Red Lanterns #28 & #29 Recap | Back to Sanity

<p><strong>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<&sol;strong> It&&num;8217&semi;s become clear as I delve further into the <em>Red Daughter of Krypton<&sol;em> story arc &lpar;which brings the <em>Red Lanterns<&sol;em> and <em>Supergirl<&sol;em> comics together&rpar; that ideally I should be covering both sides of this cross-over&period; That means it&&num;8217&semi;s catch-up time&comma; so here are my thoughts on <em>Red Lanterns &num;28<&sol;em> &amp&semi; <em>&num;29<&sol;em>&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll cover <em>Supergirl &num;30<&sol;em> and <em>Red Lanterns &num;30<&sol;em> soon after&comma; and we&&num;8217&semi;ll be all caught up&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Red Lanterns &num;28<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Okay&comma; so this is my first time reading an issue of <em>Red Lanterns<&sol;em>&comma; and thankfully this issue has been written in a way that lets newcomers jump in with relative ease&period; Two Red Lanterns &lpar;Skallox and Zilius Zox&rpar; were on a sight seeing tour of Earth&period; A woman with dark powers is attacking them&period; A third Red Lantern &lpar;Guy Gardner&rpar; and a super-powered woman &lpar;based on her looks&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m betting on ice powers&rpar; has arrived on the scene&period; Okay cool&comma; I can follow this&period; So it turns out the self-proclaimed &&num;8220&semi;Shadow Thief&&num;8221&semi; is a space-racist&comma; or xenophobic I suppose&comma; and just attacked the Red Lanterns because they&&num;8217&semi;re aliens&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s certainly easy to dislike her right off the bat&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Elsewhere on Planet Groy another group of Red Lanterns are&&num;8230&semi; fighting each other&quest; Thanks to a convenient monologue from Atrocitus &&num;8212&semi; who judging by his appearance is a <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;mortalkombat&period;wikia&period;com&sol;wiki&sol;Tarkata">Tartakan<&sol;a> from <em>Mortal Kombat<&sol;em> &&num;8212&semi; we learn that Guy Gardner beat Atrocitus &&num;8220&semi;to death&&num;8221&semi; &lpar;he seems pretty lively for a dead guy&rpar; and now he&&num;8217&semi;s taking his revenge&period; Perhaps what&&num;8217&semi;s most interesting here is the cat &&num;8220&semi;Dex-Starr&&num;8221&semi; who looks like a ferocious blue house cat with a Red Lantern ring on its tail&period; Oh&comma; and there&&num;8217&semi;s also a giant red cockroach-like creature&period; Looks like anyone &lpar;or anything&rpar; can join the Red Lantern Corps&comma; provided they have some serious anger issues&period; Finally we get to see some proper Lantern powers&excl; Since the <em>Red Daughter of Krypton<&sol;em> arc started Supergirl has mostly been relying on her own powers rather than being more creative with her new ring&comma; which is understandable I suppose&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s nice to see some experienced Red Lanterns going at it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With the battle against Shadow Thief freezing to a halt &lpar;ice powers&comma; called it&excl;&rpar; we finally get to see <em>Red Lanterns<&sol;em> and <em>Supergirl<&sol;em> begin to merge&period; When we last saw Supergirl&comma; she was a fire-breathing rage monster&comma; quite literally&period; After a &lpar;disappointingly light&rpar; skirmish with her ex-bestie Silver Banshee on Earth&comma; Kara shot off into space no doubt in search of something else to punch repeatedly in the face&period; Looks like she found some Green Lanterns&comma; who managed to capture her and bring her to Ysmault&comma; home planet of the Reds&period; She appears to be contained&comma; but the mention of Superman riles her up enough to break free and it takes all of them&comma; Red Lanterns and Green&comma; to force her into the blood lake&period; She emerges with a few more marbles than she&&num;8217&semi;s had for a while<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123274" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123274" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-123274" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;27111800&sol;GalleryComics&lowbar;1900x900&lowbar;20140205&lowbar;REDL&lowbar;Cv28&lowbar;52cf359a6913b8&period;59955474&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Red Lanterns &num;28 &lpar;DC Comics&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"455" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123274" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Red Lanterns &num;28 &lpar;DC Comics&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h3>Red Lanterns &num;29<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>With a new Kryptonian recruit on the team he takes the opportunity to test out his &&num;8220&semi;favorite thing&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8211&semi; a missile launcher that fires neutron star core matter-tipped missiles&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m no rocket scientist but they sound like they should pack a punch&comma; but they of course prove to be no match for Supergirl&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Zilius Zox is a spherical creature with tiny arms and legs who has a more&&num;8230&semi; rounded view of things &lpar;sorry&rpar; and makes for an amusing double act with Skallox&period; Lastly we have Guy Gardner&comma; an ex-Green Lantern &lpar;presumably human&rpar; who has obviously taken a leadership role in the group and probably keeps the group in check morally as well&comma; as I&&num;8217&semi;m not convinced the Red Lanterns would behave themselves if not kept in check by someone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After losing control for a moment &lpar;Kara may not be on a mindless rampage any more&comma; but she clearly needs a few anger management classes&rpar; and destroying Skallox&&num;8217&semi;s missile launcher&comma; Skallox and Zox toast their new team member&period; Clearly the only remotely responsible member of the group&comma; Guy Gardner points out that <em>maybe it&&num;8217&semi;s not a good idea to give alcohol to the angry teenage Kryptonian Red Lantern<&sol;em>&comma; and ends up with a bloody hand rather proving his point&period; Off onto official patrolling business&comma; then&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t expecting the Red Lanterns to pay Earth a visit so soon&comma; and I certainly wasn&&num;8217&semi;t expecting Superman to make an appearance&comma; which is a nice surprise&period; Better still is the fact that Clark actually realizes that Kara is simply too angry and stubborn to listen to anyone any more or accept any help&comma; and it would be better to just let her work through it all herself&period; This is a smart move and Clark might finally earn a little respect from Kara after all the animosity between them&period; Although it appears that even if Superman did insist on helping Supergirl&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s too late&comma; as the Red Lantern ring is apparently bonded with her permanently and removing it would kill her&period; Huh&period; This story arc&&num;8230&semi; may go on a little longer that I originally thought&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As my introduction to the Red Lanterns &lpar;both the characters and the comic&rpar; I enjoyed these issues&period; The characters are likeable and make an interesting team&comma; and most importantly it was easy for me to jump in&period; Having not read any issues of Red Lanterns before&comma; I find Skallox particularly likeable&period; Firstly&comma; the guy has a demon-goat-skull for a head&comma; which is both terrifying and awesome&comma; and secondly&&num;8230&semi; he just likes to have fun&period; Both issues were great reads and very accessible even if you&&num;8217&semi;re new to comic books&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d highly recommend checking these out&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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