January 2010 ~ The Blog of OA

1/27/10

Green Lantern #50 Review

1/27/2010

Since the relaunch of the Green Lantern title I wondered if Geoff Johns would make a connection between this series' fiftieth issue to the infamous "Emerald Twilight" finale in the previous Green Lantern series. While today's release of Green Lantern #50 surprises no one in referencing that famous issue, it adds some insight into the nature of the Spectre, sets Hal and Carol up for a rekindled romance, and shows why Hal Jordan is one of the ballsiest guys ever.

Coast City is going to hell as Nekron's army continues to cause rampant destruction. Hal and the New Guardians are joined by their newly deputized members; Mera (red), Lex Luthor (orange), Scarecrow (yellow), Ganthet (green), Flash (blue), Atom (indigo), and Wonder Woman (violet). If you missed what happened in Blackest Night #6, Ganthet activated Oan tech in the rings that triggered their duplication for twenty-four hours and each ring sought out a suitable host.

Barry Allen and Saint Walker fight to save Jason from being trapped inside Black Lantern Firestorm and Mera has the ultimate case of PMS in her confrontation with Black Lantern Aquaman, earning instant respect from Atrocitus. Wonder Woman is driven to try and save Donna Troy from her affliction (she was bitten by a Black Lantern back in the Blackest Night Titans mini).

Meanwhile Hal is having issues with the Scarecrow and Lex Luthor getting rings with Sinestro chiming in that the ring chooses who is worthy of being the wearer. Hal, in typical defiant Hal manner, doesn't really care what the rules are and wants them stripped of their rings - to which Larfleeze agrees wholeheartedly! I hope that Lex's fondness for the orange ring leads to some sort of struggle with Larfleeze before the dust settles. I just can't see him being content to lose the ring without a fight.

Just as Hal starts to get the troops to fall back and regroup Black Lantern Spectre shows up. We haven't seen him in a while, although he did appear in the Phantom Stranger one-shot last week. Given their past it's no surprise that Hal would be the Spectre's target since he was first turned into a Black Lantern. The Spectre tells Hal that he'll be judged and we see that Hal has really come to terms with his past actions when he breaks out of the grip of the Spectre by destroying the hand itself and telling the Spectre that it won't be the first time he's been judged. This falls in line with Geoff's comments that part of this event is moving characters like Hal into the future, much like we saw with John Stewart last month in issue forty-nine.

But the Black Lantern Spectre is not so easily avoided and once he gets his tendrils on Hal he begins to transform Hal into a Black Lantern. Ganthet and Sayd will have none of that and rescue Hal before the change becomes permanent. Hal returns the favor, rescuing the Guardians from the jaws of the Spectre - and gives a great shout-out to "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" that I'm still chuckling about as I type this.

As the battle continues there some very intriguing dialogue between Sayd and Atrocitus regarding the Spectre, with the revelation that the Spectre is a fusion of the red power of rage and death. I find it interesting given that we saw Atrocitus defy death when he was killed by the Five Inversions several issues back. Whether the fusion between the two in the form of the Spirit of Vengeance is a factor in that or not remains to be seen, but it's very curious that this link exists and that Atrocitus wants possession of the Spectre for some hidden agenda of his that I'm sure we'll learn about at some point. Because Geoff Johns doesn't take a dump without a plan..oh wait that's Russians! But you know what I mean, Johns doesn't put stuff like that in a book if he doesn't have plans for it down the road.

Speaking of using things down the road, Hal has a realization about events that occurred all the way back during "Green Lantern: Rebirth" that I doubt anyone else did. Seems that the reason why the Spectre didn't destroy Parallax back when Hal was freed from it's control wasn't because the Spectre was being all uppity - it was because the Spectre was afraid of Parallax. It's an interesting idea considering Atrocitus once talked about how rage and the red power was most noble and effective when it came from a place of pain and not revenge or fear. Could it be that the power of rage is weakened by fear? I think that on some level that's very true and it's interesting an commentary on human emotions.

