FILM: Detailed Look at Green Lantern (News)

Warner Bros. got off to a rough start with its promotional direction for the upcoming Green Lantern movie when the first trailer was unveiled back in November. Fast forward to now with the studio continuing to repair the movie's image first with positive feedback from fans at WonderCon where twelve minutes of film footage was previewed and now with the release of new hi-res images of Ryan Reynolds in the finished Green Lantern costume.


Using the power of CG technology to create the mystical costume of Hal Jordan, Warner Bros. is going in a new, previously unexplored direction for superhero films. The result? A unique look and feel to a character and film that is different from any other previous comic book franchise that has been brought to the silver screen.

Green Lantern lights up theaters on June 17, 2011.

COMIC: Top of the Stack - Green Lantern Corps #56 (Review)

Written by Tony Bedard
Pencils by Tyler Kirkham
Cover by Tyler Kirkham, Matt Banning & Nei Ruffino

Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $2.99

It turned out that the third week of January comic book releases had several outstanding series battling over being the top of the stack. Brightest Day #18, Darkwing Duck #8 and Tiny Titans #36 each continued their series quality with another solid issue but there was something in the air - or space if you will - that caught my attention instead. In what has been a revitalization of my interest in the Green Lantern characters in recent weeks, I found myself caught off guard with the latest issue of Green Lantern Corps, #56, enjoying the start of the confrontation that was issues in the making so much that it made an easy selection as the week's top comic.

Tony Bedard took over the writing duties from Peter Tomasi back in May when Blackest Night evolved into Brightest Day and Tomasi went on to start the Emerald Warriors book and has continued the tradition of orchestrating big epic battles so far in his first two Green Lantern Corps story arcs.

This issue finally brought the slow building fight to a boil with Sinestro finally arriving to face off with the Weaponer and his Sinestro Corps along for the ride to battle against the Thunderers and the Green Lanterns stuck in the middle of the conflict. Previous issues were frustrating to read with just how easily the Weaponer had handled the Green Lanterns but in retrospect it made Sinestro's might seem even far greater when he broke through the Weaponer's defenses with ease.

Tyler Kirkham came onto Green Lantern Corps with the start of the Weaponer arc, and he has been a welcome addition to the team. His art fits perfectly with the sci-fi action book, and there is some individualism displayed in the Lanterns use of their power rings. Sinestro looked sinister, and the only nitpick I have with the art was Kyle looking a bit too buff in some panels. The solitary cover featuring Sinestro was eye-catching and was a great example of showing how a simple cover can still reflect the contents of the story unlike say another release that week, Batman: Streets of Gotham #19.

Some fans had dropped the Green Lantern books after the complex mess left in Blackest Night's wake, but as recent top of the stack winners have shown that section of the DC Universe has seemed to find its path and the stories being delivered are reaching the quality the books had pre-Blackest Night. Bedard seems to have a firm grip on the characters and stories that need to be told in the Green Lantern books and Kirkham's art is solid, so I definitely think this book should be one to look out for in months ahead.

Check out Geek Plate's Tumblr for today's Green Lantern/Sinestro themed picspam.

COMIC: Top of the Stack - Green Lantern #61 (Review)

Written by Geoff Johns
Pencils by Doug Mahnke
Cover by Gary Frank

Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $2.99

Sometimes the best is saved for last and for the final week of 2010, Geoff Johns made it seem that way. Following last week's Top of the Stack winner, Green Lantern: Larfleeze Christmas Special #1, another GL book - the flagship title: Green Lantern, also penned by Johns - came out and ran away from the competition that included the premiere issue of David Finch's Batman: The Dark Knight and another issue of a previous Stack winner, Detective Comics.

The issue continues the hunt for the power entities, except that the focus of the story shifts specifically around Atrocitus and where his search for the rage entity, Butcher, leads him. Where the fun happens centers around the execution of a criminal and the full of rage victim's father that attracted the rage entity to him. In the entity's way is The Spectre who objects to having the entity on Earth. Atrocitus arrives on the scene and the three face off.

