Red Lanterns #32

By Charles Soule, Jim Calafiore, Gabe Eltaeb & Andrea Sorrentino

Charles Soule’s Red Lanterns kick starts the four-part Cry Havoc arc with this chapter and it fails to disappoint, ramping up the stakes as Guy Gardner finds himself drawing ever closer to a fight against Atrocitus, who has Rankorr captive. This book has been one of the best Green Lantern titles and it continues to live up to that mantle, with Soule weaving a consistently strong tale that although may not be entirely perfect does have several strong elements.

Firstly, Jim Calafiore’s artwork is great and one thing is certain – you won’t miss Alessandro Vitti’s pencils because Calafiore is more than capable of doing an excellent job. Gabe Eltaeb handles the colours as per normal and this helps increase the look of just how awesome this book is. There are several stunning pages, particularly when the team first spot Rankorr – that ensure that this book is one of the better looking of DC’s cosmic titles as well as being the best written. Even with the artistic switch here, there’s nothing to complain about on this side of things.

However, there are a few problems with this book in the storyline. With this review being spoiler free it’s difficult to cover this topic without mentioning spoilers, but it’s safe to say that the direction that Soule takes with Supergirl in this issue is problematic especially when you consider for how little she’s already been a Red Lantern. However, this book seems to give some direction for her in her solo ongoing and also teases a potential showdown with Hal Jordan.

This storyline has been building up to a Guy/Atrocitus death match for a while now and now that it’s not far away Soule is ramping up the stakes and handling the tension very well. Sooner or later these two have to come to blows and when they do it will hopefully be of titanic proportions. Soule is building suspense and drawing these two characters together and has been since Guy took command of the Red Lanterns, and one thing’s for sure the prospect of the fight looks incredibly interesting.

On another note, Red Lanterns #32 boasts an amazing cover from Andrea Sorrentino. Sorrentino is one of the best artists at DC Comics right now (if not the best) and it’s great to see him do the covers of this book. Hopefully this won’t be his last Red Lanterns cover because it’ll be a treat to see him stick around on the book for longer, because if all these covers are as good as #32 then that makes this book worth picking up for alone – and when you get an awesome storyline inside with amazing interior artwork, that’s just an added bonus.

Red Lanterns #32, despite a few problems concerning Supergirl’s arc, is a success and despite the artistic change is another welcome addition in Soule’s gripping saga. Next issue can’t come quickly enough – and it should be very interesting to see what direction Guy Gardner and company go in from here.