Hello again GEN readers! It’s Jill a.k.a. The Nerdy Bird back with this week’s installment of DoubleDCoverage.Another dramatic appearance of a Black Lantern tugs at the heartstrings but was easily overshadowed by the death of a beloved major character. Hint: He’s had bad luck with girls. Reviews for Booster Gold #26 and Green Lantern Corps #42 are ahead. Also, check out my star ratings for my other pulls from last Wednesday!
BOOSTER GOLD #26
Well, here it is. You knew it was coming. The Booster Gold Blackest Night tie-in. Booster had one very important person in his life pass away in recent years and it just so happened to be one of the individuals I was dreading seeing as a Black Lantern the most. Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle.
In the first few pages we get a quick Booster Gold history lesson courtesy of Ted. From the 25th century, disgraced, traveled back in time and became a hero. We also get a crash course in Blue Beetle, the legacy, the tragedy and his resurrection as a Black Lantern. Booster is currently being sought after by Rip Hunter. He’s gone somewhere in the timestream and Rip is desperate to find him after learning of the BL crisis. It turns out Booster has traveled back to Ted’s funeral to relive his own self-declared failure as a friend. He has heated and emotional feelings about many of the heroes in attendance but uses the time to solidify his determination in his current non-accolade position.
Supernova, aka Booster’s ancestor Daniel Carter and his current girlfriend/future wife Rose receive a visit from the current Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes. Jaime actually gets bumped up from second feature to guest-star this issue, which I’m delighted about. Skeets had gone to him hoping he’d seen Booster. Before they can all decide on a course of action a BL version of Ted’s Bug crashes into the house and out he climbs. Daniel suits up but neither him nor Jaime is quick enough to stop Ted from taking the heart of a nosy neighbor. He’s on the verge of taking Daniel’s as well when Booster finally returns from the past.
Great work as usual on the art by Mike Norton. Ted’s Black Lantern costume design is absolutely phenomenal. The BL symbol we’ve been seeing is combined with the beetle symbol on his chest and he looks equal parts menacing and mediocre (as he was sometimes portrayed in life). What I found lacking was the emotional auras we’ve come to expect from Blackest Night issues. When Ted arrives the characters are obviously impacted, he even mentions smelling fear, but we never see it visually. Dan Jurgen’s story had a great deal of emotional impact itself, especially the funeral scenes, but I would have preferred more of the emotion to come from Ted’s attack and Booster’s reaction to his appearance. Booster doesn’t actually interact with him until the very end so we’ll have to wait until the second half of this story to see what screwed up sentiments Ted has to offer.
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #42
Well, here it is. You DIDN’T know it was coming. Or maybe you did if you’re the kind who hunts for spoilers. I, for one, am not one of those people and was completely shocked when death came a-knocking for a major Green Lantern and he answered the door.
The Black Lantern invasion of Oa has been getting worse. The most recent terror came in the form of the deceased Green Lantern children (given the delightful moniker Corphans) that Sinestro Corps member Kryb had previously kidnapped. Not a pleasant sight to be sure. The male Indigo Tribesman sent to help finally has a name – Munk. He fills everyone in on the protocol for destroying the BL’s and they begin sifting through the masses. It’s around this time all over Oa that fights begin to stall. The BLs have finally had their fill, at least for the time being, their rings have reached 100%. All the Black Lanterns surrounding Oa immediately stop whatever they were doing and swarm the central power battery. A giant construct begins to pull it out of the ground. Everyone is putting every ounce of their will into stopping it from happening but with modest results. However, Kyle suddenly has an idea. He tells Soranik to take Munk and get out of dodge. He then demands that Salaak release Red Lantern Vice from his Sciencell.
The ferocious creature begins ripping apart every BL he sees as soon as he’s in the open but the plan quickly falls to ruins when Alpha Lantern Chaselon sees it as his duty to execute Vice for his “escape.” With renewed strength the Black Lanterns go to work on Chaselon, the Corphans in particular like the bright shiny ball, and proceed to breach his internal power battery. Before it can go nuclear, Kyle steals it from them and draws as many Black Lanterns away with him as he can, enclosing them all in a large energy dome. He has time to tell Soranik and Guy he loves them before the battery detonates, killing countless Black Lanterns but also himself in the process.
At least his girlfriend didn’t die, right? It’s no consolation though, Kyle Rayner is dead. At least, it seems that way. His battered body is still and his ring, reading him as deceased has flown off to Mogo since the Corps currently aren’t recruiting new members. Peter Tomasi handled a lot of major events here all of which added up to a whopper of an issue. Patrick Gleason also handled the enormous amount of action here incredibly well. I only found one aspect of the art to nitpick. With all the green light being shot around it was a little difficult to distinguish Green Lantern from Black Lantern in a few spots, especially if their symbols weren’t showing. The blood spattered GLC logo on the cover and Kyle’s battered (yet oddly bloodless) corpse on the last page more than made up for it. Damn it Kyle, why did you answer the door?
ACTION COMICS #883 – Nightwing and Flamebird have all-new costumes but still don’t have their act together and Chris takes another giant leap for mankind.
BATGIRL #4 – Stephanie gets to practice more than her crime fighting banter as she find out her new suit has more bells and whistles than she thought.
BATMAN #693 – Crime is still amok in Gotham of course but more importantly, Huntress totally made out with Dick! That’s going to cost them both dearly with Babs.
BATMAN AND ROBIN #6 – Major bodily harm comes to pretty much everyone this issue, hero and villain alike. Does Scarlet get a happy ending? Probably not.
BATMAN/DOC SAVAGE SPECIAL – Loved the art but eh, Batman with guns is not really my cup of tea. Cool extra material in the back.
RED ROBIN #6 – The Council of Spiders is even better than the League of Assassins? Scary thought.
My pull list for this week:
ADVENTURE COMICS #4
BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM #6
THE FLASH: REBIRTH #5 (OF 6)
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA 80-PAGE GIANT
THE OUTSIDERS #24
SUPERGIRL #47
Which two should I review for DoubleDCoverage #35?
November 18th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
You know what killed me about them killing Kyle? That is was so underplayed. Now I know that we haven’t seen the repercussions yet (ie - guy going red), but it feels like nobody cares that Kyle’s dead, and that hurts. He’s my Green Lantern. I grew up with Kyle, not Hal, John, or Guy. It feels like what should have been a major moment not just in this crossover, but at DC in general, should have been handled like one, and not a one page throwaway moment.
I just hope we see this tragedy touched upon more in the coming issues.
November 18th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I know what you mean Luke. The sad thing is, I know a lot of people only read Green Lantern and not GLC so they missed out on the moment altogether. I’m wondering how it will be addressed in GL. Maybe they’ll replay it? Who knows?