Red Lanterns #1

Red Lanterns #1

It’s that time again. Time for yet another New 52 review and this time we’ll be looking at the brand new series Red Lanterns. The interesting thing about this new series is that it is a spinoff of Green Lantern and is one of the few New 52 that is a genuinely new title. The series is written by Peter Milligan with art by Ed Benes.

So, Red Lanterns is a story about the Red Lantern Corps that was created by Atrocitus during the War of Light arc (more commonly known as Prelude to Blackest Night) in the Green Lantern series. Atrocitus is the last of his kind after the Manhunters, the original Universal Police, destroyed his entire sector, leaving him alone with his rage against the Guardians. And in his rage he forged a red ring and eventually a corps.

This story takes place after the events of War of the Green Lanterns. Atrocitus and his corps are essentially bringing murderers, thieves, and rapists all over the universe to justice. By ripping them apart and spewing bloody acid all over them. However, Atrocitus doesn’t feel the same way he used to and he’s worried his Lanterns might rebel. Meanwhile, some other stuff is going on with a couple of humans on earth which leads me to believe that one or both will become Red Lanterns. However in the end Atrocitus seems to at least take a step in the direction he wants and everyone is pretty much…well, angry.

REVIEW TIME!

Red Lanterns was a largely anticipated series, mostly because everyone loved the Red Lanterns in Blackest Night and Brightest Day. I mean, the Red Lanterns were usually characters that had terrible lives and were suddenly given the ability to take revenge on their oppressors, in a bloody way. Not to mention that Atrocitus is totally badass. However, the first issue is lacking. It feels like after the events of War of the Green Lanterns that there was no drive for Atrocitus anymore; which is kind of what was explained in this first issue. But then its solved in two pages…and it doesn’t really makes sense to how its solved.

It’s kind of like Atrocitus just goes, “Oh well, there’s still people to kill so I’ll be angry and kill them.” It felt forced and a little stale. Now I haven’t read anything else by Peter Milligan, so I can’t compare Red Lanterns to anything else he’s written, but this issue just didn’t do it for me.

The art was pretty decent though. It had a classic Green Lantern feel to it, with good backgrounds and mildly detailed characters and constructions. It fit the story well and had the same feel as Rage of the Red Lanterns did with the art, even if the writing didn’t give off the same angry feel. Overall, I was pleased with the art except for the fact that the Red Lantern cat, Dex-Starr, had a six pack. Cat’s don’t have six packs. Sure, maybe if he were from an alien planet I could get behind that but he’s a house cat. Other than that the art was good.

All in all, the comic wasn’t the greatest thing I’ve read, but it wasn’t the worst. It’s exactly what I expected it to be: a spinoff to a better series. It’d be like if Kramer from Seinfeld got his own spinoff show. Everyone loves Kramer, but without the interaction with other main characters it’d just be too much Kramer and not enough story. Which was my impression of this comic. It gave me this whole, “meh” feeling. Don’t get me wrong, I love Kramer and the Red Lanterns, but I prefer them both in the main story lines where they are the side characters and cause chaos for everyone else. Of course this is my opinion and you can agree with or not. We won’t know unless you read Red Lanterns #1.