#i so DESPERATELY want to see a status quo-changing event in the main series like the famine in goosefeather’s curse

[talonpaw]

if i remember correctly, bluestar’s prophecy is the “everything is awful and everyone dies” book so rereading it is going to be very fun :D

i think part of why people are so fond of the prequel* super editions (excluding nostalgia) is that they were TRAGIC (and a bit more kill-happy), as opposed to the modern series which REFUSES to let beloved legacy characters go.

[leslie-lyman]

A WIP Update

Now that the main story of SAMG is done, and because it is Sleepover Saturday, I wanted to give you all a peek into my WIP folder. I’ve alluded to several of these fics in various asks and comments and conversations with folks, so here’s some more info about things I’ve got cooking. I also have been tagged by so many folks in that WIP ask game that goes around every so often in the past few months and I have resisted every time because I wanted to solely focus on SAMG, so consider this me making up for/participating in it now (and I know for that game you just post the titles, but once I started writing lil summary blurbs for these stories I couldn’t stop).

This is an open invitation for anyone to send me thoughts and questions about any of these you like, I’m absolutely fucking dying to talk about/share snippets from them.

The House I Will Live In (Pero x Tessa)

The SAMG sequel! This one will not be a large multi-chapter fic the way SAMG is, but there are some aspects of Pero and Tessa’s life together that I really want to tell y’all about, so this will be a few chapters that serve as a follow-up to the main story.

Sins of the Father (Max Lord x OFC) (White Collar AU)

Set post-WW84, Max avoids jail time by becoming a consultant for the FBI on corporate fraud cases. He’s accepted that his personal life for the foreseeable future will be dedicated to being a better father to Alastair, for who would ever give a disgraced conman with an ankle monitor a second glance? Enter Rose Parker, a young lawyer working for a legal aid organization in DC, who’s no stranger to second chances and may be willing to give Max the one he so desperately wants. That is, if they can keep the sins of their respective pasts from tearing them apart…

Despite the Abundance (Javier Peña x OFC)

Bogota, 1989: Eleanor “Ellie” Hess is a forensic accountant and the new third wheel neither Javi nor Steve asked for in their hunt for Escobar. While Javi and Steve track sicarios through the streets of Medellin, Ellie races to unravel the financial secrets of the cartel to help them bring Escobar down. Ellie and Javi can’t deny their attraction to one another, but Ellie doesn’t do office hookups, and lord knows Javier Peña doesn’t do relationships. It’s an untenable status quo, and it’s only a matter of time before one of them gives in.

The Sun Amidst Small Stars (Din Djarin x Jedi!OFC)

Set post-the events of The Tragedy, but where Din and Grogu (and the Razor Crest) escape the Darktroopers. Grogu’s time on the Seeing Stone connects him not with Luke Sywalker, but Miriamora “Miriam” Corros, a woman trained as a Jedi but disillusioned with the ways of the old Jedi Order. With Miriam on board the Crest as Grogu’s live-in teacher, Din fulfills his task of reuniting the child with his own kind without having to give him up. But there’s still the threat of Moff Gideon to deal with, to say nothing of the much more immediate crisis of having a beautiful, powerful woman from a race of enemy sorcerers as an unexpected roommate.

Untitled Frankie Morales x F!reader one-shot (or maybe a two-shot?)

Frankie accidentally injures you, and the guilt-ridden pilot helps take care of you as you recover. Friends-to-lovers.

Untitled Marcus Pike x OFC series #1 (aka CNC!Marcus)

Both my Marcus fics are heavily inspired by my love of The West Wing. As-yet-unnamed OFC works on Capitol Hill. Dating in DC is a nightmare, but Marcus Pike could be convinced to try his hand at love again with the right girl. And this time, he’s determined to take his time and do things right. But when she’s unexpectedly pulled into his latest investigation of a dangerous crime ring, fate may throw them together more quickly than Marcus intends.

Untitled Marcus Pike x f!reader/OFC series #2 (aka Congressman Marcus Pike!!!)

Marcus Pike: young, progressive, unbelievably handsome, and newly elected representative for Texas’s 27th district. He came to Congress to make change and help people, but he never expected that in between meetings and votes and fundraisers that he would also fall for someone again…

Rights and Wrongs Part 2 (Whiskey x f!reader)

The R&W follow-up in which reader recovers from her abortion and finally confesses her feelings to Jack.

Untitled Whiskey x f!reader one-shot #1

Established relationship. You and Whiskey live together, and you’re sure he’s The One, but when you accidentally become pregnant, you have no idea how he’ll react. [This is the only fic on this list that I know for sure won’t be explicit.]

Untitled Whiskey x f!reader one-shot #2

You admit to Whiskey the secret that’s harming your love life and your mental health: you can’t orgasm in front of another person. Jack takes it upon himself to prove to you a man can accept and love you just the way you are. Heavy themes of anxiety and insecurity. Friends-to-lovers.

Untitled Zach Wellison x F!reader fic (a one-shot? A series? Who knows!)

You’re an artist and friend of Justin’s when you meet the homeless ex-Marine sleeping on his couch. As Zach tries to get his life together, you start to hope that there might be a place for you in it.

The Ezra Romancing the Stone AU

This is literally just an idea. I have nothing written for this. But Romancing the Stone is one of my favorite films and I’ve wanted to write an AU using it for a long time, I just have never settled on which character I want to write it for. But consider the Ezra similarities: a dangerous loner of questionable moral character rescues a woman and goes on a trek through a perilous jungle full of enemies in search of a jewel worth a fortune that many are willing to kill for??? Hmm…

And finally, the one non-Pedro fic in the mix. Before I got hit by the freight train that is my Pedro hyperfixation, my brain was previously ruled by my Tom Hiddleston/Loki hyperfixation. This Loki fic is the one that got me back into writing fanfiction for the first time since high school. I’ve got almost 35,000 words written of this story, and I’m hoping that one day my motivation for it will come back, because I still love it dearly.

i’ve come to burn (your kingdom down) (Loki x soulmate!OFC)

In which throneless, refugee princes still have so much further to fall. And Loki, for once, can hardly be blamed. For in the end, gods’ hearts are just as foolish as mortals’. But the threat of Thanos hangs heavy over the galaxy, and what bonds dare grow in the shadow of the Mad Titan’s revenge?

Featuring: Asgardians making it safely to Earth post-Ragnarok; Loki’s human soulmate being an ex-Master of the Mystic Arts who now makes her living as a bookbinder; excessive discussions of and strong opinions about tea; enemies-to-lovers; a restored Victorian house; vibes strongly inspired by Gilmore Girls and that season 2 arc of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel where they spend the summer in the Catskills

Shamelessly pspspspsing some mutuals who may be interested and/or have already had to deal with hearing me talk about some of these and/or who have tagged me in the WIP ask game in the past: @ezrasbirdie @whataperfectwasteoftime @jazzelsaur @radiowallet @the-ginger-hedge-witch @iamskyereads @green-socks @lowlights @oonajaeadira @magpie-to-the-morning @starlightmornings

[linkspooky]

Eri and Shigaraki are obviously supposed to parallel one another, but in the sense of "showing what might have been both ways" not in "Eri was saved, so Shigaraki will be too", I think.I can't say anything for certain, obviously, but I feel like everything we've found out makes any salvation for him less likely, not more. I would like for the series to directly address that the two characters have important similarities, though. like enji and bakugou 1/3

I think the parallels between eri and tenko of them exist primarily to demonstrate how much of a difference it can make depending on how people are treated and, on a slightly darker level how the people that heroes protect can potentially become the villains that heroes were protecting them from in the first place. Shiggy is one of those tragic cases where you can totally see that he could have been redeemed if he had been helped sooner, but it’s nearly impossible to imagine a scenario 2/3

where his current self could be redeemed. Shiggy could of possibly been redeemed when he was a child, if someone more morally sound got to him before All for One did. Sure, he would of likely been a traumatized and guilty wreck once he realized exactly what he did but atleast he would of had a chance. In the present he’s not so much someone to be redeemed as he is a serious threat to public safety that needs to be contained. 3/3

Thanks for the ask, anon!  You’re free to disagree with me all you like, I hope you don’t mind if I continue the discussion. I consider this blog to be all about discussion so nobody is truly wrong, all I can do is restate my point of view and hope it’s understandable. 

