Comic review: Green Lantern #40- Corporate neo-liberal brainwashing 101

Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Billy Tan
Publisher: DC Comics
Date of publication: 4th March 2015


I couldn’t help but read this book as the corporate mainstream whore satanic system trying to make excuses for itself, it’s actions and the fact that the alternative media is destroying its credibility on an hourly basis.

What makes me say that? Just reading the book and seeing how the Green Lantern character (Hal Jordan) is acknowledging that the system that he represents is now seen as ‘Cops, and everywhere we go, people don’t want us.’

Soldiers are not ‘cops,’ they are not peacemakers, they are not flying around the world to save and help poor innocent victim/civilians. They are told that they are the heroes, but that is a lie. We know it is a lie, everybody knows it’s a lie, so let’s start pointing it out. Uniformed order followers of the state operate as the private mercenary army of powerful banking and corporate interests, the 1% that the Occupy movement has been talking about, and ridiculed for it’s truth telling in the corporate whore mainstream media.

Green Lantern #40 is the story of one individual order following soldier. He defends the system that he is a part of, leaving it in order to personally shoulder the blame for it’s recent abuses, all of which are characterised as ‘mistakes’ rather than anything that is inherently wrong with the system itself. He acknowledges that he is not to blame, but he is prepared to shoulder that blame in order to prop up a system that he has religious faith in.

Hal Jordan has deliberately turned himself into a villain in order to back up a discredited control system. The system itself will use this sacrifice to carry on with business as usual. He’s sacrificed himself, just like a good soldier would sacrifice himself for the benefit of his comrades on a battlefield. This is a standard technique used by control systems, and the best thing about it is that no coercion is required, as the indoctrinated individuals willingly sacrifice themselves for what they see as the greater good.

Green Lantern #40 is reflecting the religious faith system of mainstream western ideology. That faith system is an unquestioning belief in neo liberal capitalism, centralised, corporate statism and with an army of order following mercenary soldiers to back it up with violence. The act of sacrifice, of having faith in a system that is rotten to the core, is presented as a heroic thing for a soldier to do.

Sacrifice yourself to the gods of the corporations.

Sacrifice yourself to the gods of the banking sector.

Sacrifice yourself to the gods of the mainstream media.

Sacrifice yourself to neo-liberal crony capitalism.

Sacrifice yourself to wars based on lies.

That’s how it works, hundreds of thousands of Hal Jordan’s pumped up with false pride, indoctrinated, propagandised since birth, sacrificing themselves to the centralised control system, the borg collective hive mind that helps the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the entire planet enslaved…forever.


Rating: 4/10 (Subconscious mind-set of a neo liberal corporate slave)



*Lead Image on this review is the excellent movie cover variant front cover to Green Lantern #40 by Tony Harris

Comic review: Sinestro #10- All Dominators Must Die

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Brad Walker
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 25th February 2015


This book doesn’t deserve a full and detailed review.

The narrative is centred on two individuals, but in terms of mindset they are the same person, a dominator, the kind of person who has made, and continues to make the world what it is today.

Hitler, Stalin, Bush, Blair, Clinton, Obama, Putin, Cameron.

Different personalities, but exactly the same poisonous mindset. It’s the mindset of the dominator, the man/woman who needs to be obeyed, an insane individual who is so deluded, so arrogant, and so detached from moral truth and spiritual reality that he has somehow convinced himself that he alone knows what is best for everybody else.

Nice smirk from Dominator #2

Little Hitler’s everywhere. In shops, schools, offices, politics, families, and we still continue to let them get away with their world burning insane arrogance. Wives, children, families support them, their work colleagues support them, their communities support them, their countries support them, and thus, we get the Hell that is planet Earth in 2015.

Sinestro #10 is about two dominators fighting each other for control. Is one a good guy, the other a villain? No, they are both villains, as they are both dominators, and their only goal is domination over others, to sit on a throne and give orders. Who wins and who loses is not important. It’s like voting between red and blue. The only loser is YOU.

That’s all you get in this book, and that’s why it’s not worth my time, or yours.

If you want to read about fictional dominators then buy the book. If you want a window into the kind of mindset that is shared by humanities ‘leaders’ in 2015 then buy the book.

Personally speaking, I’ve had my fill of dominators, and every time I see a new one, in real life or on the lying box, or in a comic, they just make me want to puke my guts out in violent rage.

I picked up this comic book because I wanted to give it one final chance before I stopped reading it forever. That chance has now come and gone. I didn’t hate it. It gave me a chance to talk about real world dominators and how they destroy the world in order to satisfy their psychopathic need for domination, for control, for order. That mindset needs to be chucked into the dustbin of human history alongside capitalism and statism, but that’s the challenge of our age. Recognise the poison. Stop ingesting it.

Rating: 3/10 (For the artwork. I enjoyed the smirk on Dominator #2’s face)

Comic Review: Green Lantern #39- Questioning American Exceptionalism

Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Billy Tan
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 4th February 2015



Green Lantern #39 is a fascinating book because it offers comic book readers a much-needed insight into the current neo-liberal world-view consensus known as ‘American exceptionalism.’

There's always a new threat used to justify US imperialism

The term is a short-hand phrase, commonly used to describe the belief (in US mainstream circles at least) that America is unique in world history, that their empire is a force for good in the world, unlike all of the other empires that have preceded it. The belief in American exceptionalism is a belief that American foreign policy/imperialism is based on issues to do with morality, freedom and human rights rather than reasons of naked corporate/banking self interest dictated by a tiny number of ‘elite’ families.

The Green Lanterns are the American military, and the Guardians are the US political leaders. The Guardians (Politicians) know best, and the Lanterns (Military/Police) unquestioningly follow their orders. The comic book narratives of our post 9/11 times have been simple. A dictator alien threatens galactic peace, and the Lanterns (or Avengers, or substitute any other group in contemporary comic books) are sent in to restore order. After lots of ‘cool’ battle scenes, a misdirection or two, the characters learning something about themselves etc, the threat is defeated, and order is restored. There is no bigger picture; no secret agendas are going on behind the scenes. That’s how these books are structured, that is how these stories unfold, not just in DC comics, but in just about every mainstream comic book available today.

US comic books back-up the mainstream corporate media consensus by supporting a world-view where the US military fly around the world saving people from evil dictators and spreading peace and democracy wherever they go.  The problem of course, is that this version of reality is a lie and in this age of Internet and whistleblower information and revelation the lies are becoming increasing self-evident.

