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Posted by Don MacPherson on June 28th, 2007
Green Lantern Sinestro Corps Special #1
“Sinestro Corps, Prologue: The Second Rebirth”
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist/Cover artist: Ethan Van Sciver
Colors: Mouse Baumann
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Peter Tomasi
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $4.99 US/$5.99 CAN
Crisis on Infinite Earths. “The Death of Superman.” “Emerald Twilight.” “The Return of Superman.” Green Lantern: Rebirth. Villains United. Infinite Crisis. Ion. 52 #52. These stories and more are really required reading if one wants to fully appreciate the various continuity references that turn up in this new Green Lantern story. Johns’s script is incredibly dense, and even those with knowledge of the DC history at play here might be a little put off. To the writer’s credit, though, a creepy atmosphere of intense foreboding manages to pierce that wall of potential inaccessibility to pull the reader into the prelude to a cosmic war. The plot here may be dressed up with the notions of ideology, prophecy and emotion, but it’s actually quite simple: opposite numbers are getting ready to rumble. No, the book derives its strength not from plot but from atmosphere. Ethan Van Sciver’s dark artwork goes a long way to enhancing the tense and unsettling mood that pervades almost every moment in the story.
Aware that his old enemy Sinestro is recruiting members for some kind of army to serve as a corrupt counterpart to the Green Lantern Corps, Hal Jordan investigates and shares his concerns with fellow Green Lanterns from Earth. He quickly finds his concerns have merit, and joined by John Stewart, Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner, Jordan tries to warn the Guardians of the Universe. He may be too late, though, as the Sinestro Corps launches its first salvo in a coming war. The attack serves more as a distraction from an effort to recruit some key new members, one of which turns out to be a respected Green Lantern in his own right.
Van Sciver’s dark, detailed style is an excellent fit for this story. The Sinestro Corps is shown to be an army of monsters, and he brings a harsh, corrupt and ugly look to the villains. The inkiness of the visuals helps to drive home the chilling, intense qualities of the plot and the antagonists nicely, and the Sinestro Corps uniform design incorporates super-hero, sci-fi and villainous elements quite well. Van Sciver seems to like using grand, dramatic movements to bring the drama to life, but it doesn’t always make for a clear flow to the action. He also opts for unusual points of view for the space-faring sequences, which makes sense, but it also makes it hard to get a sense for what some of the lesser-known Green Lanterns. As is usually the point with art for various Green Lantern comics in the past few years, the strongest visual element in this book is the color. Moose Baumann really knows how to light up a GL story. The art really pops thanks to how he using vibrant, electric colors to illustrate the various lantern effects, both green and yellow. He uses the somewhat glossy paper quality to great effect as well.
It’s clear that DC issued this in the one-shot format so as to bring more attention to this event-driven storyline, but really, what we get here is an oversized issue of the regular Green Lantern series. It even features the last in the “Tales of the Sinestro Corps” series of short backup stories that’s been running in GL the last few months. At first, I thought that this struck me as something of a money grab on DC’s part, but the large scope of the story certainly seems to merit the oversized format. A lot happens in this issue; it’s just not clear how all of it unfolds.
Johns grew up during same era of DC Comics as I did, and I can tell from his writing that we share some of the same fond memories of super-hero stories gone by. I’m a fan of DC’s complex and even convoluted history; I love how disparate characters cross over into one another’s worlds, I always loved the seemingly endless array of colorful champions and crises that DC’s stories offered. But the script for the Sinestro Corps Special struck me as being way too “inside” than it needed to be. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging continuity, but there are times the script here is mired in it. Don’t get me wrong… I get the references and even enjoyed them on a certain level. I was pleased to see the return of a couple of key characters, for example. It makes me nostalgic, but I don’t know that it actually adds to the story. I wonder if Johns’s scripts for future chapters of this story won’t be burdened with excessive but necessary exposition.
Despite those misgivings, Johns taps into the same sort of drama and intensity that one can find in Marvel’s Annihilation line of cosmic war/super-hero comics. Sinestro and his allies pose a real sense of menace here, but perhaps what’s so disturbing is how easily one can appreciate Sinestro’s motivation. It’s not that one relates to him, but I can see the logic in his plans and motives, twisted as it may be. The opening scene, which is something of a symbolic rebirth for the title villain, makes him seem like so much more than the mustache-twirling antagonist than he was in past stories.