Shigaraki’s Character Development  and Why it Shows There’s Still a Chance for Him

Shigaraki is an ugly, messy, bad person one who is hard to sympathize with. The entire point of his conflcit is that it’s difficult to imagine him being saved, but the story goes out of its way to show that he is at the same time, a person capable of changing for the better. If he were a lost cause, he would only experience negative development not the positive development he’s been shown. The plot is heading towards Shigaraki being saved not because people should have to sympathize with him, but because Shigaraki has a character arc. He’s not spiraling out of control, he’s growing into becoming his own person outside of the threat to society All for One intended him to be. 

I never once said in my post that Shigaraki deserves redemption, or is going to be redeemed in a straightforward manner. My post is entirely about how moralizing the way one victim of abuse acts, in comparison to the way another victim of abuse acts and deciding which one of them should be saved based on that black and white judgement is wrong. At that point the complexity from both characters is erased to rule that Eri is the “good victim” and Shigaraki is the “bad victim.”

Saying that only Eri deserves comfort or solace from what has been done to her is the same as saying that victims only deserve to be helped if they are acting a certa “acceptable” way. It was also about the complexities of empathizing with someone. Not every case of empathy is going to be beautiful, not every person you’re asked to sympathize with is going to be as straightforward as feeling bad for a crying little girl. Sometimes people don’t cry, sometimes people resist you every step of the way, sometimes people are ugly and hard to confront but that does not make them any less deserving of empathy. 

Shigaraki does not stop being a human at any point. His victim status does not get negated by the fact that he has grown up. Especially since, Shigaraki is still very much underneath All for One’s thumbs and in the middle of his machination. In fact because Shigaraki is still a human who is effected by the environment around him he has been shown

#1 - Shigaraki has a character arc, and is directly tied to the themes of the story

Most importantly, Shigaraki is a character with an arc. The reason I say he is going to be saved isn’t because I like redemption arcs, or I think every villain needs to be redeemed. In fact I hate the term “redemption arc” because it’s dumb, literally what makes a redemption arc good is the same thing that makes any other character arc good, a character facing consequences for their actions and being forced to change. A character getting their teeth repeatedly kicked in until they learn better. 

You have to think of this story in terms of themes, and characters. Shigaraki is the second most important character thematically after the Deku, so he’s not just a tragic case that can disappear after one arc. What exactly would the story be saying if a kid who has basically been abused all of his life and raised as a child soldier gets “put down” before any single person sympathized with him or even gave him a chance? That you only get saved if you’re lucky enough to be saved? That’s super optimistic there. 

Thematically the main conflict of the story is that in a society made up of heroes, there are people who do not get saved. This is how the story starts “In this world people are not created equal”, this is what Shigaraki thinks when he is alone in a crowd of people desperately begging for people to help him, only for people to ignore him, because he looked too ugly, or too dangerous to get involved in. 

I’m not saying Shigaraki deserves to be saved because it’s nice, or because I want him to, by “deserves” I mean this is an idea the story is building up and should be paid off. The theme is a question and the events that happen in story is an answer. 

What exactly do we learn if Shigaraki is just “put down by the plot?” 

That some people don’t get saved? But we already knew that at the start of the story. It is the literal first line in the story. By that logic Deku should never have gotten All Might’s Quirk, because he was unlucky enough to be born without it. The point of stories is that they challenge the status quo, change it, and then resolve it. My Hero Academia is not a cynical story, it’s about using effort to change and overcome the things that are unfair about the world rather than just succumbing to the world’s flaws around you. It’s a story where the system can be overcome, where the heroes are expected to be heroes and do better to make up for the failures of the previous generation. 

At the start of the story Shigaraki was just another villain to take down, if that’s his final fate at the end of the story then there was no point in following him for hundreds of chapters. He could have just been a villain that disappeared after the first arc, and then got replaced by Stain, and then got replaced by Chisaki, and then by Re-Destro. 

The point is the story is choosing to focus on Shigaraki’s growth and development because the author plans to go somewhere with it. Since My Hero Academia is thematically about saving people, and Shigaraki is the most difficult character too save, but also emblamatic of the victims that society creates it makes thematic sense to save him. Your argument that Shigaraki only serves as a bad example of what could have happened to Eri had she not been saved does not work, because Eri is not an important character. She’s introduced in chapter 129, as opposed to Shigaraki who makes an appearance in chapter 13. 

As someone who loves the Overhaul arc, and who adores Eri, at this point Eri is not that much of her own character. She basically exists for two reasons, the relationship she has with three important characters (Eraserhead, Mirio, Deku) and also the plot point that her quirk is a weird macguffin that needs to be studied. Despite being in a highly volatile and violent environment as a child, Eri shows almost no negative signs of her abuse at all (that is getting violent herself, acting out, lashing out) and is basically gets over most of it writing wise by having a fun day at a concert. Once again, I don’t think this is bad, it’s just that Eri isn’t as important to the plot so she’s written the best she can with the limited amount of focus she’s given. 

Eri is entirely there for her relationships to other characters. Therefore, it makes far more sense that Eri is there to serve Shigaraki’s storyline, not the other way around. 

See let’s use star wars. Darth Vader is there to be a negative foil to Luke, to show a jedi who fell to the dark side as Luke’s literal father. The possibility that Luke can fall to the dark side is present in his connection to Darth Vader. However, the reason Darth Vader does not get a full redemption arc in the original trilogy is that Luke is far more important a character being the main character. 

As opposed to Eri who is just a side character, compared to the literal second most plot important character. Shigaraki is connected to the conflict with All for One which is the central conflict of the story, and he was born into it rather than Deku who inherited it from All Might. Shigaraki is connected to the idea that some people are not saved by Hero Society, and are victims who fall through the cracks and then grow up to be villains. Shigaraki is connected to the idea that some people’s quirks are not really able to fit into society if they are actively destructive and dangerous, that some people have more villainous quirks and are therefore stigmatized and not help. Shigaraki is connected to the conflict with Endeavor because Dabi is his right hand man. He was connected to the Stain conflict due to AFO pulling them together. 

Finally, yes there are villains who like Shigaraki could have been saved but are defeated instead and their backstory only exists to make them a tragic character. Chisaki is the biggest example that I can think of, because he’s a heavy character foil to Shigaraki, they were both abandoned as children and picked up by father figures in crimminal syndicates who ultimately saw them as tools. 

However, the difference between Chisaki and Shigaraki lies in the writing. Shigaraki has a character arc, and Chisaki does not. Shigaraki exists in several arcs and persists in the story, and Chisaki disappears after one arc. Which is the point, that what we’ve been shown makes the prospect of Shigaraki’s salvation more likely, because we’ve been shown he’s capable of growing and changing. Shigaraki, just like any character in the plot screws up and then when his screw ups explode in his face he learns and gets better. 

Shigaraki is introduced as a character who cares nothing at all about his allies, is fickle, gives up easily. He is almost exactly what All for One raised him to be, a symbol of fear, who kills for no reason, and seems to only exist to destroy and hurt others. 

All for One’s intentions were to make Shigaraki someone with no positive emotions, someone with no positive qualities, no positive relationships. Someone who is only capable of hating, only lashing out in anger. Hanging onto those negative emotions completely stunted his growth and made him incapable of developing as a person.

When he is first introduced, Shigaraki is not his own person but acting exactly as All for One wants him to be. However, the point of Shigaraki’s failure in not only this arc but the next arc is that Shigaraki is told again and again that his methods do not work. None of his allies want to work with him, he cannot make his plans work because he’s just attacking for the sake of attacking without an objective. He’s also entirely dependent on what All for One gives him, and can’t really accomplish anything on his own, and has to use the fallen king of evil’s vast amount of resources. 

He throws tantrums, he loses out on potential allies, he squanders resources on his petty little emotions. The point is not only does Shigaraki fail again and again, but it’s also something he’s consitently called out on. When he fails, he does not get the results he desires, and nobody coddles him for it. 

Shigaraki is told that if he wastes his allies then he’ll be a failure by Kurogiri. 

Deku tells Shigaraki to his face that Stain is a better viallin then him, and more people believe in Stain, because he doesn’t give up that quickly, because he gives them something to believe in and a reason to fight. 

Shigaraki’s plan to kidnap Bakugo to find sympathizers completely blows up in his face (quite literally as well), and not only does Bakugo lecture him yet again, but he loses the one support system he had in All for One as a result of his failure. 

