Titans (vol.2) #26 (October, 2010)
"Suffer the Children"
Writer - Eric Wallace
Artists - Fabrizio Fiorentino & Cliff Richards
Colors - Hi-Fi
Letterer - Travis Lanham
Editor - Rex Ogle
Cover Price: $2.99
Okay, it's been a little over a week of #BrightestMay coverage... and it still feels like we haven't even made it out of the gate! So much repetition in the early stages of this crossovent.
So today... we're going to jump ahead a few months and cover an interesting issue of Titans (vol.2). Since this is the first time we're looking at them, let's do a quick and dirty "catch up". The volume started as... well, a Titans book. After Blackest Night ended, it became a Deathstroke book. He assembled his own team of "Titans"... and entered into an agreement with Lex Luthor (which we have seen the beginnings of).
--
We open in Star City's Morningstar Cemetery... it is two weeks ago. Cheshire is knelt before the grave of her daughter Lian (we haven't covered it here yet, but Lian was killed by Prometheus during Justice League: Cry for Justice. She is soon joined by Lian's father, Roy Harper... Arsenal. This is hot off the heels of Roy's relapse in Justice League: Rise and Fall/Rise of Arsenal... which, you might remember as the series where Roy mistakes a dead cat for his daughter.
Anyhoo, Cheshire has called Roy because she has a job for him. They appear to have an enemy in common...
Roy ain't too keen on going toe-to-toe with Deathstroke... at this point, Roy doesn't care much about anything. Jade tries to goad him by revealing that Deathstroke is referring to his team (which she is a member of) as "Titans". Roy still doesn't care. She finally guilts him into it by throwing the fact that Lian was murdered on his "watch".
We shift scenes to a present day press conference being held at the Los Angeles Courthouse. A child named Christoff Brockman has been abducted as part of a child slavery ring. Afterwards, a text is sent... and it looks like an offer has been accepted.
Back in time again, this time only one week back... Deathstroke's Titans, Cinder and the Tattooed Man chat about their current lots in life. Suddenly, Osiris busts in to accuse them of messing with his Isis statue (which we saw back in Brightest Day #0). He shoves Tattooed Man to the ground, and gets his face nicked up by teeny-tiny shuriken for his troubles. This shocks him, as he's supposed to be invulnerable.
Then, the White Lantern entity calls out to him... and informs him that his sister Isis is needed, and he is the only one who can break her free. And so, he go.
Back to the present, Jade and the Tattooed Man are undercover meeting with a man named Elijah. He is the hook-up for a new drug called "Bliss". Ya tired of these "new drug" stories yet? Yeah, me too.
He brings them to a run down gas station in the desert... then invites them inside. What we see is a "super-science" distillery... vats filled with a purple fluid.
It's revealed that this "Bliss" is derived from a certain harvested ingredient... youth. Yeah, yeah. Anyhow, this is why all those kids (including that Christoff we heard about earlier) have been abducted. Now Cheshire just lost a child herself... so, she kinda lashes out and blows their cover.
Turns out this Elijah has himself a team of Metas at his disposal... and they respond in kind.
Flashback time, this time only 24 hours earlier. Cheshire attacks Slade... who disarms her pretty handily. Then, Arsenal appears and hurls a knife in Deathstroke's direction... and it misses by inches. Wha? Roy never misses! Well, ya see... he's not there to kill Slade, he's there to join him!
Deathstroke is intrigued... and welcomes him "back" with open arms. Cheshire gives a knowing smirk to the camera... ya see, this was the plan all along.
Back in the present, Deathstroke's Titans arrive at the vats... and they get their butts kicked by Elijah's team... who he introduces as "The Dominators"... uhh, not those Dominators.
--
Not a bad issue.
I wish they'd spent a bit more time with Cheshire and Roy... as their bits were far more interesting than this "designer drug" and the resulting disposable "baddies of the month" that built to, but whattayagonnado?
Let's concentrate on the good. Jade and Roy have just lost their daughter. Their relationship has always been... awkward... uncomfortable... odd... and this only makes it more so. Also, Roy's just had a pretty bad drug relapse. We can joke about the "dead cat" all we like, but this was a pretty big deal. Or it would've been if Roy's character hadn't been resigned to "junkie first, archer second" since the O'Neil/Adams run. Still dug the back and forth between them though.