“Tales of the Sinestro Corps: The Greatest Once, the Greatest Again”
Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Dave Gibbons
Inks: Rodney Ramos
The backup story also touches a nostalgic tone on a couple of levels. Johns’s scripts for these short stories are reminiscent of the “Tales of the GL Corps” backup stories of the 1970s and ’80s without actually referencing those old segments. But what I really enjoy is seeing Dave Gibbons tackling these characters once again. He illustrated Green Lantern in the 1980s, and his bright, wide-eyed style really suits a more traditional tone in super-hero storytelling (though of course he demonstrated during that same decade he can handle beefier fare with Watchmen). The characters’ faces in this story are subtly expressive, which is what’s called for in a story that’s basically about friendship.
Though I still don’t know what Lyssa Drax’s deal is, Johns’s plot and accessible script do a great job of letting the reader know who Sinestro was and how he came to be who he is today. I like the notion that he sees (or at least saw) Hal Jordan as a kindred spirit, and the notion of two friends becoming bitter enemies is a classic conflict, a formula that pays off just as well here as it has time and time again in so many other works of fiction to come before. 6/10
June 29th, 2007 at 8:12 am
As a old timer, I enjoy seeing all the references to the past. the only time I really get on comics about over use of continuity is when they create tales just to explain changes in it. This issue doesn’t do that, it just uses points of reference to build upon. Depending upon an individuals perspective that can be good or bad, but in this day and age a quick google search can fill younger readers in on most of the “important” happenings in DC’s history that this story references. As such, at least from my perspective, I’m pleased they don’t waste a bunch of pages explaining things I already know and that younger readers can figure out with relative ease if they so choose to. I don’t know if younger readers actual do track down comic history when they read something like this, as such – my perspective may or may not be a bit selfish.
Do you think it is unfair of Geoff Johns to use more of his page count to tell new tales in place of better explaining old ones? I’m sure this can be argued both ways, but I believe the technology that is available on the internet to track down comic history makes it fair for Johns to spend more time moving old ideas forward and creating comics that do not have pages and pages of explainations of what came before (though I’d still like to see the return of the little foot notes).
June 29th, 2007 at 11:35 am
I’ve been salivating over this since I heard it was coming out months ago. I’m ready to head to my shop tonight and get a copy. GL’s been one of my favourites, and with its rich and spellbinding history, I’m sure Mr. Johns had a ball writing this. I find his love and interest in the characters is similar to my own, and I like how he draws on previous events to build his story on, as one cannot simply overlook an event as cataclysmic as, say, “Emerald Twighlight” (which I loved, though many didn’t).
Dont really like Sin’s new threads, as it looks to much like Black Adam’s outfit. I would’ve stayed with the old colour scheme and tweak that.
One thing I’m not sure of is if this concept’s been done before. I’m surprised this is the first I’ve heard of it, as it’s obvious to me that the anti-GLC would be a great idea to have. You have Bizarro, Venom, the Secret Society, and even Sin solo as the anti-Hal Jordan. At least there’s one now
June 29th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
TK wrote:
I’m ready to head to my shop tonight and get a copy.
Be sure to report back in and let us know what you thought of it. Your enthusiasm is enviable, but I’d rather know what you think after reading it rather than before.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I am relatively new to the dc universe and I didn’t feel overburdened by the past history included in the book. I probably didn’t pick up a lot of the references. But it didn’t inhibit me from enjoying the story. I really enjoyed this book. It certainly wasn’s as distracting as Meltzer’s run on JLA. JLA has been incomprehensible at times for a newer reader. thanks for the guides on that series.
June 29th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Apparently, my misgivings about this comic aren’t shared by many, as DC has announced it has sold out. From the publisher’s news release:
After selling out at DC Comics just one day after its instore date, GREEN LANTERN: SINESTRO CORPS SPECIAL #1 is being sent back to press for a new, second printing.
June 30th, 2007 at 8:13 am
I know just enough about the DCU to catch some references, but it was just good story to me. I got that maybe there was some history that I didnot know. Still, I understood the story and just went WOW!.
At HeroesCon they said us fans of Kyle would hate them, I will hold that emotion until I see if they were telling the truth about the Challengers of the Beyond team. Kyle was a moment that did provide an emotional torture if you like him. The people that hated him got some ironic twist of fate by seeing the Torchbearer become the force that caused his becoming a GL.
