Lobo #1 (1993)

Lobo #1 (December, 1993)
"The Qigly Affair, Part One"
Script - Alan Grant
Pencils - Val Semeiks
Inks - John Dell
Colors - Gloria Vasquez
Separations - Android
Letters - Bill Oakley
Asst. Editor - Peter Tomasi
Editor - Dan Raspler
Cover Price: $2.95

Growing up, I never really got into Lobo.  My buddy Dave did... which just reaffirmed my belief that the Lobo books were "those ugly books" that I didn't want anywhere near my pristine X-Men books.  In late 1993, following a line of miniseries the main man finally got his own real-deal ongoing... and, at least in my opinion, it doesn't look nearly as ugly anymore.  How does it read?  Let's find out...

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We open with intergalactic bounty-hunter extraordinaire Lobo hot on the trail of a "Robert DeNitro".  Lobo finds himself the victim of a DeNitro ambush, and the two enter into a battle of furious fisticuffs.  DeNitro's power is that his hands can be charged full of unstable molecules (probably not the same kind that comprises the Fantastic Fours costumes), with which he can... well, punch real good.

Lobo does the smart thing, and tosses him a cute li'l frag bomb... which DeNitro catches.  The frag explodes and takes his magical hands with it.  Knowing that the jig is up, DeNitro sits and sulks.  Lobo informs him he's running him in for being behind on his alimony payments in the sum of 1,000 credits.

Lobo hooks his chain into DeNitro's nose ring and perp marches him to the Space Hog.  DeNitro gets a wild hair, and decides to play "feets don't fail me now".  Lobo simply yanks him back... however, he may just have pulled too hard.  DeNitro's nose comes off in the yank, and DeNitro himself goes splat.  Lobo expresses surprise by saying "Feetal's Gizz".   It's something he's going to say several more times today... and, thinking about it phonetically, I can't help but giggle each time.

We jump to Al's Diner, a sad little 24-hour eatery on a lonely asteroid.  Inside, Al and waitress Darlene lament their lack of customers, when... our main man deciding he's thirsty, pops in.  Lobo engages in his normal charming small-talk, and seeing a "Buy One Get One" offer posted decides to order a six-pack of intergalactic beer.  While he orders, proprietor Al has a bit of a run-in with Lobo's dog... Dawg.

After an attempt at dissuasion, Darlene relents and fetches Lobo his six-pack.  Lobo quickly downs each one, and lets out both a belch and a... 'Feetal's Gizz". 

After he slams his sixth, Lobo can't help but notice there's another patron bellied up to the bar.  It's a jilted old partner, Jonas Glim... who is less than happy to see our main man.

What follows is a diner-destroying battle for the ages, with Lobo coming out on top.

With the fight won, Lobo hands Glim his business card... gives him the ol' kayo boot, and decides to drag him back with him.  He turns to Al, points to the buy one get one deal, and says they're even-steven because he only got one of his two meals... and one should cancel the other out.

We shift scenes to a warehouse in Dagma City on Planet Vurkan.  Inside an odd little man is playing cards with a pair of goonish alien types (though, one might just be Frankenstein).  This little fella is Qigly, and he is worth billions of credits to the Pan-Galactic Mob... the mob who is currently hot in pursuit.  There are several other members of this "Dead Boys" crew, including their leader Mort Fatale.  While Qigly plays cards and entertains himself by doing complex math in his head, the crew is trying to dig their way out of the warehouse.  They anxiously await their getaway driver, one Mr. Robert DeNitro... oops...

Lobo and Glim arrive at the Bounty Office with a "Feetal's Gizz".  He attempts to trade in DeNitro's schnoz for the credits... unsuccessfully.  Lobo does not ingratiate himself to the Bondsman, and almost finds himself losing the gig.  

Before things get too heated, Lobo heads off into the main bounty hall.

Inside the already ticked off Bondsman offers Lobo the 10 million credit bounty for... Vernon Z. Qigly.  Lobo peeps the geek on the poster, and thinks it's money in the bank.  He happily accepts, and heads out for his "sure thing".

