My Favorite Covers of 2007

Well here we are, at the end of the year, and I must admit that I always succumb to nostalgia. It was certainly an INTERESTING year for comics! We had the death of Captain America and the death of Ralph Dibney. 52 ended on a bang, and Countdown began with a whimper. There was the very very very good (Green Lanterns and the Sinestro Corps War) and the gawdawful (Civil War and One more Day) We had the return of Thor, and the end of Nextwave, the return of the Brave and the Bold, and the beginning of Booster Gold.

Wally is back, but Bart is dead (mostly) For some reason they thought it would be a good idea to kill off the New Gods, and Batman is back to being a dick most of the time. On the other hand, Blue Beetle just keeps getting better and better. Now if they would only bring back Manhunter. Wonder Woman was terrible, and then they put Gail Simone on it, and voila! Fabulous!

Green Arrow and Black Canary sort of got married, and killed and kidnapped and rescued, and now Conner has been shot by an angry cloud. Amazons attacked and made one hell of a mess. Tony Stark has been an even bigger dick than Batman. Spider-man just makes me sad. The lengths that Joe Quesada went to get his own way, are astounding. I'm pretty sure that he went in front of everyone and threatened to hold his breath and stomped his feet if he couldn't get rid of MJ. He made Mr. Didio look like a monument of good taste and decorum by comparison.

Wizard went and made an ass of itself, to mostly nobody's surprise. I got a lot of really cool action figures. Dr. Thirteen came out and blew everyone away with its utter awesomeness. Guy Gardner remains my favorite Green Lantern, while Snapper Carr still makes me quiver with loathing.

And now, in no particular order, I have some of my favorite covers from the past year.



Ooohh! Isn't THAT moody? Beautiful work by Bianchi. Even if it IS Batman being all broody and pretending to be Heathcliffe. (From Wuthering Heights, you idiots, not the bloody cat!)




Heh heh. This one just cracks me up. The fact that they used the Bizarro Hal in the Sinestro Corps War just makes it even better.



You have to admit that with all the chaos going on, Ryan Sook does an awfully pretty job on Ollie and Dinah. DESPITE Judd Winick.




I just love this. All the cards, with their reference to "52", plus it's Booster! Nice art and composition.




I really enjoyed "52" and this was a hell of a way to wrap it all up. With a wrap-around cover!




Really, how could any red-blooded Green Lantern fan NOT go nuts for this cover! Gorgeous, and a lovely homage.




Again, this one just cracks me up. Who knew that Booster Gold and Jonah Hex would make such a dynamic duo?




One of the best books of 2007, and gosh, but I love John McCrea art.




So far, my favorite Blue Beetle cover, bar none. Lovely composition AND hilarious.




THIS...this is genius.

And finally, my personal favorite...



I LOVE this cover. It is stark, and makes gorgeous use of white, the layout is just bloody perfect, and it is scary as heck. Pat Gleason knocks it out of the park with this one.

Happy New Year!

Mr. Quesada seems to be a very strange Man

Gosh, and I had such nice things to say about Giant-Sized Avengers, too.

Apparently, they have gone ahead and done it. Spider-Man is no longer married, and everything is juuuuuuuussssttt the way that it was when Mr. Quesada was a young lad. According to the aforesaid Mr. Quesada, fans today don't want to see a married Spider-Man. They can't "relate" to his being married to the girl-next-door, even though they've been married for years and years and years. Indeed some younger comic book fans can't remember Peter Parker and Mary Jane NOT being married.

But...Marriage for Super Heroes...is...Bad.

According to Mr. Quesada, his ONLY choice is to either have a young hip swinging Spider-Man, or have him and MJ age in real time, with children, and grandchildren and death as their fate. This strikes me as something of a ridiculous supposition. This is COMICBOOKS! Characters only age as much as you want them to age! Superman and Lois Lane have been married for years as well, and seem to be doing just fine. Somebody dies, comes back with all the intervening years shaved off, or falls into a lazarus pit or drinks a potion or has a little suspended animation...the ways to keep heroes young is practically endless.

Plus, we already have a young hip teenaged Peter Parker over in Ultimate Spider-Man, who seems to be doing just fine.

I guess it is also the WAY that they are going about destroying the marriage that sticks in my craw. Having Mephisto show up lusting after their marriage is just...wierd. Making deals with the devil never works out well. Giving up their marriage to save some old lady who is a hundred if she's a day is just stupid.

And then...they wake up and Harry Osbourne is there, and everyone has forgotten that Peter unmasked during Civil War, and Peter is having wheatcakes shoved down his throat by Aunt May, and Spider-Girl will never happen, and everything is just lovely in Quesada Land.

As far as I can see through much perusal of the Internet, Mr. Quesada is the ONLY person on the entire planet that is happy with the new state of affairs. Oh sure, there have been some expressions of how marvelous everything is from various Marvel writers, but I'm not buying what they're selling. Also, I don't for the life of me, understand how this massive reboot is going to play out in the OTHER books that Spider-Man appears in. What about New Avengers? Do they suddenly all forget that he and MJ were married? Does Tony Stark? Is Peter even IN the Avengers anymore? How old is he now? Does he still work for the Bugle? Is he no longer a teacher, and what happens to all of his students? There are a LOT of ramifications to this that haven't been thought out very well.

Oh well. No skin off my nose I guess. I gave up reading Spider-Man when they had Gwen and Norman making babies. Man, I thought THAT was a bad idea, but it just pales in comparison to the crap that they are forcing on the Spider books now.

Heck they are all probably Skrulls anyway.

So...Uhm...

Er...you ever have one of those days when you stare hopefully at the computer screen, but your previously fertile mind is a complete blank? I am experiencing that extreme state of nothingness as we speak. Blank. Completely blank.

It's all Dwayne's fault from "Matching Dragoons". He started bragging about fixing ribs on his grill, and all I can now do is salivate and fantasize. And this is after I've finished slugging down the leftover Wassail and twelve pounds of cherry-chip bread.

For good news, the books come out tomorrow...finally!

So...!

Does anybody here like the Legion of Super Heroes? You know...that snotty bunch of brats who have their own very exclusive little club for super heroes in the future? They seem to get an awful lot of nasty amusement out of hosting "try-outs" for losers. Of course the losers never get in, I don't think that they are ever meant to...but it gives the actual members something to laugh about later on. They are actually an unpleasant bunch of teenaged creeps really.

