Red Lanterns, Volume 6: Forged in Blood

Red Lanterns

by Charles Soule (Writer), Landry Q. Walker (Writer), Jim Calafiore (Artist)

Following the war with Atrocitus and his renegade Red Lanters, Guy Gardner finds himself in a Corps of one as he is one of the only remaining Red Lanterns. With no direction, Guy returns home to Earth to deliver his own brand of justice. But a new and almost unstoppable threat arrives as it's Sinestro, Green Lanterns and Guy Gardner vs the New Gods!

Collecting: Red Lanterns 35-40, Futures End

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Action, Fantasy

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 2015

About the author

Charles Soule is a #1 New York Times-bestselling novelist, comics author, screenwriter, musician, and lapsed attorney. He has written some of the most prominent stories of the last decade for Marvel, DC and Lucasfilm in addition to his own work, such as his comics Curse Words, Letter 44 and Undiscovered Country, and his original novels Light of the Jedi, The Endless Vessel, The Oracle Year and Anyone. He lives in New York.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOILERS...probably

I'm not sure what happened in the previous volume, because my library like to skip around and order randomly...apparently.
*eyeballs librarian*
Anyway, as close as I can figure, a bunch of bad shit went down in volume 5, and it looks like almost every fucking Red Lantern (save a couple) are DEAD. OMG! What the what?!



I'm actually a little heartbroken...
BUT. It seems like Gardner sorta has his life back on track, because it open him taking a beach vacation with his lady love.



And then it all goes downhill.
He get into a fight with (what appears to be) some random bad guy, which lead into a crossover with the New Gods.


Guy partners up with Simon Baz, and they head into space to confront Highfather, only to end up captured.
BUT THEY ESCAPE!



Sorta?
I don't know, and it kind of ends abruptly...as these crossovers tend to do.
Then it's on to some weird story about Guy sucking up all of the rage from some Rage Monster? Again, I'm not sure what the backstory is here, but it was sort of cool, right up till the Rage Baby made an appearance.
And kicked his ass!
I'm not making this up, I swear!



That story ends with Guy's sister on an escape pod, orbiting the Earth, and giving life-advice to her brother. All while babysitting Rage Baby.



An while it's crazy that Guy's sister talks him into letting go of some of his anger, and giving back a little..



Well, it's still not as crazy as what happens in the Future's End issue.



Ok, the Future's End thing was actually kinda cool, even if it was a bit sappy.
This isn't my favorite story about the Reds, but without having read the previous volume, I don't want to rate it any lower. I know I'm missing a lot of pertinent information, so that may have had an effect on my enjoyment level. *shrugs*
This was a shockingly good title, and I'm sad to see it end. Great (overall) run though!

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Charles Soule’s pretty decent Red Lanterns run goes out limply with this sixth and final volume. Red Lantern Guy Gardner teams up with Green Lantern Simon Baz to battle the New Gods of Apokolips - ooo, exciting! - and then halfway through the book that storyline is abandoned. Oh… I guess it was part of a crossover event or tie-in and got completed elsewhere? Fuck’s sake, DC…

Then Soule disappears and Landry Q. Walker takes over on a new storyline... that begins in the middle! Why…

Atrocitus apparently visited Earth and caused some damage that Guy is now mopping up. I felt gypped as we only get to see the dull aftermath once the interesting stuff was over.

But we’re not done with the idiotic jumping-around-in-time as the final issue sees Soule return but take the Red Lanterns story five years in the future for no reason! This is also the only time any Red Lanterns besides Guy Gardner appears as we see what happened to Bleez and Rankorr.

J. Calafiore’s art isn’t bad but it’s not terribly exciting - standard superhero fare and very much DC house style. Landry Q. Walker’s issues were poorly written and forgettable while Charles Soule’s were slightly better but still not very compelling, and the disjointed structure of the book ruined it for me.

So ends New 52 Red Lanterns: badly. Easy to see why they didn’t come back in Rebirth!

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a major let down.

The first half is about Guy hating himself for what happened to all the Red Lanterns. When the new gods show up he decides to go after them and Simon joins him. The second half is after the event and it has Guy walking around being lonely and emo while meeting a baby...yes...does it make much sense? Fuck no.

