over-sized special... and would have flowed so much better.
This issue is loaded with these rapid-fire scenes that either barely move the plot forward, or take giant leaps over it! The heroes in Hell make it... what, ten feet? They pull themselves out of the River Styx, and then get taunted by Nebiros.
Jay Garrick's team spends a page searching for Dr. Fate... and they find him? What's the point? This could've been handled in a single line of dialogue... just have Batman say "Garrick just reported in that they found Dr. Fate!" Bingo-bango...
Captain Marvel's team... we get a couple of pages of them looking at space junk... two panels of fighting zombies... then they nab the Spear of Destiny. Another bloated (and wasted) scene in my opinion. Another one-liner... Batman could now say "Captain Marvel has located the Spear of Destiny!"
The Purgatory bits were pretty neat. I like the idea of the other lost-soul heroes (Rick Flag, Adrian Chase, etc.) helping their friends fight off the hordes... even if the fight scene itself felt like a complete afterthought.
We get an... interesting cliffhanger... enough to ensure many of us come back for the next issue... but again, this feels so bloated. This certainly doesn't need the 100+ pages it gets to tell this story. This feels like a 48-pager at best... and the editorial/creative musical chairs definitely makes it feel as though it wasn't a top priority for DC either way.
Overall... despite everything I just said, I found more to like than to dislike, and would recommend giving it a flip-through.
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