The designer drug thing? Ehh, so played out. At least this one doesn't give the user meta-powers (that we know of). The Dominators? Ehh, just can't be bothered to care.
The Brighest Day bits here were kept to a minimum... really just a page or two. Osiris is summoned to rescue Isis... and that's it. We get no resolution, even though that scene was said to have occurred a week before the "current" story... and Osiris shows up for the "present day" Dominators fight. Oh well.
Overall, a decent enough issue... really good characterization for Cheshire and Roy. Cheshire's inability to maintain her cool when learning about why children are being abducted is a nice touch considering what she'd just gone through. Worth mentioning, the art here is pretty fantastic as well.
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Green Lantern (vol.4) #54 (July, 2010)
"The New Guardians, Chapter Two"
Writer - Geoff Johns
Penciller - Doug Mahnke
Inks - Christian Alamy, Tom Nguyen, Keith Champagne & Doug Mahnke
Colors - Randy Mayor w/Gabe Eltreb
Letterer - Nick J. Napolitano
Associate Editor - Adam Schlagman
Editor - Eddie Berganza
Cover Price: $2.99
Since yesterday's look at the Green Lantern book was mostly an advertisement for "what's to come", I figured we may as well check out the next issue.
This is a weird one. You ever pick up a random issue of a comic you read a long time ago... and you remember every thing about it? For whatever reason, this is one of those issues for me. It's been nearly a decade since I've picked it up... and I might've read a comic or two in the interim, but... somehow, this one stuck out to me. Weird.
--
We open in the subway in New York City where a trio of nogoodniks are holding up all of the law-abiding citizens for their loot... before hopping on a train themselves. Suddenly the lights go out, and the car screeches to a halt. One of the baddies looks to see what just happened... and is shocked to be greeted by, Dex-Starr the Rage Kitty?!
Well, it's not just Dex-Starr...
We shift scenes over to Silver City, New Mexico where the White Lantern Battery has appeared. Seems like Johns might have Silver City confused for Mayberry or something, cuz these down-home folks sher toke funny. Anyhoo, Hal goes to attempt to lift the Lantern.
And, he can't... but we already knew that. This scene is pretty much the same as the one we already read in Brightest Day #1... even down to the "Sword in the Stone" comparison... and lesson. Star Sapphire then decides to give it a try, and is also unsuccessful. Then, the trio of Lanterns try and lift it together...
... which triggers an unexpected reaction from the Battery! Suddenly, all of the resurrected heroes appear in the white light emission. It looks really cool. After they subside, the Lanterns can see the entities representing each color of the emotional spectrum appear... with the request to "find them".
We next pop over to Daxam, where the mystery man we met yesterday is in the midst of drawing the Ion entity from Sodam Yat. Back at the pillars, it would appear as though this mystery fella is collecting emotional entities.
Back with Hal and the Gang... the White Lantern speaks. It tells them that Atrocitus will help, and with that... they are teleported to New York City. They follow the horror into the subways, and find the Red Lantern... who they learn is also seeking out the Entities. Before a fight can break out, Star Sapphire notes that she believes him to be sincere.
Well, they still fight a little bit anyway... until, the Main Man shows up?!
--
A fun issue... even if we've already read a few pages of it in Brightest Day.
I'll hand it to the editors... at least it matches up, right? I normally wouldn't put money on that. It seems as though the more editors you list, the more mistakes show up. So, ya know... good on 'em here. If this were a Marvel book (with 6-7 editors listed), I'd wager that one of these scenes would have Sinestro teaching Hal about King Arthur.
I dig the idea that there's a race to track down the Entities. It's sorta "easy" storytelling, but it keeps the Lantern-family occupied while Brightest Day rolls on throughout the line. It's smart... because without this "task", it would be difficult to keep the spotlight off of Hal and the Gang. This is a wise way of handling that.
I like Star Sapphire suggesting that Atrocitus might just have a little love in him. When they first introduced the "Skittles Corps", a lot of the new color-coded characters were pretty boilerplate... and, even maybe a bit dull. I feel like this ambiguity adds some much-needed "flavor" to the Red Lantern.
Overall, a fun issue. Feels like things are moving forward at a decent clip... and our Lobo cliffhanger is a pretty cool "capper". I mean, we're almost certainly going to get a fight between Rage Kitty and the Main Mutt, right? I'd recommend checking this one out. Fun story, great art... leaves us wanting more. Can't ask for a whole lot more than that, right?
