Green Arrow #3 Review

This is the third issue in the newest Green Arrow series released by DC, and is just one of the many titles that is tied into the Brightest Day crossover that has been going on for the last four months. I have had an interest in reading this series for awhile since I really enjoy Green Arrow as a character, but have avoided it due to the fact that I am not reading Brightest Day in any way, shape, or form. I feel as though i would be lost at many points in the story, so I never gave it a chance. Finally after hearing it was a good book from so many people, I decided to suck it up and check it out, and to be honest I was completely wrong, I wasn’t really lost at all.

Issue three starts off after a more than exciting event that took place at the end of issue two; Oliver Queen had been shot in the head, ironically, with an arrow. As our hero lies there thinking he is going to die, a strange, unknown character rescues him. The story contains a lot of backstory, including information about the new character that has been introduced. But the majority of the backstory is about Green Arrows father and the corruption that surrounded him. One of the interesting things that occur in the book is the allusion to the Brightest Day, such as placement of the White Lantern symbol, the strategic use of the word “brightest” and the use of the term giving life. It is quite creative if you ask me.

The writing and art are great in this book. I was a big fan of J.T Krul on the last Green Arrow series, so to see him continue with the character was okay in my opinion. I was even happier to see that Diogenes Neves was working on the book; I was a huge fan of his art on New Mutants, so to see his talent being used in this book made me more than happy. Above all though, the best part of this series is the fact that DC has Mauro Cascioli doing the covers for this series. I loved his work on Cry for Justice and it is really hard to one-up his painted covers.

Overall, this was a great issue. Some downsides are that it is an information issue, so there isn’t a large amount of action, and the main thing that I did not like about this book was that it read too darn fast! But like I said, it was a fun read and is worked on by men of great talent.

8 out of 10

Originally Posted on the Chris' Comics Official Website

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1

I remember hearing about this book a few months ago and thinking, another Green Lantern book? But after thinking about it, with Green Lantern being the biggest thing since sliced bread in the DCU why would I be surprised? When I opened this issue today I remembered the real reason I thought the book was a out of the blue, it was because the book focuses on Green Lantern Guy Gardner. Although a major player in the Green Lantern universe, it just seems out of place and un-needed that Gardner have his own book, but you cannot always judge a book by its cover, so I opened up and took a look for myself.

One of the first things I noticed when starting this book is that the art is great! Fernando Pasarin (JSA, The Outsiders) has a nice clean look to his art, lots of detail and style, which is definitely needed when it comes to a Green Lantern title. On top of that you have the great story telling of Peter Tomasi (Green Lantern Corps) that does not fail to deliver in this issue.

The story itself has its ups and downs though. Lets get the negatives out of the way first so that we can end on a positive note. Many Green Lantern fans may have noticed by now that they are not able to enjoy any of the Green Lantern books without taking part in the Brightest Day cross over that is occurring right now because of how intertwined the stories are, and with this book there is no exception. The entire story that is occurring in this issue stems off of an event that took place in Brightest Day #0, which I understand that major crossovers effect the other books involved, but not to a degree in which a new reader, or even an older reader in this case cannot enjoy the book. I myself was forced to drop all the Lantern books because I was not a fan of Brightest Day.

Lets switch from this negative attitude to a positive one. This book was not bad at all! Like I said before the art and story were great! The book has the perfect amount of action to information ratio and was a really great first issue. It delve deeper into the pact that was made between Gardner, Ganthet, and Atrocious, as well as shined more light upon why exactly the Blackest Night occurred. It demonstrated the over the top, powerful nature of Guy Gardner and his newly appointed authoritative role in the Green Lantern universe. To top it all of, there is a surprise ending that will leave any Green Lantern fan seriously wanting more!

8 out of 10

What do the Brightest Day Variant Covers Mean?

So yesterday I was picking up my comics from and, as always, chatting with the Jared about DC and Green Lantern. I tend to buy the variant covers of the Green Lantern related books and he was asking me about the Ryan Sook variant cover to Birds of Prey #4 and last week's Brightest Day #7. As we were talking we noticed that parts of Nekron featured in both of them and that the covers interlocked - so of course we both began to wonder if the rest of the Sook variants were all part of a larger image, but Jared didn't have the other books on hand for us to look at.

Doing some surfing, I found that John Babos over on the Comics Nexus site had discovered the same thing and he had all four of the first covers put together to reveal what does indeed amount to a larger image. When this is DC trying to drum up some buzz or if they are trying to be sneaky is anyone's guess, but it is pretty intriguing none the less. Here's the image they put in their article, however I've rotated it a bit so that the background image is right side up. Click on the image for a better view and after the jump I'll share my speculation about the image.

The first four Sook covers