Comic Book Universes

I've always been more a DC Comics fan than a Marvel fan. It's with great delight that I've been following two series: Green Lantern Rebirth and Identity Crisis.

Identity Crisis

I enjoy this series primarily because it's a detective novel set in the DC Universe. I thoroughly dislike what happened to the Dibneys, but I am fascinated by the characterization (mostly) and the airing out closets with long-hidden skeletons tumbling out. I like the polarization of politics in the JLA.

On the politics of having great power and having to work through the morality of what to do with it, and how to protect yourself and those you love from the fallout... the treatment here being a lot less radical and violent than something like Dark Knight Returns. It rings true that longtime friends (who have fought alongside each other on countless occasions, and have saved each others lives on almost as many occasions) would have such varied opinions, break up their affiliations to an organization, but still be "in touch" with those friends.

The Hawkman / Green Arrow antagonism is much more than the caricature that we've seen it before... more than a hard-nosed, control freak against a liberal, seat-of-the-pants type of guy. There is a rift between them that will not easily be bridged. And yet they are bound by a secret.

Zatanna is the one voice I expected to hear more from, given that her abilities were pretty much the cause or catalyst of most of the story. Oh well, one more issue to go.

Green Lantern: Rebirth

Only two issues in, and I'm hooked. The story's shaping up to have a more satisfying redemption of Hal Jordan than the Final Night storyline, without painting poor Kyle as a weak-willed Johnny-Come-Lately. The writer, Geoff Johns, seems to have a real affection for the Green Lantern Corps mythos and seems set to right the injustices that have been wrought on Hal's character (which really annoyed me) without sacrificing yet another part of Kyle's life.

There are also interesting lines that pepper the series so far that have special resonance: "An Impurity." "Beware My Power." "Parallax is Coming." "Don't be afraid."

I'm waiting to see where Johns takes us.

I'm curious about the