So what happens when the US military/Green Lanterns are no longer seen as the protectors, as the good guys of the narrative? What happens when the lies propagandised through the corporate mainstream media disinformation system begin to break down and the US military are not viewed as defenders of liberty and freedom, but as harbingers of war, destruction, death and misery?

Hi John.

How do American comic books continue to spin the false narrative of US exceptionalism, of US morality, of the US defending democracy and freedom when the real world realities of the past decade lay waste to this lie? How do they get young men and women to sign up to the US military/Green Lantern Corps/Police forces when they are no longer heroes, but the villains of the story?

Green Lantern #39 has a problem. How to push the propagandistic mainstream line when this line is diametrically opposed to reality itself? It tries hard.

The book begins with the main hero protagonist (Green Lantern Hal Jordan) shown upholding the law and treating prisoners with humanity, but there’s tension with local law enforcement. They appreciate the help, but they don’t want the US World Police system that he represents, and he’s politely told to go on his way.

The Politicians

Jordan is then summoned to a meeting with his political masters (the Guardians) to receive his next orders. They outline their concerns, that the Green Lanterns (representing the US military) are becoming a bit unpopular in the galaxy. They are concerned that ‘anarchy’ is going to break out unless they are there to ‘Police’ the galaxy. That says everything that you need to know about the mind-set of contemporary comic book writers.

‘Anarchy’ to the mainstream means black masks, bricks through shop windows, riots and wanton destruction. The Police/Army/Green Lanterns/Batman/Spiderman are needed to stop humanity from destroying itself. Humanity is not to be trusted, and freedom is never on offer.

What does this say about their view of humanity? It says that comic book writers view humanity in a very suspicious, very paranoid, very evil light. This world-view sees people as inherently bad, they need to be policed, they need to be controlled, they can’t be trusted with true freedom, they need to be controlled like sheep with the threat of the sheepdog (Police) needed to keep them in line. The best way to shepherd and control the sheep/people of course is to is to herd them up, and stick them in a prison/pen.

That is the very definition of a scared liberal statist who fears humanity itself, and would rather live in a prison than be truly free. It’s the world-view of the coming New World Order, and it’s pervasive in the mainstream media today, a media that promotes fear, suspicion, and the police state as being the only thing that can protect us from ourselves.

The Soldiers/Cops.

Green Lantern #39 concludes with Soldier/Lantern Hal Jordan being given a new mission by his political masters. They recognise him as a trusted face, so they want him to ‘Help us reclaim the Corp’s good name.’ In other words, they want to use him as a public relations vehicle to sell their Galactic Police state to the DC universe. The most interesting thing about this book is that Jordan does not take the proposition at face value, and as the book concludes he thinks out loud to himself that he just might, ‘Do something crazy.'’

Will he really do something genuinely crazy in the context of a mainstream comic book? Will he challenge the very notion of authority to a centralised control system of political ‘experts’ that enforces their will on the people at the point of a gun, and with the threat of depravation of individual freedom and liberty?

Will Hal Jordan become an advocate for liberty, for anarchy, for freedom from the evils of statism and the New World Order Police state?

There’s a lot of questioning going on here, and I’m glad that I purchased this book now, because I was on the verge of dropping it from my pull-list. What’s going to happen next? Is Jordan really going to put down his uniform and start thinking, and acting based on morality, and not the US exceptionalism and lies that have defined the past thirteen years on planet Earth?

This book can go one of two ways. It could introduce a new threat and carry on business as usual, or it could start to question things on a deeper level. What is it going to be? Where is it going to go? At the moment I’m unsure, but what I do know is that issue #40 is already a must buy book.

Rating; 8/10 (For all of the intellectual stimulation that it provided)


Click on link below for more details on ‘American Exceptionalism.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism

Comic review: Green Lantern Corps #38- Chairman Mao would love this one

Writer: Van Jensen
Artist: Bernard Chang
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 14th January 2015


Green Lantern Corps #38 is introducing a new story arc, so there are a couple of questions bubbling underneath the simplistic surface narrative. It’s trying to intrigue you, trying to get you hooked. But for me the most important thing about the book is that the structural framing to the narrative is full of the usual assumptions that you get in a mainstream corporate/globalist comic book today.

Flying around the galaxy to help poor victim-suspect-civilians.

It’s the same old things, the same old nonsense that I moan about all of the time here on my blog, so I’ll keep this review short. Frankly, it deserves neither my time, nor yours.

Okay, the structural framing devices. It’s your standard Police state assumptions.

The book starts with some army cult drilling, repeat slogan, repeat that you are the good guy, now go out into the world and Police it for the good old neo-liberal value systems that we all adhere to. Protect the poor innocent civilians. Centralised governmental systems are there to help you. Lawbreakers are bad. Drugs are bad (but only the illegal ones), now let’s fly around the universe to protect people.

No thinking is allowed, no agendas are involved. It’s all about the rule of law. Who is making the law? It doesn’t matter, just follow your orders and uphold arbitrary laws that you don’t need to morally inspect for yourselves to have true, individual moral responsibility for your actions. Put on your uniform, and get to work.

All of the good guy characters in this book are order following soldiers/police. A female order follower just wants to protect her children. Not from government, of course. Government is good. She’s going to protect the children (public) from drug dealers. Isn’t she a good person? Errr no, she’s an order follower. But weren’t the Nazi’s good order followers as well? Yes, they were, but don’t mention that, and so the wheels of the comic book ignorance machine continues to turn and the global Police state is welcomed with opened arms.

Do you see how it works? Is writer Van Jensen a secret member of the illuminati then? No, he is not. He’s just a jobbing writer, more interested in the story than his themes, and if he continues to produce Police state supporting work like this he’ll continue to be employed in mainstream comic books. That’s how it works. No conspiracy, just a career, and an exciting narrative where the police state agents help the poor innocent intergalactic civilians who cannot help themselves.

Agent of the state John Stewart gets his orders from the communist elite

No more Green Lantern Corps books for this reader. I’ve already wasted far too much of my time on this. I don’t hate the book, and I’m sure that Van Jensen will assemble an exciting narrative journey as the story progresses, but I don’t need to read further confirmation of statist assumptions that you get in the mainstream corporate whore media.

