The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Flash #1

By Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

First of all, I really like that cover, it does a damn fine job of throwing me right into the book. Manapul’s an artist turned writer, and it shows straight off, there’s a little scene setting…. Barry and date at a tech symposium party, little chat… nothing too heavy.. and then it’s straight into what that cover promised. We get a couple of great pages of Barry changing into The Flash to battle some party gatecrashers……

And from then on we’re racing (oh, what else) towards the next issue. It is very much an artist’s book though, lots of clever panel layouts, not so great perhaps in matching the great fun of the art with a story to match, because in all honesty very little happens here. The first half is great, all the setup leading to the magnificent costume change and our first look at the new 52′s fastest man alive. And from then it does go a little flat storywise. Art still looks lovely though ….it’s very old school with a twist nothing happens going on, and just on that gorgeous art I think this one gets a next issue from me.

(And breaking my not mentioning the past thing, there’s a gorgeous two panel Flash recap worthy of Infantino – Joe is going to talk more on that later).

Green Lantern: New Guardians

By Tony Bedard and Tyler Kirkham

Okay, so I really enjoyed Green Lantern. And playing the newbie role, what I read there doesn’t make any sense to what is in here. The little blue Guardians, alive in GL are all dead bar one here? Anyway, let’s skate over that, let’s ignore it and act like every one of these DC comics stands on it’s own… except the book makes reference to Hal Jordan as Green Lantern as well….. No, stop it. Each on it’s own merits….

Back to the New Guardians. Blue boy shows up in New York and gives the ring to Kyle Raynor, young cartoonist without job. You’re a Green Lantern says blue boy. Sure, says Kyle, or something along those lines anyway. I think I’d be more surprised than that. But hey, never mind.

Jump to somewhere else. Yellow Lantern gets decommissioned and his ring is spirited away. He/she/it dies horribly. Jump to another place, Red lantern gets decommissioned and his ring is spirited away. He dies horribly. Jump to another place, a Star Sapphire (I dunno – Pink Lantern? Purple Lantern? Not wearing as many clothes as the boy lanterns Lantern?) gets decommissioned and her ring is spirited away.

Jump back to Earth, where Kyle Lantern gets to do a bit of heroing, gets his costume critiqued by a child:

“Hey, you’re not Green Lantern! I saw him on TV and he’s got brown hair. …… You know the one I’m talking about. And his costume is way cooler.”

“Yeah, well, his uniform’s the standard issue. I designed my own.”

“Then why’d you make it look like you’re wearing a big green bib?”

Owned, as I believe my daughter would say. God knows what the kid thinks of all these collars the grown up superheroes are wearing now.

Anyway, all this decommissioning sees Kyle first surrounded by a load of coloured rings, then by a lot of really pissed off Lanterns accusing Kyle of nicking them. Next issue I imagine we’ll have a big fight.

It felt a little like the kid doing the fashion crit actually wrote the issue. Too much “hey, wouldn’t it be cool if….” and “who would win in a Lantern fight?” sort of thing going on here. Which would be cool if that kid were old enough to read it I suppose, but like every other DC New 52 book it’s rated T for Teen, so it makes writing childish super-fighty stuff a little pointless.