Not enough of either for some people.
The Red Lanterns have returned to their planet after the great battle with rogue guardian Krona, which involved all other Lantern Corps. Now with Krona's death, the leader of the Red Lanterns Atrocitus is lacking a purpose, and his Red Lanterns are growing very restless. Atrocitus now struggles on finding a new purpose for himself and the corps. -summary
As part of the Green Lantern universe, the Red Lanterns whose emotional color is red and represents the rage spectrum also went through little to no change at all in DC's New 52 reboot. This series clearly takes place after War of the Green Lanterns, yet it does come off as a pretty fresh take anyone can get into and find their way around, at least for the most part anyway. I wasn't surprised one bit when I saw that the Red Lanterns were getting their own series, because when looking at the Blue Lanterns or the Indigo Tribe, these guys representing pure anger had the most potential to carry a series. After all, these guys and gals are angry as mad hornets plus Sinestro is afraid of their leader. Who wouldn't want to check that out? Unfortunately, Peter Milligan has been seeing to it that this potential takes a while towards being realized. The best way to come into this series is to look at it as one huge set up. Red Lanterns Volume One: Blood and Rage contains issues 1 - 7.
This title is a perfect example of a comic series that needs to be read in TPB form. It's terrible as single issues, and believe me because I dropped it for awhile and it takes some time before it picks up speed. Peter Milligan's writing can come off about as lost as Atrocitus at times. While the story is strong in character development it gets repetitive really fast, and it starts screaming for some real progression.
The plot follows Atrocitus as he visits Krona's remains seeking a new purpose due to losing his drive. He soon believes that directing his rage towards the wicked in pursuit of delivering justice is what's best for his Corps; to pull this off he needs an army that can actually think, something the Red Lanterns can't do. In the mean time his mindless Red Lantern Corps. are beginning to feel Bleez's drive to turn against him for the sake of it, despite not having enough sense to form complete sentences. This leads to Atrocitus restoring Bleez's intelligence bringing her to his level, in hopes that she can understand him better to help lead. Now he has to deal with her cunning and mad ambition because she can actually plan to over throw him. Milligan has good ideas with some things actually working and this is only due to the characters possessing some level of interest. In another sub plot, there's a man on Earth going through his own rage-filled moment and he's suddenly chosen to become a Red Lantern.
These first issues will prove quite difficult to get through for many people because it's all about the building blocks and examining themes. The self narrating on Atrocitus part, delivery of origins, introduction of characters and threats; this is all preparation for things to come. There's not even a whole lot of action to rope in people looking just for that. The story is even a bit slow paced; I know this doesn't sound very good, but Milligan handles his characters quite well. The tension between Atrocitus and Bleez is the highlight, yet the other characters and story elements in small ways bring something else to the table. It's hard for me to dislike this book.
I have mentioned in different ways that DC has gifted the GL universe with many of their better artist, and I guess when looking at the rising popularity of the Red Lanterns, plus every corner of the GL universe has been red hot for nearly ten years. It makes sense from a business perspective, but it still burns me anyway that the Red Lanterns can get Ed Benes while a character like Wonder Woman gets Cliff Chiang... Oh well the WW fan in me had to get that off.
Benes follows up the rest of the GL universe with some nice character designs, and as always, he delivers the curvy bit with those females. This is definitely among the best I have seen Bleez drawn, and he took her design to another level with her previous appearance before becoming a Red Lantern. Could she be another comic vixen in the making? Heh, anything is possible. There are also some good alien designs as usual, there are some that have been used before with others feeling like the creative juices were lacking, hence the angry cat, but I like the diversity always going on here. Drawing backgrounds still remains one of Benes' weaker points due to single color schemes or mere dark clouds just to fill up pages. It definitely doesn't look bad though, and when looking at some of the bloody action-filled moments. I still feel the art is above average.
Red Lanterns: Blood and Rage made its debut to a mixed reception and I understand this. The next two volumes are almost like this as well, but this series is far from bad. I will say that between issues 1 - 20 that progress is light, which is the reason I would recommend this only if one is very curious. There are far worse books in the New 52 line up that should be avoided completely. Red Lanterns isn't one of them though. If you're into the GL universe then give this book a try. If you're interested in learning more about the Red Lanterns, then I recommend back tracking to Green Lantern: Secret Origin and Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns.
Pros: Good ideas put to work, interesting characters, artwork
Cons: Slow paced, quite repetitive, cliff hanger ending