I do like them for one thing however. It is always loads of fun to think of possible candidates for admission to their little club. I must admit that "Matter-Eater Lad" is the best name...EVER! My own personal contribution, is a little character that I like to call "Flaccid Lad". He never actually makes it into the League, because he's just not up to the challenge. His best friend however, is "Viagra Boy".

It's Boxing Day

December 26th is traditionally celebrated as Boxing Day, in England and I believe Canada, so we can keep the good times rolling. I hope that you ALL had a lovely holiday. I think that I've probably gained a good ten pounds from all the turkey, fudge, cookies, eggnog etc. etc. and more etc.

I DID get some very nice presents, including a whole case of wine from my sweet Baboo. My daughter gave me an Ethan Van Sciver poster of Hal to hang in my Fortress of Solitude AND a Green Lantern giant mouse paddy sort of thing, with Hal, Kyle, John, Guy, Kilowog, Tomar Re, Arkiss Chummuk, Arisia, Katma Tui and some woman I've never seen before in a white tunic, thigh-high green boots and a black mohawk. I honestly don't have the FAINTEST idea who she may be. To round out my Green Lantern booty, I also got a set of figures, with members of the Green Lantern Corps, with Kilowog, Salaak, Tomar Re, Chaselon, Katma, and Jade which is very nice. Kilowog isn't painted quite right, instead of being pink, he's caucasian flesh colored, and has blue eyes, which rather startled me. He also has eyebrows, but what the heck. Salakk on the other hand is sensational. Oh, and Abin Sur too.

In the meantime, my computer has developed yet another glitch, or they didn't manage to fix the first glitch entirely, so we have to take it in again, to be debugged or whatever magic it is that they do. A blue screen full of what appears to me, to be gibberish keeps appearing. Why is everything so bloody COMPLICATED!?!

So...what did everybody get?

It's that Time of Year

Not a lot of time for blogging for the next few days, I'm afraid. Although, I'm actually fairly organized for a change. The presents are wrapped and under the tree, and things are mostly under control. Still have to finish my baking and figure out where I hid the Christmas stockings from last year.

I hope that everyone has a lovely holiday. Merry ChrismaHanuKwanzika!

And this one is even better than yesturday's!



Ho ho ho!

Gadzooks!

I just woke up and noticed that Christmas is only a couple of days away! Who knew! Better get the ham out of the freezer and start making pies. And cookies. And Cherry-Chip bread, and Apple-raisin bread, and fudge, and my own home-made eggnog...with RUM!

I hope that everyone has a lovely holiday, and gets lots of comic-related presents from under the tree.

Oh, and this, just because it cracks me up.



Yes. Batman is being thwacked by a Christmas tree. 'Tis the Season!

Justice League of America #16

Well, this wasn't so bad. It's got John Stewart and Guy Gardner in it for one thing. And Roy. Roy is always nice. It also picks up on a plot point left over from the Ion mini-series...just what the heck happened to that Tangent Lantern that Kyle left with Guy anyway?

We begin with a couple of lowlifes breaking into Guy's storage rental, and rifling through his stuff, looking for things to steal and sell on eBay. Unnoticed in a box, labelled "Kyle's Green Lantern thing" is the Tangent lantern that Kyle gave to Guy for safekeeping quite some time ago. It starts to glow for some reason, and a bolt of light bursts out of it, along with the words "Joker...Flash...Atom" THAT can't be good. Then good old Al disappears, only to be replaced by a really cheesed off Tanget Atom.

Meanwhile, John Stewart is sitting at the computer monitor back at JLA headquarters playing chess with a mopey Red Tornado. He's been downloaded into the computer while they try and figure out a way to get him a new body. Reddy picks up the distress call from the police, and John heads out to the storage rental place, meeting Black Canary and Roy. Paul, the remaining thief is busy spilling his guts to the cops about what happened. I do rather enjoy the fact that John...a Green Lantern no less...is highly skeptical about the kids finding a magical lantern.

Turns out that the first responding officer disappeared, and then the new Atom beat the crap out of her backup. John's still not quite sure why the League has been called into this, when the cop in charge points out that the rental unit was one leased by none other than Guy Gardner. You can just see them sigh, and head into it.

John calls up Guy on his ring. Guy unfortunately for John, is a leeetle bit busy at the moment, fighting a large tentacled, toothy space monster, with a glowing green chainsaw, so he says he's busy and that's that. John is just astounded that Guy "hung up" on him. Tee hee!

Meanwhile Canary and Roy confront the Tangent Atom guy, who is trying to make the Tangent lantern work. His attitude is a bit truculent, to say the least, and he makes Dinah intangible, and sends her through the floor into the basement, so of course Roy starts shooting at him. Then Atom breaks Roy's bow, which has to make him cranky, so he starts using Guy's assorted junk to beat him up. Exactly why Guy would have rakes and hoes up against the wall is a little baffling. Despite his last name, he's never struck me as the gardening type.

John gets Dinah out of the basement without causing any massive destruction of private property which is actually rather nice. Then she gets on the ring line and starts yelling at Guy, who is STILL a little occupied, but not quite as occupied as he was, as there are lots of pieces of tentacles floating in space. At first Guy is a little confused, since obviously he doesn't keep his regular battery in his rental storage, but then realizes that it's the lantern that Kyle gave him to hold.

Well isn't that a fine how-de-do?

Dinah and John rush back upstairs only to find that Roy has managed to beat the Atom into unconciousness, which I find to be a little unbelievable, but I'll let it slide. Then there is another zap of green glowing light and the thief Al is back and the Atom is gone.

Now the narrator changes, and it turns out that the poor policewoman who got zapped has been exchanged for the Tangent Flash, the scantily clad young lady from the cover, and that now she's stuck here.

They never do explain why the lantern said "Joker" in addition to the Atom and the Flash, but methinks that will be a plot point for another day.

So...not a terrible story. But by God, it sure was horrible art. Ed Benes and his butt fetish didn't do this issue, instead we had Joe Benitez, who apparently has gone to the Turner school of Scratchy Artwork. Gosh, but I do NOT care for it. AND, he has portrayed Guy with that goddamned bowl-cut hair that he hasn't had in more than ten years for heaven's sake! READ a BOOK once in a while! Guy also has white boots, which is incorrect. There are a number of ways that the artist doesn't mesh up with the writer, such as when Roy says that the Atom broke his Quiver...and that is why he beat him up. He didn't break his Quiver, he broke his BOW! Oh, and Guy doesn't have green eyes, he has BLUE eyes. And Dinah has Ice's hairstyle ofr some reason.

