It's tooken a couple of years, but I've finally caught up on all the comics. Man, you will never believe what happened to Batman. And Captain America? He died. Twice. Or something like that. I'm not actually caught up on every single comic but I have a pretty good foundation of what's going on with most of the major heroes, or at least the ones I'm a fan of.
This is a pretty good time for comics fans, old and new. DC rebooted their entire line last year so new fans could jump on (rebooting is kind of a fact of life for characters whose history goes back 40, 50, even 70 years or so) and though I was never much of a DC kid growing up, I've been glad of the opportunity to get acquainted with a few new characters, sans tons of back issue baggage.
And even better, they didn't reboot Green Lantern. Because Geoff Johns has been writing the definitive GL saga for the last five years or so and it would be a shame to wipe all that away. His run has become one of my all-time favorite comics runs of all time. There's a part in the Sinestro Corps War that I love so much. Sinestro is all like "I'ma make you feel fear Hal Jordan!" And Hal responds by pointing out something kind of profound and even inspiring- Green Lanterns aren't fearless, they just overcome fear. Every. Single. Time. And then he punches Sinestro in the face.
Also there was Rage of the Red Lanterns and Blackest Night and Brightest Day and so on. For the New 52 initiative or whatever you want to call it, Johns did something kind of clever- Green Lantern now features the debut of the brand new Green Lantern of Earth, one Thaal Sinestro. So yeah, Green Lantern kicks ass. I like the Red Lanterns series, too.

Spoiler alert! If you still want to see Green Lantern, don't read this.
Even after I downgraded my expectations for the Green Lantern movie (based on all the negative reviews, though I still held out some hope as a comic book geek that maybe it was too comic booky for everyone else) I still found myself disappointed. Often when a comic book movie disappoints, it's because the director seems to be completely ignorant of its source material. Elektra, for example. But that's not the problem here- save some minor tweaks for streamlining and simplicity's sake, the comic books, and specifically Geoff Johns' excellent version, are more or less faithfully transferred to the big screen. Maybe that's the problem- Hector Hammond with his oversized brain looks silly in "real life" and as a villain he fails because the poor guy was an innocent victim of circumstances he never asked to be involved in. He's quite a sympathetic character, actually (in the comics he has no redeeming features). Hal Jordan isn't even as sympathetic as poor old Hector. Hal's kind of an ass, actually. Not a charming ass like Tony Stark, just a kid who never grew up and doesn't know how to clean up the messes he makes. Maybe ass is too harsh, since I did like him, and I liked Ryan Reynolds fine.
 Parallax? Well, kind of lame. Better than Fantastic Four 2's Galactus in that he was more than a giant cloud- but not much more. And of course it stretches credulity that the entire Green Lantern Corps would be "He's too tough let's let him win" and then when Hal is like, "I'll fight him all by myself even though I am the greenest of Green Lanterns. Everything will be okay, you guys just chill on Oa!" I did like that he basically punched Parallax in the face, though. Nice.
Sinestro was the best part of the movie, I thought. The actor classed up the joint with his performance. Unfortunately, the final scene where he puts on the yellow ring doesn't really work because there is absolutely no reason for him to do so. In the comics he has a very complicated and nuanced reason for creating the Sinestro Corps and going to war with the Green Lanterns. Here it looks like he did it for the hell of it. I stilll hope they make a sequel, though. A war between the Corps would be pretty cool on the big screen. Maybe.

