Untold Tales #572 Green Lantern and The Atom

The Atom’s never been the most cosmic of heroes but with his science and time-travelling background, I can see him and the Green Lanterns getting along.

Untold Tales #567 Dr Fate and the JLA

Is there a doctor in the house? Maybe a medical one?

Random Retrospective #15 – Green Lantern #103

Due to some major time-travelling shenanigans in the run up to issue #100 of GREEN LANTERN, Kyle Rayner had returned to the present from both the future and then the past but had ended up bring back Hal Jordan from a point in his career where he hadn’t long started out. Helping him to adjust, Kyle breaks the news about Coast City (destroyed in the Reign of Superman storyline) and Hal’s own dark past as Parallax in ZERO HOUR and his redemption in FINAL NIGHT.

All of which leads to this issue where Kyle takes Hal up to the JLA Watchtower to meet the team. And in 1998, it’s a big team.

Kyle and Wally chat as Hal meets the rest of the team with Kyle admitting to being nervous about bringing Hal up, but still feeling (mostly) secure that the JLA still need Kyle. And then this happens:

Not only do they offer Hal a place on the team but they literally give him Kyle’s chair – it’s got his symbol on it! Understandably annoyed at feeling like he’s been relegated back to the ranks of rookie, he fights with Wally and heads back to Earth. He helps with a bomb situation in New York only to be criticised by the attending police about the mess he’s made while saving people, and then returns to his apartment where Jen aka Jade is staying with him, and she delivers news that he didn’t get an art job he’d applied for.

Jen’s a good listener and helps him realise that he’s not being replaced by Hal and that there’s probably a reason for it, all of which leads to the culmination of several issues worth of will they / won’t they speculation.

Later that night, Kyle gets a visit from the only one of the JLA not to have been at the Watchtower to meet Hal – Batman. He reveals that it was his idea to offer Hal membership to the JLA in a “keep your enemies closer” move, so that he can be aware of what’s going on. Batman also gives Kyle some much needed reassurance as well.

On the whole, I really liked Ron Marz’s run on GREEN LANTERN as he developed Kyle into his own character, quickly managing to get out from under the shadow of Hal. With this storyline, he was able to pair them up and show them working together, showing Kyle as a worthy successor.

Random Retrospective #9 – Green Lantern #23.1

Here we are, not only in the New 52 but part of the FOREVER EVIL event where the villains in various DC titles had their own spotlight issues, giving their origin or focusing on some aspect of their story because, you know, the bad guys from Earth-3 have taken over the Earth at this point, so why not look at the bad guys?

To be fair, this issue of GREEN LANTERN was actually pretty good. Robert Venditti’s run on the title was solid for the most part, and the introduction of new enemy Relic – literally a hold over from a previous version of the universe – was a worthy foe not only for the Green Lanterns but all the ring wielders. And full marks to penciller Rags Morales for the entire issue being splash pages that look really good.

The story is basically Relic’s origin, how he realised the Lightsmiths of his universe were depleting a limited source of energy and how he tried to convince them to stop for the good of all existence. Of course, they don’t listen to him and, before long, it’s too late. Everything’s done.

He expects to die with the rest of the universe, but instead goes through the Source Wall and sleeps for eons in the new universe until he’s woken by Kyle Rayner, he White Lantern at this point. Sensing the proximity of a lightsmith, he wakes full of righteous anger, determined to stop the Lanterns using this universe’s finite source of power.