Sunday, August 28, 2011

"In Blackest Night"

 Green Lantern is wanted for destroying a whole world.  the Manhunters are sent after him.  he pleads guilty, so there's no question.

or is there?

this is a good episode, though it requires several leaps of faith to get it going.  the first being how the JLA could track the Manhunters back to the planet where they take John.  and that J'onn could be in touch with GL mentally several light years away.  that is one strong martian mind.

 the next huge leap comes from the key plot point- that an errant blast of GL's ring could actually trigger a planet wide seismic disaster.

I mean, there has to be a range limit on the rings, right?  those darn things are so poorly defined as to be dang near omnipotent!

the other quibble I have is that the Green Lantern Corps turned on John almost immediately, without even investigating on their own.  at least Tomar-Re doesn't even have a speaking part in this one so I can think he had reservations.  he certainly wouldn't have believed it of Hal...

of course, any long time DC reader would know who was behind the whole plot, and with Kanjar Ro showing up (far more believable as a weaselly little pirate than a match for the entire JLA) one would know something else was up.

this establishes Hawkgirl as a fighter of some renown, as she takes on three of the above GLs without weapons.

Batman and Wonder Woman don't appear in this story.

5 comments:

C. Elam said...

There are a lot of really good things about that first season, but it's not quite what it could have been. The people who made it are pretty candid about that.

The premise of this two-parter is based directly on a story Steve Englehart wrote in Justice League of America during his brief run. The events of Cosmic Odyssey added an extra level of uncertainty for comics nerds. Just too bad there was no space for Mark Shaw as the Privateer!

C. Elam said...

(Though he did not assume that identity until after the storyline. Why do I remember these things???)

X7 said...

I thought it was sort of based on that story, though it's been years since this one read them. (sorry)

I don't even remember Cosmic Odyssey at all any more. that's the Mignola art, right?

C. Elam said...

Wait, are you Man-tis now? Har!

I am not sure I have, but the synopsis of the issues makes it pretty plain they used the same jumping-off point.

Yep, Mignola art. Jim Starlin wrote it. It has an effect because...


SPOILERS!!!!



...John really does accidentally destroy an inhabited planet in it. It's been dealt with since then, but I don't know all the details of that.

(For the record, it was originally supposed to be Guy Gardner who acted so recklessly, but he was unavailable for the mini-series for whatever reason. That was why John got the "honors". Similarly, Starfire had to substitute for Wonder Woman.)

X7 said...

wow, I don't remember any of that at all. and don't even mind!

thanks for the low down!