The senior school is now on study leave and some won't be back at all, after the English exams next month. I'm looking at S1 jotters tomorrow and then, perhaps, I'll try to see Infinity War. It's very hard to avoid spoilers on social media however.
Today, I'm looking at Green Lantern, who got an Original Graphic Novel last month, the latest in DC's sporadic Earth-One line of hardbacks. You'll remember no doubt that Grant Morrison's Wonder Woman explored lesbianism and ritual as well as Greek mythology in a faintly puerile, titillating way. The Batman book prefigured the tone of Gotham to my mind while I wasn't thrilled with the widescreen Young Superman from the creator of Babylon 5.
Unlike Marvel's old Season One line, Earth-One enables creators to re-imagine iconic characters, much as Julie Schwartz did in the early 60s (or Byrne and Perez in the 80s.) Married writer and artist Corinna Betchko and Gabriel Hardman deliver a dystopian sci-fi adventure that would have made a better movie than the one we had.
Hal Jordan is mining in the asteroid belt for Ferris Galactic when he is catapulted into the world of Kilowog Ev, Arisia and the others. The novel revives Englehart's cosmic conspiracy spun from Kirby's solo Manhunter exploit of the 70s. The theme that "someone stood up" against the Manhunters and their purge of Green Lanterns is juxtaposed with the one-party state on Earth and a cadre of Yellow Lanterns is prefigured.
While the book reminded me strongly of the Henson series Farscape, it reads quite well a second time. The art has a harsh, scratchy quality that's unlike many mainstream super-titles and actually, it would make a very convincing pitch for a television series.
Green Lantern is a B-list character like Iron Man or Daredevil with whom I was never greatly enamoured. I read a couple of 60s stories as a tot and then owned a further two or three in the 70s- including one of the O'Neil/Adams drug issues, where I actually preferred the Golden Age GL and his clash with the Icicle.
NOT the Inhumans. Honest
I was drawn to the Perez covers and Staton interiors of the very early 80s and returned for all of Englehart's quirky Reagan-era team book Green Lantern Corps. I have only occasionally dipped into the series ( like the return of Hal Jordan from the dead orchestrated by Geoff "Can't Move On" Johns.)
I always had a liking for the garish Alan Scott incarnation and recently obtained a copy of the 2002 Prestige Edition Brightest Day, Blackest Night. I don't know why I missed it in the summer of that year. I spent a month in Warrington but I can't imagine I didn't see it in Glasgow in FP at the weekend.
The story is a very loose retelling of "Fighters Never Quit", which I first read in DC's Wanted #4, in the summer of 1973, in Castle Douglas, (but possibly bought in Glenluce with an issue of Weird Worlds.) Like the original, we have a real sense here of the iron will of Alan Scott, "wed to" god-like power.
The story is a little elusive about the pseudo-mystical origins of the zombie Solomon Grundy, other than a reference to the secret Mercury Society of Gotham. However, this is a pulpy, rollicking Art Deco adventure in Slaughter Swamp with hooded Nazis, a plane crash and a JSA cameo, where surprisingly, Dr Mid-Nite appears to be leading the team. I think I might try Sandman Mystery Theatre again, as a result of this comic.
I was planning to blog about some John Byrne comics over a month ago, including 1992's Ganthet's Tale: a collaboration with Larry Niven, whom I really only know from the appearance of his Kzin in animated Star Trek. Byrne and Trek have both been on my reading list lately.
To be honest, Ganthet is a fairly slight effort in the vein of Byrne's regular "Everything You Know Is Wrong" trope. Here, the idea that Krona released entropy into the universe, rather than "evil" drives the cosmic narrative. There is a rather sweet Oan character named Percival, modelled on medieval knights if they were Smurfs. Otherwise, it's a slender tale in Kirby mode with lovely, clean spacey-wacey art and lots of exposition.
Coming soon: more Third Doctor Adventures. Maybe more Dan Dare. Possibly Star Trek. Outside chance of some Andre Norton. Thanos highly likely though.
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