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Green Lantern (vol.4) #53 (June, 2010)
"The New Guardians, Chapter One"
Writer - Geoff Johns
Penciller - Doug Mahnke
Inks - Christian Alamy, Keith Champagne, Mark Irwin & Doug Mahnke
Colors - Randy Mayor
Letters - Nick J. Napolitano
Associate Editor - Adam Schlagman
Editor - Eddie Berganza
Cover Price: $2.99
Sometimes I forget that Brightest Day (and the Blackest Night that proceeded it) are, at their core (corps?), Green Lantern stories.
Sooo... today let's take a look at the Lanterny-leg of the dawning of the Brightest Day. And lookit that title "The New Guardians"! I was wondering whatever happened to Extraño!
--
We open in Belle Reve Prison with a look at Hector Hammond. He's kinda upset, on account of his being, ya know... hideous. Especially when compared to one Hal Jordan. Suddenly, there's a second voice in his head. We shift to the planet Ryut in the "Lost" Sector, where the person that second voice belongs to walks shrouded and alone. He claims to have protected the universe long before the Lanterns... and even the Manhunters. Just who could this be?
Whoever he is, he plans to once again protect the universe... and he won't let anybody get in his way. He approaches pillars marked with each lantern "symbol"... and, izzat Parallax floating above?
We shift down to Earth where Hal and Carol are having a drink at the Ferris Air bar... and it's just a regular "Hal and Carol" talk... a bit of passive-aggression, a lot of non-committal statements. Eventually Carol tires of this, and suggests they hit the skies.
They fly 'n flirt for a bit... we're reminded that Hal is currently involved with another pilot called "Cowgirl". Suddenly the pair notice an "incoming" force... which flies straight through both of their crafts. Why, it's Sinestro! Luckily, Hal and Carol are, ya know... ring-wielders, so they survived the impact, just as Sinestro knew they would.
Hal's questions Sinestro's presence... after all, they agreed on a truce after Blackest Night. Sin insists he not there for a scuffle... he just wants to report that he located "the entity" (the White Lantern Power Battery, that is)... and to inform him that it's asking for him (Hal). I'm assuming this scene occurs between the ending of Brightest Day #0 and the opening pages of Brightest Day #1.
We next hop over to Metropolis, where Lex Luthor is running some tests, hopeful that he may perhaps be able to locate (and procure) a Black Lantern Ring. He is then visited by his former Agent Orange comrade, Larfleeze... who wants something. Something that everybody wants. Luthor suggests "power"... but, Larfleeze is all stocked up on that. Then Luthor suggests "land". Fleeze doesn't even know what "land" is... but, whatever it is, he knows he wants it!
Next stop, the Hand Mortuary... where Blue Lantern Saint Walker is attempting to un-desecrate the upturned corpses.
Then Ysmault, where Atrocitus is sitting next to a pool of lava. Seems to be one of his favorite past-times, dunnit? He is approached by somebody... who has, like him, pitting themselves against the Green Lantern Corps.
We wrap up with the reveal... this is Ganthet, flanked by Guy Gardner. It's almost like we're splitting all of these stories out... well, no... that's actually exactly what we're doing!
--
Definitely a "springboard" issue... not that that's a bad thing.
Kinda feels like a Brightest Day #0 "lite" with all of the vignettes... again, not a bad thing... but if you're reading them in succession like I am, there might be a little bit of vignette-fatigue.
I suppose we could go one-by-one, but there won't be a whole lot to say about most of 'em.
Let's get the biggie out of the way... Hal, Carol, and Sinestro. I was wondering how Hal and Carol arrived in Silver City so quickly for Brightest Day #1... and, now we know. The scene proceeding that was... I dunno, kinda weak? I feel like the Hal and Carol relationship is to the point where, even if they were to announce they were getting married... at this point, I wouldn't care. It's just so played out... and samey.
Neither of them want to commit... and by now, I can't be bothered to care either way. Also... the fact that Carol kept calling Hal by his "Highball" nickname? Lame-o. I don't care if that's "how they do it" in the air... these two shouldn't be calling each other by their nicknames.