The expansive feel of this story just brought out evrything I loved about comics growing up. Threats that are larger than the heroes that stand against them. It is a superhero comicbook world, you know that in the end the heores will stop the madness, but just what the landscape will look like after the dust settles?
I am tired of seeing everyone compare this to Annihilation. The only common theme is that they are in space. Annihilation was about alien conquest in terms of military invasion, both the first and what we have seen of the latest. Sinestro is creating a new force of order. It is about a political shift in the DCU’s cosmic playground. I think there will be a form of this Sinestro Corps after the end comes about. To me these two are different in tone and what they are at the core.
June 30th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
I thought this was one of the BETTER continuity-laden comics DC has put out in a while. I mean, rudimentary knowledge of CoIE, Infinite Crisis, and 52 #52 is pretty much required reading in the DCU these days, as Emerald Twilight and Rebirth are for GLs specifically. If you don’t know the basics of those stories, then you’re up a creek with practically ANY current DC comic. And it’s not like GL:SCS #1 asks you to know the details of them; so long as you know that the two non-GL-specific lackey villains are bad news, that the Master Villain is REALLY bad news, and Sinestro’s new recruit is a powerful personal dilemma for the GLs, then you’re essentially caught up. Though I do have problems, as I do with most modern comics, with the “visual reveal” (introducing someone without at least identifying them by name)–it’s one thing requiring people to know who the Master Villain and the young lackey are and what they’re capable of (something many readers probably learned by word-of-mouth only), quite another to require people to know them by sight alone. This comic hardly passes the “every comic is someone’s first” test, but at least it sticks to DC 101 stuff. It’s not like it requires reading usually-not-connected titles to know what’s going on (as Infinite Crisis and Countdown do); or knowing somewhat-obscure stories from 30 years ago (as Identity Crisis did); or being an expert on three-times-removed versions of characters from a story most people have never heard of who meet friends who may or may not remember them, that ties into the finale of a completely unannounced crossover title, and requires learning another language just to read the title page (as the Lightning Saga did).
If anything, it’s the smaller moments in this that confused me. If you know your DC Basics, you’re good to go with Hal, John, Guy, Kilowog, Kyle, Sinestro, the Major Villains, and Ganthet. But unless you’ve been reading GL/GLC/Ion, there’s virtually nothing to introduce you to everything else. For instance, the virus. The text implies it’s a big deal and a shock to Kyle, but it doesn’t tell us why; I’m guessing it’s a plot from Ion, but it’s way too big a plot point here to leave unexplained to the uninitiated. There are other small head-scratchers throughout (Are we supposed to know why the sniper-bug guy was sleeping in Sector 3? How did the older non-GL-specific lackey end up in the Bleed and then Oa?), things that aren’t necessary to follow the plot but still seem to assume too much for an event-starting chapter. It does make me worry that Johns will end up getting too continuity-heavy as the event goes on for the average DC reader to follow, which would be a real shame as this seems to be the only current DC event that ISN’T inherently confusing.
Gotta disagree with Palladin about the Annihilation comparison (sorry unwashed, SPOILERS FOLLOW!!.
Sinestro Corps = Invaders from the opposing Anti-Matter Universe, led by their powerful native tyrant, enter the DCU and invade the home planet of the space-cop Green Lantern Corps, kill a slew of GLs, and liberate the uber-powerful prisoners incarcerated in the Sciencells. The power of the Guardian of the Universe is stolen by the bad guys, who also learn how to tap into the primal cosmic power.
Annihilation = Invaders from the opposing Negative Zone, led by their powerful native tyrant, enter the MU and invade the home planet of the space-cop Nova Corps, kill a slew of Novas, and liberate the uber-powerful prisoners incarcerated in the Crunch. The power of the Protector of the Universe is stolen by the bad guys, who also learn how to tap into the primal Power Cosmic.
Of course, there are many more NON-comparables between the two, but things are starting out VERY similarly, enough to make me wonder if there weren’t some shinanegans going on in those 52 meetings. Almost beyond belief, as Johns and Giffen are absolute professionals, but it is sort of staring us in the face. I’d get very suspicious if Darkseid shows up with a Imperiex-cannon and promising to give Sinestro’s boss the secrets to the Anti-Life Equation, or if Jade returns with Ion’s power and dating Lightray. Besides, even if Johns is ripping off Giffen (or vice versa), it’s a pretty awesome rip-off nonetheless. If we’re lucky, maybe Hal can talks some smack to Iron Man, too!
