Red Lanterns: Peter Milligan, Miguel Sepulveda, Rain Beredo, Carlos M. Mangual

My wish has been granted. A competent artist who knows how to handle alien creatures has come to draw Atrocitus to look ferocious and, you know, ALIEN. I’m so excited.

This issue was really, really fun. A lot of great action, but set to a serious story. I feel like Red Lanterns, when I was reading it, was more silly or meant to be taken lightheartedly. Here, it feels like a legitimate threat is coming. Atrocitus means business, and that’s all I’ve wanted from this title the whole time. I can’t say how the book’s been since issue #6, but here we go.

The very first thing you notice when you open this book is WOW ART!!!! WOW WOW!! And you go on like that in the style of Christopher Walken. Miguel Sepulveda is a master and he makes the Red Lantern Corps shine like no one else.

Atrocitus, seeking Abysmus - his first, failed Red Lantern - traces a familiar energy signature to the Eye of the Storm, headquarters for Stormwatch. Remember in Stormwatch #9 when they captured Skallox? Yeah, guess what’s gonna come bite them in the ass right now. Atrocitus uses his napalm blood barf to tear a hole in space and enter the Eye. Also…NO ONE draws the Eye of the Storm like Sepulveda. It was nice to see the team back in his style too.

Stormwatch engages Atrocitus and it’s an AWESOME all-out battle. Unfortunately no one really knows what to do with Manhunter still, and he spends most of the conflict just kind of watching and commenting. But the BEST part is when Midnight faces off with Dex-Starr. I laughed SO hard. I even showed my wife, told her to read that page, and she doesn’t read comics ever. And SHE laughed really hard. Nicely done, Milligan. This was hysterical.

It was also cool seeing Rankorr in action. Sure, it involved more in-fighting (which I despise), but it was still a cool moment when a new Lantern came into his own. It’s so funny. For a couple moments, when the issue focuses on the Red Lanterns, I wonder why. Why is Stormwatch focusing so much on the Red Lanterns and not the title team? Then I remember that this IS Red Lanterns, and Sepulveda’s guest drawing. 

I’m liking this issue…a LOT actually. I like the story. I LOVE the art. It had a good story, and the involvement with Stormwatch was really well-done and it made sense, which is most important in a “team-up” issue. Let’s see more of this great stuff.

Red Lanterns #10, the verdict: This is a gigantic improvement over how the book was when I was reading it before. I can’t say if this quality is consistent with the issues surrounding this one because, well, I’m not reading it. I don’t think this one issue is enough to get me back on board either. I just don’t think it’s a good concept for a DC comic. It’s not something I’m interested in. But Sepulveda’s art and the very well-written involvement of Stormwatch is definitely a good sign of improvement. And that’s something, right? It at least got me to buy another issue.

(Photo Source: iFanboy)