Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Red Lanterns: Blood Brothers TPB

Some of my thoughts now that I finished this.

SPOILERS AHEAD


Once the crossover starts the story feels much weaker. The Hal/Carol/Kyle love triangle becomes kind of hilarious since all that we see is Hal throwing a hissy fit and Carol avoiding the subject. Hal and Kyle never say anything to each other. Everyone believes Kyle dies and Hal is more upset about it than Carol. All of this and the Relic stuff might have had more of an impact if I read the rest of the event. As part of this trade it only serves as an excuse for the Reds to get their own sector. Some of the Earth foursome felt off from the bond they all had in GLC. Which might have to do with them having very little interaction with each other. Guy might have got a kick out of John punching him for going red but I don't know how to feel. John should know Guy would only turn into a RL for two reasons: losing it after a great loss or following some stupid idea of Hal's.

Speaking of Hal I have to say he was an ass here. Nothing new right? It's just...I get that he's a leader and the reasoning for his choice. He can't undo the damage from the red ring without a Blue Lantern. Okay, well bring Guy back home and worry about that later. Mogo helped last time so there's still hope. Just when Guy is working on gaining the RLs trust Hal turns up to say Guys' not alone. Only he's not there to help Guy he's there because they need the muscle. Hals' shocked that he gets attacked by his former Corps member forgetting that Guy warned him of the ring affecting his judgement. Later on Hal whines about Carol saying he needed to grow up when she really wanted Kyle. Can't it be both a cause and effect? She likes Kyle because he's not immature like Hal?

Guy is awesome in this and I love how he deals with the leadership role compared to Hal and big A. The former lays out what he wants to do or does what he wants anyway. The latter is more logical but tries to force others to make sacrifices while he's the one in power. Guy actually asks for opinions, thinks about others' well being and mostly treats them like equals. Things like this make me wonder why he's not running things more often. 

The other RLs were pretty cool especially since I was prepared to hate them and get plenty of clichéd fights for power every issue. I'm not sure what to make of Bleez right now. She seems like a potential back stabber yet she recoils whenever she's threatened. That's not a bad thing just not the direction I expected. Dex Starr is adorable and I should dislike him for being against Guy but I can't.

The crossover stuff weakened my opinion on this so I might wait awhile before picking up the next trade. I do think I'll enjoy seeing him in a mentor role with Kara so that's something to look forward to.

2 comments:

  1. Hal really hung Guy out to dry... Guy warned him what would happen with the red rings, but Hal just blew him off because what he said didn't jibe with what Hal's preconceptions were.

    Guy did a great job of getting a bloodthirsty (literally!) bunch of losers and misfits to bond and work together. Hal was never able to do as well because he was too busy throwing his weight around to listen to Salaak or Kilowog.

    Hal is a big baby.

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  2. Yep, that's one of Hal's biggest problems that comes back all the time. He shouldn't be a leader if he can't take these things into consideration. He want to do what he wants and it's one of the reasons Carol gets frustrated with him. Strike that, it's one of the reasons everyone gets frustrated with him.

    Exactly. Guy makes a better leader than Hal. Other than being popular I don't see why Hal should be the leader of the GL Corps. More so now that he went rogue. Why does Sinsetro consider Hal his star pupil again?

    The biggest baby.

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