Red Lanterns 2: Death of the Red Lanterns

Comic Info

Red Lanterns #9

Reprints Red Lanterns #8-12 and Stormwatch (3) #9 (June 2012-October 2012).  The Red Lanterns are dying.  Infected by Atrocitus’s first creation Abysmus, the Corps are working on borrowed time, and they must find the cause quickly.  Atrocitus sets off to locate Abysmus while Bleez and her rebels seek the Star Sapphires.  As Stormwatch takes an interest in the Red Lanterns, Jack Moore finds himself caught between his humanity and curse of being a Red Lantern.

Written by Peter Milligan, Red Lanterns Volume 2:  Death of the Red Lanterns is part of the New 52 relaunch of the DC Universe following Flashpoint.  Following Red Lanterns Volume 1:  Blood and Rage, the collection features art by Miguel Sepulveda, Andres Guinaldo, Jorge Jimenez, Mark Irwin, and Tomas Giorello.  The collection features a crossover with Stormwatch, and Stormwatch (3) #9 and Red Lanterns #10 were also collected in Stormwatch Volume 2:  Enemies of Earth.

The New 52 relaunch of DC was a fun way to spice up the DC Comics.  Red Lanterns was one of the surprise titles and putting Milligan on it was a different choice.  With winning titles like X-Force/X-Statix, Milligan has potential to soar…Red Lanterns finds a middle ground.

Milligan takes a bit too many jumps in the storytelling.  The Abysmus backstory is a bit too loosely told and the Bleez encounters with the Star Sapphires also takes odd leaps that leaves you questioning if you missed a page.  He’s done a bit of this in the past in titles like Shade, but I wish that the series flowed better here.

Red Lanterns #12

It is unfortunately because there is some gold in Red Lanterns.  I actually kind of like Milligan is giving the rather one-dimensional Red Lanterns more depth.  Villains as leads are always compelling, and Red Lanterns are even more villainous than most comics that attempt it…plus, Dex-Starr is gold.

The crossover with Stormwatch feels logical (Milligan was writing both titles, and Stormwatch are essentially police men), but the execution also wasn’t great.  While the Stormwatch part works, the Red Lanterns issue seems forced in the bigger story which is occurring in Red Lanterns.  Atrocitus vows revenge which promises a payoff later on…but I don’t know if we’ll get it.

Red Lanterns has a lot of potential, but it feels largely untapped.  I wish Milligan went all in on Red Lanterns like he did on X-Statix, but it feels like he was limited by DC’s mainstreaming of the book.  If we had had something completely crazy and unusual in Red Lanterns, it would have really stood out among the New 52 books…even if it didn’t fit in perfectly.  Red Lanterns 2:  Death of the Red Lanterns is followed by Red Lanterns 3:  The Second Prophecy.

Related Links:

Red Lanterns 1:  Blood and Rage