I don’t care if the story is exciting, or whether or not the characters have interesting or difficult times. A book that frames itself around unquestioning support for statism and the Police state has nothing to offer for somebody like myself.

Let me make this clear. Green Lantern Corps #38 is not a bad comic, the art is functional, and the structure of the story is well thought out, giving the reader a delicious hint at the close of the book that things might not be what they seem on the surface. That’s good story-telling, but I don’t want to read about agents of the Police state, so sorry, it’s not for me.

Hand it out to young police or army cadets. This book is for them. It will feed into their delusions of heroism, and make them eager to put on the uniform and get out there and start obeying some orders and protecting the poor innocent victim/civilian-suspects who cannot help themselves. That’s it, no more words. If you like centralised control systems with order following agents unquestioningly serving their masters then get the book, if you don’t like that Chairman Mao, communist world-view, then don’t.

Rating: 3/10 (must-read book for fans of centralised control systems)

Comic book review: Green Lantern #38- Emasculated chump hangs out in friendship zone

Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Admira Wijaya
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 7th January 2015

What’s going on in my mainstream superhero comic books this week? Why are the so-called ‘heroes’ being portrayed as emasculated losers who have no lives, no friends and no girlfriends?

Who wants to read this depressing crap about loser superheroes? Oh yeah, comic book fans.

Drink up losers

After reading about the suicide inducing no-life of Ant Man the next book I picked up this week was about the equally depressing loser life of Green Lantern.

Unlike poor old Ant Man at least Hal Jordan has a job, but at the beginning of this book he’s told to sod off, so he does, straight to a bar.

He spends the rest of issue #38 drinking, hanging out with his childish loser mates, and concluding his non-adventures with a humiliating conversation with an ex-girlfriend who rejects him, gives him a pity kiss peck on the cheek, then buggers off to have fun with her new boyfriend.

What the hell was that supposed to be?

Am I supposed to identify with this loser because I am a comic book fan and therefore a loser myself? That’s the conclusion I took from Ant Man #1, and I’m getting exactly the same vibe with this one.

Guess what? I don’t relate to put upon, unemployed single fathers and dumped boyfriends drinking dejectedly in a bar. Perhaps I’m weird? Perhaps I’m not a big enough loser to read comic books these days? Perhaps I need to go back out into the world and experience more humiliation and rejection before I can relate to these books? I better buy myself some new sensible clubbing shoes, because at the moment I feel like I don't belong in this depressing club for rejected, lonely, pathetic, emasculated, humiliated men.

Goddamn it, what’s up with my comic books this week? I don’t want to read about losers. I just don’t, and so another book gets a much deserved low rating from this thoroughly pissed off reviewer. Perhaps I'm wrong? Perhaps I need to change my ways? I'll finish this review here as I need to go the shops. I have some sensible shoes that I need to buy.

Rating: 2/10 (for that ridiculous alternative front cover)

Comic review: Green Lantern Annual #3 (Godhead Finale)- Accountability is for the poor

Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Billy Tan
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 24th December 2014



There was something about the ending of DC Comic’s ‘Godhead’ arc that reminded me very much of its real world parallel in this post 9/11 world of western governments/corporate wars of aggression. It was just a moment, at the conclusion of the tale, but a moment that says a lot about what is happening in the real world today.

That moment came when the man responsible for all of the death and destruction that has been happening in the Godhead arc, the dictatorial ‘Highfather’ admitted that he was wrong, and that all of the violence he had unleashed upon the universe had inevitably come back upon his own people. It was a moment of admittance that ‘blow-back’ is inevitable, that when you put violence into the world, violence is what you get back from it.

Highfather admits that he was wrong, thanks the heroic Green Lanterns for their help, they leave, and he is left to rebuild the planet that he has completely messed up due to his wars of aggression, wars that were waged under justification of the greater good. There is no punishment for Highfather. No criminal investigations, no jail time, no trials, nothing. He admits he was wrong, and he gets to stay in power.

The only difference I can see between Highfather and western imperial powers (hiding under the illusion of ‘democracy’ where puppet spokesmen and women are replaced every five years or so) is that Highfather actually admits he was wrong. Our leaders don’t even have to do that. Consequences for their actions do not exist. They burn down a city, and then pay themselves to rebuild it.

Our real-world political leaders are handsomely rewarded for the mistakes that they make, and unlike Highfather they don’t even have to admit that they made mistakes in the first place. After their political (puppet) careers are over they are financially rewarded by the banks, corporations and arms manufacturers who they helped whilst in political ‘power.’ They then spend the rest of their lives being treated like Kings and Queens whilst being guarded 24/7 by men with guns, just to make sure that they will never see any consequences for their actions.

We are now living in an age of centralised democracy, an age where there is no dictator to blame. If you are looking for somebody to blame you will find that person in the street. The everyday man and women who votes for unaccountabable centralised corporate owned and controlled ‘democracy.’ A system where war is encouraged, and consequences for your actions do not exist. That is what we have today. That is our world. That is what you support when you vote.

As is usual in my reviews I have barely discussed the actual book itself. If you are new to my reviews then that’s pretty much what I always do. I take a comic book, use it as a platform, and then use that platform to launch into a self-indulgent rant on issues and ideas that currently occupy my mind. I realise that reviews are not supposed to do that, but these are not meant to be boring old comic book reviews, they are meant to be something more than that. But for those just interested in the entertainment factor and the comic itself, here’s a quick summary of the Godhead arc:

It was largely enjoyable, mostly okay, sometimes rotten, sometimes very good. That is what you get in long arcs, written by different writers and drawn by different artists. I’ve already reviewed a lot of the Godhead books here on my blog, so if you want more details than check out those individual reviews.

Green Lantern Annual #3 was the finale to the arc, and to me it was a satisfying ending, and I enjoyed reading it. I particularly enjoyed the four page source wall artwork by artist Billy Tan, and the narrative itself was satisfying, putting a traditionally loose full stop on events, and then concluding with a new threat, as you should do in a genre that never really ends. The old threat should be conclusively defeated, but something new should bridge from that defeated threat. That is what happens here, and it is done in an interesting way that will keep me reading the Green Lantern comic book.

I disliked some of the quippy dialogue in this final issue, as to me it made light of what was supposed to be a serious end to a serious galaxy wide threat, but the conclusion had elements that I really enjoyed. I particularly enjoyed the moment when a man getting off on the power of nihilism and death was stopped in his sociopathic ways. His moment of defeat was a symbolic moment, illustrating how the illusory power of darkness and death always crumbles and flees when faced with the power of life, light and truth.