A few years ago I walked into a comic shop and asked what was good. The guy handed me the first TPB of Invincible, saying it was easily the best superhero comic being made at the moment. So I bought it, read it, and though it was good I wasn't blown away by it. I decided to give it another chance since my library has 3 huge Ultimate Collections of it. Now I see what the guy was talking about. Turns out I just need to hold out one or two more issues for things to really pick up.
What else. I also read a collection of Alan Moore's DC stories, pretty cool, especially for mid-80s. What was really cool was this one story about Abin Sur, Hal Jordan's predecessor as Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814. In it, Abin goes to the planet Ysmault where the Empire of Tears is banished. He meets Qull of the Five Inversions, crucified with a Green Lantern pin. Qull tells him a prophecy in which "the weaponers of Qward, Ranx the Sentient City, and the unspeakable Children of the White Lobe" rise up against the Green Lantern Corps. Sodam Yat will perish and the planet-form Green Lantern Mogo will be the last to fall when Ranx explodes a blink bomb within his core. Pretty much the outline of the Sinestro Corps War arc that Geoff Johns wrote more than 20 years later. I thought that was pretty cool.
Speaking of which, I'm trying to read the Blackest Night arc but getting it all in order from the library is tricky, though I do own the Green Lantern Blackest Night hardcover. I'm not even sure what order they all go in. On the plus side, that's the worst of my troubles.
Also I read Aliens Omnibus Volume 1. It was kind of . . . hit and miss. Oh well. I put in my Aliens DVD to watch while I run on my treadmill but my iMac's DVD player has been quitting for no reason lately. Plus I need a new mouse. Plus my iTunes is in need of an upgrade so I can upgrade my iPod touch and run my iPad off it. BUt in order to do that I have to upgrade my OS X which costs $130. PLus I need more RAM. And an external hard drive would be nice. So really, rather than spend $100 here and $200 there, might as well just wait a bit and buy a new iMac. Right? Right! If only all my troubles were so easily solved. Like, which friggin Blackest Night edition needs to be read first? It doesn't say! So stressful.

In Brightest Day, in Blackackest Night . . .
wait, how's that go? Blackackest Night. Blackackest? Yeah. Blackackest Night. So cool!
This is how slightly drunk Homie Bear recites the oath of the Green Lantern Corps.
My friend Jasmine drew the totally sweet Green Lantern Bear you see to your right. I tried scanning and photographing him to get him in his best light but I might need to try again, and get the background set to transparent. Which I dunno how.
Ooh ooh do you remember that part in Green Lantern where Green Lantern beat up Sinestro? That was cool.

So now that all I have to do at work is take five or six loads of coal, I am sleeping so much better and I have so much more time for things like listening to podcasts. I find one episode of DNTO is good for a round trip. But it's bad when I'm writing down interesting things to remember for later while 300 tons of coal and metal are careening down the snowy haulroad. Just kidding! Right! I would never do such a silly thing would I? Or if I did I certainly wouldn't blog about it. Or if I did I would make sure to make it sound like I would never do such a thing on the blog so I wouldn't get fired. Umm. Confused yet? Anyways, check this out: Takeaseat.org is the site for Dominic Gill's documentary about how he tandem biked all the way across the Americas, getting total strangers to ride tandem with him. As soon as I get home I want to check out the film, and the book too.
The Green Lantern trailer came out, at least in the Spanish speaking world. Even though I am a GL rookie, it was still kind of cool to see Kilowog and stuff. Not sure if I buy Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan though. He's a great guy and I like how self-deprecating he is in interviews. So . . . yeah actually that should be fine. Anyways, here it is, Linterna Verde:

So the first Green Lantern I read was a collection called Secret Origin, which was a good entry for a newbie like me who spurned DC Comics all his life and didn't know anything about him. This writer Geoff Johns has taken an old superhero and reinvigorated him, to huge critical acclaim within the comics world, and even mainstream media. I learned about the green power rings and the lanterns that charge them, and all the funhokey things that were part of the 70 years of Green Lantern mythology, like their oath. How Hal Jordan became the Green Lantern. All about the Green Lantern Corps. Atrocitus is a cool name, right? Sinestro, not so much.
Anyways, turns out the actual reboot started earlier, with a miniseries collected as Rebirth. Poor Geoff Johns, he inherited quite a mess. And there I am, thinking I know all about Green Lantern now and reading about how Hal Jordan is dead because he reignited the sun but his soul is currently possessed by Parallax and also the Spirit of Vengeance. And Batman is really mad at him, and Batman and Superman and Mister Terrific and Dr. Mid-Nite all live on the moon together. Anyways, it was fairly confusing but in the end Hal Jordan is reborn and not evil. Yay!