Saturday Splash Page #187

"Phrasing," in Secret Six (vol. 4) #5, by Gail Simone (writer), Dale Eaglesham and Tom Derenick (artists), Jason Wright (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

I may regret this choice in splash page when Blogger disappears this post for "inappropriate content", but it was too funny not to use. 

Three years in, DC's New 52 wasn't working for me. Everything I bought when it first started - Resurrection Man, Grifter, Suicide Squad - was either canceled or I dropped it long ago. Ditto what I bought - Green Arrow, Dial H, Batman Beyond Unlimited -  as those books phased out. In 2014, my DC purchases were basically Conner and Palmiotti's Harley Quinn, the first 3 issues of a Klarion series written by Ann Nocenti (canceled at 6 issues), and the first issue of Gail Simone's return to Secret Six.

Six people - Catman and Black Alice, a Talon from the Court of Owls named Strix, an elderly lady Ventriloquist, a thief named Porcelain, and the refugee from a '40s B-gangster flick there called Big Shot (who is actually an existing character under an assumed identity) - wake up in a metal box at the bottom of a harbor. "Mockingbird" wants to know which of them stole something, but won't specify what was stolen or when, which would seem to complicate matters needlessly. Catman already spent a year locked in a cave, though Ken Lashley (artist for the first two issues) gave the guy such a huge grin you'd figure it had to be the Joker. (It's not.)

Anyway, they escape and hide out at Big Shot's place, which is a cheerful little two-story house in suburbia. It is a stark change from the first two issues, which were very murky and dark, but there was also about a 5-month gap between issues 2 and 3, and when the third issue did show up, the Eaglesham/Derenick art team arrived. I don't know if Lashley had some health issue or something else, or if Simone changed the direction of the book to suit the new artists, but it's hard to picture what we got working with Lashley's art, which is jagged and rough.

It works for a book about 6 broken individuals, trapped and on edge and ready to shatter, but not so much for stories where Batgirl (in that "Burnside" look era) is offering Strix her bright yellow boots, or fighting Catman with a panel that takes the old cartoon "fight inside a dust cloud" approach. Eaglesham and Derenick seem comfortable distorting anatomy or faces for comedic effect.

They're also comfortable drawing Catman as apparently hot to just about everyone. Scandal Savage shows up as part of a smaller, for-hire group with Jeanette and Ragdoll. Scandal's married to both Knockout (who the Six rescued from Hell late in the previous volume) and Liana (the exotic dancer the rest of the team hired for Scandal's birthday when she was really depressed over Knockout's death at the start of the previous volume.) When the ladies decide they'd like a child - I'm not clear who's actually carrying the kid - Catman's the one Scandal calls. (Their pre-New 52 history seems gone, so this is based on their brief interactions in this series so far. But I guess if you just need a sperm donor, his genetics suggest you could do worse.)

The last 12 issues of the book are the Six forming this distaff little family in a suburbia only one of them is familiar with, and protecting it against all manners of outside threats. Black Alice is apparently draining the magic from the world with her powers, which is going to weaken barriers meant to keep out some ghastly tentacled horror from realms beyond. So a bunch of magic-users try to kill her before it's too late, and eventually even call in Superman. Except this is New52 Superman, with the high collar look, and his requests they stop fighting feel more like arrogance borne of overconfidence than a real desire to avoid fighting. Shiva shows up to recruit Strix to take her place in the League of Assassins, and the rest of them have to rally to rescue her, storming the League of Assassins' HQ (or one of them, at least.)

And, SPOILER for a 10-year old comic, they find out Mockingbird is the Riddler, and he's looking for a big diamond he was showing off at a party all of the Six were present at (for different reasons) when the diamond was stolen. A diamond he was going to use to propose to Sue Dibny, who was with Ralph (as in, they were married and he was standing right there) at the time. Oh, and Big Shot is Ralph, which is one way to use stretching powers, I guess. Honestly, Elongated Man against the Riddler in a battle of wits sounds pretty cool, but that's not what we get here. I guess because Scott Snyder tried to make Riddler a Big Boss type, it's all threats and goons and explosions. There's nothing clever about any of it.

Also, he apparently coerced Scandal's group into attacking the Six by abducting Knockout and Liana, and I'm sorry, there is no fucking way the Riddler took a Female Fury of Apokolips captive. Absolutely no way, I don't care how hard Snyder tried to set him up as a dangerous figure on par with the Joker. Who, to be clear, I would not believe could capture Knockout either. She trades punches with Barda, and is more than willing to rip either of those doofuses into pieces! Just ludicrous. 

But Elongated Man's presence in this book is weird in general, even beyond him shifting his body to look like a big, hyper-muscled goon 90% of the time. Simone writes him as being deeply in love with Sue, and protective of the others - trying to provide love and stability - but he's not trying to rein in their violent impulses. When they go to rescue Strix, Alice borrows Giganta's powers and crushes people in her hands, Catman is cutting people up (he has mechanical claw gloves, except sometimes he also seems to have actual claws?) Ralph seems, totally fine with this. I guess if he thinks of them as family, then it's a matter of what you'll do or accept for family. 

