Well, that’s one way to get people to read Red Lanterns – fuse it with Green Lantern.
Issue #28 of both GL and RL have been conjoined in a special flipbook issue, taking a cue from Jeff Lemire’s recent stunt in the first issue of Trillium, except it doesn’t fit together smoothly enough to meet in the middle. Basically, you read GL #28 from Robert Venditti and Billy Tan first, then flip the book and read RL #28 from Charles Soule and Alessandro Vitti, which overlaps the first story and then continues it onward. It’s cute. I think you’ll like it.
It seems that Supergirl, presumably angry that for some reason Scott Lobdell thought she should be in love with a ridiculous butt-cape wearing grunge rock jerk named H’El, is mad enough that she’s been taken over by one of the red rings of rage, and she’s flying loose throughout the galaxy, growling and slobbering blood. A pair of oddball GLs, one of which is a frog-guy named Lok and the other being a wolf-man named Bareer, manage to reel her in. Meanwhile, back on Mogo, Hal Jordan is enlisting some of the Green Lantern Corps’ worst ex-convicts into an alliance to deal with the multiplying enemies out to destroy the Corps, thanks to a shapeshifting Durlan aping Hal’s face to broadcast an “Green Lanterns are all assholes” message to the entire universe. The kicker is that pretty much everything the Durlan said is an actual idea Hal Jordan had for how to move the Corps forward in the face of the Relic revelation that all light-wielders are destroying the universe by increments every time they sling the ring power. Thus, “Greatest and Best Green Lantern God Ever Gave Man On This Earth” Jordan is further knocked down some more pegs, which was sorely needed.
So there’s dischord in the ranks between those who still want to use the rings and those who are refusing to contribute to the environmental destruction on principle, they’ve got Dingus Jordan clueless as to how to lead, and they’re now trying to conscript guys like Kanjar Ro, Bolphunga the Unrelenting and Evil Star into backing them up. Then the Supergirl Red Lantern matter falls in their laps. The cure for Red Lanternism is Blue Lanternism, but they’re all dead, save for Saint Walker, whose hope has fluctuated to the point where he can’t really deal with being a Blue Lantern anymore, although he does seem to have some hope of finding hope again, so I guess we all have to hope that the Last Hope Lantern Standing finds hope enough to wield hope light from hope rings. Maybe watching reruns of Ryan’s Hope would help.
So with Blue Lanternation not an option, it falls to Hal to call on Guy Gardner, the ex-GL he sent to go undercover with the Red Lanterns who proceed to take them over instead. In another Hal Jordan Sucks At His Job snafu (seriously, when are the other GLs going to lose confidence enough in this guy to replace him?), a miscommunication wherein Hal had promised the Reds that they’d have their own sector to patrol has led Guy and The Gang to take over 2814, which happens to include both their home planet of Ysmault and a shiny blue orb we call Earth. Oops! The F-You Lanterns have space cop power over us, and they puke on people and kill them! Zoiks!
At this point, we hop to Red Lanterns #28, and to Venditti and Soule’s credit, the tone remains the same and it’s a smooth transition, even if we’re jumping backwards and seeing the Reds taking on Shadow Thief, who is xenophobic about aliens. It seems Guy has grown a Hulk Hogan mustache – because he’s the one human Lantern with the license to look ridiculous, and the old bowl-cut isn’t New 52 Edgy enough – and he’s trying to rekindle his romance with Ice, who ain’t havin’ it. Meanwhile, Atrocitus, the monologue-spouting sadism monster that Gardner deposed and nearly killed to take over the RLC, is back with his evil cat Dex-Starr, torturing the crap out of Bleez and Rankorr, a human RL whose name was apparently inspired by He-Man toys. It seems Atrocitus is mad at them for not having his back, which is to be expected from a rage lantern who doubles as a revenge lantern. Also, it seems he’s picked up a new pet, an energy-sucking cockroach dog named Klarn, who renders Rankorr and Bleez’s attempts to fight back moot.
So once Guy gets re-dumped, he heads back home to the craptastic planet of Ysmault, where Zilius Zox, the big beach ball Red, meets B’ox, the square Green, in a moment of absurdity that Lantern fans cherish – the most interesting things about the Lantern Corps are the weirdos from whacked out sectors, like F Sharp Bell, the Lantern from a planet with no concept of light, who works through sound instead. Haven’t seen him in a while, but we’ll rejoice when he shows up. Anyway, the Greens and Reds try to hash out the Supergirl situation, which requires dunking her into Blood Lake so she can gurgle around and regain her higher brain functions, and then hash out the 2814 malarkey.
GL/RL #28 is mostly set-up for whatever it is to come, but it’s entertaining. I can’t say I’ve been following Supergirl (see H’El for reasons why), so having her blast into this story as a Red Lantern was something of a surprise, but it’s an interesting development for the highly irritable New 52 version of Kara Zor-El. With only a handful of Red Lanterns, adding a Kryptonian powerhouse to their ranks will definitely give them some street cred – space cred? – but one can’t imagine she’s going to stick around Red Lanternland forever. She’s got branding to think about with her big red S and all. Then again, this issue made a big point of Guy getting dumped (in a cool conversation that pokes holes in a lot of standard comic book relationship tropes), so holy jeez, what happens if Guy Gardner starts dating Supergirl? Maybe she’s into ridiculous-looking people. H’El had some very Raven qualities – not Raven-Symone, but Raven the grungy pro wrestler – so maybe she’d dig the Hulkamaniac look? The thought is brain-breaking.
Anyway, what I like about the current Lantern universe is that it’s in chaos. I had expected a radical redefinition of Lanterning in the wake of the Relic revelations, but that hasn’t happened. I was impatient about it for a while, because it seemed like an absolutely logical next step and every issue that passed where they barely paid any thought to it felt like everyone was an idiot, but it makes sense that a drastic changes in established traditions don’t happen that quickly. We know that fossil fuels destroy our environment, but we’re still clogging freeways every day while massive conglomerates try to defame solar power, etc. It stands to reason that centuries of Green Lanterning won’t come to a screeching halt overnight just because they found out they’re destroying the universe. I also like that Hal Jordan’s ideas about how to deal with this new information have all been awful, and broadcasting those half-baked notions to the universe at large have turned all of space against the GLC, which means a guy like Bolphunga The Unrelenting can become a semi-regular character now. Making Jordan this much of a fuck-up has done a lot to make him more readable and less irritating than he was. One expects he’ll find his core competency soon.
Another good thing about the books is that they feel character driven, which they have to be because there are so many damn characters to juggle. There is a copious amount of banter, allowing so many different people to have little moments, and the final conversation between Hal and Guy is refreshing, because a lot of comics would feel the need to settle things with a big fight, but they talk to each other like friends who’ve been strained lately. Artistically, Tan has it over Vitti, but the latter’s grittier, messier style behooves the rage lanterns, while Tan’s cleaner, lovelier look suits the more idyllic Mogo locations. Interestingly, Tan’s version of Gardner’s facial hair gives him more of a Chuck Norris vibe, while Vitti’s giant mustache definitely invokes the Hulkster. Unfortunately, I kind of hate Vitti’s tooth-grate version of Atrocitus, though.
All in all, the GL/RL #28 stunt was an enjoyable one, if not particularly exciting, giving us a frog lantern and a bit of bitchiness between a ball lantern and a box lantern, as well as dropping a major character into the Red Lantern fray that will hopefully spike its interest levels and get the Reds mixed in with the rest of the DCU.