Hal makes a fateful decision as he realizes that the New Guardians have their hands full with the Black Lantern Spectre and that if they cannot defeat him, then the really have no chance against Nekron at all. Ganthet summons the power batteries of all four of Earth's Green Lanterns and sets Parallax free in a nice two page spread from Doug Mahnke that almost looks like the entity of fear is jumping right out of the book.

Of course that gets Sinestro's dander up and he wants to be bonded with Parallax, but Hal shuts him down in more ways than one and he reminds us that this time it's going to be different because he's overcome his fears and is a better man for it. Carol stops Hal short, pulling him close and kissing him, making sure that he knows she loves him.

I've like Cowgirl for the most part since her introduction in the series, but I've always felt that while she and Hal have much in common, Jillian is just a place holder for Hal. Carol is the one for him and she always will be, but they are literally star-crossed lovers. Carol's new control over the Star Sapphire and her actions in this arc should remind Hal of how important Carol is to him and that she can and should be a central figure in his life. They have a history that I think is one of the most complex and understated relationships in comics and I really hope that Geoff is laying some groundwork here for that to be explored in depth when Blackest Night ends.

Hal grabs Parallax and pulls him in as he willingly offers himself as a host for the entity. There's an ominous explosion of yellow light and then you see a familiar image of Hal Jordan: Parallax with the ballsy callout of the Spectre, "So...Spectre. Where were we?"

The fact that Parallax returns here is no secret, heck it's on the cover, but what I really liked was how Johns used Hal's history with Parallax and, while he gave a nod to the first time Hal became Parallax, showed how Hal has progressed since then. Hal's ability to acknowledge the past while being unwilling to be held prisoner by it shows some great character growth - and it also serves notice to anyone out there who's still holding a grudge about the whole "Hal vs. Kyle" thing that this is history and that we all need to move forward.

Doug Mahnke, what more can you say other than he continues to impress the hell out of us. He's managed to catch all the drama and action without loosing anything. To think I was worried about losing Ivan Reis, not to say that I won't miss his work with Green Lantern once the Black Night is over. From cover to cover this issue was epic!

This issue is obviously a five lantern issue.

1/27/2010

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Some months ago before I started this site there was a leak of the first draft of the upcoming live action Green Lantern feature film as well as some very early concept art. Cosmic Book News ran an article on their site that showed not only the aforementioned early works, but some brand new stuff that really has fans excited.

I can't think of a Green Lantern fan who's not looking forward to seeing Kilowog on screen but as always there's concerns about whether or not they get the character right. As you can see by the image below, they are getting him mostly right. While we know that these images are legit, they are likely not exactly how the characters will look in the finished product.

Likewise, Tomar-Re is another highly anticipated character that could easily be done very wrong. Again, it looks like the studio is getting it mostly right. And there's also an early look at Abin Sur, who's appearance has also been slightly modified. Personally I liked with Warner Brothers did with Abin in the "Green Lantern: First Flight" animated film and part of me hopes they make him a bit more alien like they did for the direct to DVD project.

And here's a conceptual peak at the Guardians:

The article also has an pencil artwork of Hal's costume changing and Legion. It's interesting that the boots appears to have the look from the revised uniform and the logo is more like what we're seeing since "Green Lantern: Rebirth". It appears that the studio from these conceptual designs might be ditching the white gloves, an element I hope is restored before they begin filming in March.

The images have been verified and that leave me to ponder whether this is a legitimate leak or if they were leaked on purpose to get fan reaction. Based on what I've read these images aren't really all that recent, so I'd be surprised if it was done as an approval barometer for how the look of the film is going to be received by the fan community.

In other official news, Variety reported last night that Sony Pictures Imageworks has been hired by Warner Brothers to do the special effects for the movie. Imageworks provided the effects for "Superman Returns", "Watchmen" and all three of the "Spiderman" films.

1/27/2010

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Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason have had an incredible run on Green Lantern Corps and every month they have continued to flesh out the larger part of the Green Lantern mythology. Issue #44 is a perfect example of how this creative team shines....and shows us all why Mogo is one bad Mofo!

