By: Too many to list—check out the review.
The Story: A Lantern’s life for me—as long as it involves burgers and fries in some capacity.
The Review: Let me assure you, I don’t like handing out bad grades. To be specific, I don’t like being put in the position of having to hand out bad grades. Even though the excruciating quality of the two comics Scott Kolins wrote obligated me to give them among the worst marks (one of them in fact receiving the very worst mark) I ever have, I still felt like a jerk doing it, so much so that I never wanted to see that kind of mess from Kolins again, just to avoid another ugly review.
Issues like this one prove that wishes do come true—in a tepid, don’t-get-too-happy-about-it sort of way. This should in no way imply that Kolins’ writing has improved significantly, or that the ideas at work are much more inspired than before, but at least they attempt to create some unexpected angles to the characters, and that’s above and beyond what he ever gave us before.
Sadly, even when he takes a step forward, he ultimately trips himself up, in this case with a format perhaps a bit too ambitious for his current skill level. We get a series of vignettes, each featuring a different set of characters, each opening some interesting questions, but none really get invested exploration, nor do they end with what can be considered a satisfying resolution.
Boodikka as a warrior willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of victory may be a shallow rendering of her character, but a compelling view just the same. But that’s all it is: a view, with no exposition to support it, and no plot to test it, and plagued by Kolins’ tortured narrative: “And now with her emotions restored and her aggressive personality that only accepted victory returned—how can she deal with so many defeats? How can she go on as an Alpha Lantern?” Despite the soapy monologues, Joe Prado delivers fantastic detail and dynamism to the wing-helmed lady, enhanced by Hi-Fi’s usually radioactive colors, making it even more regrettable that we don’t get to see her in action.
Another premise with promise has Sciencell guards Voz and G’hu visiting pal Ry’jll, still in therapy (more mental than physical) after her Krona possession. There’s a lot of drama in a pacifist forced to kill, but the notion of her induction into the Corps in the first place just seems illogical. Lanterns get chosen for courage, or at least an ability to overcome fear, in order to protect all life. How does assisting Salaak, who is essentially a bookkeeper, and vowing to never fight work within that context? Flaws in writing aside, some praise is finally due for Kolins’ art, which, though still trapped in a narrow range of emotions, captures an old-school flavor of sci-fi fancifulness. No less astounding in improvement is Michael Atiyeh’s eye-popping colors.
Least remarkable is Kyle Rayner’s scuffle with his fellow Lanterns, which not only comes off shallow and forced, but also seems very familiar to conflicts Hal Jordan and the other Earth Lanterns have gone through before. Kolins’ childish dialogue is incapable, at any rate, of making the alien Lanterns’ motivations credible: “All you earthlings think you’re super-stars. So much better than the rest of us…you just keep trying to take over.” And it all soon degrades into the hysterical mantra of “Humans out! Humans out!” Freddie Williams II has art very similar to Kolins, only tighter, neater, more detailed, and more convincing overall.
Conclusion: Some appreciable art and a few storytelling choices that are ambitious if nothing else, and we finally get a Kolins issue that isn’t completely not worth your time—just enough for a brief skim in the shop, nothing more.
Grade: C-
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – Tomar-Tu has been saving Kyle’s butt a lot lately. Can we say bromance in process here?
Grade
Conclusion