I have read parts 1 and 2 so far and it is very good. Superboy Prime and Cyborg Superman and the Anti Monitor are part of Sinestro's Corps. They have turned Kyle into the new Parallax. Please read.
I pick up a few Marvel titles - most notably She-Hulk and Daredevil - but I've dropped almost everything else. I'm mostly picking up DC titles and a few other non-"Big Two" titles.
Countdown is pretty unreadable. It's like taking Nyquil PM and listening to nature sounds. Bor-ing.
In fact, I don't think DC is putting anything out I'm really into (save All-Star Superman). And, for those of you who really know me, you understand the tragic irony in that statement. DC was dead the moment Infinite Crisis did.......nothing at all.
I've been getting WORLD WAR HULK (so far, so good!), IRON MAN: Director of SHIELD, THE INITIATIVE, and SILVER SURFER: REQUIEM. I just picked up the first THOR issue. Not bad.
Now, as for SINESTRO WAR, I can barely stomach Hal Jordan's presence in the modern DCU. That being said, I did give this one issue a shot.
PROS: John Stewart, Sniper-Lantern.
The scene where about thirty rings wiz by looking for new bearers, after the Corp starts getting slaughtered.
The art is fantastic. Van Sciver has come a long way. He's got this pseudo-Brian Bolland thing going, with the definition in the lips, and surface textures. Very nice.
And.......yeah, that's it.
CONS: Every single other piece of that story. I think Geoff Johns just dumps a pile of character pics on a floor, closes his eyes, and beats off. Whatever his load hits are the characters he slaps together. Superboy-Prime??? The Anti-Monitor???? Oh, fuck off...
The Anti-Monitor was the main villain of Crisis. Superboy-Prime was a throwaway character that Geoff Johns somehow thought was important enough to bring back. Unfortunately. Throwing them together makes no sense...to me, anyway. If you're digging it, that's cool. I'm just not a fan...
seriously, what about some fucking artistic integrity? Green Lantern used to be a simple, enjoyable concept, although one that never seemed to fully reach it's potential. guy gets a ring that can make whatever he imagines happen. he becomes basically a cop for the universe. loads of potential, simple setup, easy to get in and out of. tons of places you can go with the concept.
I was even willing to deal with Hal turning into Parallax and wiping out the Corps as a "spring cleaning" type situation, clearing away a lot of ideas that just weren't working out at the time. (which is the same way I see the New Gods characters at this point in time.)
but then came Afterbirth. and Parallax was just a space bug up Hal's arse. horrible idea, but given the catch-22 of attempting to restore Hal to prominence, but not completely wiping out his actions, sort of understandable. it's a rock and a hard place, with no real "right" choice. (with the possible exception of "leave him dead")
Sinestro Corps. actually a good idea. great designs. some interesting new characters. but throwing the whiny bitch Superboy Prime (we all knew he'd be back) and the freaking Anti-Monitor???!! WHAT THE FUCK???!!! Wank, pure and simple. no bloody integrity. leave the Anti-Monitor dead and buried and stop raping the corpse of Crisis. Infinite Crisis was bad enough. you don't have to compound it with this tripe.
Superboy Prime is a lame villain. I'm sure DC thinks he's a great villain because everyone hates him. wrong. we don't hate him because of his villainous actions, we hate him because he's an awful character who should've been left in the limbo he went to twenty years ago. he's got the comicbook equivalent of "X-Pac heat".
not to mention that Ion now is also a space bug who's been in and out of Kyle's arse the last few years. But Sinestro pulled Ion out of Kyle's arse and shoved Parallax in there and that Johns has implied more space buggery is on the way. really. just quit while you're ahead. too late.
however, I can't help but think that blaming Geoff Johns is really the easy way out, imo. he's not the full problem, he's just a symptom. he's just a hired gun. if he wasn't doing this, somebody else would be. the problem is that DC (and Marvel) are losing sight of the simple art of telling stories. with all the "event" hoopla and the rush of sales, they've lost sight of what really matters. let's face it, "big events" are this decade's gimmick covers. lots of hoopla, lots of people running around excited, not a lot of good storytelling. no real, long term interest.
Not denying that at all. In fact, he seems worse than Jemas. Whereas Jemas was "against" fandom, and wanted to branch Marvel out away from comic book fans, Didio seems to want to seclude DC. As a "fan", he is inbredding the shit out of the DCU to the point where no outsiders can readily understand what the fuck is going on at a glance.
