Irony and Rage
Once again this series fails to give the newly dubbed 'Rankorr' his name. His name is freaking Jack Moore, ok? Bleez is Bleez, Atrocitus is Atrocitus, Dex-Starr is.... well Dexter but at least that's CLOSE. Laira is Laira. WHY IS JACK MOORE SUDDENLY RANKORR? I would LOVE to get SOME kind of explanation for that, but Red Lanterns doesn't even bother to have anyone CALL him Rankorr, not even himself. The only reason his 'new name' is said to be Rankorr is because of last issue's cover. But he's not Rankorr yet, because that name has yet to be uttered by any character.
The fight with Guy Gardner serves two purposes. One, to put Guy in the unfamiliar situation of being the rational one, a situation which he's all to eager to point out. Second, to establish that, yes, apparently this series isn't just being lazy and there IS something different about new Red Lantern Jack Moore. He seems to have more rationality than most, though whether that's all in his mind and can't affect his actions remains to be seen. And then he flies off into space. And Guy Gardner, SPACE COP, doesn't bother to follow him despite having been in a battle with him and noting that he's different than other Red Lanterns. Apparently it's not a big enough deal to even MENTION EVER AGAIN? Come on!
And then despite last issue's Ysmault portion ending with Bleez on the ass end of an ass-whooping, Bleez is in space in control of the Red Lantern Corps. Way to skip a scene or two FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A ROW Milligan. Then he acknowledges that stuff is happening in the rest of the cosmic titles and has Bleez run into some Sinestro Corps escapees, and we're treated to some likely under-appreciated dialogue where an imprisoned Sinestro straggler laughs at the notion that Bleez 'controls' the Red Lantern Corps. Sure in many cases it might come across as fluff to make a villain seem intimidating, but considering the way Atrocitus has been acting lately, hearing from a corpsmen of FEAR that Atrocitus was so mighty that his master Sinestro THE LEADER OF THE FEAR CORPS was afraid of him. Now this may or may not be true, it might be partially true, but to see a former Sinestro worshipper, who still refers to him as 'The Great Sinestro,' suggest that his master FEARED someone? It's powerful, and the clash it has with the Atrocitus we've been seeing is powerful.
Then we go back to Atrocitus and it starts to fall apart again. Atrocitus is blathering on about his rage and the reason and the lack of it subsiding, which would be cool if he hadn't spent the better part of the first four issues doing EXACTY THAT. But then a new foe planning revenge unintentionally grants Atrocitus his greatest wish in an act of ultimate irony.
And then Jack Moore shows up and ruins everything in an almost sitcom style inopportune blunder. Oh joy.
In Conclusion: 3/5
Sigh. I'm sorry, but I just don't think Milligan really knows what he's doing with this series anymore. The pieces are there, sure, but they're glued together incorrectly using heaping globs of glue. I have nothing against the psychological explorative ideas he's going for.... but its what's stringing them together that really drags this series down. Missing scenes and bad plot devices. And Ed Benes' seemingly inability to draw a female character that isn't hyper sexualized.