Written by Adam Schlagman
Illustrated by Felipe MassaferaFLASH FACT! He survived the crash!
When the Flashpoint tie-ins were originally announced, I was only planning on reading… oh, three or four of them. When I saw this one was out, though, I figured “Why not?” Recently, Abin Sur has been given a bit more characterization in flashbacks and such, as opposed to his original portrayal when he was nothing more than a dead alien. How did Adam Schlagman do in terms of furthering the character? Find out after the cut.
Here’s the thing with these altered timeline stories: you truly have to consider everything. The slightest change opens up all sorts of possibilities, and you just know that devoted fans are going to raise all sorts of concerns regarding “Well, if this didn’t happen, then how come the world isn’t screwed, considering no one was ready for it?” Luckily, that’s what this Abin Sur mini seems to be about: how was Necron stopped in Flashpoint Universe, since there was no Green Lantern from Earth, not many superheroes in general, and so on and so forth? It’s Flashpoint: Blackest Night, if you will (or Blackest Night: Flashpoint, whichever you prefer). And I’ll be first to admit that I really like the way that it seems to be going. One of the many problems I had with Blackest Night was how Earth-centric it was, in contrast to the galaxy-spanning epic that the Green Lantern books had been until that point. Sure, we got some cosmic action in Green Lantern Corps, but I feel that it would have worked better as an event where the Lanterns were trying to keep Necron from getting to Earth – which is what this mini seems to be about. Unfortunately, it’s only three issues long, so I doubt we’ll see the story the way that it should have been. Alas.
As much as I like the idea, though, I’m not sure if I would get through it if it was expanded. Probably the biggest drawback for this issue is Schlagman’s text, whether in terms of dialogue or narrative. Cliches are everywhere, and the characters have little to no sense of emotion – despite Schlagman desperately trying to make it seem like that do. It’s like watching a high school film, where the creator has a good idea, but isn’t sure exactly how to convey it, and the actors aren’t helping him at all.
And, speaking of dialogue, there’s so much of it! I don’t even mean it in a Bendis-esque “There’s too much dialogue?” “Yeah, too much.” “What do you mean too much?” kind of way. The first page is the only one with a single panel where there isn’t any dialogue, and it really hurts the book. A few “silent” panels are really essential to give any comic a bit of motion – not even in terms of action, but in simple terms of moving the reader along. As is, Schlagman seems to be trying to convince me to stop reading a comic that I would otherwise be interested in.
Felipe Massafera’s art does help things a little bit. His style isn’t exactly amazing, but it is rather nice to look at – though there are a few panels that just seem… off. Most interesting are his attempts to integrate the more organic look of the Green Lantern uniforms in the upcoming film, though I’m not sure that it translates to the printed page quite as well. He definitely deserves credit, though, for infusing his artwork with enough energy to keep the reader moving through the aforementioned trudging dialogue, which is no small feat. As is, his figures have a lot of movement, and I honestly think that if you removed all the dialogue, Massafera’s work was solid enough to carry you through – even if you would need a bit of prior DCU knowledge. My only criticism is that the last few pages seem to be a bit inferior – there’s still motion, but it seems a bit sloppy. Whether this was caused by a rush to meet a deadline, or if it was just happenstance, I don’t know, but it doesn’t harm the issue too much.
This isn’t a bad comic. In fact, it has the potential to be a really fun and interesting one. As is, though, Schlagman has a good bit of polishing to do. Here’s hoping things get tweaked a bit, because I am legitimately interested in this story.
Final Verdict: 5.5 – Browse
