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gabrielcunha's review against another edition
3.0
Overall this is a good comic. I liked the religion commentary, that was really good. On the other hand I didn't like how things play out here, they keep saying Kyle (The White Lantern) doesn't know what he's capable of and that is never explained, I really don't know to this point how powerful he is. Also, it was quite previsible, I could see the Princess becoming the next Viceroy Dictator, but with a twist. I don't know if that was meant to be a cliff hanger, and if it was it didn't make me really interested to find out.
unladylike's review against another edition
4.0
This is a story of [Abrahamic-based] religion, imperialist empire states, and the intense violence that occurs between their major players. It's in the DC universe, and [former] Green Lantern Kyle Rayner is the only big name, somewhat-well-known character, but he is not the star.
This is a difficult, political miniseries collected in 12 dense comics issues, compressed somehow into a half-inch binding. It is sometimes jarring, sometimes enlightening, sometimes boring (but that might all reflect my personal mental state on the week it took me to get through this more than what is in the book itself).
I'd like to read more books in this world that Tom King has meticulously built. Sure, parts of the setting were introduced in the early '70s and fleshed out more briefly in the '80s, but I guarantee, King has put more of his original worldbuilding ideas into this than anything preceding it. The bonus "making of" material was actually reallllly good and worth absorbing (as drastically contrasted to typical TPB design sketches and commentary), and made me value the project as a whole, distinctly created in a strange, barely touched corner of the DC universe. I was reminded more of the amazing Finder series by [a:Carla Speed McNeil|63762|Carla Speed McNeil|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1442453177p2/63762.jpg] than anything else, when reading the brief outlining guide (or "bible" as the production team referred to it) King established for each of the 6 planets involved. (If you're reading this and you liked The Omega Men, or even if you didn't, do yourself a favor and go read the entirety of [b:Finder Library Volume 1|36235820|Finder Library Volume 1|Carla Speed McNeil|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1505345927s/36235820.jpg|14510930], keeping up with the annotations along the way!)
I didn't love Omega Men all the way through, but on the whole, it's quite impressive and worth digesting.
This is a difficult, political miniseries collected in 12 dense comics issues, compressed somehow into a half-inch binding. It is sometimes jarring, sometimes enlightening, sometimes boring (but that might all reflect my personal mental state on the week it took me to get through this more than what is in the book itself).
I'd like to read more books in this world that Tom King has meticulously built. Sure, parts of the setting were introduced in the early '70s and fleshed out more briefly in the '80s, but I guarantee, King has put more of his original worldbuilding ideas into this than anything preceding it. The bonus "making of" material was actually reallllly good and worth absorbing (as drastically contrasted to typical TPB design sketches and commentary), and made me value the project as a whole, distinctly created in a strange, barely touched corner of the DC universe. I was reminded more of the amazing Finder series by [a:Carla Speed McNeil|63762|Carla Speed McNeil|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1442453177p2/63762.jpg] than anything else, when reading the brief outlining guide (or "bible" as the production team referred to it) King established for each of the 6 planets involved. (If you're reading this and you liked The Omega Men, or even if you didn't, do yourself a favor and go read the entirety of [b:Finder Library Volume 1|36235820|Finder Library Volume 1|Carla Speed McNeil|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1505345927s/36235820.jpg|14510930], keeping up with the annotations along the way!)
I didn't love Omega Men all the way through, but on the whole, it's quite impressive and worth digesting.
rebus's review against another edition
3.0
There are few people in the current industry I hate more than King, a top level CIA propagandist whose views are far right wing and pro military (only Jonathan Hickman and Mark Millar are as bad). To call it, as Vulture online did, a 'nuanced political thriller' is more than a joke. Like King, they falsely assume the US is the good guy of the world and fail to see the fascist intent of our government (which was present from day one when old George Washington was elected unanimously by the 1%). Talking about Democracy as kindness and quoting the amazing William James, only makes me hate King more for such double speak.