June 30th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Cove West wrote:
I thought this was one of the BETTER continuity-laden comics DC has put out in a while. I mean, rudimentary knowledge of CoIE, Infinite Crisis, and 52 #52 is pretty much required reading in the DCU these days, as Emerald Twilight and Rebirth are for GLs specifically. If you don’t know the basics of those stories, then you’re up a creek with practically ANY current DC comic.
Does that sound like a good thing to you? How can DC hope to reach new readers if that’s the case?
For instance, the virus. The text implies it’s a big deal and a shock to Kyle, but it doesn’t tell us why; I’m guessing it’s a plot from Ion, but it’s way too big a plot point here to leave unexplained to the uninitiated. There are other small head-scratchers throughout (Are we supposed to know why the sniper-bug guy was sleeping in Sector 3?
The virus and the “sniper guy” were Sinestro Corps members introduced in the “Tales of the Sinestro Corps” backup feature that’s been running in Green Lantern lately.
July 1st, 2007 at 4:11 am
Does that sound like a good thing to you? How can DC hope to reach new readers if that’s the case?
“No” and “They can’t.” But DC’s having a problem right now reaching CURRENT readers. I’ve been reading DC since the early ’90s and I can’t even keep up with them these days. It’s actually quite refreshing to see an event that doesn’t a) require knowing the ins-and-outs of Bronze Age C-listers from Earth-Whatever or b) require reading every DC title just in case an unnanounced crossover has some essential plot point that I need to know. Yeah, crossovers tend to be like that almost as a matter of course, but DC has been hitting the continuity button to an insane degree lately. So for the Sinestro Corps Special to say, basically, “Here’s some A- and B-listers that everyone reading this probably already knows, some basic DCU-history continuity points, and a story that pretty much starts here and stays in titles with GL on the cover,” then that’s a step in the right direction.
In the best of worlds, Countdown, JLA, JSA, and Titans would be the reader-friendly comics and Sinestro Corps would be the fan-wonk, but that’s just not the case, so I guess I’m just relieved that Sinestro Corps wasn’t the fan-wonk it could have been (and still might be). It’s a shame, but the DCU, as a line, just isn’t a place for new readers to be right now (though at least it isn’t Marvel, which isn’t much of a place for anyone).
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:48 pm
See, I think this special would be a perfect jumping-on point for a new reader. Sure, they wouldn’t know *exactly* who some of these characters were, but there are enough melodramatic explanations and exciting scenes for the average comics reader to say “This was a blast” even without having read the list of precursor comics mentioned earlier.
… except that nowadays the average comics reader is able to overthink it, because he’s probably in his late 20s. So he wouldn’t enjoy it after all. This is a shame.
I think superhero comics are getting an immensely bad deal these days in terms of their accessibility. It’s pretty unlikely that all those anime series on TV don’t attract new viewers based simply on their energy, excitement level, and the *lack of a need to know exactly why some things are important*. They just *are*. Characters act like it’s important, so, well, I guess it must be. That seems fair enough.
When I was eight I read my first Marvel UK comics, which at the time were running reprints of the Avengers-Defenders war. Remember that? Even better, I came in halfway through so I missed (a) the setup for the conflict and (b) an incident where one of the Avengers, the Swordsman, got injured, thus raising the stakes for the rest of the encounters. Now I’m pretty sure those comics, judged by today’s standards of “accessibility” and “explanation”, would have been swept to one side with disdain. There’s a sequence I clearly remember near the end of the story where we take a tour of the Marvel Universe and see all sorts of characters who weren’t involved in the actual war at all. Did I throw the comic away in disgust because I didn’t know who these people were? No! Because I was eight and I thought it was amazing! My first comic had a throwdown between Thor and Hulk which was awesome. Who the hell was Thor? Dunno! He looks a bit of a girl! But wow, that’s quite a fight. The Avengers show up and Wanda ends up beating Dormammu. Who are these characters? Dunno! Who cares! They look cool!
That phrase probably sounds familiar. But have you ever heard an adult comics reviewer say this about a comic and not mean it disparagingly?