The larger agenda behind a crossover event such as the ‘Godhead’ arc, aside from selling the event issues themselves, is to hook the reader into buying new books on a monthly basis when the event itself has concluded.  There are plenty of books in the Green Lantern universe, and before this event began I was buying two of them per month, those books being Green Lantern and Sinestro. That will not change now that the event has concluded, but that doesn’t mean that I disliked the other books.

Broadly speaking, I enjoyed reading the event, and the money and time that I spent on it does not feel wasted. I leave the arc feeling entertained, satisfied and grateful to all of the writers and artists that contributed to the project. I didn’t agree with a lot of the ideological or socio-political assumptions that were made, but just by putting them out there the writers gave me a tremendous amount of valuable material to think on, consider, and react to, here on my blog. So here’s a big, sincere thank-you from myself to every single inker, colourist, writer, letterer, cover artist and editor that worked so hard on the entire project. Thanks guys, it was fun. Now back to Christmas. I hope you are having a good one. Be nice to each other, and I hope you enjoy the remainder of the holidays.

Rating for Green Lantern Annual #3- Godhead Finale: 7.5/10

Rating for Green Lantern ‘Godhead’ arc: 7/10

Comic review: Green Lantern New Guardians #37-( Godhead Act 3, Part 3) Cheap cologne meets wet lettuce

Writer: Justin Jordan
Artists: Diogenes Neves & Rooney Buchemi
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 17th December 2014


The facial characterisations of the main feminine character in this book looked absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, the girl named ‘Carol’ in this book was drawn as the prettiest girl in all of human history.

The Carol character herself was your typical third wave feminist. Bossing around the feminised male lead (the completely ineffectual White Lantern) this very pretty girl took charge both physically and emotionally. That’s kind of a given in most mainstream comic books today where women are in charge and men are little more than accessories, cute handbag dogs, unable to do anything other than obey or get scolded for yapping.

Green Lantern New Guardians #37, more than any other comic book that I’ve read recently, reminded me of just why I stopped reading most of my mainstream comic book titles in the first place. It’s not bad, it’s well drawn, and the narrative of the ‘Godhead’ arc is nicely developed. The problem with it (at least the problem that I have with it personally), is that it’s not really saying anything.  It reminded me of a pleasant, but inexpensive, not very long-lasting cologne. On an initial application it seems perfectly okay, but the scent rapidly disappears, leaving little more than a synthetic, bland soapy residue remaining as a reminder of its presence.

Breaking it down the book is standard comic book fare. You get quips, good guys fighting bad guys, evil dictators being arrogant and err, evil, kind of, but not really, and just when it looks like the good guys are getting the upper hand, the main villain beats them down again and the fight continues. That’s it, it’s a ‘hope’ spot in a pro wrestling match where a beaten down good guy gets a brief flurry of offence before the bad guy punches him in the gut and continues to beat him down. This process continues until the eventual ending of the match where the heroic good guy wins at the last moment against all odds and to huge cheers from the crowd.

Yes, I understand that comic books are supposed to work to that formula, just as wrestling matches work to that formula. And yes, I understand that super hero comic books in particular always work to that formula, but when you give me nothing else but that narrative formula I tend to zone out. It’s an age thing. As a 12-year-old I can follow the pro wrestling match/comic book, but as a grown adult male I need a little more than the basics to keep me interested.

This book isn’t terrible, so don’t go away from my review thinking that I hated it, because I didn’t. It’s a cheap, bland cologne, and it smells okay for a bit, and it does the job. The facials look really pretty and it has those big exciting action scenes that everybody loves, but to me it didn’t offer anything other than surface thrills and pretty faces. The bossy, in-charge female was annoying, but she’s a standard these days, so I can’t complain really can I? If I buy comic books she’s going to be there, manipulating the wimpy men and telling them what to do, a bit like the real world actually. That’s all I have to say about the book. It’s okay, but okay isn’t enough for me these days. I’m a vegetarian, but I still need something to get my teeth into, and unfortunately I couldn’t get much out of this particular wet lettuce of a book.

Rating: 4/10 (for the facials)

Comic review: Green Lantern Corps #37 (Godhead Act 3, Part 2)- Democracy is an empty lie

Writer: Van Jensen
Artists: Bernard Chang & Mirko Colak
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 10th December 2014


Without the illusion of democracy the US and all of the other western countries attached, limpet like to the new imperial empire of planet Earth, would have no moral legitimacy whatsoever. Their wars for corporate profit would be naked, displayed as the murderous, anti-human resource and money making schemes that they actually are. Why am I mentioning this at the beginning of a comic book review? I’ll explain.

The evil dictator

The main villain in the ‘Godhead’ arc is a character called ‘Highfather.’ He is portrayed as a tyrant because he is waging a war against various planets in order to defeat a greater evil, that evil being a villain called ‘Darkseid.’ In other words, it’s a preventative war. He’s subjugating people for their own good, at least that’s the way that he sees it, but he’s a villain, remember that. He’s a tyrant, a bad guy.

Now, think about reality for a second. What did the US do in 2003? They invaded a country for preventative reasons. They claimed that the country had secret weapons (they didn’t) and so they destroyed it, murdering hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, stole it’s resources and gave them to it’s multi -national corporations. They did all of this for good reasons, of course. Ask Tony Blair and George Bush, they defend those reasons still to this very day. That is not a controversial thing for me to say. It might annoy people when I say it, but it is fact.

Here’s my question. What does the average comic book reader think when he reads a comic book like the ‘Godhead’ arc where the main villain is doing exactly (and probably less violently) what the US, UK and many other western countries have done, and continue to do today? The character in this Green Lantern Corps comic book is a bad guy, right? So what the Hell does that make our own western governments? Think about it. Think about what is going on here.

And this is where the illusion of democracy comes into play. Without that illusion, that we are different because we get to choose our leaders, the truth is very naked, don’t you think? A very dangerous assumption is at work here, that being the assumption that evil only comes from a dictator (like Highfather in this comic book), not from a ‘free’ democracy. Safe in the knowledge that evil cannot exist in his own ‘democratic’ country, the average comic book reader can read this comic without seeing any irony in it whatsoever.

