True Love and Black Mercy

Love and Capes #7

This was one of the comics offered during Free Comic Book Day a couple of weeks ago. It bills itself as “the Heroically Super Situation Comedy” and focuses on Abby and Mark. Abby runs a bookstore. Mark is a superhero called the Crusader. They’re in love. Awwwww! Anyway, Mark wants to propose to Abby, but he can’t decide on the perfect way to pop the question. He gets advice from Abby’s sister and from a bunch of his superhero friends.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nice characterization, good jokes. My only quibble is that it goes on for a bit longer than I would’ve preferred.

Green Lantern Corps #24

Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardner, and a bunch of other Green Lanterns are on a mission to track down some missing Sinestro Corps rings, but Arisia and Sodam Yat have been captured by Mongul. He’s strapped them to a couple of Black Mercies — they’re parasitic alien plants that have traditionally made the victim hallucinate their fondest dreams. But these have been altered by Mongul to cause the victims to experience horrific nightmares. And he plans to send the new Black Mercy plants all over the galaxy. Meanwhile, Sinestro and the other prisoners in the sciencells on Oa mutilate themselves so they can draw the Sinestro Corps symbol on their cell walls with their own blood. Grody.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Black Mercies are nasty, nasty plants, though not as nasty as watching Sinestro chew off his fingertip. That dude’s craaaazy.