I haven’t been a GL-fan for that long, but I was under the impression that was always the case.
Predator was a Carol Ferris alt-ID who was crazed with her love for Hal. Geoff Johns retconned that into a color-beast the same way he retconned Hal’s alt-ID as Parallax into one. (and Ion too, for that matter.)
I never read any of the stories where Carol was Predator, but from the descriptions that’s about right, since it was apparently stalking Carol.
Predator first appeared as someone who was fucking up Ferris Aircraft after Daddy Ferris came back and took it back from Carol. Steve Englehart (who’s GLs and JLAs are the best runs EVER) came onto the book and it turns out that no-one…across two or three writers…had any idea who Predator was (he was clearly a cast member and someone close to the main characters), what his/her motives were, etc.
Just before Englehart took over (I think), the Predator grabbed Carol and gave her a tonsil-exploring smooch. Englehart took over and made Carol nasty…again (to quote Englehart from the letter column, “That woman is to mood-swings what Eddie Murphy is to comedy”) She did stuff like give Hal an ultimatum: “Give up the ring or give up me. Last chance–blow it and we’re done for good”. She “hostile takeover’d” Ferris Aircraft and threw daddy under the bus, etc. Hal quits the Corps for her and the Guardians say “Ok. :rolleyes: This is like the fourth time you’ve quit in 125 issues. If you quit again, no takebacks.”
Hal says “Up yours, you little blue turds” and is dumped back on Earth, powerless. John Steward is made the new Green Lantern of Earth and Katma Tui is sent to train him.
Hal tells Carol “Hey babe, I’m all yours! I quit the Corps” and Carol says “Eew. You’re just a kinda skeevy pilot–it was your power as GL I was interested in after all. Consider yourself dumped. Toodles.” and she becomes Star Sapphire again (remember, pre-Crisis, the Zamoran’s thing was to search the universe for a chick who looked just like Carol and make her their queen. Up 'till now, she fought the Sapphire and rejected queendom. This time, she happily accepts.
Turns out that
A) Hal dumped Carol during a storyline (a bad one) about 40 issues before. The Guardians had said “You’re spending too much time on your home planet and so we’re banishing you from earth for a year.”
B) This really pissed Carol off and made her pretty unhappy. The Zamorans, Engelhart retconned (he’s the single best Retconner ever–the whole “Manhunters were proto-Green Lanterns” thing? An earlier retcon of Englehart’s from his JLA run) showed back up and offered Carol the job of Queen again right after Hal took off. She refused but used their magic pipe organ (seen in the original appearance of Star Sapphire and never again–like GL 16, circa 1963) and the Sapphire to split her “aggressive male self” off 'cause it was making her so unhappy.
C) This “male self” became the Predator and 1) Set out to fuck up Daddy Ferris (who was a dick from his first appearance) 2) Get even with Hal for dumping Carol for the Guardians and 3) Just generally mess with people who pissed Carol off. Meanwhile, Carol became a helpless little muffin who sat home knitting sweaters and baking cookies waiting for Hal to return (this happened in the pre-Englehart issues. The “her gumption became The Predator” thing was a killer good retcon)
D) The tonsil-kiss was to transfer her gumption back. Hence the ultimatium to Hal followed by the dumping.
She merges back with the Predator and flies off with the Zamorans leaving Hal powerless, ringless, and alone.
Then the Crisis on Infinite Earths happened. The Guardians split into two factions–the wimp/fatalistic Guardians who say “This mess is all our fault. We shouldn’t fight it” and a second batch (who’ll eventually evolve themselves into the Controllers from Legion) who say “Screw that noise. No evil shall escape our sight.” They decide to get their OWN Green Lantern–and after some brain-surgery (so he can’t feel any self-doubt-they’d had enough of Hal’s endless whining about going off to find America and crap) they revive Guy Gardener from a coma he’d been in for 100 or so issues.
The end result of all this after the Crisis ended was that Hal got his ring back and the wimp-faction of the Guardians kinda won. Sorta. Turns out (again, Englehart invented this–this wasn’t part of the story before even though it’s canon now) that Zamorans were the female Guardians. Reunited, they dumped Carol saying “The ‘you’re our queen now’ game isn’t fun any more. There are boys!” and hooked up with the Guardians and they all left the universe (until Millenium–of which, the less said, the better)
So–really, that was it for the Predator. (The run is roughly GL (1960-version) 188 or so (shows John on the cover, beaming his mask off his face) through GL 201. Seriously, if you’re a GL fan, I can’t recommend it enough.
