August 2012 ~ The Blog of OA

8/28/12

Podcast of Oa Episode 27 - The Eve of Destruction

8/28/2012

In this episode of the Podcast of Oa hosts Bill Giancoli and Myron Rumsey discuss Green Lantern Corps #12, Green Lantern: New Guardians #12 and Green Lantern #12 as they conclude their stories prior to the coming of the Third Army. We also respond to some great comments and questions.

8/28/2012

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Green Lantern: The Animated Series Producer Giancarlo Volpe made it official recently when he tweeted that new episodes of the show will begin airing on September 29th. The new season will feature the Anti-Monitor as the main protagonist and debut several new characters including Guy Gardner, Tomar-Re and Ch'P.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #12 Review

8/24/2012

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This is it, the last book in the Green Lantern family before next week's Green Lantern Annual #1. With Invictus knocking on Larfleeze's doorstep and Sayd about to spill the beans about her involvement in the theft of the power rings that brought them together, Kyle Rayner and the New Guardians are about the face the greatest challenge in their short time together.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series DVD Review - Season One, Part One

8/23/2012

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You don't have to look very far on this site to see how I feel about Green Lantern: The Animated Series. It's smartly written, expertly scored and brilliantly acted, capturing with great precision all the things that made fans fall in love with the Green Lantern mythology. As a life long fan I've seen every iteration of Green Lantern in both animated and live action formats and in my opinion from 1967's Filmation cartoons to today there simply isn't a better interpretation of the characters than what you'll find airing on the Cartoon Network right now. As we eagerly anticipate the arrival of more new episodes Warner Brothers Home Animation is releasing the first thirteen episodes on a two DVD set subtitled "Rise of the Red Lanterns". Surprisingly the decision was made to only release on a standard definition format and hopefully the powers that be will find the smarts to give us the high definition release that this series demands. Other decisions made by Warner Brothers diminish a product that deserves far more support, but some poor choices doesn't lessen the need to own this, especially when you consider that you get so much great content for a low price point.

Green Lantern #12 Review

8/16/2012

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Here it is, the last issue of Green Lantern before the poop hits the fan in the Green Lantern Annual. Gone from this issue is artist Doug Mahnke, with Renato Guedes and Jim Calafiore on hand to add to the visuals to Geoff Johns' script. Green Lantern #12 brings with it a chilling revelation that seems to add credibility to one of the big rumors about what's coming, but as always when it come to Johns the obvious isn't always what we get when the final page is turned.

8/16/2012

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With the zero hour upon us and the imminent arrival of the Green Lantern Annual inching ever closer into reality, the conclusion of the Alpha-War takes center stage in Green Lantern Corps #12. The story of John Stewart facing the consequences of his actions against Krrt back in issue six has taken a back seat to the larger story of the rising conflict between the Corps and the Alpha Lanterns and while that might seem like a bit of a cop out, the vision we saw in last month's Green Lantern #11 hints that the Guardians themselves will be stepping in to deal out the punishment he's been set up to receive. If fans have ever doubted how high the stakes are going to be with the Third Army, this issue serves notice that massive changes to the status of many of the characters may very well be the order of the day.

8/16/2012

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Last year Seth Green and his band of misfits at Robot Chicken announced a special DC Comics episode much like their popular Star Wars specials. The all DC Comics episode will feature a number of familiar voices, including Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan. A new trailer was released today that shows some of the funny bits we can expect to see in the special, including appearances by B'Dg, Abin Sur, Kilowog, Sinestro and Hal Jordan.

The Robot Chicken DC Special airs at midnight on September 9th on the Cartoon Network.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series Soundtrack Drawing Winners

8/15/2012

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A few weeks ago we announced our latest giveaway promotion as a result of a partnership with La-La Land Records to hold a random drawing in order to give five lucky Green Lantern fans a free copy of the newly released animated series soundtrack CD (reviewed here). The drawing has been held and the winners have been notified to confirm their mailing addresses prior to sending out the disks. The lucky winners were:

Phil Bova, Illinois, USA
Dmitri Matheny, Arizona, USA
Ellie Tipples, Cardiff, Wales
Adam Stabelli, Pennsylvania, USA
Marcus Reyes, Texas, USA

Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter and congratulations to the winners!

