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Red Lanterns #18 - Wrath of the First Lantern, Part Eight: The Decision

3

The First Lantern turns his attention to Atrocitus and we see how his life would have been if the Manhunters never attacked his world.

This review contains spoilers.

The Good

You know your eyes are in for a treat when you see Miguel Angel Sepulveda's name on the cover and, as usual, he never fails to disappoint. His illustrations combined with Rain Beredo's colors makes the highlight of this book the visuals (once again). The First Lantern appearing opens any issue to a whole new world of blindingly bright colors and vivid panels, and the art team here takes full advantage of this. The result is a staggeringly impressive looking issue. All of the characters look great, there's a few particularly creative panels (as you'll see, sometimes less is more) and overall it's without question the strongest reason to pick this issue up. And, I never thought it would be possible, but Bleez is legitimately frightening in a panel.

Personally, I've been letdown with Peter Milligan's direction for Atrocitus' team, but this tie-in gives him an opportunity to tell a fairly interesting and self-contained tale. Seeing how his life could have been wasn't by any measure an original concept, but it did indeed hold onto my attention and provide some rather bleak and emotional moments.

The Bad

Sadly, this issue is weighed down with scattered dialogue that feels awkward and unnatural. For example, if you're a regular person and you find yourself face to face with a ridiculously scary looking Red Lantern, screaming and freaking out would be appropriate, yes? Rather than a natural reaction like that, the character seems to be more startled that Rankorr (who looks like a regular dude to her) knows Bleez. If there's a creature like that lurking in a room, I'm out and definitely not hanging around for a (brief) conversation about it. Additionally, I thought Atrocitus had a few silly reactions to the First Lantern's presentation.

The Verdict

I sincerely think DC came up with the idea of "WTF certified" after reading this cliffhanger. It's not the kind of twist that'll make you thrilled for the next issue. Instead, it'll make you scratch your head and possibly say out loud to yourself, "wait, what?" Have fun trying to accurately guess the reasoning behind this one!

At this point it's pretty much business as usual with this book. It looks great and, while the story isn't going to blow you away, it's certainly not terrible. If you've been enjoying the book thus far or want an Atrocitus focused story, odds are you'll have a decent time with this one... even if the ending is apparently all kinds of crazy.

13 Comments

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the_stegman

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the_stegman  Moderator

Yeah, I'm reading all the GL books except this one, I can't afford it, and even if I could, it looks to be mediocre since the beginning.

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ptigrusmagus

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Mucklefluga

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Edited By Mucklefluga

Reveal what happens at the end @k4tzm4n ! No one else is going to buy this issue ;D

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k4tzm4n

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Edited By k4tzm4n  Moderator

Reveal what happens at the end @k4tzm4n ! No one else is going to buy this issue ;D

Atrocitus orders the Red Lanterns to kill him.

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Mucklefluga

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@k4tzm4n said:

@mucklefluga said:

Reveal what happens at the end @k4tzm4n ! No one else is going to buy this issue ;D

Atrocitus orders the Red Lanterns to kill him.

whaaaaaaaaaaatttttt ???!!

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millennium

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@mucklefluga: will that could help fix the book and put the focus back on the character that this series should of had as the main character rankorr

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MadeinBangladesh

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Waste of money.

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HortonDrawsAWho

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I still can't believe how consistently bad Red Lanterns is.

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GrandHarrier

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Edited By GrandHarrier

The revelation of what Atrocitus would have become with the Manhunter slaughter of Sector 666 was a pretty interesting twist. And yeah, that ending, what is he up too? I continue to be onboard with this series. And for all the haters it continues to sell pretty well. :x

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Hanson724

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Edited By Hanson724

<p>I think this book is great. I've liked it ever since the beginning. The scene with Bleez looked creepy and I liked the SPOILERS-SPOILERS - SPOILERS semi-1984 society that Atrocitus would have had if Ryutt had not been destroyed by the Manhunters.It was really interesting and if you've been reading The First Lantern arc, this issue was definitely one of the best so far.</p>

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TheFirstLantern

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Edited By TheFirstLantern

Wait, I saw on another site that Guy Gardner becomes the leader of the Red Lantern Corps. That's what the wtf ending leads up to !

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JamesScott

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I don't get why there's so much hate for this book. Better than GL corps in my opinion. How many people are calling it a waste of money without having read it??

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The Mighty Monarch

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Seriously? How can you say the ending was that surprising, based on what happened in the rest of the issue? Plus, for the way the gatefold cover is laid out, this was pretty much the only 'shocking' twist that could possibly be used there. I'm not saying it was a bad twist, but it wasn't even close to as excessively puzzling as you suggested, it was very logical based on the progression of events that led to it.

It figures that Milligan would FINALLY start making this series decent again right before his run ends. Sigh, and no Fialkov to look forward to anymore.