R.E.B.E.L.S. #23 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Claude St. Aubin (penciller), Scott Hanna (inker), Rich & Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: John Stewart, along with the Vega rookies, arrive on Rann as a delegation from the Green Lantern Corps to make nice with the R.E.B.E.L.S.  But with Vril Dox scheming on how to turn the photo op into profit on his end, both the ancient and new orders of peacekeepers may not be enough to save the system from total annihilation.

The Review: For a while now, R.E.B.E.L.S. has been the only title offering adventures from the cosmic corner of the DC universe that aren’t Green Lantern-centric.  That’s changed with the current story arc, which pits Vril Dox’s capitalist police force versus the newly-minted Lanterns in the same sector.  The crossover makes perfect sense for the story, and given that Tony Bedard’s writing duties now include Green Lantern Corps, the characterization of the Lanterns works very well against the more pragmatic R.E.B.E.L.S.

The downside is this issue feels more like a Green Lantern title.  God bless them, but there are already plenty of series about the Corps without them poaching the one dedicated to the rest of the universe.  Their guest shot had a mixed effect; on the one hand, they injected a good feeling of liveliness and direction to the story, but they also served to highlight just how aimlessly R.E.B.E.L.S. has been wandering around lately.

Bedard just hasn’t given the R.E.B.E.L.S. much to do.  Since their defeat of the re-imagined Starro the Conqueror, most of their work has involved butting heads with each other or with established cosmic villains, like Blackfire or Brainiac.  These aren’t bad choices for antagonists; they just feel done to death.  This title has access to everywhere in the DC universe that isn’t Earth—the motherload of story potential.  Every issue that crutches on previous material instead of introducing new characters, world, or concepts wastes the opportunity to generate a sense of adventure, the lifeblood of cosmic titles.

And despite building up a pretty healthy cast, Bedard doesn’t sell any of them very well, with the sole exception of Vril Dox.  Sure, Vril as the genius you love to hate is enormously fun, but he takes up too much page-time, even when not actually on the page.  So much of every issue revolves around his latest Machiavellian plot, whether in panning it out or having the rest of the team react to it.  Except for the tepid relationship between Starfire and Captain Comet, the R.E.B.E.L.S. haven’t gotten many chances to bounce off each other and develop their own personal conflicts.  They’re too busy either complaining about Vril or grudgingly carrying out his orders.

Since Vril is much more interested in his own obscure goals than doing good deeds, the R.E.B.E.L.S. are often cleaning up their own messes than following any major mission statement.  That’s how they come off feeling like villains in their own title, trying to squelch the noble ambitions of Altin and Gorius, the rookie Vega Lanterns.  By the issue’s end, you share their triumph, but you also end up disliking the R.E.B.E.L.S. more for it.  And with hints of them facing another old foe’s return, it’ll be a while yet before the R.E.B.E.L.S. figure out exactly what their purpose in the DC universe is.

R.E.B.E.L.S. feels very plain and ordinary for a cosmic title and part of the reason lies with the art.  Claude St. Aubin offers very little depth in the way of design and detail, which defeats half the joy of science-fiction: the imagination of otherworldly beings and places.  The buildings and tech don’t look particularly futuristic or space-worthy.  The action and fight sequences look oversimplified and do little to add tension to the scenes.  There’s little consistency to the appearance of things (in some panels Gorius looks like a normally-proportioned, albeit ugly, female; in others she seems to sport a ridiculous set of cleavage).  Adding richer details to the art could work wonders for making this series feel like’s it not actually taking place on Earth.

Conclusion: Were R.E.B.E.L.S. a Green Lantern title, this issue would deserve solid marks—but it’s not.  The series continues to suffer from a lack of direction and conflicts of cosmic proportion, exacerbated by uninspired art.  It’s really too bad, since there is so much potential in the cast and their line of work, but they’ve done little so far to merit special attention.

Grade: C

Some Musings:

-As an aside, I was putting up my Christmas lights before writing this.  Out of eight strings of 200 multicolored transparent mini-bulbs each, seven didn’t light up.  Rest assured, however, that my ensuing homicidal feelings had no influence on my review or grade of this issue.

– “Ever wonder how two dudes from Earth ended up representing a zillion aliens?”  It’s that sheer, magnetic Earthling charm, I’d wager.  Just look at Captain Kirk or Agent K.

– Sandwiches in space.  Wonder what alien creature’s cold cuts they stuff in there.

– If you need the Psions to heal your master, wouldn’t it be more productive to not kill all of them except for one?  What if the one you didn’t kill turn out to be a moron?

– Minhquan Nguyen