And here comes the heroic resistance fighters

So when the US gets ready for it’s next corporate election between the Bush and Clinton families, remember what I said here. The illusion of democracy gives moral cover for the actions of the tiny number of ‘elite’ families who own and control the west. No crazy dictator is needed when the political system is owned and controlled by a few corporate and banking interests. Crazy dictators are for comic books and mainstream news networks. That’s the truth, like it or not.

Oh yeah, the comic book review. Sorry, this is a review isn’t it? Green Lantern Corps #37 (Godhead Act 3, Part 2) does the usual crazy dictator thing, that I’ve just discussed, puts the lanterns in position as the heroic resistance, one of the Highfather’s goon’s gets a kicking, and it’s fight back time for the good guys.

All of this comic book action is played out with the usual lack of awareness of the real world reality where US corporate imperialism (backed up by the most expensive military/war machine that the world has ever seen) is fighting real resistance movements all over the world. Funny stuff really. You have to laugh, you really do.

Rating: 6/10 (Decent art and some narrative advancement)

Comic review: Green Lantern #37- Godhead, Act 3, Part 1: Ranting away about sofa geek culture

Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Francis Portela
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 3rd December 2014


I had something like six or seven back episodes of Gotham (the new television show about a young Bruce Wayne) to watch on my futuristic surveillance device/television, but yesterday I deleted them all.

I did this after watching half an hour of an episode that was focussed on the young Penguin character. He’s the best thing about the show, but as I was watching his violent and manipulative adventures something dawned upon me. It was the realisation that this man on my television set, a murdering psychopath, was being portrayed as a strong willed hero, a man that we should be looking up to as a role model. The television viewer was being manipulated into feeling admiration and empathy for the man. Everything the Penguin was doing was made to look cool and empowering. I could almost here a voice coming from my television set saying:

‘Hey comic book geeks, isn’t it cool to be a psychopath? Don’t you just want to be a psychopath as well?’ 

Okay, so I’m exaggerating to make my point, but I hope you understand what I’m getting at here. I keep seeing this glorification of illness, with diseased, feeble, broken cowards made to look like the coolest guy in the room. It’s the Dexter effect, the Breaking Bad effect, the Game of Thrones effect, the Joker tormenting Batman with his own face held on by rubber bands behind his ears. It’s this sense of joy at embracing the worst elements of humanity. A celebration, a glorification of inhumanity towards your fellow man, but all dressed up in this soft voyeurism that screams suburbs and smart bombs and drone attacks and pathetic, lame, flabby cowardice.

Is this a 2014 trend, or was it always there, lurking in the back of sofa geek culture? I call it ‘sofa geek’ culture for a good reason. It’s a flabby watching but not getting involved culture that isn’t really a culture at all. It’s the reason why I don’t attend comic-cons, even though I’m sure I’d pick up some good rare books there. It’s this feeling that my comic book hobby reflects the worst aspects of myself. It turns me into something that I don’t want to be. A lazy, silent watcher, an audience member, an anonymous face in the braying idiot crowd, a man who thinks that violence is cool, but has never been in a real fist-fight in his entire life.

Why I am bringing up this unappealing sense of weakness and the revelling in disease and violence from a distance that is indelibly imprinted upon the sofa geek culture? Why am I mentioning the Penguin character and my deleting back episodes of the Gotham television programme? It’s because there’s a character in Green Lantern #37 who encapsulates every sick aspect that I’ve just been railing against. That character is another sofa geek hero/psychopath called, ‘Black Hand.’

Black Hand sadly laments, ‘I was born after all the good wars.’ No you weren’t mate. You are living in a period of never-ending war right now. If he really is supposed to be some creature that gets off on war then he would know that, but no, he’s that curious mainstream media murder junky that can’t see reality past his television set.

This Black Hand character dominates the narrative of Green Lantern #37. He’s seen revelling in the worst aspects of humanity. He loves war and death, but he’s strangely stuck on the History channel version of war and death, and doesn’t appear to recognise that war didn’t end after the Nazi’s were ‘defeated’ in 1945.

His character reminds me of somebody who sees war as a story told in a history book, not something that is happening all around him right now. Not something that he himself funds through quiet acquiescence to the unaccountable state apparatus of slavery, torture, incompetence, misery and death.

War is Hitler isn’t it? War is a dusty history book, a black and white television documentary, a DVD box set? It’s that kind of mentality, that kind of wilful ignorance about the world as it is today that I see again and again in my comic books and it bugs the Hell out of me.

It really does sicken me, and for the rest of the book this death obsessed, but out of touch sofa geek is portrayed as a grim reaper with cool factor. He’s a child with suburban serial killer fantasies, but with access to power that backs up what he’s saying, making him look far more important and impressive than Hal Jordan, the character in this book who is supposed to be the hero that the audience identifies with.

I’m getting the sense here that writer Robert Venditti actually admires the Black Hand. The Black Hand is soooo kewl, and Green Lantern is so lame after all. I can’t stand it, and that voice is talking to me again, it’s saying again and again:

‘Hey comic book geeks, isn’t it cool to be a psychopath? Isn’t it cool to be a psychopath? Isn't it cool to be a psychopath?

ENOUGH!!!!!!!

It is not cool to be a psychopath. It is not cool to obsess over death and stamping on your neighbour’s face forever. Torture is not cool. Drones are not cool. War is not cool. Death is not cool. These things are a symbol of weakness, not strength. Celebrating these aspects of humanity makes you spindly, feeble, enslaved, stupid, weak and ugly. You are a drone pilot with a jumbo carton of Pepsi diet poison, medals on his chest, flabby gut hanging out, press fire on the console, wedding party destroyed, time for more medals and football. Oh, a kid just shot up a school again? How did that happen? We better ban guns now, eh? War is peace, ignorance is strength, I’m voting for Bush/Clinton again.

That is the image I get when I see the Black Hand, or the Joker or the Penguin or whatever new psycho of the week portrayed as a sofa geek hero. It bother’s the Hell out of me, because it’s a symptom of the underlying disease that runs through the comic book industry, and the entire mainstream media as a whole.

It’s ugliness, celebrated, lauded and then put up against Batman, the Green Lantern, Commissioner Gordon, all of these statist control freaks who are there to restore order and protect the poor innocent victims/civilians. It’s a con game, a simplistic light and dark show for simpletons where the light are uniformed order followers and the dark are celebrated sofa geek cool psychopaths.

