Reviewing the New 52: Green Lantern Corps, Legion of Super-Heroes, Blue Beetle & Captain Atom

Week four of the New 52 arrived in stores last Wednesday and here's what I thought of the four $2.99 titles that caught my eye: Green Lantern Corps #1, Legion of Super-Heroes #1, Blue Beetle #1 and Captain Atom #1.

Beginning with Green Lantern Corps #1, this is obviously a Justice League style team story for the Green Lantern group of titles. John Stewart and Guy Gardner star, but the host of other exotic looking GL's mean it will obviously blend the sci-fi and superhero themes that are characteristic of all Green Lantern comics. 

 

It was a well drawn comic and had some pretty serious story matter. That said, I’m not sure I'll go back -- so far I see my Green Lantern interests being filled by the Hal Jordan storyline of Green Lantern #1. But the art was good, the conflict poignant, and because of that it deserves a positive review.  

Our next book is Legion of Super-Heroes #1. I’ll be honest; I hadn’t the foggiest of what was going on in this comic and shouldn’t have bothered buying it. I’ve read Legion before and understand it’s a title with a lot of diverse characters, but this reboot was just difficult. Unlike Justice League #1, which introduced us to a small number of characters at the beginning, thereby giving us a manageable way to grow with the title, Legion threw us into the deep-end and because of this I had no idea what was going on. I will not buy the second issue.

Our next book, Blue Beetle #1 brings us the BB of Jaime Keyes, but also gives us a Green Lantern-style science-fiction introduction to the origins of the Blue Beetle's scarab, an alien device that gives this young man his powers. All in all, it was a decent comic and although I've never been a Blue Beetle fan, I might flip through the second issue to see if it's worth buying again.

Finally we have Captain Atom #1. This was a fantastic comic and hearkened back to Alan Moore’s Doctor Manhattan which was, in a word, awesome. This story gives us Captain Atomic, gifted with extraordinary powers, but  also powers that could destroy him. Because of this, he must use them sparingly and although he does, we see it will also severely limit him. The non-polished art gives the book a gritty Frank Miller feel and the cover is absolutely fantastic and already up on my home office wall. For my money Captain Atom is one of the best super-heroes out there and if you haven't already figured it out, I will definitely buy the second issue.