Review: Red Lanterns Vol. 4- Blood Brothers

Quick Summary

Pros: The changes made in this volume make for a seriously compelling narrative. The focus on Guy Gardner is interesting and works well in highlighting his character. The volume’s main subplot helps build up excitement for a future story arc.

Cons: The event crossover chapter fits in poorly with the rest of the volume.

Overall: This is a solid comic and a neat twist for the Red Lanterns series. It adds new characters, points the Red Lantern Corps in a new direction, and still manages to find time for some exciting action and compelling emotion. Meanwhile, the volume never stops looking forward and develops a compelling subplot to be explored more in the future. Any fan of this series or any fan of Guy Gardner should consider picking up this volume.

Story

Green Lantern Corps Vol. 4: Blood Brothers, by Charles Soule, is an awesome volume that introduces a solid new status quo for the Red Lanterns series. This status quo shift starts when Guy Gardner joins the Red Lantern Corps and only manages to get more interesting from that point onward. This makes for a compelling narrative, with subplots that help build excitement for the next story arc. However, while some thing change, others remain the same, as the series still manages to excel with over-the-top displays of action and energetic encounters. Overall, this is a great comic and a nice addition to the Red Lanterns saga.

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Blood Brothers mostly focuses on how Guy’s role as a member/leader of the Red Lantern Corps changes the group. The Corps goes from a band of murderers ready to take down anyone at the drop of a hat to a vigilante justice militia; they protect a piece of the universe but do it in their own way. The Corps’ internal struggles also dissipate as Guy transitions them into a more democratic system of decision making. This allows the individual thoughts and interests of the individual Corps members to come to the forefront, which is particularly meaningful in the case of Ratchet and Zilius.

The change to the status quo also places a major emphasis on Guy as a leader. He starts his time with the Red Lanterns as an unwilling participant, only embracing his rage as a way to help the Green Lanterns. However, as the volume progresses, his leadership starts to make a difference and easily justifies his decision to stay with the Reds. Plus, his actions in dethroning Atrocitus and preventing Bleez from causing internal problems show his capabilities as a fighter and a strategist.

While all of this is going on, Blood Brothers also develops an Atrocitus-centric subplot. Watching him interact with Dex-Starr is great, and his quest for revenge is generally interesting. The development here also helps set up some tantalizing conflict for the future.

The only downside to Blood Brothers is that the Lights Out finale fits in poorly with the rest of the volume, especially since the Red Lanterns series went mostly unaffected by the Lights Out event. However, this single chapter only has a minimal impact on the volume as a whole.

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Art

The visuals in Blood Brothers are mostly positive. Alessandro Vitti creates a volume filled with well-structured and well-laid out pages. This allows fights to look better and allows surprising twists to land even harder, especially when they occur on an awesome full-page spread. In general, the quality of the artwork also looks nice and makes the action look very energetic. However, there are also places where facial expressions are exaggerated in a weird way or where shadows make characters’ faces look weird. The artwork still trends on the positive side of things but isn’t as universally appealing as some other comics out there.

Continuity

Red Lanterns Vol. 4: Blood Brothers continues the story from Red Lanterns Corps Vol. 3: The Second Prophecy (Review) and the Green Lantern: Wrath of the First Lantern (Review) (Reading Order) event. Issues from this volume also form part of the Green Lantern: Lights Out event, explained in our “Green Lantern: Lights Out Reading Order“.

The story here continues in Red Lanterns Vol. 5: Atrocities (Review).

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• The “Third Army” was a major force in the Green Lantern: Rise of the Third Army (Review) (Reading Order) event.
• Guy Gardner’s history as a Red Lantern is a plot point from Green Lantern Corps Vol 2 #43, collected in Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps.