Red Lanterns #17

Krona Unleashed!

Atrocitus has traveled to the original planet of the Guardians of the Universe, Maltus. He's stumbled upon the ghost of Krona or the holographic projection of Krona or the time trapped brainwaves of Krona or some being doing a Krona Puppet Show. Somehow and someway, Atrocitus is going to speak with Krona and maybe find out some secrets about Volthoom, The First Lantern.

Oh yeah! Duh! Electric echo!

Krona's electric echo tells Atrocitus why they should be best friends forever or at least until the electrical echo degrades. Why wouldn't they be friends? They both have so much in common! They both had wives (Krona more than Atrocitus). They both had children! They both had their families wiped out by monsters! Sure, Krona was the monster that wiped out Atrocitus's family, but come on! Let bygones be bygones! That was a long time ago before Krona had become an electric echo living inside a sphincter television set. Living conditions like that change a guy!

Atrocitus is too angry to listen to the secrets I'm sure Krona was about to tell him even as Atrocitus walks away feeling pity for Krona. I think Atrocitus needs a tune-up to his hot lava blood. He just doesn't rage as much as the leader of the Red Lantern Corps should rage.

Atrocitus digs into the center of Maltus to find what he came to find: The Great Heart. I have no idea what that is. I mean, I see what it is on a big double splash page. It's a big glowing ball thing on top of a big tower in a buried city. But I have no idea why the Guardians of the Universe have something called The Great Heart and why it was abandoned on their ancient homeworld.

While Atrocitus is examining the Great Heart, Krona meets a new possible best friend forever.

I want to learn more about these Electric Echoes and the Sphincter Holes. Is this the Guardians' Afterlife?

Meanwhile on Earth, Rankorr is still trying to be human. Now he's using his construct power to try to disguise himself as the human he once was. This boy needs to let go already.

As Atrocitus nears the Great Heart, he meets some new robot friends. They guard the Great Heart which is the receptacle for all of the Guardians' emotions. But those with emotions are not allowed to approach it. The robots can help drain a person of their emotions if the person accepts. So Atrocitus considers it as his Squadron of Manhunters are free to pass. That seems like a flaw in security. Just because someone is emotionless, it doesn't mean they won't vandalize your Great Heart! Robots don't have emotions but they can be programmed to smash shit, right?

The Great Heart is leaking emotions all over the place which is why Atrocitus is displaying other emotions besides rage. But his Manhunters tessellate all over the Great Heart so that it stops affecting Atrocitus and he can get back to Plan A: Get mad and barf on stuff.

Apparently Cats and Red Lanterns have the same modus operandi.

Atrocitus destroys his new robot pals and is about to head off and give the emotions back to the Guardians when Volthoom appears. I don't know what Atrocitus is going to do with the emotion-filled Great Heart now that the Third Army is dead. Maybe he can feed it to the Inversions. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Next issue, Atrocitus is going to have to take a walk down memory lane with Volthoom.

Red Lanterns #17 Rating: No change. I have a feeling this Great Heart thing has been dealt with before in the Preboot. But what about the Electric Echoes and the Sphincter Televisions that make up what is seemingly The Guardians' afterlife? Is that new?