Not only does Shigaraki lose the security and infinite amount of redos that he had, he also feels the consequences to his actions for the first time. 

An intentional move on All for One’s part to make Shigaraki realize he is responsible for his own actions now, and cannot be like a child having their parental figure clean up all of their messes for them. A move that forces Shigaraki to grow up on his own. 

It’s also no surprise that by the time that by the next time we cut to Shigaraki, he’s learned to value people more. After all, he’s now lost the one person he did have an attachment to in his life and he knows what that pain feels like. Not only does Shigaraki in the Chisaki arc get lectured and have his past failures held against him yet again as a person.

Shigaraki’s lack of a plan, and how much he let allies slip out of his hands in the past are both things that he is criticized for, and also something he faces a direct consequence for. Due to the fact that he was not enough on his own to bring Chisaki into line, in the resulting Melee in the league vs the Yakuza magne dies, and not only that Shigaraki also has to bow his head down to Chisaki and agree to work under him in order to get what he wants this arc. 

It’s at this point we see Shigaraki’s growth as a leader. He’s no longer someone who does not care about his allies, because he speaks to them on a personal level, and also takes responsibility for his failings and mistake. He’s learned the value of his allies, and how to speak with them. This is a complete 180 from the person who tried to kill Toga when she first met him because he annoyed her. 

However, his victory against the Yakuza and choosing to pursue personal vengeance over joining hands with the Yakuza is also something that has consequences for Shigaraki. 

They are out of money, directionless, and his own allies are questioning him because he doesn’t make it clear what he wants to do for them, or what his goals are. Even though the League of Villains is close, they’re not sycophants like Kurogiri, so they don’t just unquestioningly do whatever he says or put up with him. They actively call him out. 

Not only that, but Shigaraki is called to prove himself yet again. He’s called out for accomplishing nothing, despite starting out with the vast amount of resources that All for One gave him. The league of Villains has notoriety and not much else, because at the moment it consists of a core group of homeless twenty year olds strapped for crash and stayin in a dump. 

However, Shigaraki’s character arc is not an arc that just develops him as a villain. He also develops as a person as well. Shigaraki himself is aware of the fact that even if he were to become the perfect king of the villains and All for One’s successor that’s not something that would satisfy him.

Yes, characters are defined by their choices. Shigaraki can make choices now and those choices have meaning. But it’s also important to remember that there’s no such thing as a person with 100% free choices to define who they are. There are choices you get, and things that are chosen for you, and a lot of times especially in stories characters are defined by what they choose when given the choice.

Shigaraki has consistently chosen to value his allies, ask people to believe in him, connect on an emotional level, and even to try to save the people who are on his side when they are lost. These are not things All for One would choose, because All for One raised sycophants and disposable pawns. We see when Shigaraki is given the choice, he chooses to grow on his own to be a better person, despite being met with constant failure. At no point does he give up, or give in. 

By being what All for One wants him to be, Shigaraki completely fails as a person. He only starts to grow and change for real when allowed to be his own person. When he grows independently from All for One, he shows positive character growth that a person who is supposedly past the point of no return should be incapable of. 

Shigaraki at the start of the manga was an insane misanthrope with no social skills at all, who was fickle, gave up, barely tried, and just wanted to lash out. 

Shigaraki now is a person who values his allies, is capable of planning for things in advance, has the determination to fight an impossible battle against an entire city for the sake of one ally, and was clever enough to actually win that fight. If Shigaraki cannot be saved, then why have we already seen him heal to this point? Why are we shown he is capable of change and improving as a person? 

Shigaraki is constantly told how terrible he is and is forced to grow. The most Deku does is occasionally break his bones.  

#2  Bakugo and Enji

Saying that Bakugo and Enji are characters more redeemable then Shigaraki is a pointless statement to me, because Enji and Bakugo are already tied thematically to Shigaraki’s plotline. You cannot have one without the other. You see, because Bakugo and Enji are both explorations of the idea that there’s more to being a hero than just punching villains. 

This is the ideal end point of Deku and Bakugo’s rivalry. That both of their ways of idealizing heroes are misguided, because Deku always hurts himself too much because he prioritizes saving others over his own safety, and Bakugo cannot save others because he is a hero mainly to be the strongest, and to defeat villains. 

Which is one of the critiques of hero society that the story has offered, that there are heroes who are in it not to save other people, but to be the strongest. Which is an unhealthy attitude, because it leads to Bakugo bullying Deku for years over his fear that Deku was looking down on him, and Enji taking out his feelings of failure on his own family. 

Bakugo and Enji are not good heroes, specifically because they would never save someone like Shigaraki. Their priorities are not in helping victims to begin with, just beating up villains because they want to feel strong. If the story is thematically about saving others, it makes sense then that these two characters would be challenged to, yanno, save people. 

If the Ultimate Ideal end of Bakugo and Deku’s relationship is someone who will always win, and save others, then it makes sense for Deku to grow into someone who would not lose to Shigaraki, but also someone who would refuse to see Shigaraki as a victim and be capable fo saving him. 

Also, there’s almost a world of difference in the motivations between Bakugo + Enji and Shigaraki. Bakugo’s backstory is that everybody told him how special he was and he put too high expectations on himself. Now, that was mainly an oversimplication (I have done an entire post on how Bakugo pressuring himself is relatable and also his behavior is a failure on the part of the adults around him to reason with him and discipline him because he’s still a child, just check my mha meta tag)

The things which shaped Shigaraki into the person he became he had almost no control over. What happened to his family was a freak accident, All for One finding him was due to who his grandmother happened to be no fault on his part. He was basically raised in a basement and his only exposure to the outside world was when All for One sent him out to kill people. 

Yet, despite being not responsible for a lot of things that turned him the way he was, Shigaraki takes a lot of personal responsibility for his growth. It is on Shigaraki to learn from his mistakes and right those things. When he fails, Shigaraki takes the brunt of the failure. 

Yet, we have people like Enji who for the most part just blames the circumstances around him and does not change. The reason people want Shigaraki to get exploration as a character is because he does change, and he takes personal repsonsibility to improve himself and faces consequences for his action. Enji faces no consequences for his actions beyond the people he abused not liking him, and he still stays the same person. He still only values individual strength, he still fights by using flashy moves to defeat villains while critically endangering civillains. 

Bakugo is a kid, and he’s also learning to build bridges with Deku instead of repeating his behavior in the past, so he’s capable of change and resolving the conflict of his character that he can be a strong person good at defeating villains but that does not necessarily make him into a good hero.

Shigaraki has also demonstrated that he is a person capable of taking responsbility for his mistakes, and changing to be better. The reason he’s being explored as a character is because he can change. 

Endeavor in his refusal to change far more fits the bill as a tragic example that you were trying to talk about in your response, because that’s how stories are written. Stories are all about development, and change.

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of August 28th, 2019

Best of this Week: Spider-Man Life Story #6: The ‘10s - Chip Zdarsky, Mark Bagley, Drew Hennessy, Frank D’Armata and Travis Lanham

All good things must come to an end. That’s the main theme of this final issue of Chip Zdarsky and Mark Bagley’s phenomenal Life Story miniseries as it recounts the last adventure that Spider-Man goes on as he leaves the world free and safe in the capable hands of the new generation of superheroes.

Comic books are cyclical. For some heroes, you get a short run, 6-12 issues and then they disappear for years until they’re needed again for some big event. For the bigger heroes, there are ongoing series that last years upon years with some BIG changes that inevitably get reversed for the sake of reestablishing the status quo. It’s understandable, recognizable names draw big money, but there’s only so many times you can see a hero fight a particular villain before it becomes trite and meaningless.

The same goes for their daily lives as well. Peter Parker has been stuck as a meandering young adult for the better part of a decade since the events of One More Day and he hasn’t been allowed to grow past his immaturity, save for the few times when the situations have become desperate and dire. Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows tried to posit a family man Peter Parker in an alternate universe, but for the most part he came off as just regular Peter with a kid to banter off of. Nick Spencer and Tom Taylor are doing their best in their respective Spider-Man series to get Spider-Man back to a position where things actively change for him, but Chip Zdarsky has gone the extra mile.

