I find myself getting ready to post this blog when I think "would this blog be better as a podcast?"  GREEN LANTERN #38 $2.99 (Geoff Johns / Ivan Reis)Yeah, I know that I always seem to highlight any of the Green Lantern titles, but now things seem to be REALLY ramping up and my geek-love levels seem to be getting higher and higher. I didn't think that I could get more geeked about this book, but apparently I have yet to reach my full geek peak. So why am I geeked about it this week? Well, for one thing I thoroughly love the entire notion of an emotional light spectrum. Some of the colors seem to make sense, like the Red Lanterns representing rage or the Sinestro Corps (Yellow) representing fear (as in the "yellow" coward), and of course the Black Lanterns representing death. The other colors I'm not so convinced on (I mean, Green Lanterns represent "willpower?" How does that work? I'll give it a pass, though, because the emotional color spectrum is a new invention), but for me the thing that I am loving is that there is MULTIPLE Lantern Corps coming into play. Why should the Guardians of the Universe be the only group is with a police force? True, the Controllers had the Darkstars after the GLC imploded in the 80s/90s, but they've since disbanded (as far as I know); now the Controllers will be reentering the scene with their Orange Lanterns, but perhaps what is geeking me out the most is that we're not just dealing with two factions. So many people like to see things in terms of black and white. That's why I like this war that is getting ready to start, as all of these emotional colors represent not just different emotions, but different points of view. That's really more how like real life is: there are multitudes of viewpoints and a series of compromises and concessions need to be made in order for people to work together. I doubt that these various new lantern corps are going to be any different. Plus, let's face it, the Red Lanterns that the Green Lanterns are facing right now look pretty sweet. Also, I don't want to give away the ending of the last issue, but I really can't wait to see how that ending twist plays out in this issue. "Blackest Night" is still months away, but already the war of the light is getting good. LOVE it.  TALES OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS TP VOL 01 $19.99 (Various Artists)I don't have a lot of older Green Lanterns, in fact, other than comics from the last few years all that I have are Green Lantern Corps #200-224 from the 80s and a handful of issues of Tales of the Green Lantern Corps that I've picked up over the years when I could find them for cheap. As such, a book like this that collects a lot of those stories in one place is ideal for me. And that's all I'll say about that; I don't want to gush too much about my GL love this week.  WILDCATS #8 $2.99 (Christos Gage / Russell Utley)Really, for me, an old time Wildcats fan, it only takes a few words to get me jazzed up: the return of Ladytron! I am interested in where they are going to take her as a character. Just from the cover it looks like she is going to be the cyborg woman that I used to love, but I want to know if they are going to reference how she got to this point. I say that because the WildStorm Universe has been restarted/rebooted/softbooted/whatever, where SOME things have carried over from the previous incarnations, and some have not. So, for me, the last time that I saw Ladytron she was in effect dead. He body, being almost entirely robotic, was salvageable, but what made her who she was appeared to be gone. I believe that Noir turned her into a massive, remote-controlled death machine when he tried to eliminate the rest of the team, who of course defeated the monstrosity that he had created. After that we saw her as basically an avatar for a nearly-crippled Grifter, a way for him to transfer his conscious into a vessel from which he could shoot many, many people. Of course, that was at the end of Wildcats: Version 3.0, which pretty much ended just as the series was really getting good with the team taking on pretty much the entire Coda sisterhood. So, who is this Ladytron that we'll see in this issue? Now you know why I'm so geeked: I NEED to know.  NEW AVENGERS #50 $4.99 (Brian Michael Bendis / Billy Tan)I think I already mentioned that I really liked the idea and the execution of Dark Avengers #1; I also went off last week about how even though I really wanted to see where they were going to go with the series, I really didn't want to support Marvel's move to the $3.99 price point on comic books, so even though I knew it would pain me, I passed on Dark Avengers #2. Sometimes principles can hurt a bit. Now, you might ask yourself, "but Michael, this issue is $4.99, and yet you plan on buying it." Well, yeah, because this one gets a pass as it is an anniversary issue. Extra-sized and extra-cost anniversary issues are the norm in comics so taking stand against them is probably just going to create gaps in my collection. Also, and this is purely a fringe benefit, this team of Avengers will be taking on the "official" team as seen from the pages of Dark Avengers and fronted by Norman Osborn. Personally, I hope that the "official" team gets their rears handed to them, but with members like The Sentry, Ares, and Stark technology as the basis of the "Iron Patriot" suit, not to mention the scores of H.A.M.M.E.R. soldiers, it would seem that the deck is stacked against the "outlaw" team of Avengers. What comics did you get geeked out about this week? Just stop by the WLG message boards (see link below) and share! See you next week! Peace! -Diaz |