Overall, the first half is decent. It has the signature humor moments, badass fights, and cool moments. It's not amazing but it works. The 2nd half? Garbo. Bad dialogue, bad pacing, and a story no one cares about. A 2 out of 5.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to get a stamp made up with all the reasons why DC are awful at collecting multi-series crossovers, so I don't have to repeat myself in every review. Suffice to say, the first three issues of this trade make 0 sense on their own, because they're part of the 18 (or so) part Godhead crossover, and yet there's no previously pages or help given as to what went on between the pages. So my actual review will be for the last four issues of the book.

Charles Soule departed this title early as part of his Marvel exclusive agreement, and so up steps Landry Q. Walker to finish off Red Lanterns for him. Guy Gardner is now the lone Red Lantern in the universe, and finds Earth infested with pure rage energy thanks to Atrocitus' attack in the previous volume. It's an interesting status quo, and could have lead to the series continuing on for a bit longer as Guy travels the planet and tries to drain away all the rage before it can do too much damage. Along the way he fights an entire city, and a Red Lantern baby, which is more hilarious than it sounds, trust me.

The volume ends with the Futures End one-shot, which (like Batwoman and other series which collect their Futures End one-shots at the end of the trade instead of the front where they came chronologically in the release schedule) actually makes a really good epilogue to the series, as well as Guy's character arc in general. Of course, it's non-canon, but it's still nice to have.

The artwork is all by the inimitable Jim Calafiore, whose work I've loved since Secret Six, and the heavy inks he uses really helps highlight the rage that pours out of these issues.

Red Lanterns took about 20 issues to get somewhere, but once Charles Soule took over, the book became something to love rather than the Lantern book everyone avoided. Whilst it didn't survive the Convergence culling alongside Green Lantern or Sinestro, it's actually a decent Lantern book when you get down to it, and fans of Guy Gardner will especially love the second half of the series.

[Jesse A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty weak volume. The only saving grace was the last story with Green Guy Gardner and Bleez. Charles Soule did a good job with this title. Landry Q. Walker needs some work.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This final volume of the run is split between two story arcs: a New Gods invasion crossover event and an arc tying up the threads of Atrocitus's invasion of earth from the previous volume. Queue my typical grousing about the series being sidetracked in the pursuit of crossover storylines. The Atrocitus story is easily the more interesting of the two and it's a shame that it gets rushed by DC's desire to reboot the entire line with Rebirth.

The Future's End issue is a really interesting way of wrapping up the series with a confrontation between Rankorr and Bleez and Guy Gardner. Some of these relationships and storylines have been present in the rest of the series, but final pieces are crammed into this final issue, and they would have been more than enough to sustain an entire volume if they were more fully explored.

[C.J. Edmunds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty much for most of the Red Lantern stories, is either you don't care much for them or you just go where it takes you.

This 6th volume collects issues #35-#40 and Red Lanterns: Future's End #1. If you followed the recently concluded GODHEAD arc of the Lantern storyline so far, then you would be happy to know what fate befell our hotheaded redneck Lantern, but if not then the first 3 issues in the trade would prove to be disorienting, not to mention, spoilerish.

But like me, if you didn't mind the deviation and would the follow the Reds where ever they go, then like the past compilations so far, you would appreciate the journey that Guy Gardner has taken so far and his means to achieve it. In this volume, the Red Lanterns have control now of Sector 2814 (yup, including Earth) and Guy is tasked now to keep the peace while at the same time harnessing the power of Rage to make things right and keep things in the balance.

While currently I know Guy has gone through another "change" of sorts, call this volume as the-road-to-finding-the balance that he is currently enjoying in the current Lantern run. Alas Charles Soule has departed the project and Landry Q Walker has taken the writing reigns to continue what Peter Milligan has begun in the first issue. While Landry is adequate in continuing the work, I still feel that Milligan has given the initial run some depth with regards to the essence of anger and the catalyst for Atrocitus' anger. This in turn has paved the way for other writers to take up the Red mantle and continue what he has successfully begun.