The Spider-Man Life Story miniseries goes through Peter’s life if he actually aged with the decades that all of his comics took place in. He goes through the struggles of being an American citizen straddling the fence during Vietnam, the aftermath boiling to a superhuman civil war, a better Clone Saga of the 90s, Aunt May’s death, the start of the information age and finally having children and watching them grow up. Peter Parker is allowed to grow old, change with the times. He sees old friends die, new heroes emerge, give his take on current events of the time and it’s all been amazing.

I know I mentioned that fighting the same villains over and over can seem trite and meaningless, but that’s only when they’re done for the sake of being done. In this fantastic take on the Superior Spider-Man story, Peter and Otto have their absolute final confrontation with one another over the body and soul of the young Miles Morales. Peter and Miles are shot into space to stop some sort of satellite created by Doctor Doom that allowed him to fill the power vacuum left by Captain America and Iron Man’s Civil War. As the two explore, Peter is attacked by Kraven wearing the Venom symbiote, but he dispatches the villain easily and it’s revealed that the suit was just piloting a are skeleton.

Miles questions how it was possible and Peter replies that all of his old enemies are dead and rightfully accuses Miles of being Otto Octavius, Doctor Octopus. Otto reveals his scheme, but instead of fighting Pete physically, he chooses instead to go into the mindscape and have a battle of the intellect as they were always destined to do. 

Bagey pulls out all of his stops as he draws Spider-Man costumes from the various decades as well as beautifully illustrates some of the best of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery as they battle for supremacy. Set against a white background, the characters shine with their vibrant colors, dynamic posing and Bagley’s ever amazing facial expressions. I have never seen Otto look so menacingly mad and subsequently, once Peter defeats him, absolutely crushed. 

Using the only person that Peter knew Otto cared about, Aunt May, she’s able to convince Otto to let go of his hatred and rage. She tells him to let Miles live his life, to move on. I really felt this and inside, it feels like Zdarsky is also telling us that sometimes we have to let the status quo go. Spider-Man has been around for longer than some of us have been alive and will be long after most of us are gone. Do we really want him to be the same mid-20s to early 30s hero that we knew, or do we want to spend our time with someone new? Miles Morales is a little more than ten years old, he’s fairly young as a character and I wholeheartedly believe that he can carry on the Spider-Man name on his own.

As the satellite starts to collapse and there’s only one escape pod left, Peter chooses to save Miles and sacrifice himself so that the future can flourish in peace due to his heroism. It’s a true heroes death and something that we almost never see (and likely never will), but if this were a true moment of closure, then I would be happy with it. Peter Parker is known for having more guilt than a Catholic who hasn’t been to Mass for a month (or Daredevil) and as he finally closes his eyes for the final time, he has a nice conversation with Mary Jane and recounts his recurring dream of the day he truly learned about power and responsibility. The last panel is his guilt finally being washed away.

If there is one series I would recommend anyone read, hands down, without a doubt it would be this one. Chip Zdarsky has a strange yet beautiful understanding of how to tell a story with characters that some of us know better than our own family members. Mark Bagley has the art skills to make us care about them immensely as well. Putting these two together as well as their amazing inker in Andrew Hennessy and colorist in Frank D’Armata, they sell you on each decade presented and how Peter changes throughout. 

Spider-Man isn’t the same plucky youth we met in the 1960s. By the end of his story, he’s led a full life full of adventure and his time has been well spent making sure that it was a future worth living in. Isn’t that something that we all can only dream of?

---------------------------------------------------

God is Here.

Runner Up: Absolute Carnage #2 - Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin and Clayton Cowles

After the events of the last issue there aren’t enough words to describe just how hopeless things are looking for anyone who has ever worn a symbiote.

Spider-Man and venom have been backed into a corner by Carnage and his horde of infected inmates at the Ravencroft Asylum. With no other options Eddie decides it best to break out and punches a hole through the wall for a tactical retreat. Eddie is typically known for his ability to brute force his way through any problem, but Carnage is a new monster altogether and as he sees Spider-Man running out of energy, he gives into the fear that they might die.

In the past, the combined might of Spider-Man and Venom has been more than enough to combat Cletus Kasady. Even when Cletus had help, he still couldn't hold a candle to the heroes, but now, they're almost low tier by comparison.

Spider-Man notes that he's almost out of web fluid, so there's no way that they're swinging out of there, so Eddie and the Symbiote utilize one of their badass upgrades, spreads his wings and flies out of Ravencroft with Peter screaming frantically "WHATISGOINGONRIGHTNOWIHATEALLOFIT!" They then land on a roof in the city, defeated and horrified that they may not be able to stop Carnage this time.

Spider-Man says that he'll try to get a hold of Wolverine and Captain America and Eddie says that he'll go find any of the lowlifes that have been Symbiotes and the two split to complete their missions. Carnage chooses not to follow after them, instead he waits and plots. This issue then turns into a bit of a catch up game for the other tie in issues while Carnage gloats to Norman that everything is running smoothly and that the world will be painted red soon enough.

Ryan Stegman absolutely smashes the art in this issue with absolutely killer detail, expressions of fear and disgusting visuals, especially in Carnage's underground lair - The sprawling mass of symbiotic flesh that covers New York's sewage system, packed full of infected humans is a dreadful sight. In the beginning of the issue, Stegman drew a splash page of Carnage with other panels overlaid, showing one of his eyes of madness and the decayed flesh that's absolutely under the symbiote. It's an absolutely terrifying sight that set the tone of this horror show.

Not only were these shots great, but Stegman kills one of the moments that happens in the Miles Morales tie-in where Miles and Scorpion (Mac Gargan) fight off the infected hordes trying to take Gargan's spine. In the tie-in, the art is more subdued and less violent, but here, Stegman turns it into something to get squeamish over. Gargan tries to abandon Miles to fight the infected alone, but is thrown back into the fight by Venom.

Unfortunately, Carnage is there waiting to pounce. He plunges a tendril into Mac's back and DIGS around to get that spine. There's no need to leave anything to the imagination as the blood spurts out, Gargan screams in agony and Kasady looks like he's having the goddamned time of his life. Mayer and Martin's colors and inks really sell just how violent all of this is. It's almost gross just how close they get the color right and how dark the scene is. Miles swoops in to save him, but… no good deed goes unpunished.

Absolute Carnage absolutely does what it set out to do. I have never been more afraid for the Marvel Universe than I am right now. Of course, there have been universal threats, but with how close and personal this feels and the looming feeling of dread knowing that Knull is THIS close to returning is mortifying. Normally a villain will just kill a hero or destroy them and whatnot, but Carnage wants nothing but massacre. If there's not torture and blood then what is it all worth?

Everything that Cates and Stegman have been building to has lead us here. To say that it's beginning to lay off would be an understatement. The dividends of fear are fore more exponential than anyone could have anticipated and this will likely go down as one of the greatest Venom/Carnage stories ever written. Absolute High Recommend.

[thesffcorner]

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Spider-man: Far from Home is the second of the MCU Spider-man films, directed by John Watts. It follows Peter Parker, right after the events of Endgame, as he and his class go on a well deserved vacation to Europe. Peter wants to use the trip to woo MJ, which ends up taking a backseat when a series of elemental natural disasters hit the Earth, and Nick Fury needs Spider-man to help.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the original Marvel Spider-man film; I found the story overly complicated and underdeveloped, and while I enjoyed the individual components of the film, like Michael Keaton as Vulture, Tom Holland as Peter, and Peter’s friends, I found the overall film average at best. So I’m happy to report that this film is leagues better, and IMHO is the best Spider-man film we’ve gotten to date.

Let’s start with the plot: this film deals with a lot of elements, just like the first film did, but it does a much better job of integrating them, and giving them each enough time to develop and have an impact. Peter himself is dealing with a lot; he has just lost 5 years of his life, he lost his mentor and father figure, everyone expects him to step up and be the next Iron-man, while all he wants to do is take a vacation and be a teenager. One of the best aspects of Spider-man as a character is this push and pull between Peter struggling to do the right thing, and be the hero everyone needs him to be, and his desire to have a normal life, and this film really leans into this friction.

At the same time, the villain choice is beautifully executed by Jake Gyllenhall playing Misterio. As a kid, Misterio was one of my favorite Spider-man villains, along with Black Cat, Silver Sable and Venom, because he had such a cool backstory of being this special effects master who can perform amazing illusions with practical effects. This film updates his backstory and his powers, now leaning a lot more on technology and holograms.