Back in Dagma City, the Pan-Galactic Mob discovers the Dead Boys, and a hellacious firefight takes place.

At the Bounty Office, we see that the Bondsman tore off some very important information from the bounty memo... it appears as though the main man was sent in on a suicide mission...

--

Okay, I had a bit more fun than I was expecting with this one.  My Lobo frame of reference is pretty much "that guy Superman fights sometimes" and "Young Justice team member Slobo"... Seeing the "main man" in his natural habitat was a treat.  I get the idea that Lobo is not someone we should be cheering for, however, there is just something about him... an odd charisma, that makes you (or me, at least) wanna see him just punch fools out.

The art and coloring were great too.  When I think Lobo, my mind usually goes to the abstract Keith Giffen covers that look more like his Trencher work than his DC work... or those overly "meaty" looking covers that always grossed me out as a kid.  Val Semeiks' art here is more of a classic comic style, and is both aesthetically pleasing and easy to follow.

This probably isn't must-reading or anything, but if you come across it... it's definitely worth a look.  

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New Teen Titans (vol.2) #19 (1986)

New Teen Titans (vol.2) #19 (1986)
"Breaking Up is Hard to Do"
Writer/Editor - Marv Wolfman
Penciller - Eduardo Barreto
Embellisher - Romeo Tanghal
Letterer - John Costanza
Colorist - Adrienne Roy
Cover Price: $1.50

I came to the realization that I haven't given nearly enough attention to the Teen Titans on this here blog.  Gonna work toward rectifying that.  It's funny, sometimes it's more difficult to look at/discuss the books I hold the most dear.  The Teen Titans (in their many incarnations) is definitely one of the "toughies".

One of the goals I had in starting such a blog is to help bring readers into the gestalt of when the issues were published.  That is why I've always included some of the more noteworthy ads at the bottom of my review pieces.  From this point on, I decided that (when applicable) I'm going to try and include letters pages as well.  I remember eating those up as a kid... always loved reading them, especially those with numbered questions!

Anyhoo... enough housekeeping, let's get on to the usual spoilery synopsis.

--

We open as Gar Logan's stepfather, Steve Dayton (in full Mento gear) is blasting Cyborg as Changeling protests.  This is during a time in which Dayton's Mento helmet is making him crazy, so I believe the team was kind of treating him with "kid gloves" knowing he's not fully responsible for his actions.  This current action, however, may prove fatal to Gar's best buddy Vic Stone... so he realizes he's going to have to act... before it's too late.

Mento shows Gar what's going on inside his mind, and he is treated to visions of the fallen Doom Patrol members... all blaming him for their deaths... and telling him the only way to make things right is killing the Titans.  During this destraction, Cyborg is able to rally off a desperation energy blast into Mento's back, rendering him unconscious.

Gar shifts into a baboon form, and hoists his buddy up onto his shoulder.  He takes him to S.T.A.R. Labs, more specifically the office of Dr. Klyburn (who, last we saw her at the blog... she was harping at Booster Gold).  Dr.'s Klyburn and (Vic's would-be girlfriend, Sarah) Charles access the damage, and ready Vic for surgery.

We shift scenes to Dick Grayson's apartment.  Donna's stopped by for a visit, though it's pretty clear that Dick would much rather be alone.  This is just following a story arc in which the team went to Starfire's home planet Tamaran.  To bring about peace, Starfire had to agree to an arranged marriage.  Being as though Dick was her at-the-time boyfriend, this did not go over all that well with him.  Here we see Dick trying to process that...

Donna keeps pressing Dick to talk this through... though he's just not hearing it.  He repeatedly asks her to leave, yet she won't.  She sees her friend hurting, and wants to be there for him.

At this point, Dick flips the script.  Donna wants to talk?  Okay, they're gonna talk.  Say, Donna... where's Raven?  Raven (along with her mother) had just recently been mixed up with the Church of Brother Blood.  Donna is taken aback... and doesn't quite know how to respond.  She begins stammering... she certainly wasn't prepared for that.

