SIDF26 Spotlights: Joygirl's Wrath of the Red Lanterns

Well, @joygirl already reviewed Gotham City 21, so I might as well review one of her works. Today we'll be looking at Wrath of the Red Lanterns. While not finished yet, the story so far focuses on the Red Lanterns attempting to find the origins of a devastatingly powerful Qwardian weapon...Oops, did I say the Red Lanterns? I meant Atrocitus. In fact, Atrocitus seemingly abandons his team to govern itself in his leave. Can the team stay together, or will it fall apart?

CONS:

I think Wrath of the Red Lantern's biggest weakness is it's lack of emotional connection. Granted, I'm not asking for Stephen King here, but many of the Red Lanterns have some really tragic backstories and profiles that could be explored really deeply here. For example, let's look at my favorite Red Lantern; Veon. Veon is a being of pure rage, pain and hatred and I was excited to see how @joygirl would put him to use. Unfortunately, so far he's really nothing more than Atrocitus's pet. I know Atrocitus is a hard ass, and I know he's not a saint, but having Atrocitus show a little bit of regret or even just pity would have been nice. I feel the same goes for Bleez. Granted, @joygirl does a great job capturing her anger and has some great dialogue for her, but I never got the emotional connection I should have. Maybe she's saving this for later, I don't know.

My 2nd problem is that the dialogue can get cheesy at times. When I look at the Red Lanterns, I see a team that is bullet to the head serious, so it is awkward to hear characters say things like "Tastes like chicken!" It's not a HUGE problem or anything, but it did irk me a little bit.

PROS:

Wrath of the Red Lantern's is fun...Like REALLY fun. The action sequences are intense, entertaining and even occasionally funny. I was expecting some Wachowski level action here, and Wrath of the Red Lanterns doesn't disappoint. @joygirl really knows how to deliver some classic light construct based combat, I think a lot of Fic'r's could learn something on writing battle scenes from her.

And while there isn't much of an emotional connection, that doesn't mean the characters aren't fun, funny or interesting. I loved Zillius's humor, I loved Atrocitus's coldness, I loved Laira's ressurection...There are some REALLY memorable scenes here and all of these characters are portrayed in a likable and IC (In character) way and they are definitely what will keep me coming back.

OVERALL:

Wrath of the Red Lanterns is more fun than a barrel of Yellow Lantern Rings, thanks in large part to it's epic battle scenes and likable characters. Still, it can be emotionally dead and cheesy at times, but as far as a beginning goes, this is a promising start. I look forwards to seeing how this project turns out

RATING:

B

Interesting. I'll take a look at a few of the things you mentioned and try to make some improvements. It's challenging to establish such a large cast (even nine characters is large for me) so I'll look closer at some points.

Yeah, I know from experience that establishing such a large cast is almost impossible haha. Good luck with your series! (May do a spinoff of Gotham City 21 on the next generation)

Wait a minute, you just called me Scott Lobdell. o_____o

@joygirl: What?

@spideyivydaredevilfan26: Mediocre Dialogue + No Depth + Good Humor + Good Action = Scott Lobdell.

Ha!

Yeah, I was thinking more Ronny Yu (Freddy v.s Jason, Bride of Chucky, Fearless) but Lobdell is a good comparison

@joygirl: @spideyivydaredevilfan26: I've read enough of joygirl's stuff to feel like she gives a fair review, even if that review is not flattering. I haven't read enough of SIDF26 to know if the same is true, and haven't read the Red Lanterns story to be able to judge by this review. Having read this immediately following joygirl's review of Gotham City 21, this seemed somewhat fair, but somewhat just finding areas to jab at. Again, not sure if that's the case here, but that's kind of how it comes off, having read the two reviews back-to-back.

@cbishop: 1) I gave a positive review...I honestly didn't find it emotionally engaging for a story where that would be necessary...And the humor was a little off.

2) I don't give too many reviews, because they're low in comments most of the time unless I'm reviewing another fan-fic.

@spideyivydaredevilfan26: Fair enough.

Do you really, though?

@joygirl: Commented, surprised you wanted my opinion.

@spideyivydaredevilfan26: I want everyone's opinion. I'm a professional, I need more opinions than just the ones I want to hear. I've dealt with criticism before.