Though it wound down for me by the end, Andy Diggle's Adam Strange miniseries was one of my favorite surprises in 2004, a delightful adventure comic that seemed to really capture the potential of DC's space adventure subgenre. Rann-Thanagar War is the follow-up to that story, and it has some of the same adventurous fun, and equally great art thanks to Reis and Campos, but Gibbons's plot is a little too convoluted, and his handle on some of the main heroes seems shaky, based on past continuity rather than current. There are terrific moments here, and definitely the epic scope that Gibbons is aiming for, but it's all a little too big and cosmic to be very relatable, and as a result it all sort of becomes a blur of beautiful but disjointed images for me.
Rann-Thanagar War #1 opens with a strong action sequence. It's a bit Silver Age, as the monster has no relation to anything and the action sequence serves mostly to put the lead characters together in contrived circumstances, but it does look gorgeous, and serves to reinforce what Andy Diggle reintroduced so effectively in the Adam Strange miniseries: Adam Strange is cool as hell. The trouble comes when Adam begins telling the story of the beginnings of this Rann-Thanagar war. Given the tenuous connection that Carter Hall has to Thanagar, and the almost non-existent one that Kendra has, it seems strange that Adam expects them to be personally and deeply affected by these events. This meeting of the minds also runs counter to the teaser we saw in DC Countdown, although that's more a gripe about inter-title continuity than a flaw of this issue per se.
Really, though, gripes about minor continuity gaffes pale beside the larger problem that the story is almost too big for the reader to really get their head around. Merged planets, several different alien races, political strife, a secret society, it's got all the scope and intricacies that a galactic war should have, but it's just not approachable. It's a good backdrop for stories, but it's not a story in and of itself. The strongest moment in the book actually comes between Kilowog and Kyle Rayner, talking about family and the wonder of space and being a Green Lantern, as it's human and easy to connect with. I'm not certain I buy the Green Lantern Corps staying uninvolved in the Rann-Thanagar War (isn't being an interstellar busybody what being a Guardian is about?), but it's a minor gripe at best.
The real selling point of the Rann-Thanagar War so far is the artwork. Ivan Reis, Marc Campos and John Kalisz really capture the epic scope and spectacle that Gibbons is going for, and while the script overcomplicates the political maneuvering, technobabble and factionalization, the art is always clear, even when we're looking at the chaos of a mass battle in progress. Reis's take on the Ferry-tweaked version of the Adam Strange costume looks great, the splash pages of the destruction of Thanagar are stunning and the shots of the battle in progress are equally amazing. Space adventure should have a visual sense of wonder, and the art here definitely captures that.
So far, it almost feels like Rann-Thanagar War is trying to be too much, not just a team-up story between some of DC's space-based heroes but a reshuffling of the entire alien and space subset of the DC Universe. The involvement of names that have only passing familiarity to a longtime DC fan like myself (Psions, Tamarans, Okarans, etc.) will likely cause newer DC readers' eyes to glaze over, and there aren't enough strong character moments to bring them back. Then again, accessibility is hardly the watchword of the Infinite Crisis projects so far, and that doesn't seem to be keeping people out. With any luck, Gibbons will hit a better balance between epic in scope but personal in consequences to give the book more of a hook in the future. 6/10