It’s a slaughterhouse psychological operation targeting the collective mind of the corporate media consuming slave public. They are telling you that it’s cool to be a psychopath, but at the same time they are telling you that the state must prevail to protect you against the very thing that is being pushed as cool and desirable. I’m not saying it’s deliberate. I’m not saying it’s a ‘conspiracy,' but it’s there, a disease that is messing with us all. That’s a mind trip, don’t you think?

I need to explore this celebration of psychopathy and it’s duel aspect the control system of the state a bit deeper, but for now I’ll finish this up as it’s already far too long. Hopefully I’ve managed to convey something in this review, something more than you’ll get in your typical comic book review anyway. That’s the entire point here. That is why I am doing these ‘reviews.’ They are not really ‘reviews’ at all, but you knew that, right? Thanks for reading. Hopefully I managed to say something here, and yes, this train of thought will continue on my blog, writing, as I do, free from corporate constraint, and free to say whatever the Hell I want to say.

It’s not about comics, it’s not about getting myself a job on a stupid keep your mouth shut and get re-tweets corporate comic book web-site. It’s about saying whatever is on my mind. Comic books and the other media that I consume feed my mind, and stimulate a response. I’m a big-mouthed annoying guy, and when I read something I like to tell people all about it. I say things that people don’t want to hear, but sod it. I’d rather say it than keep it to myself. That’s why I’m here, that’s why I’m writing on this blog. 

Rating: 5/10 (for the narrative progression that is keeping me interested in the arc)

Sinestro #7- Godhead Act 2, Part 5- Enjoyable stuff from the talented Mr. Bunn

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Ethan Van Sciver and Geraldo Borges
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 3rd December 2014


Sinestro #7 is a good old fashioned comic book with a conniving and calculating villain temporarily working with the good guys in order to defeat a greater threat, but all the time looking for openings, for opportunities that will benefit his own cause when the current conflict is settled.

I particularly enjoyed some of the dialogue from Sinestro himself in this book. Writer Cullen Bunn is doing an excellent job with the character of Sinestro and it’s the complexity that is imbued within his characterisation of the man that makes this comic book such a consistently enjoyable read. Nothing changes during this crossover. Sinestro is the name on the cover, and that is what you get within. This is a book about Sinestro, not just a half assed and resentful add on to the main Godhead arc.

As with any character based narrative there has to be a strong supporting cast of characters to back-up the main protagonist. Bunn’s Sinestro title has two such characters. A conflicted daughter who has joined the Green Lantern corps and is struggling with her duties versus family loyalties and a new leader trying to prove himself a capable replacement for a man (Hal Jordan) that Sinestro has great admiration for.

With this strong foundation of well-drawn (figuratively and literally) characters the narrative doesn’t have to do all of the heavy lifting. It is almost a passenger, subservient to the bigger picture, and when things do happen it’s the reaction of the characters themselves that is of most interest, rather than just the narrative development itself.

That is a great position for a comic book to find itself in, so when at the close of this book a huge narrative development takes place it’s merely the cherry on top of an already very delicious creamy concoction.

This Godhead arc from DC Comics is the only thing that I am reading from Marvel and DC at the moment. I’ve given up on Marvel completely, and until they reboot their entire line of books and writers I have no interest whatsoever in what they are doing. DC has almost lost me as well, but it’s the sci-fi element in the Green Lantern universe that is keeping me hooked in there.

Within the sci-fi genre you can deal with contemporary issues and socio-political concerns under cover of different universes and fictional characters. Clever and aware writers can get away with revealing a lot of truth that might not be allowable in this age of corporate statism and dumbed down media monopolies. When I get that in my comics it is reflected in my ratings here on my blog.

Sinestro #7 doesn’t say anything about the military industrial complex, false flag terrorism or mainstream media manipulation designed to justify the latest wars of empire and conquest. It doesn’t really say anything about our times, about the society that we live in. What it does do however is look into the individual, underlying motivational mechanisms that drive human actions and interactions. It also drives the Godhead arc forward with a fantastic old school denouement/reveal on the final page that makes the reader salivate at what is going to happen next in the crossover series.

Cullen Bunn has, to use a simple metaphor, dribbled the ball with great skill, dodging potential tacklers along the way, and nicely laid off the perfect pass for his team-mate to continue the progression of the move. That move continues in this week’s Green Lantern #37, a book that I’m now very much looking forward to reading and reviewing due to the excellent work done here in Sinestro #7 by a very much on top of his game Mr. Cullen Bunn.

Rating: 8/10

Comic review: Red Lanterns #36 (Godhead Act 2, Part 4)- A decent shift by Mr. Soule

Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: J. Calafiore
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 26th November 2014


This is the second time that writer Charles Soule has written a part of the ‘Godhead’ arc, and it’s a lot more enjoyable than his first effort in Red Lantern #35.

That first effort was terrible. His characters came across as American idiots, completely unaware of what was happening in the world. That was because the backdrop to the story was the real country of Dubai. In Soule’s story the country was portrayed as a luxury holiday resort where the heroes go to have a bit of a break. The real-world reality of a country owned by one billionaire dictatorship family that uses slave labour and has no regards for human rights was not mentioned, probably because that family is western friendly (to the banks and corporations that own the west that is), much like other western backed human rights violators like Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Witnessing one of DC’s superheroes sunbathing in Dubai and enjoying an alcoholic drink was a stark reminder that to American eyes some dictators are good, and that some dictatorships are not even seen as dictatorships at all. It was depressing, and the story that Soule attached to it was brief, lazy, uninteresting and no fun at all.

There is no mention of western friendly dictatorships, or human rights violators in Red Lanterns #36, so already it’s better than Soule’s first attempt on the Godhead arc. If you can’t be honest about the real world, then leave it alone. That’s what he does here, constructing a story about the personalities rather than anything that is going to insult the intelligence of the reader. The story is chunkier as well. More effort has been put in, and as a reader it felt less throwaway, less inconsequential.

As far as story progression goes, it’s not exactly a must buy book, however, something fairly important happens, and you see why it happened, from beginning to end. I also understand the motivations and personalities of the two main characters a lot more than I did before reading this book. It’s probably also the first time that I’ve seen a verse of the Quran used in a comic book. It’s a fairly uncontroversial verse, but I do appreciate the fact that Charles Soule was brave enough to use it in a mainstream comic book in the first place. In a world where mainstream comic book writers are usually in career mode it’s nice to see somebody stick his neck out, even if it’s only a little bit.