Jemas seemed to want to "dilute" comics as an artform, and crass it out as an insta-pop-culture whore. Didio just suffocates comics as an artform by regressing it backwards to a silly kids-only era, and aiming it squarely at the pre-existing, eroding post-30's fanbase...
well im sure it will be brutal. but going through it in life i think is tougher than on a message board...
Heh. Man, my name is "Devin". Throw an "O" in place of the "i", and you've not only got a girl's name, but a well-known female porn star to boot. I'm also relegated to reminding comic fans of Devin-fucking-Grayson. To top it all off, I grew up in the southern base of Mississippi. You haven't lived until you've heard some sister-fucking redneck try and comprehend the combination of linguistic motions to pronounce it correctly.
"Deyah-vyn?? Is that like Keyeahvin?"
Yes, you horrifying hillbilly. It's exactly like "Kevin". Congratulations on passing the sixth grade...
well im sure it will be brutal. but going through it in life i think is tougher than on a message board...
Heh. Man, my name is "Devin". Throw an "O" in place of the "i", and you've not only got a girl's name, but a well-known female porn star to boot. I'm also relegated to reminding comic fans of Devin-fucking-Grayson. To top it all off, I grew up in the southern base of Mississippi. You haven't lived until you've heard some sister-fucking redneck try and comprehend the combination of linguistic motions to pronounce it correctly.
"Deyah-vyn?? Is that like Keyeahvin?"
Yes, you horrifying hillbilly. It's exactly like "Kevin". Congratulations on passing the sixth grade...
you said my accent was "charming" and that you'd never heard that joke before.
Didio just suffocates comics as an artform by regressing it backwards to a silly kids-only era
I disagree with that because I think your other point
Quote:
and aiming it squarely at the pre-existing, eroding post-30's fanbase...
...is spot on and, yet, seemingly contradicts your first point.
I agree that Didio is letting his writers resurrent a lot of silver age concepts but not in a way that makes them kid friendly, let alone "kids only." Instead he is having his writers resurrect in a way that would actively discourage a kid (or new readers in general) from ever reading most of the books (A-S Superman, Dini's Tec and Smith's Shazam being three notable possible exceptions).
Unless that's what you meant, in which case I agree with you.
That's exactly what I meant, I just mis-phrased it.. When I said "kids-only", I meant the old world view of comics, as seen by outsiders. He's aiming them at "kids-only"....except, those "kids" are in their 30/40's now, and are trying to relive their childhood through the nostalgic wank drenching the entire company...
This is pretty cool: All the stuff happening in the Sinestro Corps War, except the Sinestro Corps itself, was prophesized in one of Alan Moore and Kevin O'neill's GLC stories from 1986. I knew the villains that have been popping up in Dave Gibbons' GLC series seemed vaguely familiar.
Part of the prophecy is a GL called Sodam Yat, who's destined to become the Ultimate GL. He was also part of Moore's Twilight of the Superheroes proposal. Being a Daxamite, he has Superman-like powers, so it's possible that he'll be the one to defeat Superboy Prime.
It's Geoff Johns. Naturally he went back and read the entire history of the character and is now writing it to "come true". I'm not saying that's a failing, mind you. However, it's not surprising that something Geoff Johns writes ties into previous DC history. In fact, it's to be expected...
Anyone else remember the Silver Age story that revealed that, if Krypton hadn't exploded, the Guardians prohpesized that the ultimate GL would be a Kryptonian, namely, Kal-el?
anyone remember that Silver Age story that showed had the big bang never happened then Superman would've played golf with Batman in some bizarre alternate universe. And that Batman was be the greatest golfer ever if it weren't for a certain Kryptonian, namely Kal-el?
It's Geoff Johns. Naturally he went back and read the entire history of the character and is now writing it to "come true". I'm not saying that's a failing, mind you. However, it's not surprising that something Geoff Johns writes ties into previous DC history. In fact, it's to be expected...
The cool thing is that, this time, you don't need to be aware of the original issue to enjoy the current story. Johns doesn't rub the reference in your face, like he's done in the past. Until I stumbled upon this, I thought he'd just made up the prophecy and put it in the Book of OA. And it'd work just the same if that was the case, too.
Also, I like the idea of the "Ultimate GL" not being someone from Earth. Typical attempt on Moore's part to get rid of improbable coincidences (like naming the Marvel U Earth 616, instead of Earth 1 or 2 like in DC). Hopefully the character won't turn to shit before the story is over.
Back in Action comics weekly it was said that Clark Kent was called to a dying Abin Sur before Hal, and helped select who would be Earths GL, as he didnt want the ring himself.