Art interiors are drawn by Doug Mahnke, the series regular artist since the Blackest Night Green Lantern event in 2009. His Atrocitus is great, the Spectre was fantastic, but I think the best designed character in the book was the Butcher once he found his human host. Gary Frank's style on the cover was such a great complement to the book that I had not even realized it was a different artist from the interior until writing this review. I definitely think he is an artist that I would like to see draw an arc filled with Green Lantern characters.

I had been tiring of the Green Lantern universe of late, but the last two issues have moved the focus to non-GL corps characters and helped improve my view of those characters. The universe has expanded over the Geoff Johns revitalization, and if this is any sign that Johns knows it is time to round out all of these new characters it might be just what the Green Lantern book needs to keep going strong.

Check out Geek Plate's Tumblr for today's Green Lantern themed picspam.

COMIC: Top of the Stack - Green Lantern: Larfleeze Christmas Special #1 (Review)

Written by Geoff Johns
Pencils by Brett Booth
Cover by Gene Ha

Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $3.99

Christmas week brought an abundance of outstanding stories to my comic book stack and three solid contenders emerged for Top of the Stack status. Batman Annual #28 brought the conclusion of the two-part story from the Detective Comics annual published earlier in the month and Zatanna #8 was the start of a new story arc with interior art drawn by one of my favorite current artists, Cliff Chiang. But there was no denying that it might have been fate that the clever release of the Green Lantern: Larfleeze Christmas Special just days before Christmas would end up being the perfect cap to a stellar week.

Superstar writer Geoff Johns was at the helm of this Christmas tale and used the special one-shot as an opportunity to display his prowess at telling an individual story - something that sometimes gets hidden with his prior Top of the Stack winner, Brightest Day and the vast space epic that is Green Lantern. Outside of the Red Lantern kitty, Dex-Starr, the other character Johns created during the expansion phase of Green Lantern that seems to have a special place with fans is the sole Orange Lantern, Larfleeze. With an Red Lantern ongoing book upcoming in 2011, it seems only right for Larfleeze to get some time in the spotlight with this Christmas Special.

The special does a great job of rounding out Larfleeze as a character, who previously as a periphery character in the Green Lantern books only is really known for his greed. It starts out on Christmas morning as Larfleeze awakes with the excitement of a little child at the thought of all the presents awaiting him and his Orange Lantern construct Glomulus from the list he had made. Of course he had not understood the entire story surrounding Christmas so to his dismay there were no presents waiting and that sends him on a chase across the world as he searches for Santa and finds out the true meaning of Christmas from Hal Jordan.

But as fun as the chase was and Larfleeze's actions were during it, the best part of the book was the touching moment at the end that as a reader you were not expecting to see from Larfleeze but there it was, another moment in time like Johns has shown with the Red Lantern Atrocitus, Dex-Starr and Bleez that there are sad stories attached to each of these seemingly villainous characters that make you care about them.

Artist Gene Ha provides the art for the cover and perfectly illustrates how Larfleeze would like to spend Christmas and probably was spending it leading up to Christmas Day. And I believe there might even be a Grinch allusion in the cover with the little girl looking on at Larfleeze having a resemblance to a certain Who from Whoville, Cindy Lou. The interiors are drawn by Brett Booth, someone I am not entirely familiar with but his art fit perfectly for the spastic, aggressive quality Larfleeze brings to the pages.

Right now it feels like the Green Lantern books are a little bogged down with so much happening and the fact that apparently Hal is still "dating" Cowgirl even though we haven't seen her for like four years, but the depth to the characters in this section of the DC Universe is something to praise and what I look forward to while the Lantern books muddle through this story arc dealing with the entities that represent each color ring.

Check out Geek Plate's Tumblr for today's Green Lantern: Larfleeze themed picspam.