Last month's issue ended with Mogo coming to OA for reasons unknown and issue 44 picks up with the recently dead Kyle Rayner and Salaak trying to figure out what has brought the universe's largest Green Lantern to Sector 0. Then there's a rage fueled Guy Gardner to deal with as well.

Yeah, remember him? Guy's still running wild all over anyone who gets in front of him, fueled by his rage over Kyle's death a couple of issues back and powered by Vice's red power ring. Even though Guy is putting a major hurting on the Black Lanterns he can't keep them from causing major devastation in the form of felling the central power battery in yet another gorgeous two page spread by Patrick Gleason.

While the colossal dust cloud settles in the wake of the destruction, Guy is continuing his one man war on the Black Lantern despite it all. Kyle tries to reason with Guy and explains how he returned to the land of the living, hoping that Guy will realize that he no longer needs the red ring since he has no reason to feel the anger he is. However Guy has so completely succumbed to the power of rage that he's no longer rational and even attacks Kyle thinking him to be a trick of the Black Lanterns.

What happens next is a great example of Peter Tomasi's creativity and Pat Gleason's imagery. The rest of this issue shows the raw power of Mogo and why he's probably beyond doubt the most powerful of all Green Lanterns. Driven by a directive from the Guardians to purge OA of the black infestation, Mogo increases his gravitational pull to such a level that everything not nailed down to OA is ripped from its surface and pulled towards Mogo.

The Green Lantern stop short of their headlong plummet towards the surface of Mogo, but the Black Lanterns don't have it so lucky. Mogo's gravity continues to pull them through the layers of earth and into the core where they will be unable to regenerate themselves as fast as Mogo fries them in his molten core. That just leaves the Green Lantern Corps with one problem - Guy Gardner.

It will be interesting to see if Mogo's calming affects will help Guy ditch the red power of rage, although I'm not sure that Mogo can restore the blood and heart that gets taken away when the power of rage consumes you. I almost think that if the Corps can help Guy manage to control the red he would be even more of asset for the remainder of the Blackest Night.

At any rate this issue was a suburb issue with plenty of action and surprises - and again I can't say too much about Pat Gleason's work this issue. Definitely five out of five lanterns.

Martin Campbell Talks GL Movie

1/18/2010

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Director Martin Campbell has been doing many interviews lately to promote the January 29th release of his latest film, "Edge of Darkness, starring Mel Gibson. During the interviews the man directing the Green Lantern movie has provide more information about the film as it ramps up to begin filming in March.

There were comments earlier on that the Green Lantern film might have a cameo by Clark Kent and indeed the first draft of the script showed the ring flying past both Clark Kent and Guy Gardner on its way to Hal. Many have also speculated that the formation of DC Entertainment and the interest in creating a Justice League film might lead to alluding to a Justice League film the way that Iron Man dropped major hints about an Avengers film. However Campbell stated to MTV in an interview that none of DC's characters outside of the Green Lantern universe will appear in the film. While this may sound like a bad thing and that DC is not looking at a single universe approach to the film, it could be that given the scope of what's going on in the film there may not be a good way to integrate any of the DC universe that would not appear forced.

It also appears that the film will is inspired more by the "Emerald Dawn" retelling of Hal's origin than to the more recent "Secret Origin" retelling by Geoff Johns last year based on comments Campbell made to CHUD. It appears that Hal will certainly not be flawless and in fact appear on the surface as one of people least likely to be chosen by Abin Sur's ring and that the story will show how he goes from that point to being one of the greatest Green Lanterns. So long as they leave the drunk driving bit out that's fine by me.

By now anyone with a passing interest in the film is probably aware of the signing of Blake Lively as Carol Ferris, it is important to not that she and Ryan Reynold are the only people who have definitely been signed for the film. News earlier this week of Peter Sarsgaard being cast as Hector Hammond is not completely off the mark, but there has been no official announcement that a deal has been struck yet. And news of Mark Strong being cast as Sinestro is premature at this point and Campbell declined to confirm that information to the L.A. Times. The Times article did say that Strong is the "circled choice" for the role but that his schedule is tricky and that could discount him from being in the film.