We meet a mystery man at the open... and, even though most of us know (and knew immediately) who this is, we'll play along and save the "spoiler" for another day. I gotta say, I definitely dug all of the imagery on Ryut... the multi-colored lightning... the etchings... the pillars. Such cool visuals!
The Luthor/Larfleeze scene was pretty neat, and gives us an idea of where Lex's Action Comics arc is headed. It might've been helpful to leave a footnote to follow along or something, but whattayagonnado? Nobody's thinking about people reading single issues a decade later, right? I mean, who does that anyway?
Saint Walker gets a brief, but sweet scene. A really cool visual of the Flash tidying up the graveyard while Saint does the un-desecration thing. Probably the best use for the character at this point in time.
The Atrocitus/Guy/Ganthet bit at the end was a great way to "spin" everything out. DC was launching that brand-new Emerald Warriors book (which I recall annoyed many of us at the time, simply for it's $3.99 cover price), so this was as good a place as any to let us know what was going to be happening in it.
I gotta say, I can get behind "spin-out" pages every now and again... but they've gotta be used sparingly. Even though I dig where these stories are going, I can't help but have the wind pulled out of my sails when I see a page like this... makes me feel like I've just read an advertisement, rather than a story (probably because it is). Here in 2018, we just had a "Pretend to Care About Comics Day" (otherwise known as "Free Comic Book Day")... and I'm looking at this book thinking... why didn't DC use this issue for 2010's FCBD? It came out at the right time of year!
Oh well. Even with all of my complaints, I still think that was a pretty good "setting the table" issue. Unfortunately, it's hitting our reading rotation at a time where we're getting a whole lotta "setting the table" issues... which kinda hurts its impact. Worth checking out? I suppose... just know that, to follow the continuing story, you'll have to buy four more titles. If you're down with that, you'll be down with this.
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Brightest Day #2 (Late July, 2010)
"Nuclear Options"
Writers - Geoff Johns & Peter J. Tomasi
Artists - Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark & Joe Prado
Inkers - Vicente Cifuentes, Tom Nguyen, Rebecca Buchman, Don Beatty & Patrick Gleason
Color - Aspen MLT's Peter Steigerwald w/John Starr & Beth Sotelo
Letterer - Rob Clark, Jr.
Assistant Editor - Rex Ogle
Associate Editor - Adam Schlagman
Editor - Eddie Berganza
Cover Price: $2.99
Sure seems like that credits-list gets longer every time I type it! I'm glad I don't mess around listing the skatey-eight hundred variant cover artists. Could you imagine? These days I'd be out of digital ink before we even hit the synopsis!
Anyhoo, welcome back to...
After spending a couple of days on the fringes of the "crossovent", we're back to the "main" event book. Who's ready for some vignettes?
--
We open with the Firestorms... well, it's just the one body... but, you know what I'm saying. They're behind a sort of vault door in the Pittsburgh University Lab... and they be bickering. Professor Stein sends in the Atom to see if he might be able to "disarm" the Firestorm Matrix, and send them on their separate ways. And so, Ray shrinks down and hops in to the thousand-degree heat of the Matrix.
While Ray putters around, Ronnie and Jason continue to bicker... suddenly a third voice enters the mix... and it's not messing around. It even refers to Ronnie as a (gasp!) "white boy". This sets off a chain reaction... and Firestorm soon "overloads" and gets all blowed up.
We shift scenes to Pearl River... New York. Got excited there for a moment, thought we might get an Ahmed Johnson cameo. Anyhoo, we're in a suburban home where a mother is preparing a... er, ham and tomato bake of sorts. While she works she listens to the news of the resurrected superheroes... her family is in the living room playing Rock Band: Tom Petty Edition.
Suddenly, mom loses her mind! She repeatedly utters that "he's alive" before slaughtering her family. As if that's not bad enough, she then yanks off her face revealing herself to be... mayyybe a White Martian? Whatever she is, she hates her some J'onn J'onzzzzzzzz.
Speak of the Martian, we next check in with him as he checks in on the gravesite of Saul Erdel. He phases into the casket, where we find a... very well-kept Erdel... almost too well-kept. Anyhoo, Erdel was buried holding some photos... and if you recall, J'onn's memory flash included a woman he couldn't remember. Well... we learn here that the elusive lass was Erdel's daughter.
