GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #1 REVIEW

Writer: Tony Bedard

Pencils: Tyler Kirkman

Tony Bedard introduces us to The New 52’s Kyle Rayner, a down-and-out art student who is selected by the Guardian Ganthet to become the newest Green Lantern. Ganthet travels to Earth after rising from a pile of dead Guardians, surrounded by dead Corpsmen, on what appears to be a destroyed Oa. No explanation is given. Kyle immediately takes to the ring and begins saving the day all over Earth. The focus quickly shifts all across space as members of the Sinestro, Red Lantern, and Star Sapphire Corps’ are suddenly rejected by their rings, resulting in the deaths of all but the Star Sapphire. Back on Earth, Kyle has just saved a group of construction workers and stopped their crane from destroying the street below. All of the sudden, one of every color ring appears, offering themselves to him. They are all closely followed by members of their respective corps all threatening to kill Kyle, thinking he is behind the mysterious occurrence.

The art by Tyler Kirkman is pretty cool. It reminds me of the art in The Walking Dead, but it's colored and a sort of a muted color at that. It gives the book a really cool feel.

To be honest, I’ve been looking forward to a book like this for a long time. The various corps playing off each other with their different, and sometimes contradicting, disciplines means some awesome character interactions and development. I’m not sure about Kyle being the leader of this new group, but I’m open to it. The art is solid, and the story is promising.


5 out of 5.


Michael Knoll is a contributing writer at Champion City Comics.

WONDER WOMAN #1 REVIEW

Writer: Brian Azzarello

Artist: Cliff Chiang


Someone once said to me, "Brian Azzarello can't write superhero stories". I do not remember who said that to me, but the comment struck me as a bit harsh because I thought Batman: Broken City was a good story. Now I have enjoyed his non-superhero work with 100 Bullets, and I feel that Azzarello brings a gritty and edgy quality to his work. I thought he would do something gritty and edgy with Wonder Woman, so I decided to pick up the first issue from the New 52.

By no means am I a Wonder Woman aficionado. I have nothing against the character and have no real excuses for not reading the title. As a reader of DC Comics, my attention has always gravitated towards titles like Batman and The Flash. The New 52 has for some reason given me the motivation to check out some titles that I have ignored in the past.

The first issue of Wonder Woman takes place in three locations: Singapore, England, and the United States. In Singapore, we find a strange "Sun of a King" searching for answers about a child of interest. The child is linked to a situation in Virgina where a young woman encounters Hermes, a messenger, and some demonic centaurs. Our young woman in distress is magically sent to England where she meets Wonder Woman.The two have the usual comic book first introduction dialogue and make their way back to Virginia where Wonder Woman engages the two centaurs in combat.

The story is well paced and full of action. Azzarello has an intriguing story developing and the art by Cliff Chiang is equally impressive. These two have a good chemistry going on, so I'm interested to see if these two go three, six, or twelve issues as a team on Wonder Woman. I've been disappointed with some of the New 52 titles and I see this one as one of the best so far. As you know, there are still more titles to be released, so we will see how this measures up against the rest. 

TonyDoug Wright is the owner and editor of Champion City Comics. His webcomics include Dr Death vs The Zombie, The End of Paradise, and Day 165.