8/15/2012

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Peter Markowski, who works for Warner Brothers Animation, recently posted some great conceptual art images from the "Homecoming" episode of Green Lantern: The Animated Series on his blog. The seven images he released focus primarily on vehicles and the Maelstrom.

November 2012 Green Lantern Solicitations....Updated

8/13/2012

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The November 2012 solictations from DC Comics for the Green Lantern family of books has been released which features the continuation of the Third Army storyline across all four books. Baz, the new Green Lantern of Earth faces a confrontation with the Justice League and the Guardians make life even worse for Guy and John. The solicitation reveals that the Third Army may not be an army that the Guardians create, but perhaps beings converted by some means. Plus Kyle Rayner begins his journey to master all of the emotional spectrum starting with facing his greatest fear. All this and the next chapter that leads up to the Trinity War makes November an exciting month.

8/13/2012

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DC Collectibles has released a number of art prints via their website. Each one is printed on acid-free archival paper and comes in two sizes: 12 x 18 inches ($19.95) and 24 x 36 inches ($34.95).

All the art prints can be found at the DC Entertainment web store.

8/13/2012

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From July 22-29 Ubeda, Spain served as the host of Playfest, a celebration of music from television, movies and games. Green Lantern: The Animated Series producer Giancarlo Volpe traveled to Spain accompanied by Frederik Wiedmann, the show's musical creative force. A sixty piece orchestra performed music from the series as a part of the live performances at the festival. The soundtrack for Green Lantern: The Animated Series was recently released on CD and visitors to the Blog of Oa can enter a drawing to win one of five copies of the soundtrack co-sponsored by La-La Land Records.

Podcast of Oa Episode 26 - A New Vision

8/05/2012

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In this episode of the Podcast of Oa hosts Bill Giancoli and Myron Rumsey discuss Green Lantern Corps #11, Green Lantern: New Guardians #11, Green Lantern #11 and Red Lanterns #12. We have a new contest and you could win one of five copies of the Green Lantern: The Animated Series soundtrack CDs just by visiting the Blog Of Oa! We also respond to some great comments and questions we received by voicemail and email plus we open a package sent to us by one of our listeners.

Red Lanterns #12 Review

8/03/2012

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With the Green Lantern family of books winding down their current story arcs to make way for the coming Third Army story, Red Lanterns #12 tries to bring everything to a satisfying conclusion. While there are a few bumps along the way, this issue does a good job of resolving most of what has come before it and acts as a pretty satisfying bookend to the first issue.

The Story -

Atrocitus is having his head handed to him by the Abysmus, rejuvenated by his new masters last issue. With the Red Lantern's ring running low, Dex-Starr attempts to come to his master's aid but finds himself nothing more than a minor distraction for Abysmus. In what may be his final moments, Atrocitus relives the massacre of Sector 666 and the rage at the core of his being fuels him enough to be able to send out a signal for help into space. The flare is seen by Rankorr and we see the fates of many of members of the Red Lantern Corps, falling to the disease ravaging them all and coming under fire.

Atrocitus finds his sense of rage renewed

On Zamoran the duel of rage versus love continues as Fatality tries to save Bleez by inducting her into the Star Sapphires, must to the disdain of Zilius Zox. Bleez perhaps for the first time questions her devotion to the red energy of rage and seriously considers Fatality's offer to save her from the plague.

Rankorr arrives in response to Atrocitus' signal and quickly turns the tide against Abysmus. Rankorr's onslaught preys on Abysmus' sense of compassion and he is momentarily weakened, allowing Atrocitus to gain the upper hand after his creation reveals that the Guardians are his new masters. With that Atrocitus reaches into Abysmus' chest cavity and removes his secret weapon, a seed created by the blood of his fellow members of the Five Inversions that had been placed inside Abymus when he was first created. Feeding Abysmus to Dex-Starr, Atrocitus returns to Ysmault and uses the seed to heal the central power battery as Rankorr fully embraces his destiny and throughout the universe the Red Lanterns begin to heal.

