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(Erik’s ALSO doing some writing for us, which I’ll ALSO be posting until we get him HI blog access – Dan)

Are you reading Green Lantern? If you are, this isn’t directed towards you, if you aren’t, why the hell not?

Currently one of the best super-hero comics hitting shelves, Green Lantern has been nothing but stellar since Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver kick started the title with their Green Lantern: Rebirth, but even with reaffirming Hal Jordan’s spot back in DC proper, these two creators, along with some friends, haven’t let up on the gas to sit back and let the fans flock and drop money just for their favorite character’s return. Oh no, Johns & co. brought more fans in by delivering some huge stories that have built upon each other to make one hell of an epic run on the title.

“The Sinestro Corps War” hit stands like a freight train and delivered an “event” that actually stood up against its own hype. But as we saw in that story’s finale, the fear inducing Sinestro Corps are the least of the Green Lantern Corps’ worries. There are now six other corps entering the fray, one of which are the Red Lanterns who are the focus of Johns’ next big story, giving an introduction to these misfits like we’ve never seen. The “Sinestro Corps War” is behind us, it’s now time to head into “Blackest Night” and this is the train’s first stop.

As I mentioned before, we’ve seen the breadcrumbs begin to fall with the finale of the “Sinestro Corps War” in issue #25 of Green Lantern. There, Ethan Van Sciver gave us a double page spread that will forever be etched into our minds depicting seven corps battling in the stars for control / protection of the universe. While this particular issue didn’t delve deep into the mythology of the Red Lanterns, it gave us enough hints and nudges to show they are not your typical Lantern Corps. Firstly, their rage flows straight from their mouths instead of their rings. Pretty vicious looking I must say. Secondly, as discovered in the “Secret Origin” arc of Green Lantern, is the Red Lantern’s vendetta, lead by Atrocious (more on him in a sec), is directed right at the Guardians of the Universe and Sinestro. This is because to their knowledge, Sinestro is still the guiding light of the Corps since they have been kept out of the information loop since their imprisonment and exile to the planet Ysmault.

See, Atrocious wants blood because the Guardians are responsible for the “massacre of sector 666” where he, along with a bunch of other aliens, lived happily. Back in the day, the Manhunters patrolled the universe under the Guardians leering eyes and kept order without involving emotion. Well, things backfired and the emotionless Manhunters slaughtered anyone in their way without remorse in the name of justice. Long story short, the Guardians had a problem with this and decommissioned the Manhunter to be replaced by sentient beings who are the Green Lanterns we now know and love. Obviously by the title “massacre of sector 666” the Manhunters took this emotionless way of judging to sector 666 and it’s the reason for Atrocious’ angry and his blood boiling for revenge.

Atrocious is also special because as the recent “Secret Origin” story-arc proved, he has ties to Sinestro and Hal Jordan dating back to their first meeting. Call him a prophet, but along with his cronies, they were able to fooled Abin Sur into traveling with a spaceship by pumping fear into his heart, telling him his ring would fail him when he most needed it. So Abin started using a spaceship to travel and in a truly ironic death, his spacecraft fails and kills him. He also had a prisoner onboard and I’m sure you can guess who… wait for it… that’s right, Atrocious. The ship crashes on Earth, Hal gets the ring, Sinestro, who was Abin’s best friend, comes to investigate and it’s the start of a budding relationship between Sinestro and Jordan. However, after inadvertently giving William Hand the power over blackness (not important for Rage of the Red Lanterns….VERY important for Blackest Night down the road), Atrocious was about to plant the seeds of doubt in even the strongest willed Green Lantern, Sinestro. This lead to the eventual dispute of Hal labeling Sinestro a tyrant/ dictator of his planet, Korugar, and getting him expelled from the Corps. So when I say Atrocious is pretty damn important, you better believe me. His back-story stems back to the most vital aspect of the Hal Jordan / Green Lantern mythos. It also goes to show you how intricate and detailed Johns is getting with his Green Lantern work, everything means something and no plot thread is left untouched or ignored. This is grand story-telling on a massive scale, perfectly fitting the epic scope of the property.

So now that I’ve gotten you pumped for Rage of the Red Lanterns, where do you start? Well this might be off-putting for a lot of readers but the first chapter of the story begins with a special titled Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns. Before mass pandemonium takes hold of you, do note that this special has NOTHING to do with Final Crisis. Besides a time stamp on the first page’s introduction stating the events of this book take place between Final Crisis #1 and #2, the trade dress on the cover is simply a marketing ploy by DC. A two fold plan to A) get readers only interested in Final Crisis to try a Green Lantern book by prying on their obsessive nature to collect everything for an event and B) Having a special with that ”#1” tag so readers who might be interested won’t feel out in the cold because they don’t have to read “x” amount of back issues to catch up.

I hope this little hype article / general plot synopsis has been helpful and I urge you to try out Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns whether you’ve been reading Green Lantern books for fifteen years, or have never picked one up in your life. The drums of war are beginning to beat once again and blood will surely spill. You don’t want to be the one standing around the water cooler, when everyone is chatting up Green Lantern (in a perfect world this would happen) with nothing to talk about, do you?

Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns’ Checklist:

Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns #1 Special