Adults think too much about this stuff, and discuss it at length, and worry about continuity, and nitpick because characters wouldn’t act that way, and all that crap. How about this for an opposing view? There was a famous letter to the Judge Dredd Megazine some years back from a kid who said, “I didn’t like this week’s episode of Judge Dredd because no-one got punched.” Fantastic! Even an adult can connect to that idea. Why is it considered bad by comics reviewers? Note how successful movies and games can be when they operate at that level. It’s simple but it’s entertaining, and it still requires a certain level of consistency and invention. Judge Dredd has been punching and shooting criminals for over fifteen hundred weekly episodes and he still *rocks*.
James Agate, an English theatre critic, used to say that the only two topics worth assessing in a criticism were (1) did the work do what the author intended to do? and (2) was it something worth doing in the first place? I’m not sure that many comics get reviewed on that basis nowadays.
Judged in those terms, I think Sinestro Corps is one of the greatest comics published in a while, because it pushed a whole bunch of sheer kid fun buttons like so many comics don’t. And I’m someone who knows little about Green Lantern mythos, doesn’t have a strong view on Geoff Johns’ writing, and wasn’t bothered that much about the whole Infinite Crisis mularkey, so I promise you it’s not a continuity pleasurefest. Do I remember the Anti-Monitor? Sure, just about. I remember Crisis On Infinite Earths looked pretty sucky when I read it, because the artwork was so small. Would it matter if I didn’t remember him? Would the last page still work for me? Yes, because whoever this character is who’s in charge of the bad guys, he’s *massive* and he looks *dangerous* and he looks *cool*, and I bet I’ll find out more about him next time.
Try this comic on some kids, and I would be prepared to bet money on them thinking it was pretty cool.
So on the whole I think giving this 6 out of 10 is a bit tight.
~ Gil
July 2nd, 2007 at 6:28 pm
The biggest joy in comics reading has always been the discovery of the characters for me.
As to Annihilation comparison, am I the only one who does not see Sinestro and Co. as invaders? He killed the freaking Qwardians, they lay dead and stacked on the ground in the anti-matter universe. Sinestro seeks to usurp control of the Guardians position in the DCU, not conquer in terms of dictatorship. He sees himself as a liberator. He will bring order as a force to clease the Universe of the lack of vision the Guardians have represented.
Annihilus was out to destroy everything because then he becomes the most powerful being. No real politics, just plain invasion for death.
Either way, this book blew me away and it had to with a price of $4.99.
July 2nd, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Gil wrote:
James Agate, an English theatre critic, used to say that the only two topics worth assessing in a criticism were (1) did the work do what the author intended to do? and (2) was it something worth doing in the first place? I’m not sure that many comics get reviewed on that basis nowadays.
What do you think Agate would have said about a play that required the audience members to be familiar with characters and plot elements Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard so they could follow the core plot? I’m guessing he wouldn’t have kind words.
I think Sinestro Corps is one of the greatest comics published in a while, because it pushed a whole bunch of sheer kid fun buttons like so many comics don’t.
Even for those who enjoyed Sinestro Corps, I think that’s a rather extreme statement. “Greatest comics published in a while”? Maybe for a diehard Green Lantern fan. Let’s try to bring some semblance of objectivity to the discussion.
July 2nd, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Palladin wrote:
As to Annihilation comparison, am I the only one who does not see Sinestro and Co. as invaders? He killed the freaking Qwardians, they lay dead and stacked on the ground in the anti-matter universe. Sinestro seeks to usurp control of the Guardians position in the DCU, not conquer in terms of dictatorship. He sees himself as a liberator. He will bring order as a force to clease the Universe of the lack of vision the Guardians have represented.
An invasion is an invasion regardless of motives. For example, even if one buys into the notion that the U.S. went into Iraq to liberate the people, it still invaded in order to do so.
July 2nd, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Er, Don, my point was that I’m practically the antithesis of a Green Lantern fan, and I don’t have the grasp on DC continuity minutiae which you mention you have, and I don’t read the GL ongoing. And I still think this was better than pretty much any other superhero comic I’ve read this year. For my money that makes this comic a result. I’m sorry I can’t be more objective than that.
But since you raised objectivity… this got a 6. The last issue of a six-issue arc of newuniversal got a 9. Could you explain the objective reasoning behind that?