The thing about Misterio, is that he’s not an A list villain; he’s a Vulture level threat, who’s been present in other series, but has mostly stayed in the Spider-man series, as a neighborhood level threat. Here both the film and the plot push him to be more extreme, and what they come up with is genuinely one of the most outright villainous and selfish characters the MCU has come up with.

There are many things to like about this film; the trailers seemed to imply this would be a more dower, serious film, but it really isn’t; it’s a comedy first, even though it does touch on some rather heavy subjects. The tone is perfectly set by the opening sequence which is an In Memoriam for the fallen Avengers and then talks about the fallout of the Blip (what a dumbass name, what was wrong with the Snap). It’s a scene reminiscent of the PE scene in the first Spider-man with Captain America and it was really funny.

The film is pretty good at taking advantage of the things it sets up; for example there are a lot of really funny bits involving the school trip, with Misterio and Nick Fury high-jacking portions of it, while the two high school teachers try to keep everything under control. The parts set in Venice really take advantage of the city as a setting, and I would like to say the same about Berlin and Prague, but unfortunately it seems like the filmmakers were less confident about those sections.

By far the best fight scene and the most creative sequence in the film is the one that takes place in Berlin, where Misterio just wails on Peter with one illusion after the next, and it’s incredibly well shot, paced and executed. One thing that’s been a common complaint about Marvel’s films, especially the bigger ones, is that they look drab and colorless and don’t fully take advantage of the superhero tropes, and this film is not like that. It understands Misterio not just as a character, but as an entity, and really uses his powers to the fullest advantage. The colors in the film are also great; this is the most colorful of the Marvel films set on Earth, and it was much appreciated.

One thing I was worried about here, which was also one of my main complaints in the first Spider-man, was that Peter would be a side character in his own film. The first Spider-man really pushed Tony to the forefront, and as a result, Peter just didn’t have enough time to develop on his own. That’s an important part of Peter’s character; that he has to deal with a lot of things alone, because there really isn’t anyone he can turn and talk to about being a superhero, and because he’s afraid of putting the people he loves in danger.

This film gets that right; Peter still has a support group, as May, Ned and Happy know who he is, but they don’t entirely understand what he’s going through. They all count on him being ok, and being strong and doing the right thing, without realizing that Peter is having a crisis of faith, now that Tony is gone. So I absolutely bought the relationship between him and Beck, as Beck really was this confident, collected man, who treats Peter like what he is; a confused teenager who desperately needs guidance. The whole film really focuses on Peter’s struggles to be the man everyone wants him to be, vs what he wants to be, and how being a superhero takes a toll on his life.

Nick Fury was another bit that I was afraid of, and it’s the one part that I’m still not sure what to think of. On the one hand, this is the closest Nick Fury has been to his comic counterpart in any of the films; on the other, a lot of the stuff he does in the film, doesn’t seem like stuff Nick Fury would do. There is an explanation for that, but it’s impossible to talk about without spoilers, so I’ll leave it for the end.

As for the rest of the characters, this film does a great job at giving everyone at least one funny moment. The teachers are great, the other classmates are great, I really enjoyed the rivalry between Brad and Peter, and especially the relationship between Betty and Ned. Ned is a criminally underrated character, and he had some of the funniest lines here. I also really like this version of MJ; she is as awkward if not more so than Peter, and I like that they are having her go into a journalist/detective route, seeing as she likes investigating and true crime.

Finally we have Beck, or Misterio. I already said that I loved the relationship between him and Peter; they had excellent chemistry, and the switch that Beck goes through was so well done by Gyllenhall. He could easily play both a Tony Stark type hero, as well as a Loki type villain, and the film compromises by letting him do both. It was the closest any of these villains have gotten to Alfred Molina’s amazing turn as Doc Ock.

Before I go, I briefly want to talk about the ending. So warning, SPOILERS. First off, why was all the stuff with J Jonah Jemison and Beck in the post credit scene? That was a really important sequence, and it completely changes the tone of the film! It sets up such a different status quo for Peter, that I am SHOCKED that they thought it was a good idea to leave it as a mid-roll scene! Also the fact that J K Simmons is back as Jemison, except now he’s an Alex Jones type/Rebel Media conspiracy theorist is a m a z i n g. Then we have the second post credit scene where we find out that Nick Fury was Talos the whole time, which would explain why he was acting so OOC the whole film, and why he was so easily manipulated by Beck. The real Nick Fury is off-world with the Skrulls, so is this a set-up for Secret Invasion? I guess we’ll have to see.

Overall, I really liked this film. It’s fun, it’s funny, it has some great characters, a great villain and some excellent cinematography. I would absolutely recommend it, even if you didn’t like the first Spider-man.

[rantsaboutsuperheroes-blog]

The Problem with Spider-Man

Despite Marvel’s success in bringing Iron Man, Captain America, and the rest of the Avengers to a much wider audience than ever before, the company’s most profitable hero by far continues to be Spider-Man. The character was absent for the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (instead having his own movie series starring Andrew Garfield), yet he took in quite literally three times as much profit as the entirety of the Avengers team, all of whom have had recent solo outings and merchandising lines. Of course, that only seems absurd if you ignore the past 50 years of mainstream exposure Peter Parker and his alter ego have gotten. He’s reached a level of ubiquity only matched by DC’s marquee superheroes, Superman and Batman. Hundreds of thousands of comics all over the world, cartoons, movies, even the occasional stab at a live-action TV show (Thank you, Japan) have acquainted every continent in the world with Spider-Man.

So, Spider-Man’s absurdly popular. There’s always going to be money made on Spider-Man merchandise. That’s a given. But the sales and popularity of his ongoing comic series have not always been as rocksteady. In recent years, sales of the main Amazing Spider-Man title have been declining. Since the comic’s 2015 relaunch (as part of Marvel’s increasingly desperate rounds of biannual relaunches ever since “Marvel Now!” back in 2012) sales have declined by a little over 50%, dipping as low as 72% in late 2016. Other entries in the Spider-Man publishing line such as Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman, and Venom have also suffered sales slumps. So, why is this happening? Because if Spider-Man, Marvel’s most lucrative character by far can’t sell issues, the rest of Marvel’s publishing line is probably in similar trouble. And, unfortunately, it is. But while Marvel does have massive problems regarding its current direction for its characters, Spider-Man and his supporting cast pose a separate, but equally difficult problem.

Teenage superheroes might seem like a common enough concept idea by this point, but it’s important to remember just how instrumental the story of Peter Parker is to the creation of practically every superhero that came after him. More than any other superhero that came before him, Peter was relatable. He wasn’t a super-strong alien or billionaire playboy, he was nerdy teenager. He got picked on, girls ignored him, his family wasn’t that well off, and he didn’t have a dazzling personality or anything. In fact, he was kind of an asshole. Even after he got his powers and learned his lesson about the relationship between Great Power and Great Responsibility, Peter continued to act like a stupid teenager, both without and without the mask. Which, once again, is incredibly relatable to teenagers and young adults such as myself. But what really set Spider-Man’s story apart from other superheroes at the time was the fact that he got older. He graduated high school and went to college. His longtime girlfriend Gwen Stacy was killed. He graduated college. He eventually got married to Mary Jane Watson. Sure, the rest of the Marvel Universe progressed with him in some ways, but remained static in so many others. It’s incredibly hard to replicate the anxieties and heartaches and triumphs that a person experiences when they’re becoming an adult. There’s no other period of our lives quite like it (said the 22-year old college student). But the thing about becoming an adult is, you can’t really ever be a teenager again. I’m not saying this like it’s a bad thing, being a teenager is a pretty shit deal most of the time.

The reason I bring this up is simple: Spider-Man graduated college and got married, but ever since the 2007 Spider-Man event “One More Day”, the character feels like he’s regressed back to his teenage personality and supporting cast. Marvel referred to the status quo following this shift “Brand New Day”. For those of you who know what One More Day is, you can probably guess the direction this rant will be taking. For those who don’t, let me give you the high concept: Peter and Mary Jane sells their marriage to Satan (or at least Marvel’s resident Satan stand-in, Mephisto) in order to save his dying Aunt May. If you think that sounds unbelievably stupid, you’re not alone. If you’re wondering just how the hell a storyline like that could be proposed by a writer and not instantly shot down by the editorial, it’s because the writer of the AMS series at the time, J. Michael Straczynski didn’t suggest it. Instead, the edict came down from on high, sprung from the mind of Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief at the time, Joe Quesada. But why would he want to do something like that? Why set back the company’s marquee character’s personal progression by over 20 years? And in a literal Deal with the Devil no less? Mr. Quesada’s reasoning can be summed up in two statements:

“If I’m going to live by the theory that I’ve always believed in –that a Peter being single is an intrinsic part of the very foundation of the world of Spider-Man — then the same can be said about mechanical webshooters vs. organic.”

