Comic Review: Infinite Crisis

Published: 2005-2006
Written by: Geoff Johns
Art by: Phil Jimenez

DC Comics, 241 Pages

Review:

I hated Crisis On Infinite Earths but I had hoped that this more modern version of it would’ve been more to my liking. I guess it is better but not by much because it falls victim to the same bullshit.

It’s overloaded with characters to the point that it’s difficult to follow and it just becomes a mega clusterfuck, trying to be larger than life while wedging a fuck ton of characters into double splash pages.

DC likes doing these big events that try to “reset” the multiverse and all they do is become overly complicated messes that ignore their own established rules because new writers don’t have time to read the old stuff or pay attention to it. In Geoff Johns’ defense, the event this is a spiritual sequel to was a convoluted shitstorm, so I don’t blame him for paying it no real mind.

If I’m going to try and look at the positives, there is really only one: the art by Phil Jimenez. It’s spectacular and it is lively and even if I don’t enjoy the story, it’s hard not to get caught up in the absolute beauty of Jimenez’s work. It’s stunning and even on those overcrowded splash pages, he fills the space magnificently and dynamically.

Apart from that, there’s not much to say. This isn’t as messy as its predecessor but it is still an over-sized shit meatball.

Rating: 5/10 – because of the art more than anything else.
Pairs well with: other massive DC Comics events that are overloaded with characters.

Comic Review: Crisis On Infinite Earths

Published: 1985-1986
Written by: Marv Wolfman
Art by: George Perez

DC Comics, 359 Pages

Review:

Crisis On Infinite Earths is one of DC Comics’ sacred cows. Yet, I’ve never had much urge to read it because my experience reading massive DC Comics crossovers has never been that great.

But now I have read it because I felt like it was long overdue and because this is a storyline that is referenced a lot, still to this day, thirty-five years later.

The first problem with this story might be apparent by the number of tags at the top of this post. It’s overloaded with so many characters that it is mostly a convoluted clusterfuck of biblical proportions.

In fact, this post may be the record holder for the number of tags I had to add to it. And frankly, that’s not all the characters, just the ones I know because two-thirds of the characters here are generic one-offs or so minute to the DC universe that they aren’t worth noting.

Now I know that some people love the splash pages from this series, as they showcase dozens (if not over a hundred) different characters all in one giant image. If I’m being honest, I’ve always disliked them and they are why I never really wanted to read this. Most of the action is minimal and many of these scenes are just characters standing around. They lack the energy that a splash page needs and look more like they belong in a Where’s Waldo? book. And I don’t say that to come off as a dick because I almost always love George Perez’s art. This just seems like DC management telling Perez to squeeze in as many characters as artistically possible. It’s hard on the eyes and it’s shit.

Another big problem with this twelve issue story arc is that every moment feels larger than life. Well, when everything is so big and grandiose, that becomes normal and status quo. You can’t possibly go bigger and with everything being so big from start to finish, none of it is memorable. It’s just a busy, stressful read without allowing the reader to catch their breath and reflect on what’s happened. It’s kind of like a Michael Bay movie. Throw so much intense shit at the audience, don’t let them stop and think and they’ll just move from point A to point B to point C and so on, forgetting everything that happened two points prior.

This event was made in an effort to sort of reset the DC universe. Honestly, all it does is make a giant fucking mess of things and splatters the mess all over everything it touches.

The plot doesn’t make sense, I’m not sure what exactly changed and with so many universes crashing together into one, it’s not properly organized and then re-established in any sort of way that a reader can follow. If this was supposed to be a jumping on point for readers in 1986, I don’t know how they made sense out of any of it and then knew which characters to follow.

The main reason for the previous sentence is that this is so overloaded with people that you don’t get to really know any of them. There is no character development and this is written in a way that it assumes the reader knows all about every character in the story. For a seasoned comic book reader like myself, who has been reading comics for three and a half decades, I was lost and didn’t know who half of the low tier characters were.