With all that said, I still found the artwork amazing and the tale more than a bit enjoyable. We just need to realize that King IS the Citadel and a raging, psychopathic, fascist, narcissist. King does indeed do what James derides: he engages in the sentimentalist fallacy, shedding tears only over abstract notions of justice and never having those qualities when he meets the disadvantaged in the streets. King, sadly delusional. sees himself as Raynor, the noble soul caught between Empire and what he sees as lying primitives. In the end, he's just another apologist for empire with an extra 21st chromosome, seeking only to enrich himself (like the Boomers!). He misunderstands James further by saying that freedom is necessity understood, which is mere pretext for violence and perpetual war. He's a psychopath who feels no guilt for his mass murder, even if he seems to be trying to assuage it by rationalizing it in his (mostly) terrible comics.
He does provide a valuable critique of religious societies, exposing them all for their common evils, suggesting rightly that anything that becomes an orthodoxy has lost its sense of inward seeking. However, he does, as always, show his racism and Islamophobia throughout, suggesting that he doesn't really mean it and believes his orthodox christian religion is the only good one. He even believes the sad old trope that they are jealous of our culture and fetishize it, adopting many of its aspects freely, a fiction that adheres to the same white supremacist notions of our founding fathers and those who explored our continent in the name of manifest destiny. He's just another racist xenophobe who paints other cultures as primitive and bizarre, normalizing war and preferring the sanitized 1950s view of the world (see: his awful stuff with Wanda and the Vision, which also normalize technology).
He's also basically ripping off the execrable Dune here, as Stellarium is nothing more than the Spice, and a metaphor for oil. He believes we have the right to enslave vast populations and steal it to protect and preserve our ideals, which are inherent in this exploitation and not at all the world of freedom and resistance to fascism that he believes. He also suffers the delusion that there is life elsewhere in the universe and that billions of planets need this life saving resource. It's a lot of very silly 'world building' (is anything more corrupt in literature?) as metaphor for the real world, but it's all false and propagandist.
It's hard to take anyone seriously if they have served. They are low IQ psychopaths and narcissists with fascist tendencies. One can find a great deal of valid information in King's work, because he's not careful or talented enough to disguise it, but he is a modern statist and fascist and his work is a truly dreadful depiction of life on planet earth. He's begging to be forgiven and we should never offer that to sociopaths. He's almost always paired with the very best artists in the industry--in an age when almost all are bad, autistic types who can't draw the human figure or faces--which tells you everything you need to know about the pro war and empire ideologies that comics have supported since day one.
With all that said, I still found the artwork amazing and the tale more than a bit enjoyable. We just need to realize that King IS the Citadel and a raging, psychopathic, fascist, narcissist. King does indeed do what James derides: he engages in the sentimentalist fallacy, shedding tears only over abstract notions of justice and never having those qualities when he meets the disadvantaged in the streets. King, sadly delusional. sees himself as Raynor, the noble soul caught between Empire and what he sees as lying primitives. In the end, he's just another apologist for empire with an extra 21st chromosome, seeking only to enrich himself (like the Boomers!). He misunderstands James further by saying that freedom is necessity understood, which is mere pretext for violence and perpetual war. He's a psychopath who feels no guilt for his mass murder, even if he seems to be trying to assuage it by rationalizing it in his (mostly) terrible comics.
He does provide a valuable critique of religious societies, exposing them all for their common evils, suggesting rightly that anything that becomes an orthodoxy has lost its sense of inward seeking. However, he does, as always, show his racism and Islamophobia throughout, suggesting that he doesn't really mean it and believes his orthodox christian religion is the only good one. He even believes the sad old trope that they are jealous of our culture and fetishize it, adopting many of its aspects freely, a fiction that adheres to the same white supremacist notions of our founding fathers and those who explored our continent in the name of manifest destiny. He's just another racist xenophobe who paints other cultures as primitive and bizarre, normalizing war and preferring the sanitized 1950s view of the world (see: his awful stuff with Wanda and the Vision, which also normalize technology).
He's also basically ripping off the execrable Dune here, as Stellarium is nothing more than the Spice, and a metaphor for oil. He believes we have the right to enslave vast populations and steal it to protect and preserve our ideals, which are inherent in this exploitation and not at all the world of freedom and resistance to fascism that he believes. He also suffers the delusion that there is life elsewhere in the universe and that billions of planets need this life saving resource. It's a lot of very silly 'world building' (is anything more corrupt in literature?) as metaphor for the real world, but it's all false and propagandist.