Geekgasm moments for me are the appearance of Green Lantern Simon Baz and Cyborg. Always great to have other DC characters guest star in other character arc and stories. Hope Landry considers that as he continues the run. But not too much, as it may become too predictable and formulaic. And doing that would mean that the Reds cannot hold their own ground and would have to depend on guest appearances to bring in readership.


PS. I still miss Peter Milligan's work. Volume 1-3 are still the ones to beat.

[Chantay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Green, Red, Blue... It's like reading an episode of Rupaul's Drag Race where the girls had different colors of the pride flag. Yet that episode worked because I understood what was going on.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miałem znany mi problem z "Wykutym we/ze krwi", bowiem część tego tomu wchodzi w skład wydarzenia zwanego "Godhead", czyli jeżeli ją czytałaś/czytałeś, to trzy zeszyty tutaj są powtórką. A ja bardzo nie lubię przepłacać za coś co już jest w moim posiadaniu. Pytanie tylko czy druga część tego tytułu jest na tyle atrakcyjna, aby nabyć omawiany tom? I tak, i nie.

Kolekcjonerom zapewne taki stan rzeczy nie przeszkodzi, ale ja czytam komiksy dla rozrywki. I o dziwo ta część "wtórna" jest ze sobą zaskakująco kompatybilna i sytuacja kiedy zastanawiasz się co się u licha zadziało pomiędzy dwa zeszytami jest tutaj bardzo rzadka (a nie jest to regułą vide seria Superman w New 52).

Ważne, że w drugiej części mamy interesującą przygodę, gdzie Guy jako jedna z ostatnich Czarwonych Latarni, mierzy się z tym co w poprzednim tomie zgotował Ziemi pewien wróg. A że ludzi są jednostkami z natury chaotycznymi, emocjonalnymi to po globie szerzy się szał/gniew, który niestety nie pomija nawet niemowlaki, a co daje pola na dosyć zabawnie wyglądającą sekwencję walk.

Na dokładkę mamy całkiem niezła opowiastkę z Futures End, gdzie Guy występuje w nieco innych ciuszkach. Mało prawdopodobne aby się wydarzyło, ale mi się podobało. Kreska okazuje się dobra, tempo komiksu niezłe i całość wydaje się mocno chaotyczna, ale w tym szaleństwie jest metoda. No i kunszt Soule też coś tu robi. Można zerknąć, ale nie trzeba. Szkoda tylko, że całkiem niezła serii o mało znanych postaciach dobiegła już końca.

[47Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

The New Gods led by Highfather are destroying lanterns left and right. Guy and Simon Baz head for New Olympus and swiftly get captured. Malhedron betrays Highfather and releases his captives - many lanterns, including Guy and Simon. I guess they are victorious, but I don't care that much for another crossover.

The rest of the volume features Guy's struggle. The inner monologues, his doubt and self-critique offer a different feel from what the series was to this point. The Earth was infected by Atrocitus. Guy is sworn to protect Earth, no matter what, but this is not a thing you can swat with a ring construct. Guy tries to fix it by absorbing the rage in the world into himself. Eventually he gets sick from it, but still there is more rage ready to face him. In the end he decides to release the rage he absorbed, which also allows him to drop the red ring. He will continue to protect the Earth, regardless of the light he wields.

[Jacob Shaffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 3 star collection but I have 4 star love for it.

It’s not Charles Soule’s fault that the Godhead event is so uninspired and boring. That’s across all Lantern titles. Landry Walker’s 3 issues at the end are written like “yup, bet you’re wondering how I got here” they’re boring. Rage being in the air and effecting a baby isn’t the deep message it could be.

So Soule’s run comes to an end, his time was some of the best with the Reds. AND THENNNN, the Futures End issue is really cute and sweet. A satisfying ending for readers of the whole series.

Goodbye, No More Reds.

[Charles Hamel · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS WAS SOO GOOD!!!!!!

I really don't know why everyone is complaining about this one! It's such a great end to the series; way better than considering the last book as the end.

We find out the damage Atrocitus has caused Earth, we see Guy's broken psyche, even more, we then see at the very end, how wrong his thinking was. Then, we get a happy ending, one that Guy, the Earth, and the reader, needs.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The red lanterns are like grim dark superheroes. They actually were villains before but with Guy Gardner taking over they've got a sense of purpose. Still they treat each other like crap and are heavily into violence. It works for me, makes them different from the other corps (other than Sinestro's corp, who are also cheeky bastards).