Crisis On Infinite Earths should have been written as a Justice League story with some inclusion of the Fawcett Comics characters and the Golden Age DC heroes. All the third tier and lower characters could have made cameos but even then, they don’t really need to.

I really hoped that this was going to pleasantly surprise me but it hurt my head.

It was too much, too big and too long.

Rating: 4/10
Pairs well with: mid-’80s DC Comics titles, as well as all the other massive DC crossover events.

Comic Review: Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, Vol. 6: Zod’s Will

Published: September 25th, 2018
Written by: Robert Venditti
Art by: Brandon Peterson, Rafa Sandoval, Ethan Van Sciver

DC Comics, 113 Pages

Review:

Man, this was a refreshing read after coming off of the massively disappointing and extremely long Age of Apocalypse. It took me a week to get through that beefy X-Men event and after finishing it, I needed something fun and cool. This was it!

I haven’t read much of the Green Lantern stuff after the Sinestro Corps War storyline, which is a decade old at this point. But the few arcs I’ve read from Robert Venditti have been pretty good and maybe I should read the whole run.

I picked up this one because it pitted two of my favorite characters against each other: Hal Jordan and General Zod.

The story is about the two men coming into conflict when the Green Lanterns discover Zod and his family, along with Eradicator, on a planet where they seem to be enslaving its people. In reality, the citizens of the planet worship Zod as a deity. All the while, he is there to harvest an element that could be used as a weapon in the future.

While there is a great battle between the core Green Lanterns and Zod’s family, this is primarily a political thriller that makes Hal Jordan walk the line between anti-hero and antagonist. You know that Zod is most likely up to no good but Jordan jumps the gun and takes the law into his own hands with his trusted allies behind him.

The story doesn’t have a true resolution and I’ve read a later story where Jordan and Zod have to be reluctant allies but maybe I need to read what happens in the arc just after this.

Zod’s Will was intriguing, fast paced, full of action with solid character interaction and dialogue.

Rating: 8.5/10
Pairs well with: the other collected volumes in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps.

Comic Review: Doomsday Clock

Published: November 22nd, 2017 – December 18th, 2019
Written by: Geoff Johns
Art by: Gary Frank, Brad Anderson
Based on: Watchmen by Alan Moore

DC Comics, 456 Pages

Review:

Well, Doomsday Clock has finally ended! This twelve issue series wasn’t supposed to stretch out for over two years but it did. I’m glad that I didn’t start reading it until it was over, as I would’ve forgotten all the details due to the delays and the dozens of other comics I would’ve read between each issue.

Now that it’s all out, I finally read it: binging through it in two days.

I guess my first thoughts on it are that it is underwhelming and that it doesn’t justify its need to exist.

I had always been against new Watchmen stories without the involvement of Alan Moore. My mind changed, however, when I read some of the Before Watchmen stories from a couple years ago.

They made me see Watchmen the same way I see other comic book properties and that’s as a sort of modern mythology that is told and retold by countless others, each bringing something new and unique to the table. Superman and Batman have had countless writers and many of them have evolved and grown the character in great ways beyond their original concept. Granted, some writers have gravely failed too.

Generally, I like Geoff Johns’ work, so I wan’t against the idea of him tackling the Watchmen property.

Ultimately, though, this took too long to come out, especially with how sloppily put together it feels.

This is one of those stories where it feels like a lot happened but also like nothing happened.

It tries to merge the Watchmen universe with the DC universe but it doesn’t work. But I’m also over the crossover trope of using inter-dimensional portals or a superbeing that basically acts as a super-dimensional portal. That being said, I don’t know how else to bring these universes together but that also makes me ask why they had to try it in the first place?

Watchmen is very much its own thing, as is DC. Hell, Marvel is also its own thing in that same regard and whenever they tried to crossover Marvel and DC, which happened multiple times, it always felt forced, clunky and weird.

The only real highlight of this was seeing how certain characters from different universes would interact with one another but honestly, none of it was as cool as I felt it should have been and it all felt pretty pointless and made me realize how bad the Rebirth era of DC Comics has been – well, for the most part, as I liked some titles in the last few years.

