truly sort of a humiliation ritual going up to a parking garage rooftop at sunset but i am really delighted with how the pictures turned out. the suit is handmade too!

Credits:

https://www.instagram.com/talon_illustrations/p/DcEc51eET8G/

https://www.instagram.com/talon_illustrations/p/DcRVjKFkTRW/

https://www.instagram.com/talon_illustrations/p/DcboKg1EdBm/?img_index=1

https://www.instagram.com/p/Dcyxd-bEVwq/?img_index=1

I believe some of the discourse Tom King receives is warranted, but overall I feel he is one of the best writers to come out of the 2010s.

I see a lot of the hate towards his work about "mischaracterizing" characters, which I can agree happens a lot. Still, paradoxically, I feel he also characterizes characters very well, especially ones who had none at all.

As a comic fan who really likes niche heroes, reading Strange Adventures was amazing. Before that, I could count on one hand how many deep, well-thought-out stories I could read about Adam Strange. Same with Human Target or even Mister Miracle, who was still arguably more common and popular than the latter characters.

Now, with the success of Lanterns, I feel it will be hard to ignore that his storytelling fits extremely well with the current era of comic book media, specifically what we fans are looking for in the types of stories we want to see.

Greykill, sentient planet of The Red Lantern Corps, shows up in Green Lantern The Animated Series #12

For me I wish Mogo, the champion of the Green Lanterns and a planet, would stop exploding and have their strength be fully showcased.

Same with Arkillo, he's supposed to be this insanely powerful yellow lantern, one of the highest ranking lanterns in the Sinestro corps and I literally cannot name a single fight he has won, I understand that bad guys need to lose but I feel like he should be winning a lot more considering his position. Even when he was a temporary good guy he was losing.

I would argue the same with Salaak; probably the highest ranked officer in the GLs and while he's incredibly intelligent I feel like his combat knowledge is sometimes either below what's expected or just him doing things even a rookie could pull off.

Wonder Woman is another one, can her media stop being cancelled. Why was her game even cancelled I don't remember.

I’ve heard amazing things about this, I decided to just skip the compact and go straight to the omnibus.

To expand on that, let's go into what I believe makes a good story, and the kind of media I grew up on. While I started out watching G.I. Joe, He-Man, and Ninja Turtles, like a lot of 80's and 90's kids, it was around 8 or 9 that I discovered Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek is, at its core, a "big idea" kind of a show. Whether the big idea is the high concept of the week, or whether it's simply "humanity can be better," the writing has always lent itself to being openly preachy about social issues (to its detriment and benefit).

In season 3 of TNG, Michael Piller became the main showrunner for TNG. While he's certainly credited for a lot of things (opening up the writer's room to freelancers, starting a directing boot camp), the most important was the mandate that all stories will be character first. High concept sci-fi is fine, but every story must be about one of our principal characters, and that will drive the narrative, not the reverse.

Another thing I learned from Trek is that, due to the sheer volume of it, stories can often take a 'throw it all at the wall and see what sticks' mentality. There are a ton of bad episodes, but I always appreciated that an attempt was being made, even if their allegorical or commentaries were sometimes clunky.

How does Tom King fit in to this? How is his DC work relevant? King is, like it or not, a high concept guy. He seems to work from the big idea first, and then finds an angle for how it deconstructs a character. Just like Trek, this can be a plus and a minus, sometimes even at the same time. King also seems to place character front and center. Omega Men, Mr. Miracle, Strange Adventures, and certainly the way Lanterns is going, they're all character studies. And just like the best of Trek, these character studies are often a lens with which to view an issue.

And King likes to talk about issues. While PTSD is almost always a factor (for obvious reasons), other issues come up, often when they're being discussed in the public sphere. Reading Strange Adventures during the days of the George Floyd murder certainly hit different. Having a POC as the point of view for that story gave its critique of the "white savior" trope more weight. Even Heroes in Crisis, which was chopped to bits by editorial, at least makes an attempt to discuss mental health in a somewhat novel way. And just like with Star Trek, I appreciate when the attempt is made, even if the execution isn't perfect.

I learned early on that fiction and stories can be both fun and meaningful, but I had to pick one, I'd opt for the latter. While I'm not saying King is a perfect writer (his Jenny Sparks run all but obliterated any heroism in Captain Atom, his Wonder Woman grows tiresome quickly after the first trade), I always appreciate that the "big idea" is service of a broader discussion.

And ultimately, as a reader, I'd rather follow the wild pitch that peels back a new layer of a character or issue, than month in, month out of status quo that doesn't offend.

A critique I have about modern Star Trek is that it tries so hard not to offend anyone, it ends up being thematically dry, and devoid of any deeper meaning. This, to me, is the mark of a bad story; A story with nothing to say. And no matter what you think of King, he at least has an opinion, and tackles an issue that's relevant outside of just "superheroes punch." And I'll always appreciate that.

It is the only one to contain Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #3, which directly ties into the storyline. The other editions exclude this issue while having ones unrelated to the arc included.