One last bit of news to kick off the week is that Campbell might be up for a trilogy of Green Lantern films, likening his thoughts to Sam Raimi's tenure with the Spiderman films. He also routinely ensures that the film doesn't cross into the cheesy territory by employing a "cheese meter" to discuss when anyone thinks the story may make audience suspend their sense of disbelief too far. Campbell reportedly dropped out of a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" to do Green Lantern.

Mark Strong to be Sinestro

1/15/2010

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In an exclusive interview with MTV's Splashpage, Green Lantern director Martin Campbell not only shoots down the Jackie Earle Haley rumor, he says that Mark Strong, who can currently be seen in the "Sherlock Holmes" film as Lord Blackwood, is in negotiations to play Sinestro.

There had been rumors that Haley would be Sinestro since October and that rumor resurfaced earlier this week from a non-official source who claimed that Haley was the studio's only choice for the role. Haley himself denied the rumor after it first surfaced and Campbell claims that he had never heard is himself. While Haley may be a very capable actor, I personally have thought he'd be more suited for the Hector Hammond role, or maybe Abin Sur.

Strong will be appearing in "Kick-Ass", a film based on a Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. property and played the main villain, Septimus, in the film adaptation of the Neil Gaiman's "Stardust". According to Campbell's comments he feels that Strong's "not only a wonderful actor, but he looks like Sinestro."

Like Peter Sarsgaard, who is in negotiations to play Hector Hammond, Strong has not actually been signed for the role yet. However it's not usually mentioned that actors are in negotiations if it is pretty much a done deal, although some times those negotiations do fall through. If both Sarsgaard and Strong sign for the film they will join Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, who signed on last week to portray Carol Ferris.

In addition to mentioning Strong, Martin Campbell also confirmed that Kilowog and Tomar Re would be appearing in the film, as would Abin Sur who obviously would be there to pass the ring on to Hal Jordan.

Peter Sarsgaard to be Hector Hammond

1/12/2010

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Today the Hollywood Reporter is saying that Peter Sarsgaard is in negotiations to play Hector Hammond in the upcoming Green Lantern live action film.

Sarsgaard has generally gotten good reviews for his work in previous films and recently finished work on "Knight and Day" alongside Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. He was nominated for several awards including a Golden Globe for his performance in "Shattered Glass" in 2003 and is married to actress Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Sargaard joins recently cast Blake Lively, who will be portraying Carol Ferris and Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan. The film is scheduled to begin filming in March in New Orleans. While perhaps not the big name actor that many were hoping for, Sarsgaard's history of portraying macabre characters bodes well is director Martin Campbell is hoping to play on the creepy factor. Still to be cast is Sinestro and Tom Kalmaku as well as anyone portraying any of the Corps, so there should be many more of these types of announcements being released as production ramps up.

DC Announces "Brightest Day"

1/11/2010

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**Updated as of 3:15 PM

With the tremendous success of "Blackest Night", it's no surpise to think that DC would want to put out something to piggy back on the sales they've gotten from this event. Today Dan Didio is making several announcements about "Brightest Day", a title that should surprise absolutely no one.

"Brightest Day" will be anchored by a 26 issues bi-weekly series starting in April of 2010 and will be written by both Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi with a number of different art teams, although new DCU exclusive artist David Finch will be handling all the covers for the series. "Brightest Day" #0 will feature art by Fernando Pasarin. Both "Green Lantern" and "Green Lantern Corps" books will feature a "Brightest Day" banner on them during the 26 week period and will continue to be written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi.

Like "Blackest Night", "Brightest Day" will be an event that encompasses the entire DCU. Geoff Johns, in an exclusive interview at IGN has said that "Brightest Day" is to "Blackest Night" what "52" was to "Infinite Crisis". The story of "Brightest Day" will be one epic year-long story spinning out of the events of "Blackest Night" and the cast will consist of many of the characters who have risen in the eyes of fans recently, such as Ray Palmer and Mera, who Johns has said is definitely one of the main characters in the story.

