Comic Book of The Day: Red Lanterns #5

The Red Lanterns are a fairly new creation that came into life only a few short years ago, but their popularity and fame have given them their own title.

Recapping recent past events, Atrocitus has his entire corps on a planet where they mumble and stumble like a bunch of morons with no capability of thought. Atrocitus has been using the dead body of Krona (former Guardian of the Universe) as his pulpit to confess and confide his secrets with. At the end of issue 4, Krona is missing. Atrocitus blames his fellow corpsmen Bleez (whom he recently gave her intelligence back) of stealing the body. Then issue 5 happened.

SPOILERS BELOW

Like any good story, Red Lanterns 5 picks up where 4 left off and Atrocitus is pissed. He immediately attacks Bleez accusing her of trickery and deception (not to mention the whole stealing the dead Guardian bit). The two of them fight for a short time and then Bleez asks the question of what if Krona is not dead? This relaxes Atrocitus somewhat but he still falls into shock thinking Krona could be alive.

Meanwhile, the other members of the Red Lanterns that Atrocitus threw into the blood ocean to restore their memories are beginning to come about. They look to each other with anger and hatred (how surprising) but eventually fall in line with Atrocitus. The Red Lanterns decide that their mission will be either recovering Krona’s dead body, or finding him and killing him again. Atrocitus ends this by chanting the Red Lantern oath.

Back on Earth a small sub-plot has been brewing. A human whose grandfather was murdered by a thug has been feuding with his brother over how to act. I myself thought the one brother full with anger and fueled by rage was going to become the first human Red Lantern.

I was wrong.

His calmer brother, John Moore, had much more rage built up inside of him that he never revealed. Even when his brother was beaten to death by police; he did nothing to stop it. A red power ring appears on Earth to provide John with a red power ring making him unofficially the first human Red Lantern.

Red Lanterns is a title that could be hit or miss when it comes to purchasing a new title of DC’s New 52. The Krona story line and the introduction of a new Lantern all make me excited for issue 6. Bring on the next one!

Andrew M.

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Comic Book of The Day: Uncanny X-Men #4

X-Men left off with the end of the “Sinister” three part arc. The X-Men find themselves at a bit of a crossroads with the citizens afraid of what they are capable of, but X-Leader Scott Summers (aka Cyclops) believes this to be beneficial, if humans fear the X-Men, they won’t harm mutants. That brings the X-Reader to issue 4. 

SPOILERS BELOW

Issue 4 is one of those one-shot books that are used to keep the title coming out monthly while the writers get ready for the next big arc. The story focuses around a member of the Phalanx, the alien life forms who try to take over the galaxy through the use of a hivemind and turn everybody robotic. This member was captured and systematically tortured by Mr. Sinister for an unspecified amount of time. I’m quite sure unspeakable things were done here to this member of would be conqueror people.

After his escape, and repeated failures to contact his larger collective, he builds a one man Phalanx army made out of himself and people he killed. This is, of course, where the X-Men arrive to stop him. The real tragedy comes when the Phalanx member discovers that he is the last remaining member of his people. That is the true reason he couldn’t contact the hivemind collective. Upon discovery of this, he lowers his shields and allows himself to be killed the X-Men’s attacks.

With this book being a one-shot, it technically isn’t going to have any bearing on the rest of Marvel, or even the X-Men. It’s used to either introduce something that later will be very important, or what I believe to be the reason this time, bridge a gap between two arcs. In this case a villain is taken and shown to be a sympathetic character that I felt sorry for when he was killed. Where my curiosity lies is how does Mr.Sinister benefit from what information he obtained from the Phalanx member? Will this book have any lasting effects on Marvel or the near future? In my personal opinion no, but that remains to be seen.

Andrew M.

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Why the Dark Knight Ruined Superhero Movies Until The End of Time

...until Chris Nolan makes another superhero movie.


It's over. The sad fact is this: there are two kinds of superhero movies. Movies that came before The Dark Knight and we thought they they were neato cool, the bees knees, and all that shit. Then the movies that came after that are just a steaming pile of feces compared to the might and glory of The Dark Knight.  Once The Dark Knight Rises releases, I fear the end of good superhero movies will be upon us. 2012 truly marks the end of civilization.

TDK did something that few hero movies have done before. It made it believable. It wasn't so outlandish that you had to bend reality a lot. Batman's struggle against corruption in Gotham had consequences. The villains that he faced weren't just madmen bent on taking over the world, they had philosophies that they stood behind, even though they were misguided.


A lot of the movies that Marvel has pumped out has been very formulaic.  Each followed the Iron Man recipe. Thor and Captain America just felt like the same flick. Fantastic Four was like that too. The heroes are too busy fighting amongst themselves the majority of the movie. In recent years the only two Marvel movies I truly enjoyed were The Incredible Hulk and The Punisher (the Thomas Jane version).


Superhero movies need to be brought down to Earth before a serious fanbase can get behind them. So far comic movies have been summer box office fodder.  Shallow story and horrible plot progression seem to be the trend. It might be the difference between Marvel and DC movies. Or it might just be the way the movies are filmed. Wolverine should have been a hard R rated film. No way a character that has claws shed so little blood in a film. Seriously. I'm hoping that 'The Wolverine' and 'Deadpool' change that and get down and dirty. I enjoyed The Punisher and the Blade trilogy because they didn't pull any punches.

                                         "I'm thinking if a number between one and awesome!"


Maybe the big difference is Christopher Nolan. The guy can't make crap, it's not in his DNA. I was very hurt when I found out the Darren Aronofsky (director of Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream) wasn't going to be at the helm of 'The Wolverine'. Reason being that the man can't not make an R rated film that makes you so depressed you want to die.  That sense of despair is basically what the next stage in Wolverine's life becomes.


What I want is directors of comic book movies not to take me as a fool and accept it because they have flashy special effects and a hero that is literally larger than life. Iron Man 3 can delve into Tony Stark's alcoholism, Thor could view a little more of his arrogance (a three day field trip on Earth and a roll in the hay with Natalie Portman seems like a cheap change of heart). Spider-Man (at least the first one) showed a hero that was human but acted like a hero, super strength aside. I'm hoping that The Avengers movie can put all my misgivings aside and produce a great film.


Eric C.

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