Image © DC Comics.

Last issue I was commenting that the birdlike alien from Meta, Loma, who inhabits the body of Megan on Earth, seemed to be giving up on trying to make that work, and wanted only to go home to Meta. This issue, the spirit of Megan herself arrives from somewhere and tries to get her body back. Suddenly, Loma finds she wants to keep it after all. While most of the people around her and at school think she’s gone crazy, Loma-Megan does have a few friends who are trying to help. Meanwhile, back on Meta, Loma’s true body has been found wearing the madness coat that has transported her spirit to Earth, and Loma’s friend on Meta is being forcefully interrogated to find out how that happened and how to get the coat to release her. Back on Earth, some kind of spirit friend is giving Loma-Megan advice on how to handle Megan’s angry spirit. Then there’s a puzzling teaser at the end that I didn’t get at all.

Despite sometimes being confused by the storyline, I did enjoy this issue. The dialogue, characters and art are entertaining enough to bring me back for more, and much of the storyline made sense and worked for me.

Mildly recommended.

Image © DC Comics.

Larfleeze, the conniving Orange Lantern (one and only) has made a mistake. He let the Green and Yellow Lantern Corps members out of their Brainiac bottle. He’s powerful, but his foes have a secret weapon: they know what he’s most afraid of…losing all his wonderful stuff. Meanwhile, Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner and the last two Guardians of the Galaxy (that we know of) are hurtling across that galaxy to join the fray, and when they do, Larfleeze is in even more trouble. For the first time in some years, all of Earth’s space-going Green Lanterns are together in the same fight. As with THE FLASH, this title seems to be heading back toward familiar territory, and I like that, as it’s been a while. A fun issue in which all the players have their star turns, nicely written by Robert Venditti and illustrated by Ethan Van Sciver.

Recommended.

Image © DC Comics.

Green Lantern wanna-be Frank has been given an amazingly powerful ring of his own that accesses the powers of all the various ring colors, and can be used by anyone, none of that “chosen by the ring” required. It makes holding off Earth’s true Green Lanterns, Jessica and Simon, easy for him. In fact nearly everything is easy if it can be done with force. The problem is, Frank doesn’t know how to control the power he has, and the many emotions it’s tied to. In a way, the ring is controlling him. Becoming a true hero? Now, that’s harder. Getting people to admire and applaud him rather than fear him? Harder still. A well-told story by writer Sam Humphries and artists Eduardo Pansica and Julio Ferreira.

Recommended.

Image © DC Comics.

Monthly titles featuring long-running super-heroes tend to head off in new directions for a while, then circle back to about where they were. That seems to be happening in this issue of THE FLASH, from the retro cover by Dave Johnson that echoes work from the Silver Age by Carmine Infantino (and even has age-darkened colors) to the theme and character lineup: the return of Flash’s original Rogues Gallery (with a few changes). On the Barry Allen side, we have Barry once again dating Iris West, and her nephew Wally West teamed with Barry as Kid Flash, though he’s rather different from the Silver Age version.

The Rogues have been gone from Central City for a while, and newer criminals have stepped in to fill the void. We see a few of them here: Papercut, Sand Blaster and Bone Dry. I have to agree with Barry’s caption commentary, the original Rogues had better names, and I would add, better powers. Not willing to let sleeping dogs lie, Barry decides to investigate the whereabouts and plans of the missing Rogues, which takes him to interesting places and people, and ultimately to what was probably their last secret hideout in Central City. What he finds there launches this story arc.

Fun stuff, recommended.

Image © DC Comics.

Bear with me while I try to sum up this issue, which I found confusing. First we have wealthy company head Edward Borsten falling prey to the mental dominance of the mysterious evil presence that has reached into his mind from deep below ground. Then we cut to Cave and his crew, with his ex-wife and HER people, fighting monsters in their mole car. Meanwhile Edward in his newer mole car, and HIS crew are trying to free the great evil force. When they do, it’s another monster, a gigantic one. Soon, the two groups meet and more mayhem ensues.

I have to say I like the idea of this comic much more than the execution. I’d be happier with something more along the lines of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne, exploring underground wonders, lost civilizations and creatures. We’ve had a little of that, but it’s turned into a more predictable and less interesting monster fight at this point. The writing has it’s moments, usually the quieter ones, but is confusing at times, and the art is often difficult to follow, and too cartoony when I can follow it. I think this is the last issue I’ll be looking at. Too bad, I had hopes.

Not recommended.