Originally Published December 16, 2011

DC Comics recently relaunched their entire series, giving curious but uninitiated nerds a convenient entry point.  Fellow blogger Drew Baumgartner and I are two such nerds, and we’ve decided to jump in with a handful of monthly titles.  We really wanted to pull out all the nerd stops, so we’re also going to be writing about them here and on Drew’s blog (which you should all be reading anyway) every Friday.  This week, I’m hosting the discussion of Green Lantern while Drew is hosting the discussion of Batgirl.

Patrick: We’ve discussed the problem with reading Geoff Johns’ books from week to week.  Basically, the biggest issue is an over-reliance on an impossibly serialized story.  This means there’s an awful lot of place-setting, and early issues in a series can snap under the weight of exposition.  This week saw both of our leads incapacitated and/or imprisoned the the entirety of the issue, which you’d think would force a lot of cool personal development.  And while Hal had some neat moments that successfully explored his character, I’m less moved by Sinestro’s plight. Continue reading →

Originally Published November 11, 2011

DC Comics recently relaunched their entire series, giving curious but uninitiated nerds a convenient entry point.  Fellow blogger Patrick Ehlers and I are two such nerds, and we’ve decided to jump in with a handful of monthly titles.  We really wanted to pull out all the nerd stops, so we’re also going to be writing about them here and on Patrick’s Blog (which you should all be reading anyway) every Friday.  This week, I’m hosting the discussion of Green Lantern, while Patrick is hosting the discussion of Batgirl.

Drew:  Disclaimer: I am woefully unfamiliar with Green Lantern.  Different Lanterns have been featured in some media I’m more familiar with (namely the DCAU and occasional appearances in Batman books I’ve read), but I only have the loosest understanding of the character’s mythology.  I think this actually puts me in a good position for assessing the current run of Green Lantern, as DC’s reboot should ostensibly re-introduce all of their heroes.  The first three issues do this ably without going the dreaded “retelling of the origin story” route, which I worried would be all we’d get out of the new 52.  They also do this without pandering too much to newcomers, possibly the best of the titles I’ve been following. Continue reading →