Alex Segura at the DC Source Blog hints that the event has been referred to as "DCU: Rebirth" and a number of other ongoing and new series starting after "Blackest Night" ends will also feature the "Brightest Day" banner to reflect a literal or thematic connection to the main book. Geoff Johns is working with DC editorial to coordinate the books that are carrying the new banner with the "Brightest Day" main series. Today DC announced the first three books to carry the "Brightest Day" banner besides the Green Latntern titles.

The new Flash series by the team of Geoff Johns and Frances Manapul was the first book DC announced that will be connected to "Brightest Day". Another book to carry the "Brightest Day" banner will be "Titans" by the book's new creative team of Eric Wallace and Fabrizio Fiorentino who did the "Ink" mini-series. The new Titans will be led by Deathstroke the Terminator and two confirmed members of the team are Cheshire and the Tattooed Man. Justice League of America will also start carrying the "Brightest Day" banner beginning with issue #44 - but Dan DiDio is saying very little about why, other than that the roster is likely to be different in the post-Blackest Night DCU.

More announcements about "Brightest Day" are expected to be made in the coming days.

Blake Lively is Carol Ferris

1/09/2010

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As was widely reported before the holidays, the casting choices for Carol Ferris were narrowed down to five finalists. Today the Hollywood Reporter has indicated that Blake Lively has won the role in the Green Lantern live action film.

According the report, Lively was chosen over the other actresses based in part with her acting in a film titled "The Town" which is currently in post production and an impressive screen test despite Lively being a little young for the role. Other leading candidates for the role included Jennifer Garner, Diane Kruger and Eva Green.

It's no surprise to hear casting news in light of the fact that Warner Brothers earlier this week gave the official green light for production to begin in March in New Orleans. The casting process will shift to the characters of Hector Hammond and Sinestro.

Members of the fan community have responded somewhat negatively to the news of the Lively's casting, with most fans indicating a preference for Eva Green or Diane Kruger. I myself will reserve judgment since, as I mentioned in my earlier post about the subject, I haven't really seen her in anything. My hope is that Lively looks a little older with dark hair. I have no reason to doubt director Martin Campbell's judgment at this point, but he has had the benefit of seeing footage from the upcoming film "The Town" and obviously sees something in her that make him think that Lively is the right choice.

What I found very interesting was the comments about the script - the Hollywood Reporter indicates that Michael Goldenberg is currently rewriting the script. Goldenberg's credits include "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and the 2003 film version of "Peter Pan". With filming to begin in around eight weeks we can expect that there will be many more announcements.

A Look at 2010

1/01/2010

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With 2010 upon us I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at what we know is coming this new year for Green Lantern fans. 2009 was the 50th anniversary of Showcase #22 and while there were a lot of things that made for a great year, 2010 looks like it's going to be even better.

First and foremost we have the conclusion of the Blackest Night event and the fallout from the story. According to Geoff Johns, "the post-Blackest Night world is a very different world...2010 is about the new." Geoff also hinted that he has "an idea for a Larfleeze Christmas Special that I want to do really bad. I guarantee that will be out next Christmas." John Stewart will also play into the first post-Blackest Night storyline called "New Guardians." And we will be seeing Green Lantern: Rebirth getting the Absolute treatment in April.

Dan DiDio has also revealed that Green Lantern Corps will be getting a co-feature in 2010, although we don't know the exact nature of who will star in it. My initial thought was that John Stewart would get the feature, since he seems to have gotten the least amount of exposure so far. However Geoff's comments make me rethink that and I think the co-feature might either be REBELS or more open "Tales of" the various corps so that the stories of some of the new characters will have a place of their own without eating into the main titles.