“If we keep Spidey rejuvenated and relatable to fans on the horizon, we can manage to do that and still keep him enjoyable to those that have been following his adventures for years. Will everyone be happy with the decision? No, of course not, but that’s what makes it a horserace. At the end of the day, my job is to keep these characters fresh and ready for every fan that walks through the door, while also planning for the future and hopefully an even larger fan base.”

Now, I’m going to say right now that I am mostly of the opinion that the above statements are bullshit. But there is a logic to them that is also hard to deny. Well, at the time that is. After all, it is true that the character doesn’t belong to any one generation. Younger fans should have an access point to these characters that isn’t guarded by 500 issues of required reading. I absolutely agree with that sentiment. In fact, I would assert that in some regards One More Day and the subsequent Brand New Day status quo did help breathe some fresh air into Spider-Man’s corner of the Marvel universe. It is wackier, there is more outlandish stuff happening, and yes, there have been some damn fine stories that have come out of this direction. But I also think that by going in this new direction, Marvel editorial erased something much more valuable from Spider-Man: a feeling of growth and change and investment to see how Peter Parker’s life plays out. But luckily for Marvel, there’s a way they can have their cake and eat it too: legacy characters. Namely, a kid by the name of Miles Morales.

For those of you unacquainted, Miles Morales is the current star of the adjectiveless Spider-Man series written by Brian Michael Bendis. Originally starting off in the Ultimate Universe (an attempt at creating an edgy, youthful universe to counteract exactly what Quesada was talking about), Miles made the transition to the mainstream Marvel Universe to interact with the rest of the company’s stable of characters. So herein lies the problem: Miles Morales exists as a successor to the mantle of Spider-Man, and to recreate the teenaged high-school feel of the original AMS issues written by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. That’s well and fine, except Peter’s entire status quo over the past ten years has been an attempt to do exactly the same thing. They’re trying to occupy the same niche, and as a result neither of them are fitting in well. Peter, like Miles, is perpetually single with relationships and love interests only really teased at, or existing as short term relationships at most. They try their best to keep their secret identities hidden from their loved ones. Of course, there are obvious differences. Miles is a high schooler, Peter is currently the CEO of his own megacorporation, Parker Industries.

You might think that sounds like character progression. Rest assured, it’s not. Peter is now an emotionally stunted manchild, but also a cut-rate Tony Stark. Unfortunately, lampshading that fact within the series itself did nothing to make the new status quo feel organic or even interesting. He’s had the company for less than a year and the tie-in to the next big Marvel event, Secret Empire, will see it all get torn down around his ears, returning Peter to his more well-known status quo of a single guy down on his luck.

So, my solution to this problem is actually very simple: Marvel needs to revisit the One More Day storyline in an arc written to undo the changes brought about by the event. Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage should be restored, Aunt May should either be allowed to die like the original storyline tried to avert or have her knowledge of Peter’s identity returned to her to more accurately recreate the status quo the character had before One More Day. Let Miles be the down-on-his-luck teenager that has to go through all the trials and tribulations of getting older. Let Peter be the adult that’s already gone through all of that, and deals with his own adult problems. Because ultimately, Spider-Man isn’t a story about being a teenager. It’s a story about growing up. And Peter, like it or not, has already grown up. There’s no point in trying to reset his characterization to his teenage self when there’s a teenage character ready and willing to take over that mantle. All that keeping the current narrative direction will do is push Miles further and further into irrelevance, and keep Peter from actually changing and evolving as a character. And frankly, neither Spider-Man deserves that fate.

[placetobenation]

Having ended it’s run in August, Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps closed the book not just on the fifty issues of this particular series or Robert Venditti’s six-year run on Green Lantern comics in general. This may mark the end of a continuity that reaches back to when Geoff Johns took over the series 2004. Green Lantern and the other associate books were largely untouched by the New 52 relaunch in 2011. Sure, Sinestro was on the cover of Issue #1 for Green Lantern but what lead to that happening fed off the events from the previous story arc from the previous universe. In fact, all I can really think of that was changed in Green Lantern universe during the New 52 was who Guy Gardner’s dad was and his family dynamic. Even with DC Rebirth in 2016, events that launch the series I am about to discuss today picks up from where the previous Lantern books left off. In November there will be a new Green Lantern series written by Grant Morrison. While I trust he will write an amazing book as Grant Morrison often does, early indications are that he plans on taking Hal Jordan in a different direction. I have not yet seen what the plans will be for John Stewart, Guy Gardner, or Kyle Rayner going forward. But before we look into what the future holds, let us look back on what I loved about Hal Jordan and The Green Lantern Corps.

DC Rebirth has featured only two Green Lantern books. Green Lanterns featuring newest addition to the Corps Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz. Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps has Hal but also Guy Gardner, John Stewart, and Kyle Rayner. Previously, these characters had been occupying three books in the New 52 universe. All four have been the lead of their own books recently and each have their share of fans. So putting all four of these popular characters in one book was kind of a risk. There was always the possibility a character could be lost in the shuffle. Through my first time reading the series, I felt like Kyle had been pushed to the background but after reading all fifty issues again, Robert Venditti did an excellent job giving each of the Four Corpsmen time in the spotlight. That had to be a challenge writing it in a way that would give each character the proper respect and something important to do without it feel forced.

In an interview, I had read that Robert Venditti wrote this series with a purpose in mind and that he told the story he wanted to in fifty issues. That is usually code word for the writer getting canned for low sales but the sales on this book were quite good. Having read the entire series a second time, Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps does seem to be written with a purpose in mind. This book was, in many ways, a return to the status quo for the Green Lantern universe. Without giving too many spoilers right away, by the end of this series the table was reset for the next writer to have a certain amount of creative freedom to take the Green Lantern part of the DC Universe wherever they wish.

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps also has some universal themes that are woven together from each story line. Themes like camaraderie, respect, deception, redemption, justice, and power. I think would I would like to do, rather than being a Wikipedia article retelling the entire 50 issue series, I’ll touch on some of these themes and how they are brilliantly tied in to the series as a whole.

If you would like to read this series for yourself and want a spoiler-free review, here it is. Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps is a wonderfully written series with excellent art work that manages to tie all together into one story when looked at as a whole. For a bi-weekly series to have such consistent and good art work is really quite remarkable, especially when you take into consideration how many different artists were working on it. If you remember my review of Spider-Gwen, one complain I had was that when Robbie Rodriguez was not doing the art, it was painfully obvious. Here, the art from issue to issue and panel to panel look pretty much the same to me. I am an untrained eye, so maybe someone could correct me if I am wrong but I felt like the art was consistent. Every character in the series is quite strong. Even small but reoccurring characters have distinct traits that make them more dynamic than one would think or expect. What is remarkable to me is that the character with the biggest arc, thus arguably the main character, is not one of the Four Corpsmen (Hal, John, Guy, or Kyle.) When looked at as a whole, this is a series about Tomar-Re, a long running, lovable secondary character throughout the Green Lantern books. The way the series is structured is very satisfying. There are some loose ends by the time we wrap up but it’s all matters that the next writers can feel free to work with or ignore depending on their desires. As a long time reader, I will say that there is a lack of catharsis. If this is the end for the longest running, not rebooted continuity in the current DC Universe, then I would have appreciated some sense of closure. I suppose we got that with Geoff Johns last issue on Green Lantern, where each character gets a happy ending. Still, I would have liked Vendetti to wrap up his run with a similar conclusive finish.