We next shift to the Peruvian Jungle to rejoin the Hawks on their quest for... whoever is after their bones. After beating up a group of random guards (they seem to do that a lot) they discover Hath-Set's... sorta-kinda sickly shrine to them. Ya see, Hath-Set has been following the Hawks all this time... and even went so far as to create "death masks" of them each time they died. Seems like a sickness... while at the same time, a pretty cool thing for a super-baddie to do! Hawkman destroys the relics... and the thousands of years of history they represent.
Back to J'onn... who arrives at the Mount Hope Senior Home in Denver. This is where Erdel's daughter Melissa is kept... and since J'onn's looking for (some sort of nebulous) answers, he shapeshifts into Erdelly form to try and get 'em!
He flies off with her, and asks what she remembers about the night they brought the Martian to Earth. She mentions an Aztec tablet that her father had translated and became obsessed with. She then tells a story about (I think) the first extraterrestrial Erdel summoned to Earth. It was a monstrous critter, who nearly killed them both before escaping.
Then, Erdel brought J'onnz to Earth... however, this time he kept Melissa safely in another room. Of course, this didn't help all that much... she was nearly blinded by a light emission... and her face was scarred by the shattering transporter console.
The elder Erdel wasn't as lucky. His last words to J'onn were an apology... and a request to act as a hero.
We then shift scenes to Aquaman and Mera about to go on a swim. Deadman appears just as they take the plunge... and we can see that there is a trail of floatin' dead fish left in their wake. Aquaman's wake, if we're being specific.
Then, Deadman is nyoinked away by the white ring yet again... and we wrap up this chapter with him stood before... the Anti-Monitor?!
--
What I didn't consider when I decided to cover this crossovent was how difficult/tedious our "review" portions were going to become. After all, this book is just a bunch serialized vignettes. I suppose, as ever, we just do our best.
Let's start by discussing our cover boy, Aquaman. You'd almost figure from the cover that he would appear in more than a single panel, wouldn'tcha? Well, he doesn't... even so, his mystery deepens. Over the past couple of issues we've seen him summon undead sealife... giving us the distinct impression that there might still be a little bit of Black Lantern left in him. Here, we see him hop into the drink... and kill a bunch of fish. Fair enough.
The Firestorms bit was... well, a bit. There appears to be a third entity inside the Matrix... I wonder if its name might start with "Death"? It didn't overstay its welcome... so, I'll give it that.
The Hawks scene... still does very little for me. What's more, this time around, I'm actually a bit annoyed by it. I get being upset at what they found in Hath-Set's "study", but... why destroy it all? Might there have been some answers there? Well, I guess we'll never know!
Speaking of "answers", this issue really belonged to the Martian Manhunter. Now, I love J'onn... but, most of my (and I'd assume most people's) experience with the character is as part of an ensemble. I feel like that's where he is best used. His solo stories... kinda leave me cold.
Here we have him looking for information from the Erdels. Not sure just what he plans to do with it... or, outside of learning that Melissa Erdel exists, just what he learned in the first place! Been so long since I read this... maybe it was to introduce that "first" alien Erdel summoned?
Or maybe it was to reinforce that J'onn is a hero? I mean, dude just resigned himself to the gargantuan task of reviving a damn planet... I think he's secure in the fact that he's a hero... right? Oh well... we also met that suburban mother who is triggered into an anti-J'onn rage when she hears Tom Petty music... that was pretty interesting, and gross!
It's always cool to see the Anti-Monitor... though, I feel like he's one of those "diminishing returns" type characters. The more we see him, the less of an impact he has. I suppose that could be said for a lot of characters... but for as cosmically important a being as the Anti-Monitor, I definitely feel like "less is more". Johns seems to really dig him, and used him less-than-sparingly during the tail end of the pre-Flashpoint DCU. I don't wanna say he was rendered into "just another villain", but... I dunno.
Overall... this was mostly a good time. I'm not sure I'm doing the story a service by reading it in such rapid succession however. We talk a lot about "writing for the trade", which this undoubtedly is... but, the serialized vignette nature of it almost makes the reading experience require a week or two between installments. I mean, we're getting cliffhangers... which, I dunno, I feel like need a bit of time to "stew". Seeing the Anti-Monitor, and just turning the page in a trade collection feels... I dunno, cheap?
Either way... had a good time here, and I'm looking forward to having my memory refreshed as we continue. The art throughout is pretty fantastic... definitely worth a read!
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