Back on Zamoran the wave of healing red energy allows Zilius Zox to free himself and with her rage renewed Bleez turns away from Fatality's seduction and departs with her fellow Red Lanterns. On Ysmault the Red Lanterns make their return, offering blood offerings to the central battery which helps it continue to regenerate itself. Rankorr believes he hears a voice crying for help from within his ring with an editor's note that this is tied directly to the upcoming Green Lantern Annual. The issue comes to a close as Atrocitus re-establishes himself as the leader of the Red Lanterns with a renewed sense of purpose, but unknown to everyone the use of the seed has allowed for the return of the rest of the Five Inversions right beneath their feet - and they likely are going to be looking for revenge on Atrocitus for their savage murders.

While seeming more than a little contrived, the ramifications this causes by issue's end is pretty cool

The Writing -

Peter Milligan does a good job of bring the most important elements of the series and resolving them in a pretty epic conclusion. While I think this could have been done more effectively with fewer issues and certainly without some of the meandering the book has suffered from, I have to give him credit for successfully bringing this to a conclusion which not only wraps up the major loose ends, but gives us a pretty surprising conclusion. I never expected that the rest of the Inversions would show up and I'm happily thinking about all the possibilities that this creates.

I'll admit that at first I really found the Abysmus story line a bit underwhelming and it was disappointing to see how quickly the tables were turned on him. But remembering that Abymus is a character who spent untold centuries with this festering anger and that he lashed out in rage and self-pity not only seems very real, but makes his fall more credible when confronted with the visage of the result of his actions.

To me the most satisfying parts of the past few issues has been watching Rankorr slowly let go of his humanity and the seduction of Bleez as she begins to question herself. Both of those storylines played out well in this issue.

Both ends of the emotional spectrum offer their own brand of seduction

What didn't work for me was the notion that Atrocitus had this secret weapon lurking under Abysmus' hide and so easily removed it when he could have ripped it from his chest before the Guardians stepped in. It read to me very much like a very hastily crafted deus ex machina way to resolve the plot.

The Art -

Miguel Sepulveda really did a wonderful job with this issue, giving it an epic visual style that to me make the book better than what it could have been under another artist. In particular the panel where we see Bleez from the ground level as she stood there bathed in the red glow was spectacular, as was the splashpage of Atrocitus rallying the Red Lanterns.

What Do I Think?

As has been said in the past, Red Lanterns is perhaps a book better read as a long form story versus a monthly book. Wandering at times this series has definitely been a hit or miss for most fans. However, read together one gets a sense that Red Lanterns has thus far been the exploration of the nature of rage, how it isn't too hard to be consumed by it and how one being, Atrocitus, struggles to define himself when his sole purpose for being is called into question by not only everyone around him, but from within himself.

With the second chapter of the post relaunch DCU about get underway I find myself looking forward to how Red Lanterns will fit into the mix and seeing the Five Inversions reunited, not to mention seeing how the vision of Atrocitus leading the Manhunters plays out. Issue twelve does a really good job of putting the important pieces of the puzzle together and provides some great moments for most of the recurring cast. Four out of five lanterns.

Green Lantern #11 Review

8/01/2012

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With just one more issue before the much anticipated Green Lantern Annual which will reportedly shake up the Green Lantern universe, Green Lantern #11 does something you might not expect - it take a breather from the action and takes a pause long enough to set the characters up for the next big push. While the issue is long on character development and narrative and short on action, Geoff Johns continues to impress with his handling of Sinestro, Hal Jordan and, ever so creepily, Black Hand. Plus we get something we've come to expect from Johns - a new vision of the future to get everyone's speculation blood pumping.

8/01/2012

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We previously reported the upcoming release of the new Kotobukiya ARTFX+ statue and today IGN has provided more information on this item and another set of figures that the company will be releasing in the coming months. The aforementioned Green Lantern PVC statue will retail for $39.99 (US) starting in January of 2013 and will be part of their first wave, joined by Superman. All the initial characters will be the Jim Lee designs of the Justice League members.

Before their release another line of figures, shown above, will be released in November of 2012 that are inspired by the "Korejanai Robot" illustration style. The Justice league X Korejanai figures don't feature much articulation but they apparently transform into cars. The 2.5 inch tall figures will retail for $5.99 (US). The first series includes both regular and metallic variants of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Flash.

Source: IGN