In the end, this doesn’t feel any different than one of any of the dozen indie publisher crossovers that pit Green Lanterns against Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Star Trek crews or the apes from Planet of the Apes. While those crazy crossovers are neat to a point, they’ve been done to death in recent years. And despite this being better written and having better art than the other franchise mashups, it feels like DC Comics were really late to the party and didn’t even realize that it was over.

Rating: 6/10
Pairs well with: Watchmen and the Before Watchmen stuff, as well as just about everything under the DC Rebirth banner.

Comic Review: Star Trek/Green Lantern II: Stranger Worlds

Published: October 25th, 2017
Written by: Mike Johnson
Art by: Angel Hernandez
Based on: Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry, characters from DC Comics

IDW Publishing, DC Comics, 139 Pages

Review:

While I wasn’t super fond of the first Star Trek and Green Lantern crossover, I bought both volumes so I had to give this one a read too. I’m glad I did though, as this one was better than the first.

The main difference is that this story really had its footing. The first arc served to establish this alternate reality where Lanterns and the Kelvin timeline of the Star Trek universe co-exist. In this volume, the story just bursts out the gates, running.

All the weird bullshit with the Black Lanterns and zombie Vulcans is over, which was refreshing. Instead, we get the Manhunters from Green Lantern lore and the return of the Benedict Cumberbatch version of Khan Noonien Singh. And Khan acquires Atrocitus’ red ring. Khan also has his entire crew by his side, which makes him an even more dangerous threat.

I’ve got to say though, I’ve really enjoyed Angel Hernandez’s art in both of these crossovers. He illustrates the characters’ likenesses really well. Plus, his style captures the tone of the Kelvin movies superbly.

There are some neat surprises in this chapter of the saga and it leaves things open for more. I’m not sure if there will be a third crossover for these two franchises but I’m not opposed to it.

At the end of the day, this didn’t blow me away but for a fan of both franchises, it was a fun experiment to read.

Rating: 6.75/10
Pairs well with: its previous installment, as well as Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern and Star Trek/Planet of the Apes.

Comic Review: Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War

Published: April 20th, 2016
Written by: Mike Johnson
Art by: Angel Hernandez, Stephen Molnar
Based on: Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry, characters from DC Comics

IDW Publishing, DC Comics, 156 Pages

Review:

I hoped this would be a cool comic book series but I already found it a bit of an eye roller when I saw that they used the Kelvin timeline cast, as opposed to the likeness and style of the original cast and it’s version of Star Trek.

Anyway, I don’t hate the Kelvin movies, as you may know after reading my recent reviews on those films. However, why use Kelvin shit if you don’t have to?

So Ganthet dies and with his death, he rips a hole in spacetime. This conveniently brings several Lantern rings into the Star Trek Kelvin universe. The Enterprise crew finds Ganthet’s corpse and the rings and pretty quickly the rings come to life and choose their bearers. One of which is General Chang of the Klingon Empire, in what would be his first Kelvin timeline appearance. Some may remember him as the great villain from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

This story rehashes concepts from the Blackest Night storyline and just brings those concepts into the Kelvin timeline. We have multiple Lantern villains show up like Sinestro, Atrocitus and Larfleeze. We also get new evil ring bearers: a Romulan and a Gorn. But the biggest twist with the Blackest Night concept is when Black Lantern leader Nekron resurrects all the dead citizens of Vulcan, including Spock’s mother. While it was trying to make a big emotional impact on the reader, it felt cheap and pretty cheesy.

I had sincerely hoped that seeing two of my favorite franchises come together would be a fun story. This just felt like it was a lowest common denominator attempt at cashing in on yet another crossover.

Rating: 5.5/10
Pairs well with: its sequel, as well as Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern and Star Trek/Planet of the Apes.

