Our series on reactions to DC’s September relaunch continues. Last time we looked at the Justice League titles. This time it’s the Green Lantern collection of comics, which appears to be less of a reboot and more of a restructuring.
Green Lantern · Green Lantern Corps · Green Lantern: The New Guardians · Red Lanterns
The first round of Flashpoint miniseries’ arrived last Wednesday. DC has seemingly selected creative teams based on potential and allowed them to play in the sandbox of this alternate reality however they would like. To be sure, both of the issues reviewed here do little more than exist in the universe that has just now been created for Flashpoint, at least in their respective openings. They also succeed on many levels, achievements made possible by the unexplored new world. If DC is using the minis as a way to ease fans into a reboot, they could have done a whole lot worse.
In Batman: Knight of Vengeance, the Gotham City of Flashpoint is put into harsh focus. In Abin Sur: The Green Lantern, events in Green Lantern lore both recent and distant are re-cast, and redesigned with an eye towards the upcoming film.
For further comments and some spoilers, see you after the jump…
Some items of Flash-related news.
Colorist Moose Baumann, whose work can be seen on the iconic cover for The Flash: Rebirth #1, is is selling prints of his work to raise money to cover medical expenses for his wife’s cancer treatments. (via That F’ing Monkey and Comics Alliance)
Actors John Wesley Shipp (Barry Allen) and Amanda Pays (Tina McGee) from the 1990 Flash TV series will be appearing at Dallas Comic Con this weekend.
Comic Book Movie reports that the Flash’s home town of Central City will be mentioned in the Green Lantern movie. (via @johnnywellens)
DC is announcing the remaining Flashpoint creative teams today at The Source. They describe it as the eight remaining miniseries and four one-shots, so it sounds like they expanded the line from 15 to 16 miniseries, and the two new series announced last week don’t replace anything previously announced.
Just like last week, I’ll put the Flash-related titles at the top, and update this post throughout the day. Click on the covers to jump to the original posts at the Source.
Covers: Francis Manapul
Writer: Sterling Gates
Art: Oliver Nome
“Where is he? Or should we say when?”
Perfect: We’re finally getting a Kid Flash/Bart Allen story by Sterling Gates! I kind of hope the full title is just “Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost,” though, because the “starring…” part gets kind of unwieldy. (Not that it comes close to “Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Yet Another Subtitle.”)
Cover: Francis Manapul
Writer: Sean Ryan
Art: Ig Guara
“Africa belongs to him!”
Cover: Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes
Writer: Scott Kolins
Art: Joel Gomez
“He’s more powerful than ever!”
Kolins really has cemented himself as the go-to guy for Flash villains, hasn’t he?
DC is announcing the creative teams and first covers for eight of the fifteen Flashpoint miniseries today. Each announcement comes along with yet another teaser.
DC seems to be announcing them alphabetically, but I’m moving the Flash-related ones up to the top because, well, this is a Flash site! So far we’ve got Citizen Cold, Batman: Knight of Vengeance, Deathstroke and the Curse of the Ravager, Deadman and the Flying Graysons, Hal Jordan (a new one), World of Flashpoint, Emperor Aquaman, and finally…Legion of Doom.
Click on the covers to read the original announcements.
Covers: Scott Kolins
Writer: Scott Kolins
Art: Scott Kolins
“He loves someone he shouldn’t.”
I was fully expecting Scott Kolins as the artist on this book — his style is perfect for the modern take on the Rogues. But I wasn’t expecting a one-man show. I really figured Geoff Johns would want to write the Captain Cold mini himself.
Going by the weapons and gloves, those hands look like the Weather Wizard, Tar Pit, Fallout, the Trickster and the Mirror Master…opposed to Captain Citizen Cold. Update: I have some more commentary on this one.
Covers: Miguel Sepulveda
Writer: Adam Glass
Art: Rodeny Buchemi & Jose Marzan
“Whatever Happened to the World’s Greatest Super Villains?”
You know, I thought it was odd that Heat Wave wasn’t on that Citizen Cold cover…
Also, this makes one more book that I’m going to have to check out. Not because of Super Friends nostalgia, but because of Heat Wave.
Well, that was fast. Just yesterday I pondered the likelihood of DC releasing a Flashpoint prelude for Free Comic Book Day, and today they announced a Green Lantern/Flashpoint special for the event.
This is the perfect jumping-on point for new readers who can’t wait to see the “Green Lantern” major motion picture from Warner Bros.! Discover how and why Hal received the power ring that changed his life forever with this reprinting of GREEN LANTERN #30, a pivotal chapter of the Green Lantern: Secret Origin graphic novel. No comic fan can afford to miss this exclusive first sneak peek of FLASHPOINT, DC’s blockbuster event of 2011, by the all-star team of Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert.
So instead of a lead-in, we’re getting a preview, and it’s playing backup to a Green Lantern movie tie-in.
Free Comic Book Day is held the first Saturday of May.
