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Mystery Comic 8: Blackest Night R.E.B.E.L.S. Issue 10

Comic (8)

I’ve never been a big Green Lantern fan, so most of my knowledge of the “Green Lantern Universe” is the broad cliff notes. From what I know (and Wikipedia backed up) the Blackest Night event centers around the rise of the Black Lanterns which embody death. This lead to a whole bunch of formerly dead DC characters rising back to life in zombie form. While I don’t know much about Green Lanterns, I know much less about R.E.B.E.L.S. or L.E.G.I.O.N.  Although this is Issue 10 in it’s series it is the first issue of R.E.B.E.L.S.’ Blackest Night arc, so that was helpful. There were a lot of characters in this issue that were introduced. Like a lot.

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From the best I can tell the story centers around Brainiac’s Son, Vril Dox, and Grandson, Lyrl Dox. Brainic’s son (Vril) becomes aware that his child (Lyrl) was becoming uncontrollable.  Vril uses his powers to put mental blocks in place to limit the amount of his mind Lyrl could use. This leads Lyrl to resent his father. So when Staru’s gang comes to kidnap Lyrl, he decides to go with them willingly. Staru was able to take down the mental blocks in Lyrl that Vril put in place giving him his full mental capacity.

Staru’s gang are still after Vril and his gang so they take off and are found by a group of Yellow Lanterns. These Yellow Lanterns are currently being attacked by a group of Black Lanterns so they try to take over Vril’s ship to escape. During the conflict Vril’s ship is destroyed and one of the Yellow Lanterns is killed by a Black Lantern Harbinger who then turns it’s attention to attack Virl. Vril is in a protective pill like object that momentarily distracts the Black Lantern Harbinger. The issue ends with the Yellow Power Ring of the recently killed Tribulus finding a new host in Vril and giving him the power of a Lantern. Also one of Vril’s gang Stealth who had been dead is reanimated as a Black Lantern and around during a lot of this.

Comic 8 - Image11

This is a lot to take in. I could, for the most part, follow along what was happening. However, this whole series deals with an entire group of comics I am unfamiliar with. I did recognize Staru from the cover of the classic Justice League 29.

Comic 8 - Image10

Justice League of America Vol. 1 Issue 28

I gleamed that this whole Blackest Night crossover deals with dead characters coming back to life as Black Lanterns. This is interesting and would much cooler for a series I am familiar with to see some dead characters back in action. A weird thing is that the Black Lanterns are basically zombies but still manage to be weirdly sexy. I don’t think I have ever seen sexy zombies in any of the many different interpretations of zombies I’ve seen.

Comic 8 - Image13

Overall this was a decent issue. I don’t think I’ll read any more from R.E.B.E.L.S., but I may read more from Blackest Night. At the very least I’m glad to be exposed to both and can add them to my base knowledge of comics.

I only have one ad for this issue I wanted to post.  It is for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for the Nintendo DS.  I played this game a few years ago and its a poster child confusing and complicated hot mess that Kingdom Hearts has become.

Comic 8 - Image12


DC Comics 1994 Elseworlds Annuals

Elseworld's Finest Vol 1 2

Since I put this site together my first instinct was to review/talk about the new comics I get each week.  However, these posts take me a while to put together and really the quickest I could get something out would be 2-3 days after the comic was released, which is approximately 7 years in internet terms.  So by the time I got my review out there would already be hundreds of professional and amateur sites that do just that. Frankly I don’t know if my opinion on new comics is that unique that I need to throw in my two cents.

That being said this is my website so I will write about whatever I want to, which may include reviews of new comics from time to time (YOU’RE NOT MY SUPERVISOR!).  But for the most part I focus my reviews on older more obscure stuff I like from the 90’s.

I’m a child of the 90’s and while I didn’t really read comic books much back then, the big boom comics of the early 90’s were the color pallet of my childhood.  Things like Batman the Animated Series, the X-Men cartoon, pogs, and Crystal Pepsi were my jam.  This actually works out great for me at this age in life because the comics I am most interested in collecting (stuff from the early 90’s) is literally some of the least valuable comics available and super easy to find.

So one of the things I love in Comic Books (besides early 90’s X-Men) is Elseworlds stories (What if… stories if you’re nasty).  I really enjoy getting new takes on well known characters that put them in situations I would have never dreamed of (Superman Red Son is easily one of my favorite series of all time).

What makes Elseworld stories so great you ask?  Well a couple of things.  First, Elseworlds stories are self-contained and a lot of times appear only as one issue comics.  You get a short, but complete story, which is given to you in a self-contained universe.  Second, because these are non-canon stories anything can happen.  Major villains and heroes can die so the stakes are a lot higher.

This is the list of 1994 Annuals that I was able to buy

  • The Adventures of Superman 6 “The Super Seven Part I: The Longest Night”
  • Batman 18 “Black Masterpiece”
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat 2 “The Tyrant”
  • Catwoman 1 “The Last Man”
  • Detective Comics 7 “Leatherwing”
  • Green Lantern 3 “Ring of Evil”
  • Justice League International 5 “No Rules to Follow”
  • Justice League of America 8 “The Once and Future League”
  • Legends of the Dark Knight 4 “Citizen Wayne”
  • Lobo 2 “Western”
  • Robin 3 “The Narrow Path”
  • Steel 1 “Crucible of Freedom”
  • Superboy 1 “The Super Seven Part II: The Men of Steel”
  • Superman 6 “The Feral Man of Steel”
  • Team Titans 2 “Into the Light”

I only have 15 of the 23 so I am missing 8 but honestly the rest of the list is pretty obscure (L.E.G.I.O.N., Legionnaires, Legion of Super-heroes etc.) so even with my OCD completionist mindset I’m fine not having all of them (though if I see it I’ll pick up Action Comics Annual 6).  I’m still a little amazed I was able to find the 15 that I did find at once.  I was able to get all of these at Houston Comic-Con (Comicpalooza) over Memorial Day weekend.  At first I had only found three (Batman, Detective Comics, and Superman) and was checking out when the stall owner said he had a bundled a few together which contained 12 more.

So my plan is to treat this like I do my Mystery Comics and periodically review these from time to time as I read them.  So be on the look out! This is just the start of more to come!


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