No biggie–that worked just fine in the original story-arc (the three series with the old spider-guy). JMS was very, VERY clear that the old guy’s ideas weren’t cannon–just the old guy’s theories…and Peter never bought into it.
The bit in the final part of the arc where Peter eats someone and goes into a coocoon to come out with new, magic Spider-powers was an editorial mandate (IIRC something about tying into the movie closer to give him organic web shooters, etc)
You and I have different recollections of the story.
The Other. That was a subsequent arc.
Hmm. I actually liked everything I got this week, more or less.
JSA is just off on much of its characterization – other than Wildcat and Mr T – and the setup was deus ex machina’d into place (thanks, Shadow of War!), but… I’m apparently a sucker for these types of stories. I mean, Nazis! and the heroes filling in for Hogan’s Heroes!
Adventure had some nice bits – happy to see all the LSHers around (Gates! XS! Chuck!), even as cameos. Could have really been improved by not splitting things into three separate stories. Only one more irritating Gen Lane backup story to go, at least.
Detective the Batman/Batwoman cut back and forth story isn’t as strong as it could’ve been, but by no means bad. And great reveal at the end of the Question backup.
Blackest Night… I think Johns double-faked everyone and still managed to do what everyone pretty much expected he would. But still fun ending. Just a bit too rushed. I think the dragged-out earlier parts of the series could’ve been edited tighter, allowing more time for the endgame to play out.
I was thinking, “at least now I won’t have to get something Blackest Night every week”. But I’m probably in for Brightest Day, too. sigh
Just Usagi Yojimbo on my regular pull this week, but it was a nice, single issue story that side-stepped the tragic ending I was afraid was coming, so I’m happy.
Also grabbed **The Littlest Zombie **from the shelf, and wow – I knew Fred Perry could bring the cute, but that is some seriously dark humor. Nice.
Also looking at the creaking bookshelves and thinking that it’s time to eBay some of the collection. Things are crowded.
Heh. I’ve run out of room for all mine, really. And since I don’t end up re-reading them, I’m thinking maybe donate to the military as a care package or something…
Blackest Night #8
Just in case someone didn’t get their books yesterday, I’m gonna spoiler-box most of this.
What I won’t spoiler-box is the basic review:
“Meh.”
It wasn’t say, Crisis on Infinite Earths-level great, it wasn’t Infinite Crisis-level “really good with some fun surprises and a well-thought out set-up in other books as well as a planned follow-up (52) that was better than the Event itself” but on the other hand, it wasn’t as bad as Final (what the fuck just happened?) Crisis or that John Byrne “Godwave” one or Civil (“Captain America needs a lesson in basic American Civics, but hey, he doesn’t know who Paris Hilton is so he sucks anyway”) War-bad either.
It was…meh. If it had been half as long it would have been twice as good. There was so much unexplained stuff, padding, unnecessary extras and it went on for freakin’ ever so much so that I kinda was burned out by the end.
It really wasn’t all that bad–worth reading, I suppose, but geez–next time–4 issue mini and no crossovers outside of the core-spin-off titles (GL and GLC in this case) ok, Geoff? Now go and write a second run of Flash as good as your first.
Some specifics:
[ul]
[li]So…what the hell was up with Mera? Why “rage”. It’s out of character–wildly. She’s either been “serene” (most of her career) or “bitchy/pissy” (mostly during Peter David’s run)[/li][li]What was up with Dove II? Why was she channeling white-lantern power?[/li][li]Yay–J’onn, Firestorm, Hawk I (!!! 
