Thursday, December 29, 2011

52 at First Glance, Part Eight

29. Green Lantern: New Guardians
Writer: Tony Bedard
Pencils: Tyler Kirkham
Inks: BATT

I guess a robot is doing inks for this comic. That seems cool.

I don't recognize the team for this comic and I have no idea where they would be going with a story entitled The New Guardians. But the cover really intrigues me with seven different aliens (one of them looking to be, possibly, Kyle Rayner?) fighting over seven different colored Rings.

I can't speculate on this comic. But I'm definitely hopeful and intrigued. Looks like fun.

30. Red Lanterns
Writer: Peter Milligan
Pencils: Ed Benes
Inks: Rob Hunter

I have no idea what a Red Lantern is or what it does. Were these guys introduced in Blackest Night, a comic I never read or haven't the slightest clue as to what happened in it? I don't recognize anyone on the cover except that one demon looking Harley Quinnesque female from the cover of The New Guardians.

What this comic is about doesn't matter at all. Peter Milligan is writing it and therefore I'm reading it. He won me over with his run on Shade the Changing Man. He also created Rogan Gosh. He took a run at Animal Man. He wrote The Extremists. X-Force. And, of course, Enigma.

Can I stop this discussion for a second to relate a story about Enigma? Thanks. A friend of mine, Soy Rakelson (name changed to protect the innocent), began reading Enigma when it came out. And he raved and raved and raved about it. Fantastic. Amazing. Genius! And then, nearly at the end of the comic, it is revealed that the narrator? main character? (I forget how the story is told) is gay. BOOM. Comic sucks. Stopped reading with only a few issues left. Worst story ever. He was used and betrayed. Soy Rakelson, you homophobic moron.

Okay, back to Peter Milligan. Genius! And I saw as I was getting back into comics that he's had a long and fruitful run on Hellblazer! So I'll be picking up those as well in the next few months.

31. Justice League Dark
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Mikel Janin

After that last entry, do I need to comment on this one? Milligan! I'm there!

But more than that, this comic deals with all the magic characters in the DC Universe. Which would also be the only reason I'd need to pick it up. The cover shows, as far as I can tell, Shade the Changing Man (AWESOME), Deadman (YES), Specter (as a female? Cool! Is this something I missed or is this brand new? Whatever! COOL), possibly John Constantine (TERRIFIC!) and two other magic females that I don't recognize. I'm assuming one is Zatanna.

More super high hopes for this comic.

32. Swamp Thing
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Yanick Paquette

One of the great mystical characters in the DC Universe. I don't know Scott Snyder (maybe I should?) or Yanick Paquette but I'd read this no matter who decided to write/draw it.

I still think of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing as THE comic to change the face of what American comics could be and the stories they could tell. Sure, that doesn't mean Swamp Thing was revolutionary! Alan Moore was. But I can't help but think that Swamp Thing, as a character, has always been able to tell really strange and amazing tales by dint of being the strange creature it is (I think of John Constantine and Shade the Changing Man the same way. Fuck, throw Animal Man in there as well. And speaking of Animal Man...he'll start off next post!).

The cover just looks like every single cover of The Swamp Thing I've ever seen.

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