I see by reviewing some of my last posts that I've been reviewing mainly DC titles - I didn't intend for this to happen, but I have to face the awful truth: Most of the Marvel books out right now aren't very good. Nevertheless, the big story at Marvel these days is
Siege.
I tried to read
Siege, I did. But I found
Siege #1 to be a disjointed, jarring editorial disaster. I could hardly make heads or tails out of what was supposed to be happening. It had such dense narrative that it was more like trying to read a poorly illustrated novel than a comic book - a graphic medium. For heaven's sake, writers, remember that it's a comic book! Shut up and leave the artist a little room to illustrate the action! And I don't mean to imply (by "poorly illustrated") that the art is substandard - it's actually beautiful. The problem for me is that the art is attempting to illustrate the writer's vision, but the writer's vision is so disconnected that the artwork isn't able to bridge the gap and fill us in.
Then, along comes Siege #2... (shudder). A couple of our customers told me this was awesome, but also shuddered. I read it just to see what all the hubbub was about. Highlight for spoiler:
Sentry rips Ares in half and splatters blood, bone, intestines and the disembodied spine of the War God across two pages for all to see. Gross. Also unfortunate: we now have to top rack this item and refuse to sell it to kids, for fear of some unsuspecting parent getting hold of it. Last thing I need is some irate mom or dad coming in to tell me all about little Johnny's nightmares ever since he read that god-awful thing. But the problem here was reverse of the last issue - last issue, too much exposition, not enough graphic interface. This issue, rampant violence with no explanation. To find out WHY Sentry is on the rampage, you have to go read Dark Avengers. In some ways, it's a good departure: most of us feel that the past several months of Marvel's books have had the Avengers, etc., sitting around talking over their feelings rather than doing much. Here, we finally see something happen. But did it have to be quite so graphic? Holy Mother of God - this is SO graphic it almost feels like abuse. I thought they were saving this stuff for Kick-Ass and their Icon imprint books. I remind you this is happening in a so-called mainstream Marvel comic book.
This is the way Marvel ushers in their new "Heroic Age"? (their answer to DC's
Brightest Day) Oooookay.
On to
Green Lantern #51: Had to be one of my favorite reads of the past couple of months. I want to mention that this issue was barely edged by
Blackest Night #6 - the last page was one of those moments in comics that felt like coming from a dark hallway and opening a door, and light pouring out onto you. I felt my grin start, and it just didn't go away for hours. It was the first time since the beginning that I felt the darkness of the
Blackest Night story beginning to lift, and it was a great, uplifting experience.
Green Lantern #50 and
51 continue this story, and thus are critical tie-ins to the
Blackest Night saga. Geoff Johns is a brilliant writer, and this story continues to shine with small moments amongst the bigger story - some of the most entertaining coming from the conflict between Agent Oranges Larfleeze and Lex Luthor. Hilarious exchanges. Meanwhile, however, Hal Jordan has his hands full, having released Parallax and given himself over to the yellow entity in order to fight the Black Lantern Spectre, who wants Hal to reunite with him.
This, of course, results in Hal turning on the Corps once again, and the battle royale that follows is expertly rendered by Doug Mahnke, whose storytelling talents rival Johns's. By that, I mean that the artwork is really important in a sequence where it's all action, all the time. Otherwise, the story gets lost in all the flash and glitter. In this case, Mahnke keeps us focused on what's important and doesn't allow himself to get bogged down in superfluous details or overly flashy paneling. It's fast-paced and exciting.
There's also some interesting interplay here between Nekron and the Spectre, and I believe they've left the Spectre ripe for a new series of his own. And then there are the little things: as mentioned, the Larfleeze / Lex Luthor thing is snicker-inducing, and Sinestro shows that he still hates Hal Jordan with an acidic bitterness suitable to his being Jordan's worst nightmare (except Parallax, of course). The story proceeds apace, and really feels like it's building to the climax here.
Green Lantern Corps #45 is a great companion piece to
GL #51, it all being part of the same story. Here, the remaining Corps are left to deal with Red Lantern Guy Gardner, who is berserk and out of control. While some begin to lose hope, Mogo comes riding in with a solution. First of all, I just want to say, Mogo has some awesome ideas. Last issue, he solved the zillions of Black Lanterns on the attack problem with very little ado. You say it was too easy, I say, Mogo is a frakkin planet, he can do what he wants. What would be hard for a planet to do? Sit down and have dinner with your mom. Okay, point taken. But handle a gazillion bad guys? Not a problem for Mogo. He's a badass. His solution to Guy's situation is not to kill him, but rather, to flood him with Green Lantern energy to counter the Red ring. The result is almost cinematic, with Guy's life passing before his eyes, and before it's through, we have a much clearer picture of why Guy is the way he is, what drives him. It is a battle within himself that his companions can only watch - it is Guy's battle alone. Peter Tomasi is an excellent writer in his own right, and shows his understanding of the larger story he's telling while taking time to make it a personal and intimate one, as well - bravo. Patrick Gleason's art - not such a big fan. It's a little on the simple side, even for me. I love artists like Ed McGuinness, Stuart Immonen, Frank Cho - very clean, minimal, even cartoony at times. But Gleason's stuff feels a little like he just didn't have time to put in a lot of details. I think the point of minimal art is to have it look like you meant to do that, not like you didn't have time to do anything else. So, for me the art was competent, but nothing to really rave about.
Still, this issue was one of my fav reads of the week, and I cannot wait to see how this all plays out in the end. As I said, I feel a definite "lightening" across the DCU, and I like it. Look at the covers and see how the darkness of each of the images is beginning to give way to brighter, more colorful ones.
The end of the
Blackest Night is in sight!
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