As for the theatre example, sorry, but “yes, so what?” Agate would have strongly *approved* of a play which he felt was wholly entertaining in itself but which also drew allusions to other plays which if you saw them would throw into even stronger relief the events of this play. Here’s an alternative theatrical example. The character of Sir John Falstaff makes no appearance in Henry V, but there are references to him which are very telling if you’ve seen the Henry IVs, potentially irrelevant if not. Would this ruin Henry V for you? (“Oh noes! William Shakespeare has broken the town cryer in half!” etc)
~ Gil
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Gil wrote:
But since you raised objectivity… this got a 6. The last issue of a six-issue arc of newuniversal got a 9. Could you explain the objective reasoning behind that?
newuniversal #6 boasted a recap page, and the core conflict — government versus emerging metahumans — was easy to follow. I also found that book to be far more inventive in terms of plot and script. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Sinestro Corps Special on a level as a longtime fan; I take issue with its accessibility. I’m not the only one making these points either. The special worked for you… that’s fine. It doesn’t invalidate my points.
Agate would have strongly *approved* of a play which he felt was wholly entertaining in itself but which also drew allusions to other plays which if you saw them would throw into even stronger relief the events of this play.
But Sinestro Corps Special doesn’t just allude to other GL stories. Those stories make up most of the foundation of the plot here. The giant looming head of the Anti-Monitor in that double-page splash late in the issue has zero impact if one isn’t already familiar with the character. In order for several key story elements to work at all, the reader has to have prior information about them.
I’m not saying one shouldn’t base a new super-hero story on previous events in continuity. I’m saying an effort should be made to make the new story accessible.
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:13 am
Mmmmm.
You’ve got two links to other blogs which didn’t like the issue – the second of which expresses itself using such childish abuse that I can promise you my first glimpse of it will also be my last.
(That guy actually runs a comics shop? Crikey, it must be fun going in there to get sneered at when you tell him what you want to buy. Has anyone ever asked whether people are downloading comics because their LCSs are staffed by insufferable elitists?)
Meanwhile, in this very thread, you’ve got four people saying, “Sorry, but we liked it and we disagree with your point about accessibility.”
So if it’s just down to numbers, then, er, consider those points of yours a tad invalidated.
Plus, even you admit it’s sold out – although if ever I saw a post typed through gritted teeth, it was yours, reporting that fact.
Go on, take the big step and become the second internet comics critic ever to say, “I was wrong”…
~ Gil
July 3rd, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Gee, I certainly disagree with Don’s POV in this review, but why should he say he was wrong? He presented his opinion and backed it up. While that opinion may not be the majority one on his own board, that doesn’t make it invalid.
I personally thought that the GL:SC special was a fun example of doing continuity right. The key conflict of the story – Sinestro vs. Hal/Kyle and the GL Corps was clearly presented and I felt that it draws strength from being based on previous stories. But I don’t think you need to have read all those stories to comprehend or understand the key conflict of this one.
And I think the core draw of the issue was epic space opera action. The action scenes were clearly presented and had the green Lanterns using their powrs is dynamic and visual interesting ways.
On the characters: the core of Hal, Kyle, Guy, John and Sinestro all had a moment to convey what makes them interesting. Maybe I am too forgiving, but I think the characters or the two released from prison will have an opportunity to be seen in futur issues. And the shock of the final page reveal would have been ruined had the necessary continuity been referenced earlier in the story – I anticipate that it will also be covered in later issues.
Finally on the other continuity minutia, I thought the issue did an excellent job of introducing the concepts without getting bogged down in them. Kyle’s mother’s death and its cause was explained and expanded on; The importance of 52 was more succictly explained here than I’ve seen in any other issue including 52 #52; who Parrallax is and hy he is a threat was decently recapped.
I haven’t been enjoying the stories in the main GL series too much. They just haven’t grabbed me. But I am eagerly looking forwards to the continuation of this tale in that series now.
July 4th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
You’ve got two links to other blogs which didn’t like the issue – the second of which expresses itself using such childish abuse that I can promise you my first glimpse of it will also be my last.
(That guy actually runs a comics shop? Crikey, it must be fun going in there to get sneered at when you tell him what you want to buy. Has anyone ever asked whether people are downloading comics because their LCSs are staffed by insufferable elitists?)
Forgive me for going a bit off point here, but two things:
1) Does Alan David Doane run a comics shop? I had thought he worked in radio.