FILM: 2010 SDCC News Highlights

Welcome to the last post detailing the events of last week where several industries traveled down to San Diego for a series of panels and interviews for fans that unveiled plans for the following year. Here's some of the interesting FILM news to come out of SDCC 2010:

--In conjunction with their panel at SDCC, Universal Pictures released the first official image of Cowboys & Aliens.
--At the Marvel Movie Panel, they assembled the Avengers, unveiled a teaser trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger, footage from Thor and discussions with all of the actors involved.
--Marvel opened the doors behind Odin's throne on the con floor to unveil the classic thor villain, the Destroyer.
--At the Tron: Legacy panel, an eight minute preview of the film was shown involving Sam's introduction to the Tron world and it was revealed that the film was shot in real 3D.
--There was a Green Lantern panel, where the cast talked in detail about next year's upcoming film.
--The trailer for the movie Red debuted, starring Bruce Willis, Karl Urban and Helen Mirren.

COMIC: 2010 SDCC News Highlights

Last weekend several industries traveled down to San Diego for a series of panels and interviews for fans that unveiled plans for the following year. Here's some of the interesting COMIC news to come out:

--Five years after Marvel had the Sentry tear apart Carnage in space, Spider-Man foe Carnage is coming back in a mini-series.
--Smallville's iconic heroine, Chloe Sullivan, is finally making her long-awaited debut in DC's comic pages as a character in the Jimmy Olsen co-features in Action Comics.
--Wildstorm bringing several video game titles to ink with tie-ins for Gears of War, God of War and Ratchet and Clank just to name a few.
--The Green Lantern panel shows that area of the DC Universe has never been bigger. Upcoming: Sinestro Secret Origins, a story on Sinestro's yellow ring and a change for Carol Ferris.
--IDW announced that it will publish a four issue anthology series of new Rocketeer stories with painted covers by Alex Ross. The more the better for such an iconic character.
--DC announced an ongoing Static series for 2011, and Justice League #50 features a face-off with the Crime Syndicate.
--Marvel announces 'Avengers 3' and a Tron: The Betrayal graphic novel.
--Winners for the 22nd Annual Eisner Awards.
--DC also talks about a new book, Flash:Speed Force and a new costume for Bruce Wayne in 'Batman Inc'.
--After the success of Mass Effect:Redemption, Dark Horse brings Mass Effect:Evolution.
--Another TV show is being brought to life in comic form. This time around, Zenescope resurrects Charmed.

Check out Geek Plate's Tumblr for today's comic themed picspam.

WEB: This Week's Top Tumblr Posts (7/15-7/18)

A short week since the blog opened on Thursday, but there was still plenty of time to get some good response from some of the Tumblr picspams on our geekplate account. Here are links to the most popular for the week of 7/15/10-7/18/10:

--Reblog - A page from JLA featuring Red Arrow, Lian Harper and Hawkgirl
--Supergirl art modeled after Laura Vandervoort
--Laura Vandervoort in her October 2007 Stuff Magazine photo shoot
--Reblog - Supergirl art
--Supergirl #50 cover by Michael Turner
--Reblog - Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively in Green Lantern

Check out Geek Plate's Tumblr for today's picspam on the Sunday Scans-only theme.

FILM: EW's First Look @ Green Lantern (News)

The cover of EW's upcoming issue for the week of July 23, 2010 has the star of DC's next feature film:

... Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern!  This issue includes a preview of next week's San Diego Comic-Con 2010 where WB will debut Green Lantern footage to fans.

In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan.

Hal is a gifted and cocky test pilot, but the Green Lanterns have little respect for humans, who have never harnessed the infinite powers of the ring before. But Hal is clearly the missing piece to the puzzle, and along with his determination and willpower, he has one thing no member of the Corps has ever had: humanity. With the encouragement of fellow pilot and childhood sweetheart Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), if Hal can quickly master his new powers and find the courage to overcome his fears, he may prove to be not only the key to defeating Parallax, he will become the greatest Green Lantern of all.

Green Lantern lights up screens June 30, 2010.

Check out Geek Plate's Tumblr for today's picspam on the Green Lantern theme.