With Donna on the ropes, Dick asks why she allowed Gar and Vic to go running off after Mento.  Mento, who is extremely dangerous, and who is in possession of a helmet capable of leveling the city... Donna's still reeling.

Then, Dick reminds Donna that (former Titan) Kole was dead (she died during Crisis on Infinite Earths).  Dick calls Donna out for being too involved with her husband, (urg...) Terry Long's college papers to be an effective leader, and flat out implies that Kole's blood is on Donna's hands.  Donna's had enough!  She smacks Dick clear into the next room (literally... like, through a wall).

Donna gives chase, but Dick's acrobatic finesse allows him to slip past.  He exits the apartment, and tells Donna to lock the door when she leaves.  Dick changes into his Nightwing togs, and immediately regrets the confrontation.

Donna calls Terry, interrupting a conference he's currently having.  Terry's professorship is in jeopardy unless he's able to produce some published work.  This has been going on in the background for a little while now.  They don't chat long, as Donna's gotta head to S.T.A.R. Labs to check in on Vic.

ugh...

At S.T.A.R., it almost seems as though a different Donna shows up.  Cold, impolite... just not the same Donna.  The confrontation with Dick really appears to have affected her on a deep level.  We learn that Cyborg's robotic parts were never meant to be abused the way they had been, and there are no guarantees for the ongoing surgery.

We get a scene with Donna and Gar.  She apologizes for her behavior, and asks how she's been as leader.  Gar jokes that she's... good, not great... and expresses great delight at that fact.  For as long as he's known her, she's been perfect.  He likes knowing that even she struggles from time to time.  

The pair run into Vic's old flame, Sarah Simms from the special school.  They tell her what's up, and she insists on joining them at Vic's side.  At S.T.A.R., the Sarahs finally meet... Simms asks Charles to "be good to him", and they part amicably.

We join Nightwing as he does dome digging on the Church of Brother Blood.  He is still lamenting the event with Donna, and questioning whether or not the Titans life is still for him.  He is unsuccessful in getting any info, and almost gets himself caught.  After narrowly escaping, he begins to look at Donna's stint as team leader in a bit of a different light.

On Tamaran... Starfire and her husband duel, and make love.  That's about all there is to do on Tamaran... sorry, but Titans-in-space stories put me right to sleep... in fact, just about any team-in-space has that effect.  Probably why I don't get the Legion of Super Heroes.

Back on Earth, Cyborg's surgery is a success!  After a brief celebration, Donna is contacted by Titan's FBI contact King Faraday about a gig.  Seeing the state of disarray her team is in, she has little choice but to call in some replacements... Meet the new/old Teen Titans... Wonder Girl, Hawk, Speedy, Aqualad, the Flash, and Jason "Robin" Todd.

--

Amazing issue all around.  I've always been a sucker for team-turmoil issues, and this one is done incredibly well.  Dick and Donna's brief but explosive argument was absolutely great.  This is a hallmark of Marv Wolfman's writing... even with the pair at each other's throats, you can still see that they love each other... more deeply than if they were in fact, lovers.  It's that familiarity that gives them the ability to "push buttons"... and hit each other "where it hurts"... 

We're all close with people who sometimes get on our nerves.  It's just part of being human.  When things are heating, it's common for both parties to overreact... but also, there are those moments where you unleash a statement that has just enough truth in it, that it can absolutely devastate the other.  Dick goes about grading Donna on her performance as team leader... addresses her absenteeism due to her spousal responsibilities... he digs and digs and digs... until his finds that one raw nerve.  We've all been there... as soon as the words leave our lips, we wish for nothing more than the ability to draw them back in.  An amazing scene.