Isn't this supposed to be one of DC's premier books? Could we PLEASE find a good artist for it? And by that, I mean of course, one that I like? Because it's all about me, me me. Howabout Dan Jurgens? I like Jurgens. Or Mahnke, or Tom Nguyen or somebody. Not Ivan Reis, because I want him to draw Green Lantern until he's old and grey.

Any thoughts?

Birds of Prey #113

So this was Sean McKeever's first foray into Oracle's world, and it worked fairly well. It helps that Nicola Scott was back as the artist, because the artwork was lovely. This was however, a bit of a break from the light-hearted romps of yore, as what was assumed to be a fairly minor case turns really bad, really quickly.

First off, Oracle is down a couple of Birds, what with Dinah jumping ship for the Justice League, and Barda being murdered and all. She's got Huntress tracking down our old friend Tabby Brennan, the 17 year old girl who had been kidnapped and then rescued by the Birds, who turned out to be something of a nutcase...what with murdering her own father and a couple of federal agents. Her Dad was a crime lord, and she wanted to rule in his place. Unfortunately for her, the rest of the crime bosses are laughing in her face. This upsets young Tabby, so she steals a truckload full of arms.

You'd think that this would be a fairly routine sort of mission, but things go bad in a hurry. Tabby runs Huntress off of the road, but Huntress manages to hop on the back of the truck and discovers that it ain't guns that Tabby is stealing, but something altogether more sinister. Now they think that she's going to use what appears to be the chemicals on the truck as a suicide bomb.

The Birds are doing their level best to talk Tabby out of her plan, but she's not having it. To be honest however, her plan isn't to use the truck as a suicide bomb however, what is the point of blowing herself up? She wants to blow OTHER people up. So she attacks the building where the other snotty crime lords are busy chortling to themselves, and is revealed to be...

...well, a giant Transformer basically. A FEMALE Transformer, with all that glowing chemical purpley stuff under the metal. Tabby obviously has some powerful connections! Not bad for a 17 year old!

What does startle me slightly is that this new development has Oracle completely flummoxed. But...but Babs is NEVER flummoxed! She's never seen anything like this before, and apparently has no schematics. So while Oracle is uncharacteristically groping around for something to do, Misfit decides to teleport into the cab of the truck, which is still incorporated into the body of the Transformer thingie, and punches out Tabby!

"Darrrrrkkkkkkk Vennnngeannnccee!

Oh Misfit, you ARE just adorable. But a little on the impulsive side.

Now Barbara really starts to panic, and yells at Misfit for the love of God, not to touch anything. Misfit ribs her a little, but DOES mention that she has a good feeling about the large glowing button under the glass box. She lifts her finger towards the button, as Huntress is busy having a conniption on the other side of the windshield, and then...

....WHUUMMMM!! Sssssssssffffff.

Oh crap. Those are bad sounds.

Suddenly the Transformer thing is enveloped in a very large purple glowing cloud, just jampacked with all sorts of Kirby Krackle and bolts of energy. Huntress jumps for her life, while Misfit angts over what to do with Tabby. It's been established that Misfit can't teleport while carrying a passenger, so Oracle tells her to get the heck out of there.

Meanwhile, Zinda is in a helicopter above the glowing cloud, and Oracle tells her to fire at it...which does precisely nothing. The cloud does seem to be growing however, and they all are doing their level best to get away...when it just seems to wink out. Unfortunately, it takes quite a bit of the area with it, leaving a gaping crater in the middle of Metropolis.

At the post mortem, they are all sitting around, looking glum and trying to figure out why what appeared to be a simple job turned into such a snafu. As they argue amongst themselves a bit, who should show up but Superman. And, to put it mildly, he is NOT happy. In fact, he's pretty cranky, and starts telling Barbara that she should have known better, and that they screwed up pretty badly, and that he's going to be keeping an eye on them. Then, before they can even say anything he takes off.

That is just SO annoying!

Well, to be honest, he does have a point, and it IS Metropolis, and it is "his" city, and he's not happy that an area the size of a block is now vaporized. On the other hand, he wasn't there, and he doesn't have any idea of what exactly went wrong. He's been hanging around Batman too much or something.

And he makes Oracle cry. Bad Superman.

Birds of Prey #113

Gosh, but I'm feeling Smug

In the wake of the Sinestro Corps War, there has been quite a bit of furious speculation on the whole Blackest Night prophecy, and just exactly who is going to be in those new corps. I just want to point out, that waaaaaaaay back, on June 21st, in this very blog, I pointed out that Black Hand had been making references to the Darkest Night, in Green Lantern #6.

I'm feeling quite smug right about now. I do feel that somehow, Black Hand will be involved with the Black Lanterns. They're even using his symbol. I do think it is rather neat that Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver have this whole scenario already thought out...it's nice when things have some time to simmer and percolate. Honestly, with SOME of the ideas that are used, you would swear that the writer came up with them in the bathroom between editorial meetings or something.

Well, otherwise, I've got nothin'. So I just wanted to wallow a little in the reflection of my own brilliance, before toodling off to the Comic Book Store. Not quite the anticipation of last week, but heck, there are always good books to be found.

Gosharootie

Good Heavens, it's almost Wednesday again, and I'm STILL gushing about the books that I got last week. It's been an awfully good month so far, I must say. In fact, with the exception of a few minor glitches, it has been an awfully good time to be a comic book fan.

For one thing, we had the heady conclusion to the Sinestro Corp War that has been raging since this past summer...and boy howdy, was it a doozy! I've covered all of that already however. In addition, we have also had some other very good books out there.

Booster Gold #5 was great. Not as humorous as the previous episodes, but a heck of an issue. I honestly didn't know how it was all going to end for Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, aka Oracle, so this all caught me by surprise. Booster had a lesson to learn apparently, there are just some things that can't be changed. Not that I think Booster really believes this for a second. It was nice to see Booster trying and trying and trying again and again to save Babs, and never giving up. Booster has his silly moments, but by God, he's a hero. Good stuff.

I greatly enjoyed Wonder Woman. I love the new subplot of Hippolyta's former guards, and beating up Nazis just NEVER gets old. And the art was gorgeous. I now look FORWARD to getting this, instead of with trepidation.

