Red Lanterns #1
September 29th, 2011 by chocko
You may have heard of Green Lantern and The Green Lantern Corps but The Red Lanterns are a group of aliens you don’t want to mess with. The first issue is a bit of an intro for the newbies. Atrocitus seeks revenge after The Guardians of the Universe, a group of immortal extraterrestrials who have the power to time travel and chop a planet in half, slaughter his people. Atrocitus forms the Red Lantern Corps, a blood thirsty band of misfits who go out to destroy and punish as “instruments of vengeance.” The leader of the Red Lanterns is in a bit of rut lately…feeling self doubt and feeling like his days consumed by hate just lacks the kick it used to have. Plus, he feels like nobody in the group respects him. After taking a break and receiving a blood prophecy, Atrocitus finds his purpose in life and off he goes into which is sure to be a life of relentless and bloody rampage. Will the rest of the Red Lantern crew join him for some revenge and violence? We shall see in future issues!
The story in the first issue is excellent and well paced. Kudos to writer, Peter Milligan who has worked on a ton of books for DC and Marvel including X-Men and Detective Comics. The history of the Red Lanterns is covered in the first issue, but it doesn’t get boring for the reader already well versed in the Lantern stories. The pencils by Ed Benes is amazing with attention to detail and the first couple of pages are a doozy. There’s the initial sequence where Dex-Starr, originally a house cat, flies through outer space bum rushes a spaceship full of bad, blue lizard-like aliens up to no good. The splash page is hilarious and the damage Dex-Starr does will get your blood pumping!
There is a little bit of info not covered in the issue, but the red rings the Red Lanterns wear send commands to the one wearing the ring to kill, hate, and destroy! The red rings are their power source, replacing their hearts and pumping red energy into their blood which is forced out of their mouths as they rage. It’s a big mess! If you can relate to violence, rage and a good old blood bath, then this book is for you!
Tags: comic book, dc comics, review, the new 52
Posted in art, comic books | Comments (0)