As with the other Vol 6 Lantern titles, this is mostly the Godhead arc, then a wrap up to the series with a mini-plot. Also Guy gets a haircut.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Red Lanterns experiment ends and its a mess. DC collects some parts of the Godhead crossover and then a completely bananas story ending Guy's time as a Red Lantern. The story was pretty awful. The Godhead pieces weren't bad but were incomplete. Walker's story about Guy's downward spiral was laughably bad. The art was decent. Overall, this was another example of DC not having any clue what to do with these other Lanterns.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two issues are the class DC bit where they collect issues of a series that don't make sense by itself in the series, but should only be collected in the crossover collection. Hilarious bit!

The last few issues are interesting, though, with Guy dealing the rage of the world and how to handle it.

[Wing Kee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow utter garbage.

World: So the art is messy and not really good to look at. It's messy in a bad and lazy way. The world building is just a wrap up for the series. After the events of Atrocitus and also Godhead the series needed to end and so the stage was set for Guy to do his absorb thing...zzz.

Story: These last three issues are just bad, they are pointless and a mindless end to the series. It pretty much just wraps up his story and it's fine for the most part other than the fact that the story is stupidly edgy for the sake of being edgy. It's not the end that Guy deserves, what about the other possibilities with Ice and all his friends...jeez.

Characters: Guy is Guy but this is not the end that he deserves, it's sloppy and messy and is dumb, it's simple and not what Guy as a character is, he deserves better than this.

This is just a terrible end to a series that should not have existed in the first place. Guy gave the series direction...and then this end...

Onward to the next book!

*read last 3 issues, other issues were read in context of Godhead and my review of those issues are found in that review*

[Julio Valentin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt I was missing something while reading this. Where were the other reds? What is happening? You can forget about the Red Lanterns, cause now is all about Guy Gardner (which was not interesting at all). What a huge letdown, especially after a very good prior volumen.

[Nathan Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

A choppier read than the other volumes, apparently because of different events involved, but overall ok. Nice to have some sort of conclusion, and nice to spend more time with Guy figuring things out on his journey through the life of a ring-bearer.

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

The event was quite good.

The Walker storyline was okay not completely the writer's fault as they were only given three issues to wrap everything up. I liked 40 as an ending but the others weren't great. Futures end story was okay too.

[Batusi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frustrating and largely unpleasant read with the lone bright spot being the final issue.

The story wallows in unfocused plotting as Guy Gardner deals with the effects of his time with the Red Lanterns until the story focuses on resolutions for the arcs of Rankor and Bleez.

If the entire volume had matched the character focus of the last issue, it might've been salvageable, but as it stands, it's a disappointing ending to a largely solid run.

[mike andrews · Rating 2 out of 5]

Everything Red Lanterns had going for it all changed when Gardener took the reigns. It was basically the Green Corps with Red Rings with him as leader.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good illustrations and great story!

[Delanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad! (Finding out Guy Gardner is color blind has to be the best thing I've heard all day)

[Carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

skipped issues #39 and #40 cause I don't care for Gardner's self pitying. The series as a whole was good, but what the fuck happened to Atrocitus and Dex Starr?

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. The last issue was great though.

[Roman Colombo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm definitely glad I read Green Lantern/New Gods: Godhead first, as the three issues involved would have just made a really incoherent story. The rest of the book wrapped up okwith Larry Q. Walker takin all the hope Soule had at the end of Volume 5 and crushing it. Not a bad story, but inconsisten with what we've seen from Soule. Luckily, Soule writes the Future End installment, that the book ends on, and that is great. Exactly how the series needed to end.

