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Review: Red Lanterns #21

By | June 28th, 2013
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

DC Comics’ lantern shake-up is in full effect, which had us all wondering where all of the different “Green Lantern” line characters would end up finding a home. Guy Gardner lands with “Red Lanterns”, which at the very least looks to change the conversation of a title that was shockingly stagnant for 20 straight issues.

Written by Charles Soule
Illustrated by Alessandro Vitti

It’s recruitment time for the Red Lanterns, and no one in the universe is safe…especially with the most volatile Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, suddenly in their corner! But why has Guy turned his back on his own Corps?

Since the birth of ‘The New 52′, “Red Lanterns” was perhaps the most directionless and indulgent title that DC had been putting out. In an effort to keep them in the public eye, but with no true stories to tell, Atrocitus was being asked to carry his own title on his personality alone. And while Atrocitus is a visually striking and conceptually strong villain, there wasn’t enough being done with him to make for an interesting title. Critics are not wrong when they say that he and his crew seemed to bumble around Ysmault waiting for something to happen for 20 issues.

Queue up Charles Soule, who makes absolutely no bones about throwing out the old and getting on with the new in his debut. With a Red on Green war brewing, Hal kills two birds with one stone, finding a series for Guy Gardner to feature in and finding a way to relegate Atrocitus to background status. There’s an interesting synergy happening within the lantern titles that was present immediately, despite totally new creative teams across the board. This is actually making for storytelling potential that is greater than the quality of the individual titles themselves, which are decent across the board anyway. Granted, this is an idea that comes with its own fair share of cautious optimism, given how homogenous the lantern titles became before the creative shake-ups. But the way that Hal Jordan is depicted as a newly christened leader of the corps is a thread that continues here in interesting ways. We immediately see his inexperience and the potential errors in judgement, even if none of the characters really state this directly. Throwing Guy Gardner into the Red Lantern ranks is something that could potentially backfire in incredibly bad ways, but you get the feeling that it’s the short of gut-decision that the normally brash Hal Jordan would actually make.

It also gives the audience another angle at the cocksure, yet troubled, Guy Gardner. We’ve seen plenty of stories that dwell on his difficult past and various failures. We get bits in this issue about his past as a Red Lantern and what it did to him and his status as a defender of Earth. But this issue gives us an even further glimpse into a character that just doesn’t feel very good about himself, despite a puffed chest and a itchy trigger finger. Guy feels like a man without a place and someone that no one wants around. This is a character that has only scratched the surface of his usefulness and Charles Soule seems to have found another approach to him.

That said, the Red Lanterns are about one thing and one thing only: Rage. Though Johns’ introduction of the various colored corps was a novel and exciting one, they still feel like very strong supporting characters vs. ones that can sustain a book themselves. Guy Gardner looks to have new purpose under them, but what purpose do they serve? We’re still not sure. The mission statement of the book has not been clearly defined by this issue, though Guy’s inclusion has certainly been earned.

Alessandro Vitti feels like the right artist for this series, but everything is not note-perfect. His Guy Gardner furrows his brow with the best of them, but his renderings of the cast of characters feel overly busy. There are a lot of lines on the characters, especially their faces, which has a strange effect on the depth of their expressions. Everyones’ faces tend to look a little puffy or segmented, with facial expressions suffering a bit from a lack of subtlety.

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But there is plenty to like about Vitti’s art, especially on a brutal book like “Red Lanterns.” The final sequence of the issue is one of the most brutal fights we’ve seen in “The New 52”, which also happens to be nicely character-driven and equal parts triumphant and potentially horrific. Some of the images are actually mildly disturbing. Well, as disturbing as bloody fists and faces can get without actual gore. The tone for the series is set by the end of these 20 pages, and Vitti’s ability to get gruesome is a big contributor to that.

Better for Guy Gardner to land here, than to spend time doing more of the same over in “Green Lantern Corps” – a title that needed a fresh, new direction just as much as this one did. It’s also better for Atrocitus to go back to playing a supporting villain, than to traipse around making speeches as the lead character. There’s an opportunity for Charles Soule to develop new power struggles in a title that had no true antagonist or direction. He’s not entirely there yet, but if Soule is aiming for the Sons of Anarchy feel that he says he is, then he and Vitti look like they might be at the very least pointed in the right direction.

Final Verdict: 6.5 – Browse, a potentially strong place for Guy Gardner fans to spend their time.


Vince Ostrowski

Dr. Steve Brule once called him "A typical hunk who thinks he knows everything about comics." Twitter: @VJ_Ostrowski

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