In the aftermath, Donna affects a coldness... almost an aloofness.  Instead of dealing with and reconciling her emotions, she basically just swallowed it.  Dick, on the other hand clearly regrets how heated and escalated the confrontation became.  The underlying issues with Vic serve as the perfect backdrop for all of this inter-Titan-drama.  I almost can't blame Donna for not taking the time for decompress... because, sadly, there is no time.  Titans business had to be attended to, and in light of Dick's recent accusations, she knows she can't "let down" the team (in her mind) yet again.

The surprise ending was a lot of fun as well.  This, I would imagine, was perhaps the first time contemporary (at the time) fans saw such a team of Titans.  Wally and Roy had popped in from time to time, but Hawk, Aqualad, and Robin (Jason Todd) may be a neat novelty.

Have no complaints about the art.  I think the worst thing people can say about Eduardo Barreto is that he's "not George Perez"... and, lemme tell ya, there's only one George Perez.  This issue featured a lot of talking as well as action, and Barreto delivered.  I really liked how during the big Dick 'n Donna scene, it appeared as though he evoked the look of an old 1960's romance comic!

Definitely worth tracking down.  Shouldn't be terribly difficult to come across, and shouldn't hurt the wallet all that much either.  The New Titans Omnibuses haven't quite made it to this issue, to my knowledge... however, at the rate they're going, I would expect it in Volume 4 (if it's in the offing).

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Letters Page:

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Green Lantern (vol.4) #29 (2008)

Green Lantern (vol.4) #29 (May, 2008)
"Secret Origin, Part 1"
Writer - Geoff Johns
Penciller - Ivan Reis
Inks - Oclair Albert
Colors - Randy Mayor
Letters - Rob Leigh
Asst. Editor - Adam Schlagman
Editor - Eddie Berganza
Cover Price: $2.99

Now, for the second part in our Green Lantern origin double-feature, the first chapter of Secret Origin.  For yesterday's look at Emerald Dawn #1, click here.

--

We open during a test flight exhibition by Martin Jordan.  His son Hal watches on, proudly clutching his father's bomber jacket in his arms.  We meet a young snobby Carol Ferris who brags that her father owns the planes that Hal's father flies.  Both claim that they'll be pilots when they grow up (though Carol states she'll actually own her own plane).

There's a break in the fence, and Hal sees it as an opportunity to get a better look.  He slips in while Carol tattles to her daddy.  Hal's not scared of trouble, and makes sure she knows it.  He gets to the other side, just in time to see his father hit the ground in a fiery crash.

We shift to some time later.  Hal is diving off of a aircraft hanger and onto a flagpole.  Both a show of bravery and disregard for authority.  Ya see, Hal doesn't like authority.  Remember that.  Hal's mother gets called to the airbase, and she picks up her bad boy.  In the car, Hal gets harangued by his older brother Jack, who even at his young age has taken on the role of disciplinarian father and to an extent, provider.

We shift ahead several years.  The clock is just about to tick over to midnight on the morning of Hal's eighteenth birthday.  His younger brother, Jim excitedly bursts into Hal's room brandishing a wrapped gift... only to find the room empty, with a window left open.

Several hours pass, and we find Hal huddled up on the ground outside an office.  He is awakened, and we find that he has been camped out in front of the Air Force recruitment office.  Hal has come to enlist.

We get a brief exhibition from Hal, and come to learn that he is rather reckless when it comes to his test-piloting.  He presses his test-rigs to their absolute (and literal) breaking point.  

One night, we join Hal and some of his buddies tossing back a few at a bar.  He overhears a Marine acting unruly with a lady, and decides to get involved.  The resulting brawl both leaves Hal with a shiner, and introduces him to John Stewart (though, I'm not sure he'll remember that)...

Outside the bar, Hal finds his younger brother Jim waiting for him.  He's got news... their mother is dying from cancer.  He tells Hal, but cannot let him see her.  There was a falling out from his joining the Air Force, and until he is no longer enlisted... he cannot see her.

The next morning, Hal cannot focus on his duties.  Rather than report to his Commanding Officer (Stone), he goes on an aerial joyride.  When he returns, Stone's there waiting... and he ain't happy.  We've already established, Hal doesn't "do" authority... so he socks him in the face.