It's hard to take anyone seriously if they have served. They are low IQ psychopaths and narcissists with fascist tendencies. One can find a great deal of valid information in King's work, because he's not careful or talented enough to disguise it, but he is a modern statist and fascist and his work is a truly dreadful depiction of life on planet earth. He's begging to be forgiven and we should never offer that to sociopaths. He's almost always paired with the very best artists in the industry--in an age when almost all are bad, autistic types who can't draw the human figure or faces--which tells you everything you need to know about the pro war and empire ideologies that comics have supported since day one.
mattypallett's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Many elements of this sadly ring true to the real events happening in the world right now; suppression, retaliation, destruction, propaganda, hypocrisy, the cyclical nature of violence. And of course immense violence in the name of a higher power. Very well done here, so many satisfying layers.
Kyle fixing things with “Truth. Justice. The American way.” In a book about genocide, colonisation, and war felt a little out of place considering well…everything the US does. That was either a clever moment of self reflection by Tom King, or hilariously misguided. I’m too dumb to pick up on exactly what he meant on first read.
I really enjoyed the questions of morality posed to the characters and how none of them come out clean from war. However, some characters, namely Primus, could’ve used more depth. His journey from pacifism could’ve been really emotionally impactful but it just wasn’t given enough room to happen.
Kyle fixing things with “Truth. Justice. The American way.” In a book about genocide, colonisation, and war felt a little out of place considering well…everything the US does. That was either a clever moment of self reflection by Tom King, or hilariously misguided. I’m too dumb to pick up on exactly what he meant on first read.
I really enjoyed the questions of morality posed to the characters and how none of them come out clean from war. However, some characters, namely Primus, could’ve used more depth. His journey from pacifism could’ve been really emotionally impactful but it just wasn’t given enough room to happen.
ark07's review against another edition
4.0
Nose como describir el como me siento tras haber terminado de leerlo. La historia está muy bien, es durísima pero hipócrita a ratos, pero creo que ese es el punto que intenta hacer el guionista(?.
le_canuck's review against another edition
5.0
Honestly one of the best comic books I have read in years. Each page has meticulous paneling that illustrates King's excellent writing. A great war story that shows the moral compromises made by both sides. Buy it, now.
helpfulsnowman's review against another edition
3.0
I love some of Tom King's other stuff, but this one didn't cut it. TOO opaque for my liking.
Also, I'm not really sure what in the fuck has been going on with Kyle Rayner. I remember when he was Green Lantern, and that was cool. Then there was that whole girlfriend in the fridge thing, which I feel was blown a little out of proportion, and now that phrase comes in and has totally lost its meaning. Then it was fun again...then I think Hal Jordan came back? Because we didn't like Kyle Rayner because he had no nose?
Anyway, the other Tom King books I read were a little easier to get behind because I could figure out who was who and what was what. ALTHOUGH I just re-watched some Breaking Bad, and that whole veggie plate thing Tom King did in Mister Miracle? Ripped from the headlines! The headlines that say Breaking Bad!
Also, I'm not really sure what in the fuck has been going on with Kyle Rayner. I remember when he was Green Lantern, and that was cool. Then there was that whole girlfriend in the fridge thing, which I feel was blown a little out of proportion, and now that phrase comes in and has totally lost its meaning. Then it was fun again...then I think Hal Jordan came back? Because we didn't like Kyle Rayner because he had no nose?
Anyway, the other Tom King books I read were a little easier to get behind because I could figure out who was who and what was what. ALTHOUGH I just re-watched some Breaking Bad, and that whole veggie plate thing Tom King did in Mister Miracle? Ripped from the headlines! The headlines that say Breaking Bad!
obnorthrup's review against another edition
4.0
Unique story that makes full use of its premise and its cast of complex characters. Manages to avoid the usual themes for a Green Lantern book, thanks to its ensemble cast (at least in the first half).