) and some others are back.[/li][li]BOO-Max Lord (which undermines one of the best/most important WW stories ever), Eobard Thawne (we have a great new Zoom with an actual…y’know…motive beyond “I’m…e–vil”) are back.[/li][li]Why aren’t the Dibneys? Or Jack Drake? Or Pa Kent? Or Mommy and Daddy Grayson? Or Aquababy? Or Aquagirl? The Dibneys certainly have a lust for life/will to live that’s far, far beyond, say…Deadman’s (who was mostly contented with his ghostly lot)[/li][li]A huge flaw in this book was Nekron’s motiviation. Or rather…his total lack of one. “Life is too noisy–I’ll kill you all for some peace and quiet” really isn’t enough to hinge 30+ issues of the title, crossover books and spin-off titles from. [/li][li]Stopping Nekron at first by bringing Black Hand back to life? Clever and kinda cool. The big climax? (Hit Nekron until he falls down. Then hit him more."–not so much. [/li][li]What was the point of deputizing all those people? Yeah, it was cool to see Orange Lantern Lex Luthor…but you could have cut all the deputies out and had room to give some motivation to Nekron and…[/li][li]…a denouement. The story just kinda…stopped. Yeah, I’m sure they’ll tie up loose ends in GL and GLC, but still…there needed to be a few more pages in Blackest Night to tie up loose ends. If nothing else, they needed to resolve the big Mera mystery and do some resolutions on the fate of the Guardians (and what happened to Scardian? I completely lost track of her) As it is, the story is incomplete.[/li][/ul]
How would one go about doing that? Does anyone know? I’ve got boxes of old issues (not sorted, of course). I’d love to clear up some space and would hate just to toss the stuff.
nevermind–misread the above post.
Blackest Night #8 was lovely fun, but I would’ve definitely picked some different returners.
That’s what I’ve been pondering. I got the idea from reading an article interviewing Army guys over in the Middle East, commenting on how great it was to have easily portable entertainment like comic books sent over… but I am lazy/busy, and haven’t had time to follow up yet.
I suck. 
But, it’s my birthday, so there’s that.
Has anyone read The Guild comic? Like many I have a geek crush on Felicia Day but am wondering if there was anything else going for it.
Brian
I haven’t read it - or even seen the web-series. If you get it, let me know how it is.
I have to agree. I probably would have been the second happiest, after you, to see Blue Beetle return as a balance to Max Lord. I also think it might have been a little better if Nekron got a name or two on the way out - Mera would have been a good choice. At least Justice League Detroit is still dead (and don’t tell me about the ones still running around - they’re dead to me).
Any bets on how long before the round-trip death trips return? I know the idea was to stop that, but those things never last.
Two issues in, I’m enjoying the JSA arc. Too bad these type of stories always end with nothing having changed in the ‘real’ timeline. I wonder if Booster Gold will get involved, as time travel is his job.
Round trip deaths will return as soon as a moderately popular writer wishes to access a character who is dead. We’ll see another resurrection within two years, tops - and the White Lantern may be a way to do that.
Some interesting speculation on Blackest Night’s conclusion, and Brightest Day :
Sharp-eyed readers may notice that Boston Brand is the only returnee wearing a white ring. DC panel at Wondercon confirmed that Boston has some new powers in his living state. My money is that instead of being a dead man who can possess the living, he will be a living man who can channel (or temporarily revive) the dead.
Did anyone get the new Shield series? Was it interesting? I only get my books every other week, and this was an off-week for me.
I picked it up, though for a second I thought you meant the Red Circle guy.
It’s very interesting so far - I think it’s like a Grant Morrisonian ‘Secret History of the Marvel U’, but more accessible.
Thanks, I’ll pick up a copy on the way home.
White light hits the thread
Almost a month since the last post…dang…I’ve not been doing my part, of course, I’ve gotten way behind on my comics, since I’ve been indulging in other hobbies.
Anyway…some of the stuff I’ve been reading…
Brightest Day…not a bad issue…interesting setup, and all… But what stands out is the Aquaman-related scenes. Wow…I am sure that none of the people involved are racist, so I am absolutely amazed that they somehow managed to cram so many Unfortunate Implications into so small a scene. (Well, two scenes…the one with the child trafficking pirates, and the one with Black Manta.) It didn’t ruin the issue for me, or anything, but…wow.
Doc Savage - Very good issue. Cleared up some of the time period questions that First Wave itself didn’t. The Justice, Inc. story wasn’t bad, but the main story was far more interesting to me.
**Spirit **wasn’t as good, but still fun.
JSA All Stars - Johnny Sorrow’s plan…amused me. Read Beauty and the Beast a few too many times, eh, Mr Sturges? But, as usual, the backup story with Jessie, Hourman, Icicle and Tigress was the high point. The interaction of the couples was fun, but the same-sex pairs interacting with each other was even better. Jessie and Tigress when they were detrapping the shrine were positively adorable, as were Icicle and Hourman when they were drinking at the end.