In February we'll also have another DC animated direct-to-video release that Green Lantern will be in. "Justice League: Crisis on Earth 2" will have Nolan North taking on the role of Hal Jordan. North has done a great deal of voiceover work, most notably of late is his work in the Game of the Year, "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" and the voice of Deadpool in the animated "Hulk Vs Wolverine" movie that came out in 2009. Ironically, North will end up beating Ryan Reynolds to the punch on being both characters!

Speaking of movies, we'll have a lot to look forward to in terms of news about the filming of the upcoming live action Green Lantern film. We've heard rumors about Jackie Earle Haley as Sinestro and five different actresses vying for the role of Carol Ferris, but the only real news since the casting of Reynolds has been some of the crew working on the film. The movie's cinematographer, Dion Beebe, won an Oscar for "Memoirs of a Geisha" and both the production designer and costume designer are also Oscar winners for their work on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The art director also has a good resume, having working on "Avatar", "I Am Legend", "Watchmen" and all three "Spiderman" films. With production ramping up we should hear more casting information in a matter of weeks.

2010 is going to be big for Green Lantern in terms of merchandising. There are no less than four more waves coming in the Blackest Night line from DC Direct, with a special edition Mongul figure to boot.

In addition to the three waves shown above, wave 6 should hit stores in November that include fan favorite Arkillo, Black Lantern Hawkgirl and two more figures who's identity is not being revealed because they would spoil events coming up in the last two issues. A seventh wave may hit before for the end of the year or early 2011 and will feature a new Hal Jordan figure and a possible 2-pack of Black Lantern Terra and Scar the Black Lantern Guardian. Other rumored figures are Mera, Red Lantern Guy Gardner with a Dexstar pack in mini figure and a Black Lantern Elongated Man.

DC Direct also has a companion piece to 2009's Green Lantern mini neon sign with a Sinestro Corp mini neon sign. As someone who owns the Green Lantern Corps version I hope that DC gets the electrical issues resolved before releasing this one. Many people, myself included, had issues with the base overheating and burning out, causing the light to stop functioning. Fortunately DC is great about replacing them and acknowledged a production issue, but depending on retailer it wasn't always easy to get the problem resolved since DC Direct doesn't work directly with customers when they have problems.

The promotional rings for all the various Corps proved very popular in 2009, so much so that DC Direct is re-releasing them in a higher quality set complete with working LEDS and replaceable batteries for $60. There will also be another version of a metal ring, this one being the Honor Guard ring for $30 this spring. An image of the final version hasn't been released yet, so the image here is still the same cgi image that's been around for a while.

This year there are also seven, yes seven, different statues coming out that are Green Lantern related. Shown on the left in the picture below is the "Green Lantern Legacies" multi-part statue made up of three different parts, each running at about $200 each. The Green Lantern 1:2 scale bust is scheduled to be released in August with a $295 price tag and features a cloth costume on a cold cast porcelain body.

Very little is known about the "Chronicles Green Lantern" statue at this point, however it will probably cost around $100 if it maintains a similar price point the other statues in the line. The Heroes of the DC Universe: Sinestro mini bust will like cost approximately $65 and looks far better than the poor scan of the page it came from. The last statue on the right represents Green Lantern's appearance in the "DC Dynamics" line of statues that measures about 12 inches high and retails for $195.

For something that's a little lighter on the budget, Toys R Us will be the exclusive retailer for a line of Mego inspired action figures that includes both Green Lantern and Sinestro. As a kid I remember making my own Green Lantern figure by using drawing a mask on Superman, having my mom sew together a crude costume for him and painting Batman's boots green with model paint. So it's really cool to see an official version since I've long since lost my version.....and the paint came off the boots anyways!

And last but not least DC will be releasing at least two Blackest Night posters featuring the covers of the first two issues. I have a version of the second issue cover that the owner of my local comic shop gave me, but it will be nice to get a version that doesn't have all the folds in it that the comic shop promo one has.

As a long time fan it's both a pleasure and a pain to be a GL fan right now. Never has there been so much product support of the Green Lantern characters and now it is one of the most successful franchises for DC. So it's great to be able to have access to so many high quality collectibles, but boy when the year is done these items might be only "green" I have left!