Green Arrow/Black Canary, fills me with simultaneous glee and rage. Absolutely breathtaking art, fun and witty, and then...BAM! Another superhero death on the last pages. Seriously, this is getting OLD! Even if Conner isn't dead, it is getting old. Didn't Winnick JUST DO THIS SAME PLOT in the Wedding Special?
I am having a little trouble getting my head around the fact that there are apparently TWO Themysciras, one in the Wonder Woman book and the one here, with Granny Goodness diguised as Athena. When is somebody (presumably Batman) going to notice this odd state of events?

Fables was great, if heartbreaking. Fables is ALWAYS great.

I blush to admit this, but I am actually enjoying the whole Black Adam mini-series. The story is pretty good, and the art is gorgeous. It gets a bit gory, but what the heck. It IS Black Adam after all.

I liked Bat Lash. I am a Western fan from way back. And how can you go wrong with Sergio Aragones and John Severin? I do feel that Bat's girlfriend is probably not long for this world however. *sigh*

JLA Classified, was a nice romp back in the Silver Age. Ollie looks pretty darned good without the beard, and of course he is hitting on the girl. Hal's just jealous he didn't get there first. Wonder Woman uses that old idea about her bracelets keeping her wild side in check, Hawkman and Atom were just adorable. Besides, I just like Qward for some reason.

Heck, I'm even enjoying Arena. It's not Shakespeare, but it is old fashioned fun in a way. And look, TWO versions of Hal! And the whole thing with the Blue Beetles was genuinely disturbing.

I like my books. If I find that I'm not enjoying them, I don't buy them. It's hard sometimes giving up on something, but it is silly to have to force myself to read something that I'm NOT enjoying. I wish that some of the other, more professional reviewers could sometimes take this to heart. It's rather depressing reading review after review by someone who doesn't enjoy their books. What's the point? Which isn't to say that sometimes I'm not completely thrilled. I enjoy a well-written rant as much as anybody else.

However, when somebody puts down a book because a character's boots are the wrong color or something, I think that it is being over-analyzed. Comics are good, and silly and ridiculous, and overwrought and just plain nonsensical sometimes, and occasionally pretty awful...but that's half the fun. Sometimes a truely horrible comic can be even MORE fun.

Enjoy your books.

Ion: Tales of the Green Lantern Corps

Still riding that Green Lantern high. Here finally is the third book from last week, featuring the Green Lantern Corps, written by Ron Marz, and art by Michael Lacombe. Nicely written, nicely drawn, nothing TOO outrageous, but nice to have because it ties up a few lose ends...and I always like to have my lose ends tied.

We open with Guy, John and Hal sitting around an oddly blue-colored campfire, toasting marshmallows and goofing around, waiting for Kyle. Kyle is a little bit busy at the moment, as he's trying to get a few answers out of the Guardians...who aren't noted for being particularly forthcoming in that respect. Kyle is feeling a LITTLE peeved, and who can blame him. He is however, perfectly ok with becoming just another Green Lantern, and just to show the Guardians that he's a good guy, he goes off to share a little of his experience with Sodam Yat, who is the NEW Ion.

Naturally, Yat is feeling a little overwhelmed himself. He's down on himself for failing to defeat Superbrat Prime, and not particularly in any sort of mood to listen to advice from Kyle. We also learn the reason that he has to wear a ring in addition to having Ion inside of him, due to the massive amount of lead poisoning that he received during his battle with Superbrat Prime, he'll die if he doesn't wear the ring...even WITH the power of Ion. Those Daxamites are seriously in trouble when it comes to lead!

Nevertheless, Yat and Kyle seem to be bonding to a certain degree, when who should show up, but our old friend Nero...still nutty as a fruitcake, and out for Kyle's blood. He and Kyle start throwing down, and Kyle's doing pretty well until Nero manages to get him by the throat. Up until now, Sodam Yat had just been mostly standing around, but now he shows what he's made of, by using his heat vision as a nasty surprise for Nero. Nero of course is QUITE flummoxed, never having run into a Daxamite-powered Green Lantern before...NOT to mention one powered by Ion.

The new Ion makes pretty short work of poor old Nero, even turning his yellow demon constructs green, and turning them against him, which as Kyle remarks is something even HE had never tried to do. Kyle and Yat end up with some mutual respect for each other, which is a good thing, and Nero is captured.

Meanwhile, Guy's getting grumpy because he's run out of marshmallows. Can't blame him for that. I only wonder if John and Hal remembered the chocolate and Graham crackers. When Kyle finally does show up, you see in a rather lovely frame, that they aren't even on earth, but are sitting on an asteroid inside an air bubble...hence the reason for the blue flames I suppose. Kyle does apologize for taking so long, although Guy is still being caustic. To which Kyle replies...
"Thrilled to see YOU too, Sally."

Woohoo!

Er...ahem. So the guys have guy bonding and all of that sort of stuff. Kyle is happy to be just one of the guys again, and when he's asked what sector he has, mentions that he's not been assigned to a sector, instead he's in the Honor Guard and is going to be Guy's new partner. Even Guy is happy about that. They all have a lovely "Four Musketeers" moment at the end, and they even mention Guy's old bar "Warriors"...and that he misses it.

As do we all, Guy...as do we all.

I'm Cocooning Today!

There is a good foot of snow already on the ground from Thursday's little storm, and now we have MORE snow, ice and freezing rain, right here in lovely New England. Unlike poor Okahoma and that area however, NOT the ice all over everything. So, I'm staying home and snuggling by the fire, and making homemade Eggnog. The kind with BOOZE in it.

It is also my 30th wedding anniversay, as well as Beethovan's Birthday. That's a reasonably impressive milestone. I was of course...a child bride. Well, Nineteen, which is close enough. So I hope that everyone else is staying warm and dry, and enjoying the season.



Heh. I really do love this cover, and it seems so appropriate.

Is This Working?

Oh please, please please, let this work. This is probably divine retribution upon me, for mocking Folded Soup's computer woes, but my very own precious computer went kaflooey on me! Gah! For some reason it wasn't accessing some sort of folder, which apparently was quite important. My brilliant oldest daughter, who actually works in the IT dept. at her college attempted to figure out what was wrong, but wasn't able to put in the program that needed to be put in, because it was on the fritz.

Fortunately, we have a spare thingie. Thank GOD, I have always paid for the extended warranty, so fixing the original thingie should be taken care of. You can see that I can use technical terms such as "thingie" because I am so with it. Whatever "it" may be.

*sigh*

It was getting pretty ugly there for a while, as I was like unto an addict without her drug. My left hand may have been steady, but my BLOGGING hand was pretty shaky. So, we'll see how this works for a while.

Sorry, no pictures for a bit.