Typical attempt on Moore's part to get rid of improbable coincidences (like naming the Marvel U Earth 616, instead of Earth 1 or 2 like in DC).
Actually, I don't think that was an improbable coincidence. I think Earth 1 was called that simply because it was the earth that Barry Allen resided on (and, obviously was therefore first aware of) and, when he discovered another earth, he called it "Earth 2."
But even the Monitor and other cosmic beings referred to the DCU as Earth 1. Whatever the case is, I've read at least one interview with Moore where he said he chose 616 for Marvel to contrast with DC's single-numbered earths. If there are so many earths out there, he figured, they'd be more likely to have high numbers.
They probably can't call him "Prime" because there was another character with that name, originally published by Malibu and now owned (I think), by Marvel.
But that one shot is solicited as "Antimonitor" somewhere else. Maybe that's their way around it. Either way I read at Newsarama that this matter with the Superboy name should be settled by December of this year.
My bet is that Superman-Prime will become the Superman in black shown in DC's villains teaser.
Here's a fan made Sinestro Corps war video
And in a Newsarama interview with Johns, plenty of Star Wars analogies are made. Hints are also dropped as to what is coming after the war. Looks fucking awesome, I'll pick it up when it's collected as a hardcover.
Hal Jordan broke Sinestro's neck in Emerald Twilight and Sinestro was shown to be a ghost in the later Spectre series. This makes no sense on any scientific level.
what about Robin? does that mean his cape is fear? and is all fear the yellow bug or just some fear? and isn't someone who has no fear at all most likely sufering a terrible brain disorder?
Originally Posted By: Friendly Neighborhood Ray-man
yeah, or a psychopath. in fact Emerald Twilight really does make a lot of sense.
wait, no. i forgot that it's out of character for a driven, controlling, man who represses fear and has no stable relationships to suffer a nervous breakdown after losing the 6 million people he swore to protect. and the name parallax (or "a different point of view") really doesn't apply.
yellow space bugs infecting a man and being called parallax (or "yellow space bug") makes sense.
Originally Posted By: Friendly Neighborhood Ray-man
wait, no. i forgot that it's out of character for a driven, controlling, man who represses fear and has no stable relationships to suffer a nervous breakdown after losing the 6 million people he swore to protect. and the name parallax (or "a different point of view") really doesn't apply.
Actually if you read the article, Johns talks about what fear is to the Sinestro Corps. To them it's the best way to order, through control. He also explains that fear to a GL is something to overcome. Everyone has fear, knows it, and faces it. The job of a Green Lantern is to overcome it, not repress it.
Oh, there's scarier things about Robin's costume than his cape, Ray.
this whole thing is reading like some story Geoff Johns came up with when he was 12. The whole "fear is yellow and its an energy source" crap sounds like a little kid came up with it.
no, i have a photographic memory, i see words. he said "caused" past tense. now who are you? and he called you admirial, so if this is some kind of military thing to train whales to track mines then forget it!
Johns is not even a writer, he's a salesman. His work is just "isn't this cool?" with no real storytelling. fear is a color? willpower is a color? Superboy Prime wants to now inspire fear when Johns himself had him wanting to be a beloved superhero so badly that he would kill anyone in his way?
I remember when he started out he gave an interview and said he learned a lot about storytelling from working for Richard Donner on Lethal Weapon 4. This bugged me for several reasons. First, Lethal Weapon 4 was the shittiest part of a shitty series. Second, Donner isn't a storyteller, he's a director. Superman was written by someone else, Donner merely directed. And Superman isn't really a good piece of storytelling, it's an event movie that is built around visuals jokes and a good cast. Johns is just bad. I loved his stuff at first until I realized he was just repeating the same shots (the heroic pose panel that's in everything he does so identical that you know he's scripting it like that) and mind control (JSA, Flash, Rebirth) and the little fanwank moments (lots of references to his message board posters). Add onto that the constant stupidity. I think people like him for the same reason Britney Spears is rich, he tickles their fancy with his junk food stories that are sugary sweet but ultimately leave you with nothing but nostalgic "winks at the camera."
Originally Posted By: Friendly Neighborhood Ray-man
Johns is not even a writer, he's a salesman. His work is just "isn't this cool?" with no real storytelling. fear is a color? willpower is a color? Superboy Prime wants to now inspire fear when Johns himself had him wanting to be a beloved superhero so badly that he would kill anyone in his way?