Comic Review: Green Lanterns: Evil’s Might

Published: July 4th, 2018 – October 17th, 2018
Written by: Dan Jurgens, Tim Seeley
Art by: Mike Perkins, Andy Troy, various

DC Comics, 206 Pages

Review:

This eight-part arc came out pretty quickly, as it was released bi-weekly after the recent Green Lanterns annual. While I prefer Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps a bit more, I do like the characters in this title as well. But really, both the current Green Lantern titles share a lot of the same core characters anyway. This one just has a lot of focus on Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz, who, until recently, weren’t major characters in the same vein as Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner. But with the Corps being so massive, it’s always welcome to see the focus switch to other characters.

This story arc is found in Green Lanterns issues 50 through 57.

I’m not sure if there has been a Green Lantern story like this before but the big thing here is that the Lanterns’ rings become unreliable. They are given bad advice and played against one another. This is an easy weakness to exploit given the means to do it and the villain here does just that. The reveal of who the villain is in this story was a big surprise and it doesn’t even come until the end of the fourth issue. If you don’t want that part of the story spoiled, stop reading here.

Anyway, the big bad in this is the Cyborg Superman a.k.a. Hank Henshaw. He has acquired the Phantom Ring, which is something we’ve never seen before. But he uses it to take control of the Green Lantern power battery, even though he is locked away in the Fortress of Solitude on Earth. Henshaw infects the power battery like a virus, infecting any ring that has since charged with it. Luckily, Hal Jordan hasn’t charged his ring in awhile and therefore wasn’t corrupted.

This story shows how reliant the Lanterns are on their rings and why that’s a bad thing. The Lanterns have to turn towards themselves to figure this out, as their weapon and trusted ally is no longer working on their side.

The big battles in this are great and it has a very similar vibe to the massive events the Green Lanterns fought in during the Geoff Johns run a decade ago. This really felt like a throwback to those stories, which is where I really fell in love with the Green Lantern mythos.

This was a solid finale to this ongoing series and closes things out with a big bang, as some of the key characters move on to different things.

Rating: 7.75/10
Pairs well with: All the current Green Lantern series, as well as the Geoff Johns era.

Film Review: Justice League Dark (2017)

Release Date: January 24th, 2017
Directed by: Jay Oliva
Written by: Ernie Altbacker
Based on: Justice League Dark by Peter Milligan, Mikel Janin
Music by: Robert J. Kral
Cast: Matt Ryan, Jason O’Mara, Camilla Luddington, Nicholas Turturro, Ray Chase, Jerry O’Connell, Rosario Dawson, Alfred Molina

Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment, 75 Minutes

Review:

“I expect the worst, so I prepare for the worst, and when the worst happens, I’m ready. But my outlook doesn’t alter the reality of the world.”- John Constantine

I started reading the current run on Justice League Dark and I really love it, at least one issue into it. I figured that I’d give this a watch because of how much I was into the comic and because I’ve liked a lot of the modern DC Comics animated features.

This was a pretty cool film.

I loved the tone, I liked the choice of characters for the JLD team and is it possible that someone was cooler than Batman? Why, yes! His name is John Constantine.

It was neat seeing Constantine take center stage, where he outshines Batman and shows how cool of a character he actually is.

It mostly made me upset that the live action Constantine TV show was cancelled after a measly thirteen episodes because it could have kept growing and got as epic and awesome as this animated feature. Hell, had it gone on into multiple seasons, it could have expanded like the other DC Comics TV shows on the CW and Constantine probably would have had a whole squad, thus making that show a live action version of this film sans Batman.

Anyway, this had solid animation, a great voice cast and I liked how the regular Justice League characters were used in this.

This is one of the better DC animated features that I have seen.

Rating: 7.25/10
Pairs well with: Other recent DC Comics animated features.

Comic Review: Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps: Last Charge

Published: July 11th, 2018 – August 8th, 2018
Written by: Robert Venditti
Art by: Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, Tomeu Morey, various

DC Comics, 76 Pages

Review:

I haven’t read a Green Lantern comic since the Geoff Johns era. But one of the guys at my local comic shop keeps telling me that the current stuff is on par with the Johns era. I don’t quite agree that this is that good but it was still a call back to some of the elements that made the Johns stories so friggin’ great.

