Thursday, August 3, 2017

Throwback Thursday: Green Lantern/New Gods: GODHEAD #1 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Van Jensen, Justin Jordan, Robert Venditti, Charles Soule, Cullen Bunn
Art By: Ethan Van Sciver, Martin Coccolo, Gordan Sudzuka, ChrisCross, Pete Woods
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: October 1, 2014



One Ring To Rule Them All


GODHEAD has finally arrived and with it the Lantern crossover to end all crossovers.......  I really wish that were true.  With my luck we'll be jumping into another crossover two issues after this big mamma jamma is over.  Well it's here all you Lantern lovers, so we all better hunker down for the long haul as we jump into this epic story combining the Lantern universe and the New Gods, as Highfather searches for the one thing that can finally stop Darkseid and his siege of the Multiverse, the Life Equation.  Let's check this out............... Oh man I'm already exhausted.

Explain It!:

Our story begins with a origin of the New Gods that seems to go against what we were led to believe from the Darkseid Villain's Month issue.  But nonetheless for people who didn't read that issue and for us who don't really care, it doesn't matter in the long run.  Highfather good, Darkseid evil and there was a big old war that has been cold for a long time now.  Easy peasy.  Now good old Highfather has been searching for the Life Equation so that he can use it against Darkseid should he ever attack again and in case he should ever get his hands on the Anti-Life Equation.  Writing this I realize why I've never been a big fan of the New Gods, but I do it for all of you out there in interwebs land....... remember me in your long winded conversations with friends and family about people that have never done you wrong.

Eventually in his quest for the Equation, Highfather is led to our Universe's Source Wall by Metron, where they use a device to communicate with the petrified Relic.  Relic tells them about the Lanterns that breached the wall and lived to tell the tale.  This leads Highfather to a grand plan to seize all the rings of the emotional spectrum and to harness their individual powers to make a beam to breach the Source Wall himself and find his Life Equation.  Lousy Gods always getting in everyone's business.


Highfather charges his best warriors to grab each of the rings and no I'm not going to tell you who everyone was because I really don't know all these characters with the exception of Lightray, Orion and Metron........  So yeah.... Those three were there.  Next comes the New Gods to different sectors of the Universe and they snatch a ring from each of the Corps.  For the Sinestro Corps, poor Arkillo gets all his fingers of his slinging hand cut off, his ring stolen and I'm left wondering why all the Lantern writers are getting rid of my favorite Lanterns.  Zillius Zox is dead and now Arkillo is without a ring........ and a bunch of fingers, come on guys!  Why you doin me like this?  Larfleeze after fighting off all those dimensional Gods in his own title is quickly relieved of his ring, a random Star Sapphire gets her's taken away, Nok of the Indigo Tribe is turned back into a murderer when his is taken away........ Yeah so watch out Indigo Tribe.  On Mogo Orion and Metron show up and steal away Saint Walker's floating ring of Hope and actually steal Mogo's ring.  I don't know how this will ultimately affect the Green Lantern Corps base of operations, but you know it can't be good.  


Finally I bring this up last because I don't understand what they're telling me.  On Earth they find a random woman Red Lantern taking out human traffickers and when her task is finished she simply hands over her ring because she's tired of fighting, but that's not the part that confuses me.  The header on that page says that Earth is the home of the last of the Red Lanterns.  Yeah I get that Guy Gardner's there, but to call it the home of the last of the Red Lanterns just seems like an odd choice.  Yeah he's one of the last, but to say last makes you immediately think some shit went down between Red Lantern issues that we didn't get to see.  I get what they're saying, even though I had to go back and reread it, but couldn't we have just gone with Earth?  This is probably just me being overly nit picky, so I'll move on.

In the end, after all the New Gods have returned to New Genesis with their acquired rings,  Highfather tasks his master forger Hyalt to build a device to contain all the rings and when the device not looking like the cube on the cover, but more like the Cosmic Key from the 80's Masters of The Universe movie is ready, Highfather orders all his soldiers back to our Universe to test out it's power.  They go to a scummy planet, that Highfather tells us is the worst the Universe has to offer and he uses the device to turn it's occupants into new New Gods.  Only problem is that the device doesn't really work the way they expected and it turns them all into terrible mutant abominations that beg for sweet sweet death.  Again, lousy Gods getting into everyone's business.  So they slaughter the planet's populace and realize that the combined light isn't enough, they need the one light source they missed.  The White Lantern ring is the sole weapon that Highfather now wants and him starting fights with all of the different Corps' was all for not.......... You know except for starting a big story.  It's time to go find that illusive White Lantern.  Oh and Kyle's totally rocking the beginning of creation look right here.

NOW HOW COOL IS THAT?  EVEN WITH THAT AWESOME SOURCE WALL, THIS IS MAY FAVORITE PAGE IN THE COMIC.  SO COOL!

I've said it a bunch and I'll probably continue to say it, I'm really tired of all the Lantern crossovers and this thing better continue to blow me away, or I will lose all faith in the Lantern titles.  I understand that you have all these characters that work so well together, but these titles really need to show that they can be entertaining on their own without making folks who don't buy every title...... You know, buy every title.  But even with my current disdain for crossovers I have to say that this is a really ambitious story to undertake and I don't envy any of the writers on this crossover.  But at least the ground work was laid here and hopefully we won't have to do too much backtracking to get the point of the story across in the following titles.  While the New Gods are excessively long winded, it suits their characters and I guess I can't really hate their jerk off faces for being who they are even if I'm still not really interested in them.  So come back for Green Lantern #35 as we continue this gigantic story and see how the Corps is handling their sudden attack.  

Bits and Pieces:

While I wasn't a fan of the many many artists on this issue, it didn't do that much to hinder my reading experience.  Some of the transitions were a little abrupt, but I can live with them since they're are telling such a massive story.  I'm not a fan of these constant GL crossovers, but this one seems to have the makings of being something special and I guess I can get behind another crossover so quick after the last one but come on DC, you gotta promise that this will be the last one for awhile.  Please?  Many writers, many artists, but the ones who really pulled this issue off were the colorists who always do their best job on the Lantern titles, so bravo, bravo.  Go check it out and prepare yourself for GODHEAD.

8.7/10


No comments:

Post a Comment