I remember when he started out he gave an interview and said he learned a lot about storytelling from working for Richard Donner on Lethal Weapon 4. This bugged me for several reasons. First, Lethal Weapon 4 was the shittiest part of a shitty series. Second, Donner isn't a storyteller, he's a director. Superman was written by someone else, Donner merely directed. And Superman isn't really a good piece of storytelling, it's an event movie that is built around visuals jokes and a good cast. Johns is just bad. I loved his stuff at first until I realized he was just repeating the same shots (the heroic pose panel that's in everything he does so identical that you know he's scripting it like that) and mind control (JSA, Flash, Rebirth) and the little fanwank moments (lots of references to his message board posters). Add onto that the constant stupidity. I think people like him for the same reason Britney Spears is rich, he tickles their fancy with his junk food stories that are sugary sweet but ultimately leave you with nothing but nostalgic "winks at the camera."
His work is just "isn't this cool?" with no real storytelling.
Jus topen any issue of Infinite Crisis to see the "cool ideas" just tossed willy nilly with no rhyme or reason. Such as Doomsday just appearing out of nowhere. Why? Because it'd be cool to have a splash page of the 2 Supermen kicking his ass!
His stories do have interesting premises but he's such a poor storyteller that he just can't seem to actually bring in his cool ideas to a full satisfying story. His stuff ALWAYS peters out in the end. and gauging the last Green Lantern issue I just read, It's happening again.
I quite like the idea they dug up the Anti-Monitor, and that he corrupted Earth-Prime Superboy. But unless I hear this has some sort of majestic ending, I'll be skipping it.
Will Kyle nobly die for the cause? Will SBP redeem himself and use his inherent nobility to overcome the AntiMonitor? Will The Cyborg fall up his own arse?
I keep reading about the Black Lanterns on this board, yet nobody seems to be looking at the power rings that're shown. Lookit the symbol on the rings shown at the Blackest Day preview at the end of issue #25.
Nope. Rob is still gay. I just wanted to goof on Pro cuz he's a pal that I don't get to see too often. It's like when you and a college buddy (assuming you have/had friends in college, I dunno) see each other after months or years. You gotta play catch-up.
Nope. Rob is still gay. I just wanted to goof on Pro cuz he's a pal that I don't get to see too often. It's like when you and a college buddy (assuming you have/had friends in college, I dunno) see each other after months or years. You gotta play catch-up.
Silly Joseph...you know Jeremy doesn't have friends...
To me, it was exactly the type of "big" story that I hate. Gigantic confusing slugfests for their own sake and the enormous stakes and adversaries, surmounted rather quickly in time to wrap up the issue.
What the fugg was the point of the Anti-Monitor? He seemed rather weak and pointless, especially when he was wiping out things with anti-matter and supposedly strengthening himself in the process. All it took to reverse something so catastrophic and monumental was to form a bubble around him (and a few city blocks apparently) and blow up Warworld with him?
Typical fucking Geoff Johns "kewl" overkill.
And why exactly does The Anti-Monitor become a big black Lantern? Could they have at least drawn big white Anti-Monitor eyes on it? Then the ridiculousness would have been complete.
I dunoo.. it seemed all the baddies "died" and then got better by the end of the story as if they needed some death drama but needed these villians back in place in time for the "Final Crisis". In other words, a cop-out faux death parade.
I just noticed that there is a Predator and an Alien in the Sinestro Corp.
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NRAMA: Yikes. Not somebody you'd want to meet. But some of these Sinestro Corps members were fun little cameos, weren't they? Like was that a Predator in there? And there was the Yellow Lantern from Bizarro World getting hit in the face with a brick. Are there a lot of little cameos like that?
IR: [laughs] I love sci-fi movies. It was a little homage to the biggest monsters of space. You also have E.T. and Alf in the Green Lantern side. Hey, It's a space battle!
Y'know, when I first read the article that image was in, that's what I thought: "What the hell does Thanos have to do with Green Lantern?". Then I looked closer.
Mongul, like Thanos was created by Jim Starlin. In fact, its widely believed that Starlin created Mongul simply to have a "Thanos" to use in a Superman story he was doing at the time.
The Sinestro Corps epilogues in GL and GLC were pretty cool. Hate to say it, but Tomasi is a better fit for GLC than Gibbons. Gibbons did a decent job, but the most interesting part of his run was actually the fill-in arc written by Keith Champagne, about the hidden part of the GLC who handles all the dirty cases.
I think I'm gonna buy this when it comes out on TPB.
PAAAAAAPPAAAAAAASSSS!!! 
-age.