I really was not a fan of the Green Lanterns, and still think the Greens aren't very interesting. And I still hate Hal Jordan, but I loved the Red Lantern series. I don't know what compelled me to try this series, but I am really glad I did.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars.
I've enjoyed the Red Lanterns title since the beginning. When the title switched over to being completely about Guy Gardner, I still thought it had a lot of punch to it. I'm glad I stayed with it.
Unfortunately, the first couple stories here are linked with the whole "Godhead" storyline, and thus feel a bit disconnected. I have read most of that crossover though, and it seemed to fit well for me.
The true gold of this Volume, and of the whole series in general is the last 2 issues.
(spoilers)

Might as well call it "No More Reds". In this 2 part tale, Guy, being the only Red Lantern left on Earth, tries to heal the world by absorbing all the Rage Energy left behind in Atrocitus' attack. He runs in to situations where rage is the motivator and stops it by simply absorbing all the rage into himself. At some point, this tide of hatred is beginning to consume him, and he feels like lashing out at the whole world. With some encouragement from his sister, Guy comes to the realization that rage is just a part of who we all are, not the entirety of us. We are also love, fear, compassion, hope and all the other scale of emotions that makes us human. His overwhelming power of rage is full of the other colors of the emotional spectrum and thus becomes tainted by the overwhelming call to never give up hope that you can overcome anything. His powers consume him and cover the world, but disperse and dissipate leaving only the light of hope, and changing Guy Gardner into a Blue Lantern. (though by Lantern color rules, why not White? Because hope overcame everything else inside him?)
The second part deals with Blue Lantern Guy and second to last left Red Lantern Bleez. They track down Rankorr, the remaining Red Lantern, calling himself Red King Jack, and Guy convinces both of them to let go the way he did and taking all the rings from them both, destroys them with the light of Hope.
I'm REALLY interested to see what happens past issue 40, as the title was cancelled. Will we now see a growing of the previously decimated Blue Lantern Corps? My knowledge of the DC universe post-Convergence is very limited, but I look forward eagerly to seeing how the lights of the universe continue on.

Volume recommend, title recommend, series recommend.

[Cale · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure which I found more obnoxious - angsty Guy Gardner or hopeful Guy Gardner. He spends most of this volume as a kamikaze, trying to get himself killed because 'everyone around me dies.' Really? Sorry, but Guy Gardner was always too into himself to care about things like that. So seeing him mope for issues is just really out of character. I appreciate the use of Simon Baz to get him out of his funk, but so far as I can tell, it doesn't work (another problem with this collection is that it is part of the Godhead crossover, so much of the story is missing). And then, without any resolution to that story, we get thrown into Future's End, where we have Guy as a Blue Lantern? At least there's a little bit more story here, giving a nice wrap up to Guy and other Red Lanterns, but it still feels really out of character for him. And it would be nice if a series called Red Lantern had more than three appear (and two of those only for one issue). Guy is interesting on occasion, but he really can't carry a series on his own. He's too dependent on other people to rub the wrong way; without a foil there's no friction, and the closest he has in this series does everything he can to avoid the conflict. The action is okay but nothing memorable (and the Red Lanterns abilities seem really underpowered), which I guess is true of the entire volume.

[Will Robinson Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only down side to this book is that is crosses over into the Green Lantern/New God God Head event. So you really enjoy the first half of this collected volume of the Red Lanterns series but it will leave you hanging for what happens in the rest of the event. Charles Soule continues to do a great job of building up Guy Gardner's importance to the Green Lantern mythos. Guy's hero's journey really shines here. I think what Charles has done with the character is really display the idea of the tired warrior. Guy is a wounded warrior psychologically who just does not understand why all his friends in the lantern corps. give their lives and perish in battles but somehow he always to survive. He is ever the good soldier. Whether he is a green, red or blue lantern never really matters but its all about what he chooses to do with the powers. That is what is so great to me about the Lantern books that DC is doing they are space opera's that can be truly fantastic but often hint at very powerful philosophical questions. In this volume we explore the idea of anger and its purpose.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 4 out of 5]

A splendid ending to a fun series. The events of the previous collection brought an awesome confrontation between the Red Lanterns led by Guy Gardner against those of Atrocitus. With Earth in peril, Guy brought an epic ending, but this is more of a long epilogue that deals with the remains of the Red Lanterns. Atrocitus corrupted millions, and the aftereffects of the Red Lantern blood corrupted humanity. Gardner deals with the aftermath as he utilizes a greater power to save the world. Once that ends, he saves the other Red Lanterns, including his last surviving friends.

This was surprisingly beautiful. So nice for Rankorr, Bleez, and, of course, Guy Gardner to get a happy ending.