I also have to mention, and applaud, another line put into the mouth of one of the characters in this book. That line being, ‘There are no truly good rulers.’ That says it all. That’s why the human race is in the position that it is today. We voluntarily give away our power and freedom to rulers who don’t give a damn about us. They care about our votes, but once they have them, they serve the agendas of the real behind the scenes (corporate and banking) rulers of this planet. When we stop giving our power away to these puppet rulers things will change. Until then, the human slavery business will continue as usual. Charles Soule puts it out there in this book that all rulers are bad. I like that. I noticed it. I appreciated it, and I just want to thank him here for doing so.

So another review where I don’t even talk about the art? Yeah, that’s how I do it. I always put up a couple of samples next to the review though, so at least you’ll know what you get if you buy the book. I had no problem with the art, but I’m not an artist, so I’ll leave detailed analysis of art in comic books to people who actually know what they are talking about.

Red Lantern #36, or Act 2, Part 4 of the Godhead arc, is a character based book that has some moments of interest, story development and a couple of jokes as well. I enjoyed it. There’s quite a lot in there, no mention of western backed dictatorships like Soule’s previous Godhead book, and as a whole I give it a big old anarchist thumbs up. It’s not great, but it’s a lot better than I thought it would be, with writer Charles Soule putting a good shift in, and largely succeeding in creating an interesting and readable comic book experience.

Rating: 7/10

Comic review: Green Lantern-New Guardians #36 (Godhead Act 2, Part 3)- Weak sauce

Writer: Justin Jordan
Artist: Diogenes Neves
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 19th November 2014


I didn’t know too much about Kyle Rayner, the legendary White Lantern of the Lantern universe before reading this book. All I knew was what I had been reading in this Godhead arc, so I had this idea that he was a super powerful character who had bridged the very boundaries of reality itself. Pretty impressive, and more so when you consider that not only had he gone through these barriers of realty, but he had returned as well, more powerful than ever.

Crazed dictator alert

In Green Lantern-New Guardians #36 this mighty, powerful, reality changing character voluntarily gives all of his power away to a cartoon villain who walks around with a big neon sign above his head flashing:

*******CRAZED DICTATOR***********
*******CRAZED DICTATOR***********
*******CRAZED DICTATOR***********
*******CRAZED DICTATOR***********

Errrrrr, why did the great White Lantern do that? Why did he give his ring away? That kind of makes no sense. And now he’s moaning about it, saying that he’s made a stupid mistake. Well, no s*** Sherlock. What the Hell was going on here?

This is coming across like one of those occasions where story progression forces characters to act like idiots. It comes across as very soap opera, and not very believable at all. Kyle Rayner is either stupid, gullible, or both. He’s also a bit of a whining b***h as well. With heroes like this it’s no wonder that the villains are having such an easy time of it in the Godhead arc right now.

Very rushed and unimpressive artwork here

I’m not sure if the White Lantern was always this lame, but wow, what a useless, clueless twerp he turned out to be.

As for the artwork in this book, it looks rushed and unfinished. It’s noticeably lacking in detail and colour, and it appears to have been hurried out on a strict deadline. There’s one panel that needs to be good, the panel where the White Lantern is introduced to the new Genesis. His reaction is amazement at how awesome it all is, but in this comic book the art shows a half-page of beige coloured and roughly sketched sand dunes, not impressive at all.

That’s it for this week in the Godhead arc. A moaning White Lantern who voluntarily gives his power away to the most obvious villain since Ming the Merciless, some rushed looking art, and that’s it, the end. It’s a massive fail, and in comparison to last week’s impressive outing by writer Van Jensen and artist Bernard Chang (I gave that issue of Green Lantern Corps #36 a very well deserved 9/10) it’s chalk and cheese.

I guess that’s what you are going to get in these long crossover arcs with different artists and different writers working on the same story week to week. Sometimes it will be good, and sometimes it will be bad. This week, it’s bad. Oh well, let’s hope it’s swings and roundabouts and next week it’s gets good again.

Rating: 2/10 (and I’m being generous with that rating)

Comic review: Green Lantern Corps #36- Godhead Act 2, Part 2: The Power of Love

Writer: Van Jensen
Artist: Bernard Chang
Colourist: Marcelo Maiolo
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 12th November 2014

I’ve been very disappointed with this ‘Godhead’ arc over the last few weeks. The writing has lacked ideas, it has been treading water narratively speaking, and has been reading like the writers are not fully behind the crossover. It’s like this is something that they have to do, contractually speaking, and they have done it half-heartedly, with no passion, no intensity, no conviction and no love for the story.

I’m happy to report that writer Van Jensen has bucked that trend. He’s taken the time here to construct an emotionally engaging story with character development and heart.

I say ‘heart’ because that’s what is key here. His main character, Lantern John Stewart, has been emotionally damaged. He thought that he was loved, but he feels conned by it now. He feels that the love wasn’t real, that it was a construct designed to deceive and control him. Green Lantern Corps #36 develops his feelings of emotional betrayal, and takes them to a place with deeper meaning, not just on a narrative level, but on a ‘heart’ level as well.

This theme ties into the power of the main protagonists; a group of space aliens called the ‘Star Sapphires.’ This race of beings gets their strength through love, not violence. That’s one Hell of a deep message for a comic book, and I appreciate it, because it is true. Violence begets more violence, and its usage cannot lead to true spiritual strength. Whatever you use on your enemy rebounds upon yourself, so violence can never be the key to solving any of our problems. That’s how it works, it is a deep, moral, spiritual truth that is so often lost in this world today with our perpetual wars, done now under the deception of a propagandised word called ‘humanitarian intervention.’ That’s not how things work. It’s a lie, and that is why this world is in the mess it is in today.

Artist Bernard Chang and colourist Marcelo Maiolo have tapped into the undercurrent of deep spiritual and moral truth that is flowing through the narrative of this book and have constructed panels that perfectly compliment the story that is being told. It’s the panel variation that is key here, the use of colour, shadow, of hinting at what is taking place without letting it get too graphic, too bloody. It’s subtle, clever and always very, very interesting to the eye.

Green Lantern #36, or Godhead Act 2, Part 2, takes what was a wavering crossover arc and injects new life and passion into it. The character of John Stewart has never felt more alive, more real, and a story that was beginning to bore me has been giving an injection of love into it’s veins, giving it renewed momentum, new passion and new hope. This was achieved through the collaboration between a writer who knew his characters, knew the story and had something that he wanted to say, and an artist and colourist who were in perfect synch with what he was trying to achieve.

