Recent Comics Reactions

I picked up an assortment of comics today at a shop near Houston, and wanted to share some quick reactions to them.


Green Lantern Secret Files 2005

Geoff Johns and Darwyn Cooke manage to surprise me by telling a story crossing the time from Hal's days as a kid to his time now as an adult hero who has just returned. It showcases how Hal has gone from a starry eyed kid filled with dreams, to cocky flyboy, to now wiser mentor in a way that is fun and heartwhelming as well.

Good for DC to put the Wizard GL:Rebirth exclusive story in here as well, so readers who don't want to support Wizard could read it as well.


Green Lantern #1

As much as the Secret Files story was a surprise, the start of the new series has to go down as a shocker. Having never been a fan of Hal Jordan, I was surprised by how much I was pulled into Hal's journey to find a place for himself in the world.

It is good to see that Johns doesn't want to just rehash the past, by not going the easy route of sticking him back at Ferris Aircraft with Carol and Tom. Instead he has set Hal up with an entirely new supporting cast, as he seeks to rejoin the US Air Force.

I really like the new potential female love interest's "explosive" entrance, and the idea behind Coast City's return as an empty city the government is trying to repopulate is intriguing.

I was a bit annoyed that after all this new stuff, that the bad guy is such an older one who has been way too overused. Yet perhaps Johns will put a new spin on it, and as of now I'm on board for at least another issue if it keeps being this fresh a book.


DC SPECIAL: THE RETURN OF DONNA TROY #1

While Green Lantern brings a hero back from the past in intriguing, fresh new ways that has a directness to it. This book while trying for similar goals falls flat on its collective face.

For one the book made it feel like I needed a PHD in Greek Mythology to understand any nuance of the story, which has Donna Troy as part of a race of the Titans of myth trying to conquer planets for supposedly peaceful reasons.

The book is a bore both narratively and artistically. Storywise it reads a lot like fan fiction with characters standing around discussing their motives, but not actually doing a heck of a lot.

Visually I was really looking forward to the artistic collaboration of José Luís García-López and George Pérez. Yet with most of the story being either a far off battle scenes with no sense of focus or long conversation scenes which provided no movement or sense of place. It doesn't use either's talent in any meaningful way, and just seems such a waste.

I like Donna Troy, but there has to be something a bit more cohesive of a story and something a bit more human for a reader to latch onto. In order to make this miniseries work, and I'm not sure what I've seen here promises to have any of that happen.

More later...