Green Lantern #25

Well, this was it. The finale to the Sinestro Corps War, that started back in June. I hope that you were all along for the ride, because it was a doozy. I do think that this is going to rate as one of the BEST Green Lantern stories, and the really amazing part, is that it is still only the middle part of a trilogy still to be completed. We started back i n2005 with Rebirth, now we have the Sinestro Corps War, and finally in 2009, there is going to be the Blackest Night.

It is a fine fine time to be a Green Lantern enthusiast.

I'm not going to go through it and try and do a complete explanation, because it would take too long, and dammit, you should be reading it for yourselves anyway. This is a huge, brawling, continent-spanning epic, and I don't know if I could do it justice anyway. But there WERE a ton of individual moments that I just loved.

Basically, there is the conflict in New York, with the Anti-Monitor, Superbrat and Henshaw and the Manhunters vs most of the Green Lantern Corps and ALL the other super heroes. There is also the smaller, but equally important battle going on in Coast City, with Hal and Kyle and a smaller cadre of Green Lanterns vs Sinestro and his goons. The action bounces back and forth between the two, and it is an amazing ride.

And may I just say that Ivan Reis and Ethan Van Sciver did an astonishingly beautiful job with the art? Not to mention the lush colors by Moose Baumann and Rod Reis.



That's just one of the mind-boggling double-paged spreads. They are all gorgeous, and since the book is double-sized, they don't take up much space from the rest of the story-telling.

Basically, Ganthet and Sayd have divided Parallax up between the four Earth Lantern's batteries, and with a little bit of prodding, Ganthet consents to actually give the boys some hint of what is going on, and what may happen in the future. He tells them about the prophecy, and the creation of the other corps, each a part of the spectrum, with Red Lanterns being about hate and rage, the Orange Lanterns being for avarice and greed, the Sinestro Corps yellow for fear, the violet of the Star Sapphires for love, the Indigo Lanterns for Compassion, and finally, his and Sayd's Blue Lanterns for hope. The boys don't really have a whole lot of time for all of this to sink in, as they still have to try and defeat Sinestro, so Hal and Kyle stay in Coast City to fight Sinestro, while Guy and John beat feet back to New York.

Things are pretty hot and heavy in New York, needless to say. Guy finds himself going up against Karu Sil again, which leads to this...



Heh heh. Wolverinesssss! Guy STILL has the best lines.

Meanwhile back in Coast City, Hal is trying to evacuate the city before Sinestro manages to destroy it. But nobody is listening.



I LOVE all the green lights in the windows! Then Hannu, Graf Toren, Boodikka, Laira, Tomar Re and some others show up to help, which is nice of them.

Back in New York, the Anti-Monitor has decided no more Mr. Nice Guy, and is feeding off the energy of the planet and releasing an anti-matter wave as he does so. At this precise moment, Guy starts feeling rather poorly. and starts coughing up yellow blood. Eeuuww. Fortunately the Guardians actually start to help out for a change.

Back in Coast City, Amon Sur realizes that the Green Lanterns are capable of using lethal force and decides that this is not the place for him to be. Sinestro on the other hand loves it, and Hal finally figures out why. The lethal force law was what he was after all along, to prove that the Guardians were susceptible to fear, and that the Universe NEEDS to be ruled with an iron hand.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Monitor is still running amok, and even the Guardians have their hands full. John also manages to clock the Bizarro Hal with a hammer, in a frame that just delights me. And even though he is sick as a dog, Guy comes up with the idea to drop WarWorld on top of the Anti-Monitor and Henshaw, while John makes sure that Kilowog and Salakk go along with the idea, and can provide the shielding necessary. As Guy says, it's a doozy of an idea. And what do you know? It works!

Too bad for poor Cyborg Superman.

Back in Coast City, Sinestro managed to use a Manhunter battery to drain all the power from Hal and Kyle's rings, so they have to...as Hal says...improvise. Unfortunately for Sinestro, the big bang back in New York cuts off the power to all the Manhunters, so Hal manages to drain the power from Sinestro's ring as well. Now they are all on a level playing field, and it is ON! I especially enjoyed seeing Hal whack Sinestro in the head with a 2x4. It just seemed so appropriate.

In New York, Superbrat finally lost patience and booted the Anti-Monitor out of there, so he's the last one that they have to fight...although he's STILL more powerful than all of them. Also, Guy's just about ready to conk out from the Despotillus virus that he managed to pick up. Poor Guy. Fortunately...



Woohoo! Gotta love a super-intelligent Green Lantern virus!



Finally, one of the Guardians manages to blow up and take Superbrat Prime with him, while Hal and Kyle manage to subdue Sinestro...oh, and place him under arrest. Huzzah. The Good Guys Win!



Of course that's not the end of it. The bad guys aren't dead, they're just going to lie down a while and heal. Afterall, there is still that third story of the Trilogy. But still, a HECK of a brawl.

It occurs to me that I said I wasn't going to break it all down, and of course that is exactly what I went ahead and did. Phooey, this is wonderful, and I'm going to enjoy it.

Green Lantern Corps #19

Well! Just...well! Is it possible to be both enchanted and enraged all at the same time? I really really liked this issue. It dealt with the fallout from the final battle from the Sinestro Corps war beautifully, with so many of the characters having a moment in the sun. And then there was the reunion of Guy and Ice...which drove me nuts.

But for the good, there is the beautifully done beginning, with Guy and Kyle on the Statue of Liberty, and their subsequent interaction, which was just...perfect. It's obvious that these two are friends, and that however gruffly expressed, Guy cares about what Kyle went through. It's also obvious that Kyle is just glad to be back, and is looking forward to working with Guy.

Then there was the pathos of Kilowog's reunion with the ghosts of him family on Mogo, which made me sniffle a little. Vath is sitting in a bar, as his date gets bored, but he's intoning the names of all the dead, which is also a touching moment. There is Issamot's defiance and exhilaration that he's NOT dead. Iolande shows her boredom in her royal duties, and her eagerness to use her Green Lantern powers.

There is an interesting moment with Salakk, as deep within the battery on Oa, he creates twelve "super" rings forged from 442 regular rings. THAT has to be ominous. Meanwhile Soranik is throwing herself into the work of helping and healing the wounded, which has to be more to her taste than blowing up Sinestro Corp members.