On Camaraderie and Respect

These are the most enduring themes throughout Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. You see this in the way a friendship develops between Guy Gardner and Arkillo, a high ranking member of the Sinestro Corps. A plan is hatched to bring the two Corps together, Green and Yellow. As one could imagine, not all members of the each Corps are on board for this. John Stewart and Soranik (daughter of Sinestro and new leader of that Corps) carefully craft a plan to find wayward Yellow Lanterns and give them a choice. Meanwhile Guy Gardner takes off his ring, hires Space Cabbie to give him a ride, and tracks down Arkillo. Guy’s plan is to challenge Arkillo to a fight, no rings, just fists. The stakes are that if Guy wins, Arkillo will join this united Corps. The pictures I have provided should demonstrate how foolhardy this plan is. Guy is taking a real chance here for any number of reasons. He purposefully picked out the toughest member of the Sinestro Corps but also one who has the greatest sense of loyalty to Sinestro. Guy sees enough of himself in Arkillo that he makes this challenge with confidence that Arkillo won’t just roast him while Guy is unarmed. Arkillo doesn’t share this sense of respect that Guy has for him, Guy is just another enemy but he takes the challenge out of a sense of honor. Guy is physically outmatched but keeps fighting through sheer force of will. We get a peek into what drives Guy, what makes him who he is, and why he keeps getting back up from the beating that Arkillo delivers. This one-on-one brawl is one of the best fights I have seen in any comic book. It’s raw, it’s bloody, it’s emotional, but also this fight is about so much more than the action. Guy hulks up and makes the comeback in time for the united Corps to come in and keep anyone from getting killed. Guy wins the fight but more than that he wins Arkillo’s respect and friendship.

Once they have healed, they begin to partner together. Their team provides an example for other members of each respective Corps. There is a lot of skepticism in the ranks but Guy and Arkillo show that this alliance can work. The friendship that develops is a strong subplot. When the alliance falls apart for reasons I will touch on later, Guy and Arkillo are face to face, neither wanting to be the one to throw the first punch. I loved this as a character moment for both of them. Neither are beyond throwing a punch, sometimes for just the enjoyment of doing so. But this time it is different. The bond of camaraderie that has grown between them neither want to jeopardize, even though the official alliance is over. We see that this friendship endures when later in the series Guy needs some help in dealing with the Darkstar army. Arkillo risks punishment from the Sinestro Corps by meeting with Guy to hear him out. The bonds of this friendship get tested when Guy test drives one of the Darkstar armors. The Darkstars are a Corps created by The Controllers to deal out lethal justice to those who they feel deserve it. Guy immediately tracks down his alcoholic, abusive father, who is trying desperately to get sober. The armor gives Guy an overwhelming urge to kill his Dad for what he did in the past. Guy’s father feels like he deserves that and worse. But Arkillo comes in and stays Guy’s hand. This final fight between Guy and Arkillo is some powerful stuff, in my opinion. Ultimately, Guy is freed from the Darkstar armor but not by Arkillo demonstrating superior force but by Arkillo expressing his respect and friendship for Guy. There is so much good stuff in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps that I am reluctant to declare any of it the best. However, the story arc of Guy and Arkillo was very satisfying. This was strong enough that ,with a little retooling, it could have been put into a Guy Gardner solo series and turned into a strong book.

Throughout the series, there are small conversations that the Four will have with each other that will convey just how much they respect each other. We mostly already know that Guy, Kyle, John, and Hal all have an incredible bond that has endured through some difficult times. But I have often wondered if the characters know that themselves. Here we get to see how each of these four Green Lanterns interact on a interpersonal level with each other that hadn’t been touched on in other books. In the New 52 universe, Hal was in Green Lantern, John and Guy were in Green Lantern Corps, and Kyle was in Green Lantern: New Guardians. While these books would crossover into big events fairly often, the characters interactions were largely driven around the plot. You may have gotten a moment of dialogue that expressed the friendship one of the four had for the other, but I feel like Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps made this camaraderie a central theme to the book. Many readers have enjoyed the wrestling references inserted into this book. In fact, the book does compare the Four to the Four Horsemen. One funny moment, after the conclusion of a story line, they discussion which one of them is the Ric Flair of the group, each desirous of that spot. In each story line, each character is given a role in the story. You see through bits of dialogue what each of these four characters think of each other. No one story arc is about this specifically but this theme is part of every story arc for all fifty issues.

On Deception and Redemption

If camaraderie is one of the most endearing themes of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps then the other side of that coin for this series would be deception. There are a lot of people lying to the people their suppose to love and respect in this book. In fact, out of the Four, Guy is the only one who isn’t dishonest to anyone in the series. Hal, John, and Kyle all have lies eventually come back to bite them in the backside. I decided to include redemption in this part as well since it sort of ties in but also to keep things from getting too depressing.

Hal Jordan’s deception began before the series started but they do a good job in this book of bringing you up to speed on it. Hal took the blame for pretty much every bad decision the Green Lantern Corps had ever made. Hal turned himself over for arrest but stole Krona’s Gauntlet, a weapon older than the Green Lantern ring and very unstable, then Hal went on the run. By doing this, he draws attention away from the Corps and onto himself. The Corps are left to believe he was a traitor. Through a series of events, this leads to the entire Green Lantern Corps disappearing and the Sinestro Corp becoming the new law, order, and justice in the universe. Hal does make this right by using the Gauntlet to do the impossible, forge a ring made completely of his own will. Hal sacrifices himself to destroy Sinestro once and for all, but he gets better and is made whole again with some help from Kyle Rayner.

While we are at it, Sinestro unsurprisingly has his own act of deception. The Sinestro Corps was able to gain approval to be the Space Cops of the universe through the work of Soranik, daughter of Sinestro. With Sinestro on his death bed, he asks Sora to take over the Corps and lead it in a new direction. She uses the Yellow Light of Fear in a positive way to govern the Universe and gain everyone’s trust including The Justice League. As one could reasonably guess, when the time is right, Sinestro makes a full recovery and takes over his Corps, as was his plan all along. He used his daughter to strength the position of the Sinestro Corps and it worked beyond his own expectations. With most of the other Corps out of the way, the Universe is Sinestro’s for the taking. Unlike Hal, Sinestro is never redeemed for this action. He is quite proud of it. Even with all that has happened though, Sora still takes over leadership of the Sinestro Corps once Sinestro is defeated for the last time (sort of.) Someone has to lead the Yellow Lanterns and she believes in the good word she had previously done. While Sinestro makes no attempt at redemption, Soranik’s actions going forward will be about redeeming his Corps. Briefly, I will touch on Kyle Rayner’s shameful lie, since there isn’t much to tell and it involves Soranik. One of the villains for a storyline is Kyle and Sora’s time traveling angry son. Kyle finds out who he is but doesn’t tell Sora. This lie, more than anything, ended the alliance between the Sinestro Corps and Green Lantern Corps. Soranik simply didn’t want to make it work anymore. For good measure Kyle gets his chest branded to teach him not to lie.

The other part of the failed alliance between the two Corps involves Tomar-Re and his fall from grace. For the purposes of deception, Tomar-Re covers up his murder of a Sinestro Corps member. I will get into some details later. The important matter for now is that Tomar-Re starts to crumble under the pressure of keeping this secret, as well as keeping his victim’s ring from finding a replacement. While this is going on, John Stewart learns from a criminal that one of his Green Lanterns have killed and the criminal is ready to spill the beans unless Stewart pardons him. Instead John sends out his best team to recover the evidence so he could view it for himself. For his own reasons, he keep this from Sora and this proves to be a mistake. When John sees the evidence, he does try to do the right thing. However, the alliance between the Corps falls apart quickly as everything with Kyle and Sora comes to a head at the exact same time. Soranik and the Sinestro Corps are ready to go to an all out war on the spot but John shows he engaged in one last act of deception. When the Yellow Power Battery was put on the Green Lantern planet Mogo, John slipped a safe guard into it in order to prevent what was about to happen from happening. That John felt the need to do this shows a lack of faith that the alliance will ever really work.

