Divine Judgement
Oh dear, this cover is REALLY crowded. Invictus doesn't even seem too threatening because of how he's just kind of shoved into the background. And of course, only 3 lanterns made it onscreen, and Fatality was put in the most boobs-exposed and ass-flaunting pose possible. For shame.
Invictus makes a fantastic entry, an intimidating godlike entry that would indeed shake the confidence of mere mortals everywhere. He is an impressive foe, his power in purity. Despite attacking without provocation, he appears to genuinely be in the right, which is actually frightening when you think about it. He's like a religious fanatic warrior, utterly devoted to spreading complete purity throughout the world, and the holy power to back it up. He's exactly the kind of person who has real world counterparts that I utterly loathe. Clearly Larfleeze has done him some wrong in the past, and I'm not surprised in the least. This battle is epic, but the New Guardians get trashed. Is it because they're missing just one member? The end of the issue implies that, but I think that's a little bit of a weak approach to a plot device, but I'll reserve judgement until I see how it pans out.
Glomulus continues his endearing rise, hamming it up every single opportunity he gets. Making faces and poses, taking up as much space as he can, popping into the background of panels... he's so great.
Just about everyone else seems to have taken stupid pills this issue though. Not a whole lot, maybe one each. Kyle is unable to contact the other lanterns due to the emotional wavelengths not synching up, which I actually like. I'm not sure if this contradicts anything before, but it worked. What didn't work was his massively defiant insistence that he could overcome this by 'feeling' stuff. It's just... lame. It's a lame way to overcome this obstacle, and makes the obstacle almost moot because its resolved on the same page it comes up in. And let's be honest, Kyle wasn't feeling these things at that moment, he was just saying he was in a fit of rage. Which was the only feeling he didn't actually need anyways. Maybe it was because he has lingering energy of the other rings inside him from when he became all the lanterns at once. Except, it's never brought up, and I hated the idea of his lingering energy of all colors anyways.
Then once Fatality is aware of the threat of Invictus, she asks what he looks like and what his abilities are. Gee Fatality, I dunno, maybe he looks like THE FRICKIN' STATUE THAT'S ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE IN THE ORRERY. The exact same statue that you just observed as being the anomaly on this replica of your planet. And even if she didn't assume that, Kyle has been told this is the case, so why wouldn't he just tell her that Invictus is "The guy who's statue is everywhere." I guess you could argue he wouldn't assume the statue is on the other planets... except he WOULD assume that. The Orrery is all one giant system clearly run by the same force. If the planet he was on had such worship, you would damn well assume the rest in the ship would too.
Munk seems really disoriented and slow to react, though maybe he's contemplating his past after Fatality's provocations. Though why would he home on the blue ring and not the green ring that just contacted him?
And Arkillo's thickheaded, but it's ok because he's always like that.
And then Bleez returns. Oh joy. Is she done causing big revolt on Ysmault? I'm two issues behind in Red Lanterns. But it seems out of place without the context. She left to report to Atrocitus last issue, and then gained higher consciousness. So she.... just goes back to them without dealing with anything on Ysmault? Eh.
In Conclusion: 3.5/5
This issue was a lot of fun to read. Invictus makes an impressive debut worthy of a god. It's actually really impressive to see that he's not 'just' revered as a God, there's DAMN good reason for his subjects to hold him in such high regard. Worlds shake at his approach, quite literally. But there were so many nitpicks outside of that, it was like the New Guardians were playing a game of catch with the idiot ball.
And I imagined Invictus with the voice of Robot Santa from Futurama, just a smidge deeper and less hammy. It was perfect.