Sunday Splash Page #211

 

"Yellow and Green Make War," in Green Lantern (vol. 3) #144, by Judd Winick (writer), Dale Eaglesham (penciler), Rodney Ramos (inker), Moose Baumann (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)

What few Green Lantern comics I own are all from Kyle Rayner's stretch as the sole ring-bearer. The only one I bought at the time it came out was the final issue, for reasons I can no longer recall. That ends with him decapitating Major Force and sending his head floating into the void. Then Kyle decides to go into space.

Pretty sure the next time he pops up is Green Lantern: Rebirth, where he managed to not get snuffed by Geoff (goddamnit, I spelled it "Geoof" on the first try again) Johns, against all expectations.

The others are from the stretch when Kyle tapped into all the power Hal left behind when he reignited the Sun during Final Night, becoming rather godlike in the process. Kyle manages to not try and reboot the entire universe, but does gradually extend his abilities. On a grand scale, he travels to an alien world he visited previously, still torn apart by conflict, and simply makes violence impossible. Oh, people can try, but any attempt, from using a laser tank to a rock is thwarted by him. The idea seemingly being that, with killing or harming all their adversaries off the table, the sides will have to learn to co-exist.

On smaller scales, he reignites his then-girlfriend Jade's inherent powers, so she no longer has to rely on a power ring. He also tracks down his father, who was apparently an intelligence agent who wanted out of the life, and is so skilled, he covered his tracks beyond the ability of anyone Kyle knows to track him down.

Kyle ultimately chooses to recreate the Central Power Battery, which somehow creates a bunch of new Guardians. So we get a whole new batch of little blue morons. That was after Superman gave him the old, "we can't do too much for humanity or we stifle their potential," speech, and Kyle debating whether to stop Hal Jordan from going down his dark path. So he was going to mess with time, just a little. 

Kyle's presented as still inexperienced in some ways. Still only touching the surface of what he can do with these powers. But also wise enough to know when to ask questions. Ask Hal if he wants Kyle to change the past (unsurprisingly, Hal has an active role in this story.) Ask Alan Scott for his perspective on having this much power inside. And when he renounces it, wise enough to make some changes to his ring to address certain problems he's had in the past, like the ring getting taken away from him, or running out of power entirely.

It's an OK storyline, although he creates a new costume that's kind of hideous. Way too much white, almost no green. When he goes back to just being a Green Lantern, he creates the costume I remember seeing described as looking like a sneaker. I can see what they mean, but I like it all right. That may be because it was the one he wore during Joe Kelly's Obsidian Age storyline, which I was rather fond of.

Random Back Issues #38 - Green Lantern #145

I don't know what Sallyp's up to these days, but this page of Kyle Rayner in his underwear, fighting a crazy person in an endless void, is for her. Not quite sure why Kyle wanted to fight this guy wearing only tighty-whities, but it has been well established elsewhere in the comics blogosphere that Kyle is not the dumbest Earth Green Lantern only because Hal Jordan exists.

What we've got here is a big fight issue between Kyle and this Nero guy. Kyle's been unconsciously drawing from all the Green Lantern energy Hal left in the Sun when he reignited during Final Night, and apparently so has Nero, who has yellow power ring energy going like Sinestro. Except maybe it's internalized? I don't know. They're fighting out in space to see who gets the godlike power all to himself.

It seems to pretty much be a stalemate, as they're fighting each other while their energy constructs wage war all around them. Nero tries to get a jump on Kyle, but can't quite escape. Then a bunch of Qwardians show up and interfere. They claim they're here to kill Nero, who they gave this power in the first place, but Kyle figures out they really want to be killed by the weapon they created. I really had no idea the Qwardians were so into death. I suppose it explains them helping the Anti-Monitor in Crisis on the Infinite Earths, though. Well, that and both of them being "Anti-Matter Universe 4 Life".

I was going to type it as "lyfe", and then felt physically dirty for doing so. I'm typing this right after I typed that Murder Princess post on Monday, meaning 4 a.m., so who the hell knows where my mind is at this point.

The Qwardians die as they want, and one manages to stick some doohickey on Nero's back, so that he'll be teleported to safety if he doesn't win. We never actually see if that happens or not, but Kyle also doesn't really try to kill Nero. Given how powerful he ends up being, I don't think the attempt to hide Nero would work anyway.

Kyle catches up again, they fight some more, Nero seems to have the edge, Kyle really reaches out and grabs the power, then decides they should settle things man-to-man, leading to underwear fighting up there. That really seems like more of a Hal move, personally. Kyle wins and then finds two doors. One leads to the Sun, and all that power. The other leads back to the alley where Kyle first got his ring. Hal, as the Spectre, is giving him a choice. Kyle thinks it's because Hal feels he did a bad job and shouldn't have all that power. Hal insists he just wants Kyle to know there are options, something no one told him.

I'm pretty sure people told Hal killing all the other Lanterns and stealing their power was a bad idea. Probably those very same Lanterns, while he was killing them. But OK, sure Hal, keep playing the victim. Next you'll be telling me a giant yellow fear bug made you do it.

Kyle chooses Door Number Sun, takes the power, and the codename Ion. I thought for a minute his new costume is the one people describe as looking like a sneaker, but I think that's actually the costume he takes after he surrenders most of the power back into the Central Battery 5 issues from now.

[5th longbox, 20th comic. Green Lantern (vol. 2) #145, by Judd Winick (writer), Dale Eaglesham (penciler), Rodney Ramos (inker), Moose Baumann (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)]