Lanterncast: Episode 143 - Issue 12's and GL Annual #1

We tackle all the August books, which means issue 12 of Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, New Guardians and Red Lanterns, then cap it all off with the Green Lantern Annual, kicking off the Third Army story! Listen in! Edited by the Epic LanternCast Producer, James Doyle! Call our voicemail number at 708-LANTERN!

Music by Desinu – “Green Ice”!

Download Episode #143 Here!

I find it both amusing and cruel that Jim has to review Red Lanterns every month since, while everyone hates the book, he seems to almost die inside just a bit whenever he has to recap it, he'd probably have to drink straight up ethanol if a recording of a Red Lanterns review were to be lost and had to record it.

Odinson91 wrote:I find it both amusing and cruel that Jim has to review Red Lanterns every month since, while everyone hates the book, he seems to almost die inside just a bit whenever he has to recap it, he'd probably have to drink straight up ethanol if a recording of a Red Lanterns review were to be lost.

It's settled then. Our listeners are amused by Jim reviewing Red Lanterns. It now falls to him to do it for all of eternity for this purpose. HUZZAH!

Up until now, he's just been slowest to the draw when it comes time to claim books to review...BUT THE LISTENER(S) HAVE SPOKEN!

The new fathers have to stick together so I say Jim gets first pick of the books for the next year.

I would like to reiterate: "I find it both amusing and CRUEL...."

Chad gets picked on enough on this show so I say Dan gets last pick from now on.

Have you guys recorded the #0's yet?

If not:

Jim - Green Lantern
Dan - GL Corps
Chad - New Guardians & Red Lanterns

Chad will hate me for this!

I suppose that figures. The first month I want to review red lanterns, and I'm stuck with gl zero.

choanata wrote:I suppose that figures. The first month I want to review red lanterns, and I'm stuck with gl zero.

Haha, hey don't listen to me. Honestly I thought New Guardians was the worst #0.

Hey guys, do you get the feeling that Green Lantern #12 was supposed to be a very exciting issue yet kind of whimpered with its big reveal? In theory, the big reveal at the end that Hal Jordan will be the greatest Black Lantern should have created some good discussion. And also there’s a panel that looks like Mogo is getting back together and there are pages where the Guardians are discussing their plans to eliminate EVERYONE is supposed to be exciting too. But overall I kind of felt blah and I could tell after listening to your reviews you guys think it’s blah too because there wasn’t much discussion. Dan - pass; Chad - low borrow; Jim – high borrow/low buy. This is definitely not what Johns was going for in this issue. I’m trying to look at the big picture and I’m starting to think this whole Rise of the Third Army might disappoint. Maybe they should take a break with these “big events”? Not sure.

They absolutely should. We've been in this event cycle since Sinestro War, with Blackest Night and War of the GLs and now Third Army. The books cool down, do their own thing, the start to build to the crossover, then crossover directly, then start again. Sometimes it works, but War of the GLs was a failure, and the opening salvo of the Third Army utterly failed to get me excited for the story. I'm more interested in the fact that Carol has a new costume than I am in the fact that there's this big event starting up.

The thing about Hal becoming the greatest black lantern is that it isn't that big a deal. For one thing, he already WAS a Black Lantern, and second, we KNOW he'll come back from the dead. It had about as much impact as if they said "Hal will fly through space the best!" Pointless. Not to mention they've been implying someone would die for a while, so that lessens the impact even more.

I will say I'm a billion times more interested in Hal & Sinestro's Bogus Journey than I am the third army. I think that's a boring concept in general, and the only time I've ever found it entertaining is when Star Trek created the Borg. It's a story where in the DCU, there's really just one possible outcome, they are ultimately obliterated. I don't really see any big surprises except which characters die and the bottom line on how they defeat the villain, although they've given enough clues for us to guess that pretty well.

I don't dislike the events just because they are events. If we got back to back to back events that were all as amazing as Sinestro Corp War, who would complain? But when the event starts to feel forced or even worse, a "filler" till you get to a better story, that's when people start taking notice if how often the events have been coming.

And one of the biggest problems these days is that with the "writing for the trade" mentality comes the fans that will only pick up an action packed trade. As much as we want to see issues like the beginning of the last gl series where Hal teams up with Batman, or has a nice chat with his family and friends for an issue, the uncommitted fan that just wants a big hal action story twice a year isn't really going to go for that.

choanata wrote:The thing about Hal becoming the greatest black lantern is that it isn't that big a deal....

...I don't dislike the events just because they are events. If we got back to back to back events that were all as amazing as Sinestro Corp War, who would complain? But when the event starts to feel forced or even worse, a "filler" till you get to a better story, that's when people start taking notice if how often the events have been coming.

Blume wrote:Hey guys, do you get the feeling that Green Lantern #12 was supposed to be a very exciting issue yet kind of whimpered with its big reveal?

12 definitely didn't hook me like the Annual did. I think I felt the most excitement for that ESPECIAllY since the damn Guardians have finally gone too far. I think seeing them finally pulling that trigger pleases me.


Now for the ep:


Red Lanterns- LOL so Jim you're opposed to Fatality proposing to Bleeze?

Consistently good creator- Cristos Gage on Avengers Academy.

As for Space Punisher...I don't think it's Frank, or our Frank. I think it's a different reality Frank.

Corps- Damn Jim, no Boodika love?

GL- I liked what the issue brought to us storywise but the art certainly knocked it down some.

GL Annual- The Mathusians can probably use the white energy because they are still in touch with their emotions. Making them definite replacements for the current batch of Guardians.

First Lantern- since he has control over the white energy was he affected by Nekron trying to kill the White Entity?

First of the Third- he has no pupils in his eyes because he has no soul. I realized this when the Guardians pointed out that the infected guy kept his eyes...windows to the soul and all that. LOL and they also have no mouth so they can't talk back to the Guardians...probably influence by Guy...

Hal/Sinestro's ring- I also thought that the re-merging of the rings had a definite effect on it. Whatever Nostromo did to Hal's Ring must have effected Sinestro's...which was Hal's ring first...right? And did anyone catch the fact that the Guardians intentionally gave Sinestro a Green Ring to help distance him from his Yellow? They pretended like they couldn't get it off.

Ghostbusters- Hell yeah Dan I remember that!!! Wasn't there an Ghostbusters cartoon before "The Real Ghostbusters" cartoon? If so it was the original.

Chad...issue #0 of GL will give you what you want in terms of continuity.

There was that cartoon just called "Ghostbusters" which was about some kids that hunted ghosts with their gorilla friend.

...but yeah, the one thing that does really interest me in all this is seeing them finally go for it and out the Guardians, bringing everything about all of that to the front.

Corwin wrote:
First Lantern- since he has control over the white energy was he affected by Nekron trying to kill the White Entity?


Hal/Sinestro's ring- I also thought that the re-merging of the rings had a definite effect on it. Whatever Nostromo did to Hal's Ring must have effected Sinestro's...which was Hal's ring first...right? And did anyone catch the fact that the Guardians intentionally gave Sinestro a Green Ring to help distance him from his Yellow? They pretended like they couldn't get it off.

I don't think the first lantern would have been affected any more than anyone else because of the white entity. If you harm Ion or Parallax, it's not like it really affects the other members of their corp.

And Sinestro's ring was not Hal's ring, it was just one flying nearby, if I recall. But with the Guardians, I think they wanted to get the ring off at first because they didn't sanction Sinestro getting the ring, but then they realized how it could play into their plans and sent him off so they could keep tabs on him and use him to close down his corps.