Kyle is shown again, wandering around a space museum and musing to himself over whether or not to accept a job as Art Director, and how can it compare to his OTHER job. Guy is also shown again, slopping around in a storage unit, trying to figure out where to live, by throwing glowing green darts at a map, and rejecting Flagstaff, Arizona, because it's "too damn hot." All of which leads me to believe that instead of being solely on Oa, as he has been for quite some time, both he and Kyle will have lives on Earth as well.

Then Green Man and Stel fail to capture an Sinestro Corp member from escaping. The Sinestro Corp guy falls into the decidedly unlovely hands of Mongul Jr.



So...it lives up to the cover, we have a bit of interaction with everybody there, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Except...

Well, they got THIS right at any rate.



I think that's just perfect. Look, it's Guy finding out that Ice is still alive!

Except...

From the way that it is presented, Guy just walks up to her, grabs her and kisses her, and then says hi, and she says she needs some time to think things over?

What the heck just happened here? Where was the "Oh my God, you're ALIVE!" moment? It seems obvious that Guy knows somehow that she's alive, but I don't have any idea when or where that happened. Did Bea tell him? Did Oracle or the Justice League? Any one of these things could have happened, but they don't show it.

Dammit. I was hoping for Rhett and Scarlet, and I ended up with Archie and Veronica.

Guy........."Hey Ice, It's me! Let's make out!"

Tora........."I've been dead....I have to wash my hair!"

Ok, so I'm paraphrasing. Guy does spill his guts to her, and she just keeps moaning that she was dead for so long, and she needs some time to process all of this. And bless his heart, Guy doesn't have a temper tantrum, he backs off and promises her a wooing. He'll pick her up for a date in one month, same bat time, same bat channel...er...place.

And that's that. I at least wanted a comment from her that he'd cut his hair! C'mon Tora, get your act together!

To be fair however, I must go back to just before Tora was killed, and all the hoohah over Emerald Fallout and such. Things hadn't been completely rosy between the two of them at the time, although Guy was doing his best to be nice. So maybe Tora is just remembering all of that, instead of leaping into his arms. Although she sure did seem happy to see Bea.

Oh well. At least she's alive, and that's something. So this was really very good. I'm just suffering from reading too many romance novels.

Oh Frabjous Day...!

Calloo, callay, she chortled in her joy...! It's Wednesday. FINALLY, it's Wednesday, and Green Lantern #25 is here, along with a vast smorgasbord of other visual delights. I know, I know, I've been driveling about this for days, and you are probably getting a tad fed up. But this is going to be SUCH a good week.

Only an hour to go, before the books get in at my beloved comic book store. I'm making Matt some pumpkin bread. I have found that a little bribery with fudge and cookies over the year really pays off when it comes to getting the good covers...not to mention first crack at the books when an order has been shorted.

Heh heh heh.

We get the conclusion to the Sinestro Corp war, an Ion special, the reunion of Tora and Guy...and I'm REALLY looking forward to that one. We also get Fables, and Booster Gold, and Wonder Woman, and the Arena book with all the Elseworld Green Lanterns, and Bat Lash, and Black Canary and Ollie in his underwear (or actually Conner's underwear) and who knows what else? It's like a little slice of comic heaven right on earth.

It isn't even raining or snowing, or sleeting, or bolts of fire, or rivers of lava. It's 40 degrees, and a bit of blue sky peeking through the clouds! I have a fridge full of fudge and eggnog, and the Moody Blues on the radio.

I am a happy woman.

I hope that all of YOU are happy too.

An Opportunity Missed

Dagnabit. I SHOULD have posted my blog from yesturday TODAY instead. Then I could have called it "One More Day!" Huh? Huh? Oh the wittyness that was wasted! I suppose that instead I could dance around singing "Tomorrow, tomorrow!" at the top of my lungs, but my family thinks that I'm already strange enough.

So...

There's other stuff coming out besides just the Green Lanern goodies. That's a good thing too.

Awkward pause...

So anyway, three Green Lanterns walk into a bar. Hal ducked. I don't remember where the heck I read this, but it did make me snicker. Then it made me pause and think. Because Hal would NEVER duck. Hal would not only walk into the bar, he would fall down, get up and hit it AGAIN! Then John and Kyle would probably try to help him up, but Guy would be falling on the floor, laughing his ass off.

And on that note...

Almost There

Only two more days until Wednesday. The excitement is palpable. I'm not this happy over Christmas for heaven's sake.

Yes, on December 12, we'll get the final chapter of the Sinestro Corps War, in Green Lantern #25. And just for fun, they are throwing in an Ion Special issue AND Green Lantern Corps #19, which has Ice on the cover. I plan to be very very careful for the next couple of days, and pray that I'm not struck by lightning, have a tree limb fall on me, or slip on the sidewalk. DO NOT get in front of me on Wednesday, on the way to the Comic Book Store, because I will simply mow you down.

I understand that there are a number of other rather interesting books coming out as well, such as Booster Gold, which just adds to the fun. I thought that November had a plethora of fabulous books, but I'm beginning to think that December is shaping up to be just as good.

Sometimes, it is too easy to get cynical, and focus on the bad things about our beloved hobby...or obsession, depending upon whom you are talking to. I try to be upbeat, I usually only get the books that I like, which makes it a whole lot easier to BE upbeat. But sometimes, you get discouraged and it really does feel better to rant a little and get it off of your chest. I'll admit to my share of shamefaced fangirl entitlement as well. There is not reason why a writer or artist should be constrained to produce a book to fit MY desires, and yet...and yet it is hard sometimes not to want it to be that way.

But, with my favorite books lately, I find that I have nothing to carp about when it comes to catering to my wishes. The Green Lantern books have been simply sensational, so has Blue Beetle and Booster Gold and Justice Society, and Birds of Prey, and now Wonder Woman, and many many more.

So here's a little treat. Two of my favorite boys...and they aren't even fighting.



*sigh*

Well, Dip Me in Honey!

I may actually have to go out and buy Incredible Hulk #111. I've been a bit gun-shy of Marvel lately, so I haven't been keeping up with the whole Hulk Smash Manhattan thing going on. Granted, it WOULD be nice to see Tony Stark get beaten up, but I keep telling myself that I'm more mature than that.

However...!



Gosh, but Hercules looks fabulous! I've always been rather fond of Hercules, at least the Marvel version. Yes, he was a bit of a dim bulb, but darn it, he was an AMUSING dim bulb. AND, he managed to get Galactus drunk. But he looks awfully pretty here.

