And Then I Read: KILOWOG 1

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This is one of several movie tie-in books put out for the Green Lantern movie. Kilowog has a fairly long history in the comics, having been introduced by writer Steve Englehart and artist Joe Staton in 1986, and he's portrayed in the film much as in recent GREEN LANTERN comics, as a sort of drill instructor for the Green Lantern Corps, with a gruff personality to match.

So, writer Peter Tomasi's task in this book was to tell an entertaining story about Kilowog that takes place right before the film's story, a "prequel," and he does that quite well. We see Kilowog in action as a trainer of new GL Corps recruits, telling them how things are in no uncertain terms, and leading them in battle against an attack by the Spider Guild. (Since I co-created the Spider Guild with Dave Gibbons, I particularly enjoyed that part!) A second minor storyline involves a GL Corps member with precognition trying to alert the Guardians that big trouble is on the way. And, of course, they don't want to listen. At the end, another long-time GL, Tomar Re shows up with bad news for Kilowog that leads right into the film plot. In all, a good read, and a nice look at life on Oa for new GLs in training.

The art by Carlos Ferreira and Silvio Spotti is pretty good, though I don't think it's quite up to the standard seen in the regular GL books. The team does a nice job creating a variety of new alien GLs, but I felt did not do so well with Kilowog, though that may be just my not liking the visuals of the film version as much as the Kilowog seen in the comics pre-film.

Recommended.