DC Relaunch: Red Lanterns

We’ve all experienced rage at one time or another. Whether it be something someone said that completely threw you into a frenzy, or perhaps watching someone become unbelievably enraged by any number of things. Now, imagine that rage you or they experienced. Imagine it concentrated to the
point that swells up in your body to the point that it bursts forth creating vengeful constructs as red burning energy spills from your mouth like bile. Welcome to the Red Lanterns!

Red Lanterns was announced last year, way before we got our first look at even Flashpoint. The popularity of the characters in the Red Lanterns had proven to be strong, beating out other strong contenders in the various corps. Atrocitus leads the Red Lanterns, hailing from a nightmare world destroyed by the failed experiment of the Guardians, the Manhunters. His world is one filled with revenge and swift justice, with blood and prophecy. The Red Lanterns have suffered great loss,
and their rage fuel their desire for justice by death. The characters we’ve been given, such as Bleez and Dex-Starr, are already compelling, each one having fallen so far before finding the rage that brought them to the Red Lanterns. Each Red Lantern’s ring is tied directly to their heart. To simply remove the ring would kill them. The journey they take in their own series will be interesting, as despite their intentions, the Red Lanterns walk way off the line.

Peter Milligan will be writing with Ed Benes on art. Peter Milligan has been in the industry for sometime, working on the Batman books before getting on the ground with Shade the Changing Man for DC’s mature readers line, eventually becoming the Vertigo line. He also followed up Grant Morrison’s critically acclaimed run on Animal Man with a six-issue story. He’s written numerous other works for Vertigo, from the strange to the stranger, always exploring new regions of story. He wrote for the Marvel’s X-Men line
with X-Men with Salvador Larocca, X-Statix with Mike Allred & Darwyn Cooke, and Namor: The Depths with Esad Ribic.

Ed Benes has worked on a number of books, most notably having long runs on Birds of Prey with writer Gail Simone (returning with her to that title during Brightest Day), Justice League of America with Brad
Metzler and Dwayne McDuffie. He also worked on the latter part of Peter David’s run on Supergirl.

Clearly, the Red Lanterns are new to the universe, so there’s not too much to explore. Check out the previously mentioned Green Lantern booksSecret Origin, Blackest Night, and New Guardians, and also take a look at:

Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns.

Next we’ll look at whatever will happen to the caped crusader, beginning with Batman!