2) I *do* run a comics shop, and I don’t always share the opinion of my patrons. In fact, I often vehemently dislike what’s selling the most (say, Civil War, for example.) As a professional retailer, though, it’s not my job to sneer at them about what they buy, it’s my job to make sure they can get what they want. Doesn’t require me to give up my opinions, or even to refrain from expressing them if asked… just requires me to accept that differing opinions on comics are OK.
You might want to work on that second thing a little bit yourself, Gil… you seem to be taking Don’s review a bit personally, which seems odd given that you’re not the artist, writer, colorist, etc.
Meanwhile, in this very thread, you’ve got four people saying, “Sorry, but we liked it and we disagree with your point about accessibility.”
I’d chime in, but I just didn’t have much interest at all in reading the book after skimming some pages. Does that count as someone on the other side, and it’s now 4 to 3? Or should I make up a third “Don’t really care one way or the other” voting block?
Plus, even you admit it’s sold out – although if ever I saw a post typed through gritted teeth, it was yours, reporting that fact.
Sorry, sales doesn’t equal quality. If Don had said in his review “And this book won’t sell because it’s too inaccessible” then you might have a point.
Go on, take the big step and become the second internet comics critic ever to say, “I was wrong”…
Just curious, here… how is he wrong? His opinion doesn’t match up with yours, but that’s all it is. You’re no more factually correct than Don is factually wrong. Your best bet is to persuade him that you’re correct by making a logical argument, not to try to browbeat him into changing his mind because a couple other posters agree with you.
July 4th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
I’m sorry if it’s the case that Mr Doane works in radio… the impression I got from his blog was that he was comics-shop-related. He still sounds like a very angry young man, though. (Not an angry old man like me.)
Don’s opinion, and his review score, appear to be strongly connected to doubts about the comic’s perceived accessibility. My points, which seem logical to me, are: (a) an assertion like that seems like a prediction, rather than a simple opinion; (b) I found it accessible without all this prior knowledge; (c) so do several other people, so it’s not just me; (d) therefore it seems to me that, based on an admittedly small but at least random sample, that his prediction could be wrong. High sales, while not indicative of quality, may indicate people’s willingness to try this even if they haven’t followed the storylines in the past. Thus my position.
As for my strongly defending the book despite not having a personal investment in it, sorry, I don’t see the relevance of that. People talk up books to which they have no creative connection on a daily basis, and likewise discuss poor reviews of their favourite books. I don’t usually care much what reviewers think or post on the net, but yes, I did feel strongly about this, so I spoke up. I note that when this Alan David Doane feels strongly about this comic and speaks up about it despite also having no creative connection to it, that’s considered to be perfectly reasonable and can be referred to for support.
I believe this is a very good comic that’s worthy of a higher score than 6/10, and that Don’s review unfairly shortchanges it. I also feel his criticism is a bit skew-whiff in general if this gets 6/10 and newuniversal #6 gets 9/10. Leave it at that.
~ Gil
July 4th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Gil, you’re missing the point of Randy’s comments. He’s saying — and I agree — that reviews are subjective. There is no right or wrong. For example, back when we were writing on The Fourth Rail, Randy and I both wrote reviews of Identity Crisis #2 the same week. I gave the book a 7/10, Randy a 1/10. Randy loathed the book, but the individual issue appealed to me. Neither one of us was right or wrong. We disagreed, that’s it.
You say you’re not familiar with the stories that preceded the Sinestro Corps Special, so I assume you were not familiar with the Anti-Monitor. His appearance in the special is meant to pack a punch because it marks the return of the cosmic villain. Assuming you were unfamiliar with the character and Crisis on Infinite Earths, his appearance wouldn’t have the intended impact, yes?
If his grotesque visage and immensity was enough for you, that’s fine. We disagree on the accessibility. That’s all. My opinion doesn’t invalidate yours, or vice versa. A majority holding such an opinion doesn’t matter either. If it did, the Bush administration’s policies and actions would be completely different.
July 5th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Gil, you’re missing the point of Randy’s comments. He’s saying — and I agree — that reviews are subjective. There is no right or wrong. For example, back when we were writing on The Fourth Rail, Randy and I both wrote reviews of Identity Crisis #2 the same week. I gave the book a 7/10, Randy a 1/10. Randy loathed the book, but the individual issue appealed to me. Neither one of us was right or wrong. We disagreed, that’s it.
No, in that case you were wrong and I was right.
Kidding!