Free from his commitments to the United States Air Force, Hal decides it's time to make peace with the family.  He arrives at the hospital just in time to be told that he's too late.  Older brother Jack gets on his case immediately, and makes it plainly clear that he holds Hal responsible for their mother's death.

That night, Hal is visited at his home by his younger brother Jim.  Things come somewhat full-circle, as Jim is able to finally give him his birthday present from earlier in the chapter.  Hal opens it to find a framed photograph of he and his father.  He stares at it, and wonders what his future will be like...

We shift to our ol' (not yet) dying red-skinned friend Abin Sur, as he does battle with Red Lantern Atrocitus.  They speak of revelations... and of a Blackest Night...

--

Well, this is pretty much the Hal we've had since Green Lantern: Rebirth... brash, cocky, confident-to-a-fault.  Still a great character... he's flawed like the Hal in Emerald Dawn, but in a different kind of way.  It is his determination, his steel-will that is his flaw.  It felt as though during Emerald Dawn, Hal's will was his strength in spite of his all-to-human flaws.

In an age of decompression, I still feel as though this opening chapter had no wasted panels.  This tells the story of Hal before he found the ring/the ring found him.  We meet a Hal who doesn't appear to be able to control his emotions... lashing out in the face of authority and, to an extent, reason.  While there was no inebriated driving incident... this is still something of a redemption story.

Hal's guilt is something shared by both origin stories.  In Emerald Dawn, it is due to his irresponsible actions... in Secret Origin, it is also somewhat due to his irresponsible actions, although he felt justified in the latter.  Those around Hal make sure he knows how he should feel in both stories as well... the nurse and Carol in Emerald Dawn, his brother Jack in Secret Origin.

Both stories open with Hal's father Martin's tragic crash.  This is an element that is intrinsically tied with Hal's young adolescence and is a true Rubicon for him.  In both stories, it appears as though Hal would do whatever it took to follow in his father's footsteps.  Almost as though he was doing it to make him proud (which if I'm not mistaken, comes into play during Hal's hallucinations in the lead-up to Emerald Twilight some years later).  Here, in Secret Origin, it feels as though his father's passing has almost made him question the value of life.  He pushes himself to the limit on a daily basis... almost daring death to pluck him from this Earth.

Both stories feature a bar scene, though, that's where the similarities end... okay, not completely.  Both are the place in which Hal partakes in self-destructive behavior (either by the drink or by fighting)... however, here in Secret Origin it's a scene to add to Hal's pattern of behavior, and an opportunity to give John Stewart a cameo.

The creators here are Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis... and honestly, what can I say?  It's beautiful... words and art alike.  Johns has been accused of having something of a man-crush on Hal Jordan... not that there's anything wrong with that.  It's pretty evident that there is a distinct fondness for the character here.  He's a bit too perfect... all of his "imperfections" are the ones that we would love to have... fearlessness, self-confidence, a bad-ass air about us... Hal is Han Solo... and for the most part, that works.

Which take do I like better?  I gotta tell ya... when I decided to look at both of these again, I figured it was a foregone conclusion that I would absolutely love Emerald Dawn, and just tolerate Secret Origin.  Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed them both.  Like, really enjoyed them.  When Secret Origin was first solicited, I questioned if such a story was even necessary.  The answer, now as then... is yes.  For many comics fans, their first interaction with Hal Jordan was during Green Lantern: Rebirth.  An origin story (secret or not) is definitely something that newer fans would need/want. 

The fact that it wiped the old origin out of continuity aside... this is the start of an awesome Hal Jordan Green Lantern story.  This origin actually contains hints of what's to come over the next several years of Green Lantern (and overall DC Universe) comics.  While I like Emerald Dawn, and really dig Emerald Dawn II... I think I'm going to have to give the nod (however slight) to Secret Origin... not that that matters in the slightest, of course.  I still think there's room for (and something to get from) both.

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