This issue of the Godhead arc is a great success all around. I really enjoyed the book and although they probably will never read this review I just want to put it out there and say a big thank you to writer Van Jensen, artist Bernard Chang and colourist Marcelo Maiolo. I’ve been very negative about mainstream comic books this week, but this one was extremely good, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading every single page of it.

Rating: 9/10

Comic review: Red Lantern #35- Hailing from the shining beacon of democracy and freedom that is Dubai

Godhead arc: Act 1, Part 5

Writer: Charles (Holiday in Dubai) Soule
Artist: J. Calafiore
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 22nd October 2014

This review is sponsored by the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhnUgAaea4M


Writer Charles’s Soule takes the baton for this fifth part of the Godhead series, immediately drops it, slowly walks back to pick it up, and then concludes his lap with an embarrassed jog.

It starts badly when the narrative begins in Dubai, portrayed as a paradise of flesh, fun, beer and sun. The reality behind Dubai can be summed up in the following four paragraphs (I’ll leave a link to the article at the end of this review).

Our heroes chilling in Dubai

‘Dubai is finally financially bankrupt – but it has been morally bankrupt all along. The idea that Dubai is an oasis of freedom on the Arabian peninsular is one of the great lies of our time.

Yes, it has Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts and the Gucci styles, but beneath these accoutrements, there is a dictatorship built by slaves.

If you go there with your eyes open – as I did earlier this year – the truth is hidden in plain view. The tour books and the bragging Emiratis will tell you the city was built by Sheikh Mohammed, the country's hereditary ruler.

It is untrue. The people who really built the city can be seen in long chain-gangs by the side of the road, or toiling all day at the top of the tallest buildings in the world, in heat that Westerners are told not to stay in for more than 10 minutes. They were conned into coming, and trapped into staying.’

Like I said before, it’s a bad start. The narrative then goes straight into ‘America F*** Yeah’ World Police inanity, with the superheroes talking about the evil dictatorship of fictional neighbours ‘Qurac’ (sounds a lot like Iraq, doesn’t it?). They of course have no sense of irony that they themselves are currently residing in a country owned and controlled by a self proclaimed, unelected monarch.

Dubai, where money buys an escape from reality

The heroes then proceed to invade Qurac (again, very familiar) to stop the western unfriendly dictator (as it appears they are perfectly happy with the Dubai dictator) but are stopped by the New Gods who are after their rings. The New Gods hang around for five minutes, get a call on their galactic mobiles and then bugger off again to do more important things in the universe. They leave a battered Quracci dictator behind them, whom I presume will be summarily executed by the Green Lantern Kangaroo court, much in line with current US foreign policy.

What the Hell was this?

I’ll tell you what it was. It was a filler book with the usual US World Police absence of reality mindset from writer Charles Soule. All the book achieves is to half-heartedly put the Red Lantern characters into the Godhead arc. That’s it. A stupid book, inconsequential story and a complete waste of my time.

The Green Lantern Godhead arc has been fantastic so far, so one book out of four being absolutely awful isn’t that bad going really. The arc continues in Sinestro #6 next week, and as it’s written by Cullen Bunn, and not the purposefully ignorant and phoning it in Charles Soule I’ll be looking forward to reading it and forgetting that Red Lantern #35 even existed at all.

Rating: 2/10 

Click on link below for the truth about Dubai.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-a-morally-bankrupt-dictatorship-built-by-slave-labour-1828754.html

Green Lantern Corps #35- Godhead Act 1, Part 3: No blame, no shame

Writer: Van Jensen
Artist: Bernard Chang
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 8th October 2014

I’m thoroughly enjoying this Green Lantern ‘Godhead’ crossover arc, and Part 3 of the story does not disappoint. I’ve read and reviewed a couple of truly depressing books this week, so I was in dire need of something to cheer me up. Green Lantern Corps #35 is an organic, vegan feast in comparison to what can only be described as Punks #1 and Wytches #1 genetically modified McCrap sandwich.

What I’m looking for in my comic books is a strong sense of personal/moral responsibility that is tied in with the no-harm principle and narratives that resonate with the real world of 2014. Green Lantern Corps #35 was a winner in my eyes because it explores what happens when people in positions of power think that they can operate with no regards to the universal principles of moral/natural law. This book demonstrates how real-life villains are the individuals who do terrible things, but take zero responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

Does this sound familiar to you?

John Stewart (of the Green Lantern Corps)- “You willingly destroyed a civilisation! You're murderers....butchers."

Uggha (of The New Gods)- “Watch what you say about the Gods, mortal. It did not work as planned. The flaw lies in your rings, not in us. For we’re Gods”

Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria.

George Bush, Tony Blair, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, David Cameron.

Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Bradley Manning.

Do you get my point? The ‘New Gods’ of our age are the political elite’s who order the slaughter of millions of innocent people, yet never take responsibility, and never pay any consequences for what they have done. Instead, they are handsomely rewarded for their butchery. That is the world that we live in. That is the world that we have created for ourselves.

But why do these monsters get away with what we all know they have done?

Because they are Gods, and we mortals must never question the wisdom of the Gods. Expose their crimes and you better pack your suitcase to Russia or to the Ecuadorian embassy, because the Gods will not tolerate mere mortals exposing their crimes to the sleeping, statist God worshipping masses.

That is the truth, like it or not. If you don’t like it, then do something about it. And remember. You cannot break down a wall by joining it.

Green Lanterns Corps #31 has the narrative to back-up its strong moral centre. Things are explained, the story is advanced, a mysterious lady makes an appearance and the elusive White Lantern is built up, and made to look like a huge, exciting deal. This is really good stuff. The villains have been fleshed out, the story has been explained in satisfactory detail and there’s plenty of action for those who just enjoy the fisticuffs.

Act 1, Part 3 of the arc finishes it’s lap with an impressive sprint, baton in hand, ready to hand it over to the next runner.

Green Lantern- New Guardians #35 is out next Wednesday 15th October 2014.

Get it.

If it’s anywhere near as enjoyable as Green Lantern Corps #35 it’s going to be a pretty bloody good book.


Rating: 8.5/10


What is the ‘No harm principle?’ Start here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRgoE5G_OJM