Red Lanterns #30

by Charles Soule, Jim Calafiore, Alessandro Vitti, & Gabe Eltaeb

Red Lanterns #30 continues to help establish this series as not just the best Red Lanterns book, but among the best DC Books, with another stellar issue this week – Charles Soule knocks it out of the park with a wonderful read with some mostly strong artwork that is unfortunately hindered by multiple artists.

Kara is fitting in well with the Red Lanterns so far – Supergirl joining the Corps has been handled very strongly when it could have been a complete disaster – but so far it seems to be working to the Red Lantern writers advantage as Soule is telling a good, strong storyline here – it’s constantly one of the better books on shelves right now and issue after issue Red Lanterns is pulling out all the stops to make it as entertaining as possible. If you want some cosmic titles on your pull-list this book is certainly your best bet at the moment (along with the likes of the recently launched Sinestro, Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy) and each issue is one awesome ride after another.

We find ourselves introduced to the newest member of the Red Lantern Corps, with a good character driven storyline to boot. It also allows Supergirl to gain a new friend amongst the Red Lanterns, and as a result whilst this issue may not be all about the action it shows that Soule can handle character development well but still allow for an interesting storyline.

The artwork is provided by both Jim Calafiore and Alessandro Vitti and they deliver some good panels. However, unfortunately Calafiore is the weakest link of an otherwise stellar book – with his characters falling flat and not as good as they could have been. Thankfully though, aside from the six pages that Calafiore handles, the art’s mostly done by Alessandro Vitti, and he gives us some consistently good artwork that’s helped with some strong colours from Gabe Eltaeb.

This book, as it turns out, is the beginning of a brief crossover with Supergirl, which is probably the only weak link, and these titles should easily be able to stand on their own without being dragged into a crossover, which is unfortunate. However, the issues with Jim Calafiore’s artwork and the crossover is essentially the only problem of the book, because otherwise it remains a consistently brilliant title that should keep readers sticking around for more goodness – Soule is one of the best writers that DC have at the moment, and as long as he’s on Red Lanterns, this series is in for a good time.