Former Green Lantern Tomar-Tu, son of the more famous Tomar-Re, has left the Corps and is leading a different intergalactic police group, the Darkstars. Hal Jordan, along with Green Lanterns John Stewart, Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner team up to stop him. But they also align themselves with former villains Hector Hammond, General Zod and Sinestro Corps member Arkillo. Kilowog and other Lanterns are also in the story as the wage a big battle elsewhere that is tied into the showdown between Jordan and Tomar-Tu.

The downside of reading this is that I didn’t have much context to draw from. I understood the story but you’re just sort of thrown into things if you pick this series up with this arc. That’s how comic books are nowadays though, as stories are told over massive arcs made up of smaller arcs. This was really a smaller arc within a larger arc. I know Tomar-Tu but I don’t know what lead to his fall.

The backstory is discussed by the characters though, so you get the gist of the context but it is missing the long term emotional weight that probably would have been there had I read the 47 issues before the start of this tale.

I still thought this was enjoyable and it entertained me. Mainly, I want to know why Hammond, Arkillo and Zod are quasi good guys in this.

This arc is covered in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps issues 48 through 50.

Rating: 7.5/10
Pairs well with: All the current Green Lantern series, as well as the Geoff Johns era.

Comic Review: Nightwing: The New Order

Published: March 8th, 2018
Written by: Kyle Higgins
Art by: Trevor McCarthy

DC Comics, 144 Pages

Review:

This came highly recommended from several people who have pretty good taste in comics. However, high recommendations usually lead to me feeling underwhelmed. This doesn’t underwhelm though, at least it didn’t for me.

Nightwing is a murdering fascist prick in this story, which is essentially an Elseworlds tale, even though DC Comics doesn’t have that imprint anymore. Well, DC should resurrect it. I love stories from alternate realities and how the regular rules don’t apply.

The main part of the story takes place in 2040 but even the flashbacks are in the future, as they are twelve years in the past from the main story. Nightwing took it upon himself to use a device that took the powers away from Earth’s superheroes. This caused a major event where many heroes and villains died as a result. Nightwing did a dark and dirty thing in order to save the Earth, as he felt that he needed to. Years later, his identity is public and as Dick Grayson, he is the face of the government agency that keeps the superpowered population of America in check. He’s a total Orwellian fascist that constantly has to justify his evil decisions and actions.

However, Dick’s whole world comes crumbling down when it is discovered that his son has powers. Dick in a typical “holier than thou/the rules don’t apply to the rulers” hypocritical turn, sees his agency turn on him in an effort to bring in his son. Dick goes on the run from the law that he established, getting more and more woke to the reality of the world he created.

We get to see the Titans of the future show up, we even get Lois Lane as a Blue Lantern and see Superman and Lex Luthor working together for a better future. We get to see what Tim Drake and Alfred are up to as well. Plus, there are cameos by the John Stewart Green Lantern and Mr. Freeze; both of them work for the fascist government. But the main person hunting Dick Grayson is the former Batwoman, Katherine Kane. Kane is now the head of Dick’s fascist agency and she is a stone cold tyrant.

I liked the story, I thought it was mostly executed well, even though Dick seemed to change his mind too quickly and always seemed like a fish out of water once he got in over his head. He sort of just got pulled along for the ride by the midpoint of the story and things happened around him even though it was all directly related to his story.

The real high point was the art. Trevor McCarthy did a fabulous job, there was great detail and this didn’t feel like many of the other modern comics where lazy artists use an overabundance of 3D models and Google Images run through a filter. I’m not saying that McCarthy didn’t do this but it certainly wasn’t noticeable.

Nightwing: The New Order reminded me a lot of the great Elseworlds tale Superman: Red Son, which is really high praise. There were some similar themes and the tone was very dystopian.

I’m glad that I picked this up, as Nightwing has been a favorite character of mine since I was a child that regularly read Batman and Teen Titans comics in the ’80s.

Rating: 8/10
Pairs well with: Superman: Red Son. As well as the Nightwing and Titans series since the start of DC’s Rebirth era.