Apparently, the old Champions have teamed up with Amadeus Cho to help out the Hulk, or at least get innocent bystanders to safety. Funny, I thought that was SUCH a big deal during Civil War? Property damage and harm to innocent civilians was why superheroes were BAD! Except apparently when it is the Government sanctioned heroes who are inflicting the aforesaid property damage and harm...then it's just fine and dandy!

I also got a chuckle out of this....



Hee hee! They make such a cute couple!

Wow. Here I am approving of a recent Marvel book. I...I feel faint. Perhaps I had better go and lie down somewhere.

Justice League #15 vs Justice Society #11

Heh. This really is no contest, Justice Society #11 wins on all counts. Nice Alex Ross cover, in which they are actually flying around instead of just standing there, utterly beautiful artwork by Dale Eaglesham, and a pretty decent and fun story by Geoff Johns. Compared to the Justice League of America, with abysmal art by Ed Benes and a fair story by Dwayne McDuffie.

There were some pretty good moments in JLA, I liked Firestorm turning Lex's Kryptonite knife into a butter knife. The look on Lex's face was priceless. And of course, all the Leaguers manage to get free, thanks to Batman and his ballpoint pen of JUSTICE! But all the butt cheeks and thrusting bosoms are starting to get annoying. The only thing that Black Canary seems capable of doing is posing. Certainly nobody takes her orders seriously. Batman just flat out disobeys her, and even Wonder Woman is questioning her decisions.

There is a strange disconnect between the dialogue and the action, which I think must be laid at Mr. Benes feet. Hawkgirl grabs a couple of arrow from Roy, and then is never shown actually DOING anything with them. Cheshire escapes, while Roy says "..really?" and I turn the page thinking that he's just shot her in the ass, only to find Roy looking confused and saying "...must have missed her." What? I honestly thought that there was a page missing or something.

Roy shoots Fatality in the hand, which causes her pain, but doesn't slow her down. He continues to shoot arrows into her arm with NO effect, until John finally tells him that it is a prosthetic arm. Maybe he could have shot her in the OTHER arm, or possibly the leg? If something isn't working, maybe try changing your tactics!

Red Tornado, Vulcan and Firestorm all have plenty of time to stand around and have a discourse, while the battle rages apparently. Wonder Woman is shown fighting Grodd, but doens't do a very good job, since he's free to attack the aforesaid Reddy, Vulcan and Firestorm. However, Geoforce actually DOES something, dropping Grodd into a pit and closing it up again. It doesn't seem to bother anybody.

Cheetah wakes up Dr. Light, just so that she can kill him, which rather surprises him for some reason. Then Wonder Woman stops her, which seems odd. Considering what he did to Sue Dibney, you'd think she'd be perfectly happy to let Cheetah take out the trash, but no, Firestorm blasts Cheetah. Considering he was in a hospital an issue ago, he's doing pretty well.

Hal shows up which is nice. I did like the bit where John snarks at him for taking his time, and Hal replies that he was in another Solar System, and by the way, where's the Flash. Heh. Then they both pin down Lex, while Superman beats him up, which seems oddly unsporting.

So, they end up beating up all the bad guys...except Slade of course. And lo and behold Amanda Waller shows up with the Suicide Squad and hauls them all away. Oddly enough, they all show up in the Wedding Special as well. Those Suicide Squad guys get around! Oh, and Batman says that Firestorm is too powerful to run around on his own, so he's now a Justice Leaguer...whether he wants to or not.


Contrast all of this with the Justice Society.

Wally and Jay are pedalling away on the Cosmic Treadmill, trying to see if there really ARE other universes out there...a concept that is just so Silver Age, that it delights me. The Justice League shows up, to check out Kingdom Come Superman, and they all look GREAT! I can't even see Black Canary's butt. AND, there is a tea tray on the floor next to old Superman's feet, complete with a cosy on the teapot, which is just perfect. Obsidian is even there, although he doesn't get to say anything. this round. Hal and John get to check out old Superman with their rings, which is nice and Thom gets to be his usual self.

Poor Peej is getting a little bit creepy at the cemetery, but hey, she's been having a tough time lately. Old Superman gets to wander around and be amazed that people aren't screaming and running in fear when the JSA flies overhead. There's a nice fight with JudoMaster and some bad guys, and old Superman and Power Girl have a bonding moment, which is rather sweet. Oh, and some other interesting plot moments, but you'll have to read it for yourselves.

I guess it comes down to the fact that reading Justice Society makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, while reading Justice League is a little on the annoying side. I like Mr. McDuffie very much, and I know that he's capable of hitting it out of the park, so I'm blaming my malaise on the crappy artwork.

Frank Miller and Hal

Just for the record, I have NOT read ASBAR. I bought one copy way back when, and found it to be just....bizarre. To date, I'm STILL not quite sure if he's being serious, or just having a huge laugh at all of our expenses.

But apparently, in the latest issue of All-Star Batman & Robin, Hal Jordan shows up. Batman is not impressed. To be blunt, he thinks that Hal is a moron. In fact he calls him that, or at least THINKS that. To be fair, I believe that Batman thinks that about EVERYONE, at least this "Goddamned" version of Batman.

Here's Hal.



Now, frankly, I think that's just adorable. The hotdog in particular, is a nice touch. It really is quite rude of GoddamnedBatman to say that he's "...seen more intelligent Hockey pucks." Granted, Hal isn't the brightest crayon in the box, but that's just part of his charm.

GoddamnedBatman is also very very jealous that Hal has that wonderful ring of his. "What an idiot. The THINGS that I'd do with a power like that." And so on and so forth. All of which makes me VERY glad that GoddamnedBatman DOESN'T have a Power Ring. He's crazy enough as it is.

So, anyway, on a tangent I managed to find a MEGO version of Hal at my beloved local Comic Book Store yesturday, and snatched it up. I've been on a bit of a tear lately, when it comes to finding cool action figures of Hal!

So, without further ado...!



Oh, if only, I had a GoddamnedBatman figure to go with it!

Another Silly Post

A while back, I had posted a completely ridiculous post about the enormous numbers of blue-eyed/blond-haired superheroes, and blue-eyed and black-haired superheroes. There was a disturbing lack of BROWN-haired people, not to mention brown-EYED people, so Hal Jordan was something of a rarity.

There aren't too many red-heads either. Why is that? I LIKE red-heads!

There do seem to be a lot of female red-heads, and they are all enormously HAWT! Look at MJ, Jean Grey, Medusa, Hellcat and the Black Widow. Wait, do they have any hot redheaded women at DC? There's Cyclone and Ma Hunkel and Misfit off the top of my head, but with apologies, they aren't nearly as hot as the Marvel girls.