July 5th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Randy wrote:
No, in that case you were wrong and I was right. Kidding!
Randy Lander, ladies and gentlemen. He’ll be here all week. Try the veal!
July 6th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Nice to see Don & Randy together again.
Reviewing is part opinion and part personal tatse mixed with one hopes a good dose of fairness. While I would have put this at an 8 or 9 in Don’s scale, he always gives his reasons and lets us know if he has a bias brewing behind the scenes of his reviews. Never do you see attacks on creators and always do we see his opinion executed logically and intelligently.
I disagree with his ultimate opinion on this review, but still come back because many a time I get an opinion that helps me decide on other books. Over time you get a feel of a reviewer, you know their likes and dislikes compared to your own.
I like this site and its views, so I come back and check it out constantly.
July 6th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Thanks for the kind words, Palladin.
Oh, and Randy and I are not “together” again. It’s just a casual thing.
July 6th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Nice discussion. To the “rating” controversy, I guess you’d call it, I’ve often wondered how bloggers & reviewers do it. You’re bound to eventually like something more than you liked something, say, six months ago, but give it a lower score. And then, it’s a matter of time until someone like G.J. becomes anal about it. At any rate (or rating), the opinions here are always backed up – one of the reasons I frequent the site.
As far as the “one-shot” in question goes, “meh”. Johns’ work always comes across as emotionless to me, so the weight something like this is going for doesn’t work for me. The only times I’ve felt an emotional reaction to his work were early-to-mid in his Flash run, the Batman stuff from Infinite Crisis and, to a smaller extent, Kyle here. In each case, I think it’s my personal affinity for the character rather than his writing that stirs me.
And it’s not so much the reliance on past continuity that annoys me (although I admit it is limiting and I don’t see how any “newcomer” could work up any excitement for the thing), it’s that seeing Prime and Anti-Monitor at the end tells me this story won’t be wrapped in just the GL titles where Sinestro Corps proper will take place, but in Countdown, and Final Crisis, and Didio knows what else. Call me jaded, but you can count me out.
July 6th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Sean wrote:
To the “rating” controversy, I guess you’d call it, I’ve often wondered how bloggers & reviewers do it. You’re bound to eventually like something more than you liked something, say, six months ago, but give it a lower score. And then, it’s a matter of time until someone like G.J. becomes anal about it. At any rate (or rating), the opinions here are always backed up – one of the reasons I frequent the site.
When I first started writing reviews, I didn’t use a rating system. When I went to New York in 1999 to work with Randy on Psycomic, I adopted the same 1-10 ratings system Randy was using so the reviews on the site would be consistent (and for the purposes of quick comparison for the readers).
Randy has since abandoned the ratings while I’ve stuck with them, oddly enough. Generally, people seem pretty much split about the ratings. Some love them, some hate them.
As for a rating not holding up in hindsight, that’s always going to hold true. Reviews tend to be opinions of the moment. A story might appeal to one based on mood, current events, the weather… the possible factors are endless. Reviews are subjective, and using the ratings to quantify and compare different comics is a pointless exercise.
July 6th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I don’t read GL, GLC or Ion, but I picked up this special based on the art. I thought Sinstro Corps was actually one of the better examples lately in the DCU of how to do a continuity-driven event story, but in the end for me it was still little more than a continuity-driven event story, and I’m actively trying to stop buying those stories, not buying into them. More and more, I just want a few books that I can read and enjoy (and I’m not finding that in the DCU sadly).
There were points that I didn’t understand or that I had to re-read because I’m not getting the main series (the virus thing took several reads, the sniper thing I didn’t realise I was supposed to get more out of until I read here, and the Ion as torchbearer stuff — I still don’t fully get or care about that), but it was the Kyle/Parallax stuff that mostly made me lose interest in the story. I just don’t really care for the way the Parallax backstory has been retconned, and this continues that and expands it even further in a direction I don’t care to read. As a someone who returned to comics post-crisis and who saw Kyle as his GL, I realized that, no matter how it turns out, I probably won’t be happy. I haven’t been in the DCU for some time.
Still — nice art, though.
July 6th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Davy wrote:
I’m actively trying to stop buying those stories, not buying into them. More and more, I just want a few books that I can read and enjoy (and I’m not finding that in the DCU sadly).
DC (and Marvel) would be well advised to heed those words.
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:13 am
Note from editor: Comment deleted.