The Guardians of the Universe did many horrible things during and before the New 52 Universe. By the time Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps starts, the Guardians are mostly in hiding. Their actions were cold and deliberate. Their final act before being overthrown by the Green Lantern Corps was to attempt to remove free will from the universe and rule over it with an iron will. So the Guardians are largely scattered. Two fan favorites, Ganthet and Sayd are found in exile by Kyle Rayner, After watching how this series plays out, they would like another chance to guide the actions of the Green Lantern Corps and lend their wisdom to future generations. Although most of the Corps objects, John Stewart, as leader, grants them this chance. They really don’t deserve the chance they are being given and John is ready to act if they get out of line. Still, he believes they have something to offer the universe, that they are sincere in wanting to make up for their wrong doing, and he believes in redemption. This is part of the return to a status quo I had mentioned earlier. The normal in the Green Lantern universe is the Guardians making decisions that the Green Lanterns will obey and more often than not have unforeseen consequences. Considering all the blunders the Guardians have made over the years, John Stewart has a pretty big heart to even consider their appeal. They show their worth in a story line featuring General Zod and his Kryptonian family. They have colonized a planet where the locals are lifting up Zod as a god-like figure. Every instinct for the Corps and the reader is to arrest Zod and his family before this threat grows out of hand. The Guardians step in though and point out that Zod has not broken any laws. The people of the planet are glad to have him. He hasn’t formally enslaved them, they are building his Kryptonian monuments out of religious devotion. Being on a planet with two yellow suns does pose a danger but until General Zod does something, who are the Green Lantern Corps to come into his home and haul him away? Krypton exploded. Doesn’t Zod, his wife, and child has the right to find a new place to live? Pointing all this out was a good use of the Guardians and an example of how they can be made useful going forward.

On Justice and Power

Long time comic reads know that the story I just told about will not end in a wholesome and positive way. General Zod will overstep his bounds. He will seek more territory and more power. That is kind of his things. The Green Lantern Corps, while it would be a fight, do have the power to put Zod and his family away for life but would that be just? This theme is also explored throughout the pages of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. After a bad run in with Hector Hammonds and some beings that wished to use his brain as a super weapon, Hal and Superman get to talking. Hal muses that wouldn’t the universe be safer if they would just squash a head every now and again. Quickly, both Hal and Superman say no it wouldn’t. Later, Hector will team with Hal and wipe Jordan’s memory. Hammonds is fancing himself a super hero and tells the Hal that he will get rid of all the bad people in the universe by popping their heads. His psychic powers are strong enough that he could make a very dangerous vigilante. Hal Jordan resists this line of thinking and recovers. Hector then reveals this all to have been a test. I found that to be questionable but it really doesn’t matter. This mini story makes an important point about the overall series. When don’t you use all of your power?

This is all completely applicable to the main character of the story, Tomar-Re. Long time Green Lantern readers know him. He is a Corps member maybe just below Kilawog. We know his name and a few things about his home planet. Tomar-Re has usually been a helpful member of the team. In this book, he will fall from grace and continue falling until he repents in the end. It starts out quite subtly. Until I read the issues a second time, I didn’t realize the seeds were being planted for Tomar-Re’s heel turn earlier on. He has a couple of comments early on that seem a big crass but you can understand how he is feeling. The entire Corps had been lost in another dimension. That’s enough to put anyone on edge.

There are two inciting incidents that set Tomar-Re forth on his villain’s journey. One was a Starro attack on his home planet. Starro is a face grabbing star fish that drains your brain and makes you part of a collective mind. Each lantern is assigned a sector and this was his sector. He takes it really hard that Starro attacked and caused the damage it did. You see Tomar-Re’s mother not accepting of his role in the Green Lantern Corps, the same role that got his father killed. The second his how much Tomar-Re bristles at having to team with the Sinestro Corps. His line of thinking is logical. They have been the enemy for so long, how can we possibly trust them? That is where he ultimately steps over the line. John Stewart orders the united members of the Green and Yellow Corps to go find the wayward members of the Sinestro Corps and offer them a choice, join this new alliance, give up your ring, or get locked up in a science cell. In addition, he orders each Green Lantern to team with a Sinestro Corps member. When Tomar-Re finds one of his own people that is a renegade Sinestro Corps member that willingly surrenders. He opts for the science cell and promises Tomar-Re that when he gets out, he will kill children. Tomar-Re’s had enough. This pushes him beyond the breaking point and he kills this Sinestro Corps member in cold blood. Tomar-Re’s partner is happy to keep the secret, he just hopes Tomar-Re’s conscience can live with what he did. One problem is that the Sinestro Corps ring will look for a new member to replace the fallen one. Tomar-Re puts it in a barrier to keep it from flying away and recruiting someone who spreads great fear. Like the Telltale Heart, keeping this secret becomes too much and he finally cracks. His crimes are revealed and he is locked up for his crimes. We see here, Tomar-Re abused his power for what he thought was justice. His actions and the cover up are one of the things that destroys the alliance between the Sinestro Corps and Green Lanterns.

This is the question at the heart of The Punisher. Tomar-Re, like Frank Castle, sees an unrepentant criminal that may have been caught for the moment but whose greatest ambition is to commit more crimes. What does a cell, science or otherwise, do to help this person? Tomar-Re gets recruited by the Controllers Dark Star army to deal out lethal justice. In the end, he is faced with all the damage he has done. The conclusion that Tomar-Re comes to is that what he successfully achieved as a Dark Star is revenge, not justice. When the Green Lantern Corps goes into their final battle in the series, they employ the help of Hector Hammonds, General Zod, and Space Cabby, amongst others. Space Cabby is a two bit criminal, he hasn’t killed anyone. He had used some of his underworld contacts to help the Green Lantern Corps catch people worse than himself. Zod is a convicted criminal. He is also a brilliantly gifted military mind which can greatly the Corps in the situation they are facing. Hector Hammonds also is a criminal that has caused a Hal Jordan more problems than he would care to admit. Still, Hal Jordan turns to Hector when he needs to. Consider these two people. If Hal or Superman had killed them both, what would have been gained? You can think of it fourth dimensionally and say future crime but without a time machine, you can’t know that in the moment. Now, if they had killed these two criminals, what would have been lost? Well, the opportunity the Corps has right now to offer them redemption. You can’t hope a dead person will change. You can’t show a corpse a better way, even when they have been raised as a Black Lantern. That is the moral of the story of Tomar-Re. Lethal Justice isn’t really justice at all. Killing his father’s killer accomplished exactly what? It didn’t make him feel better. He didn’t help Goldface at all, who was already in a jail cell on an unrelated crime. The DC Universe has reformed criminals, Riddler and Pied Piper are two that come to mind. They show that redemption can work. I can’t say for sure what the future holds for Hammond, Zod, the Riddler, or Pied Piper. Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps don’t know either.

Loose Ends

Wrapping up here, I would like to touch on some of the things that are left over from Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. It looks like Hal will have his own book that focuses more on the day to day life of a Space Cop. I like this more centered approach to Green Lantern but I like the Lantern universe as currently constructed too. There are some things that a writer can work with if they wish. First being that Sinestro is still alive. He somehow teleports out of the exploding Warworld when Hal Jordan weaponize his will into a planet destroying bomb, Sinestro is charred beyond recognition in a different dimension but he lives. And while we are talking about the Sinestro Corps, Soranik has taken control again and led her lanterns to find a new planet. There is a lot of potential to explore if DC sees so fit.

One of the biggest loose ends involves Kyle Rayner losing his White Lantern ring. Kyle worked hard to get that ring and he sure took losing it well. He lost it trying to restore the Blue Lantern Corps and their blue light of hope. The Guardians imply that an outside force interfered but best I can tell, the only greater power involved is DC Editorial. Kyle got to keep his Green ring but the rest flew away looking for replacements. I am probably the last angry man on this topic. What happened to this rings Kyle had? They should be loose somewhere in the 2814. Saint Walker was sent out by the Guardians to restart the Blue Lantern Corps and refer to him as the last Blue Lantern. But Kyle’s Blue ring is out there somewhere. So can he really be the last or am I the only one who still remembers this? Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps was the start of diminishing other lantern corps. I would like to see Kyle get the White ring back but DC seems to be moving in a different direction. When Kyle lost the ring, I was afraid he would be pushed to the background and get lost in the shuffle with the other Earth lanterns. I still believe I am right about that although Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps did a good job of giving all the Lanterns an important role.

Going forward though, something will have to be done with the six Earth Green Lanterns. The standard of writing these characters has been set so high. Either there will be an universe reboot and the book will be closed on all of these characters as we have known them or they will need to find some creative talent to handle all of these bold and dynamic characters. Hal will always have a book unless he murders the entire Corps again. John, Guy, Kyle, and so many others from the characters from these books are in a position to carry their own books. Let’s see if they will be given that chance.