WLG #268: Do All Bad Guys Wear Black?

By Michael A. Diaz

A short week this week folks, so again, like the late, great James Brown once said, let's hit it and quit!

DARK HORSE

ALIENS #2 (OF 4) $3.50 (John Arcudi / Zach Howard)

So, it would appear that there are a couple of hicks out on this faraway planet that for some reason or another want to keep some little secret of theirs, even if that includes killing an entire crew of an incoming ship. As to why, well, like I said, it seems to me that they are trying to hide something. Could it be that they worship these xenomorphs that we know as the "aliens"? I am not entirely sure that is the case, because if they really worshipped the creatures wouldn't they want to collect more hosts for the eggs?

Maybe I am getting ahead of myself here, as I have not yet read the second issue.

Still, I'm very curious, and there's definitely a sense of foreboding building, which is always good when it comes to the Aliens franchise. I'm eager to see what comes next.

DC

BLACKEST NIGHT: TALES OF THE CORPS #2 (OF 3) $3.99 (Geoff Johns & Peter J. Tomasi / Rags Morales, Chris Sprouse, Ivan Reis, Doug Mahnke, et al.)

GREEN LANTERN #44 $2.99 (Geoff Johns / Dough Mahnke)

I am just going to lump these two books together because they both are covering events in the "Blackest Night" event (or, in the case of Tales..., events that lead up to said event).

Unfortunately the official DC solicitation for Tales... describes all three issues, so I'm not 100% certain of what is going to be in this book. Last week we learned the origin of St. Walker of the Blue Lanterns, of a young Mongul's preparation for, well, being a despotic warlord, and a brief glimpse into the very mysterious, and powerful, Indigo Tribe. I have to wonder, if they are so powerful how come no one has heard of them yet.

Curious.

I'm hoping that this is the issue that will shed a bit more light on the Red Lanterns, as well as give us an entertaining tale about one of my all-time favorite Green Lanterns, Kilowog.

Meanwhile, over in Green Lantern, judging by the cover that I feel it is safe to assume that the Martian Manhunter will be making an appearance, but not in a good way; instead, he'll be showing up as a Black Lantern. I haven't quite figured out the Black Lanterns yet; yes, I get that they are undead, but they pretty much look like zombies. I know they have Black Power rings (that sounds like a swarm of flies; nice touch!), but do those rings just reanimate the corpse, or are there other powers gained as well? Also, how much of the person reanimated is actually still in there?

Also, are the Black Lanterns even evil? Yes, they are powered by the body of the Anti-Monitor, who has always been "evil", both during the "Crisis..." in the 80's as well as a member of the Sinestro Corps a couple of years ago, but now he's dead, I think. Could it just be that his corpse is a symbol of death, of the power that embodies the Black Lanterns? I ask this, because so far we've seen the Black Lanterns go after Hawkman, Hawkgirl (as seen in Blackest Night #1), and from the cover of this issue, I would assume that Martian Manhunter is going after The Flash, all of whom are characters that were "dead" but were somehow resurrected. Could it be that the Black Lanterns are not evil, but rather a way that Death is trying to make things right, to balance things out instead of allowing all of these heroes to keep coming back from the dead time and again?

Again, curious.

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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

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