However, Marvel seems to only like redeaded GIRLS. The only guy that I can think of, is Daredevil, although I'm sure that there must be more out there somewhere.

DC however does shine when it comes to redheaded guys. And speaking of GUYS, there is always Guy Gardner. There's Roy Harper and Wally West too. I've always thought that it was interesting that the latter two, were sidekicks for blond heroes. It's as though they had to have different haircolor to make sure that nobody got them mixed up.

Who else? Well Ted Kord had dark red hair, which I've always found ridiculously attractive. There's Archie of course. And I think that Midnighter has sandy hair. I do find it interesting that with the exception of Archie, whom I despise (I'm a Reggie fan) they are all remarkably INTERESTING characters. And by that, I mean that they aren't nauseatingly heroic and pure and noble all of the time. They have their silly or cranky moments as well. In the case of Guy, often at the same time.

I'm not sure where this is all leading, or what conclusions I can draw from this. Just that I like red-heads, I guess. Can anybody think of anyone that I've missed?

Poor Spider-Man

Fortunately for me, I haven't been reading the latest Spider-Man story-line, especially the whole "One More Day" tripe. I can't help feeling rather sorry for the poor schlub however. And, like any number of other commentators, I can't help feeling that giving up his love and marriage to MJ, in order to grant his incredibly ancient Aunt a couple more weeks of life, is an utterly moronic thing to do.

Aunt May is OLD. 150 at least. She's died a couple of times already hasn't she? And she's always having heart-attacks and things. Needless to say, she's lived a LONG and FULL life. It was moving and heartfelt the first time that she "died", when Peter made the quote from "Peter Pan" and all. My stony heart melted, and I sniffled quite a bit. Not this time. My reaction was more along the lines of "You Moron!"

And using Mephisto as the engine to move this story along? Meh. He's not a Spider-Man villain, and never has been. I would say that the odds are, he wouldn't know who Peter Parker was, if Peter walked up and kicked him in the ass. Why the HELL would Mephisto give a rat's patootie about Peter and MJ's marriage? Or ANYbody's? Shouldn't he be off torturing Dr. Doom's mother or something?

I guess Joe Quesada is happy. He must be about the only one. He's been whining for ages about what a mistake having Peter be happy and married is, and now he CAN have Peter dating, and downloading porn. No, I did not make that last bit up. Besides, if you want to see pre-marriage Peter, just go and read Ultimate Spider-Man, which is actually the ONLY Spider book that I am currently reading.

I started getting disenchanted with Marvel when "Civil War" came along, and really, I haven't seen anything lately that could possibly change my mind and re-embrace it. Well...I like Thor a lot, and Nextwave was fabulous, and I understand that Capt. America and Daredevil are pretty good. Not a whole lot to chose from, really.

I know, maybe MJ was really...a SKRULL! That would have made about as much sense. Oh wait...they already did that with Johnny Storm and Alicia. Oops.

Only eight more days till Green Lantern #25 is out!

Green Lantern Corps #18

Well! I am in parts bemused, enthralled, and yet still hungry for more.

For those of you who remember, THIS was the original solicited cover:



Cool eh? However, that was quite a while back, and I do believe that they ended up switching things around a bit and changing the story. So instead, we ended up with THIS cover:

<

Also, very nice.

Also, as it says, right on the cover, this issue is Superbrat Prime vs. Ion. (Not Kyle) Instead, the Guardians in their infinite wisdom, have seen fit to imbue young Sodam Yat, with the Ion whale in order to go up against Superbrat Prime, who is making SUCH a pest of himself.



Things DO start with a bang. The art is back to being Pat Gleason, which fills me with delight, while the flashback sequences to Yat's childhood are handled by Jamal Igle, who is an excellent penciller as well.

Basically, the book is one long fight scene, with several flashback sequences that explain Sodam Yat's childhood on Daxam, and what makes him the hero that he aspires to be. I must say that his parents are a piece of work. I didn't realize how xenophobic the Daxamites were. Fortunately for his continued success in the Green Lantern Corp, Yat doesn't have the same tendancies.

There are some really amazing fight scenes. They fall into a body of water (Croton-on-Hudson) and with the use of their heat vision, boil and evaporate it all away, leaving a lot of flapping and or cooked fish, and ominously, a human skeleton. Then they end up taking the fight to the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, in Buchanan, NY, which turns out to be painful for poor Yat, since as a Daxamite, he's VERY succeptible to lead poisoning. In his usual extrememly obnoxious manner, Superbrat uses this to his advantage, impaling Yat with a radioactive lead rod.

Ouch.

Superbrat also indulges in his version of witty banter, such as "Mmmm. I love the taste of uranium in the morning." He doesn't let up for a minute, and eventually they end up in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Needless to say, coffins, bodies and headstones are soon flying all around.

Yat is having some troubles here. He has only recently been exposed to the yellow sun, and therefore doesn't have as much strength from it that Superbrat does. Furthermore, he's been weakened by the lead poisoning. But the biggest problem he has, is that although he has been imbued with the Ion power from the Guardians, I don't think that he has the slightest idea how to tap INTO the power, because he never manages to use it in the fight, as far as I can tell.

He keeps fighting, and Superbrat keeps taunting him...."All you really are is Superman-Lite with a power ring. Big Deal." and that he's killed a crapload of Green Lanterns, and that Yat isn't any more special than they were. And you know what? At this particular moment in time...he's right.

Superbrat beats the living crap out of poor Yat. I can't blame Yat for this however, since he's not much more than a rookie, and he's been thrown into a hideous situation by the Guardians. They've given him awesome power, and NO training in how to use it whatsoever. I can't help but think that Kyle would have done a better job, but then Kyle has had considerable experience in the use of the Ion power.

And then this...



Finally! John and Guy show up.

I enjoyed this of course, how could I not? I think that Greg Tomasi did a good job with his first issue, and the art is lovely. My only problem is that I'm left hanging, and wanting more. Which I suppose is the whole idea. I can't TELL you how much I am dying to get my hands on Green Lantern #25, which won't come out until December 12th. ARRRGHHH!

But if you want to see one heck of a whuppin', this is the ticket.

Green Lantern Corps #18

Behold!

And here he is, in all of his plastic perfection. My 13" tall Hal Jordan! Almost completely unposable!



I threw my mini-mates Guy in there to give you an idea of how tall Hal is. And because he's just so darned cute.

And now, from a point of view that I'm sure you will all appreciate.



*sigh*