Very Bad Things

I’m spotlighting the grimmest, bleakest, most unstoppably pessimistic comics I’ve got today.

Green Lantern Corps #31

First, the Guardians pass a new law that bans physical relationships and love between Green Lantern Corps members. That’s gonna be a major bummer for the few Corpsmen who are married, Guardians — like Matoo and Amnee Pree, currently trying to capture the babynapping Sinestro Corps member called Kryb. Amnee is pregnant and due to give birth fairly soon, while Matoo, along with Kyle Rayner and Soranik Natu, take the fight to Kryb. Unfortunately, Kryb releases a substance that turns them into her slaves. Amnee escapes the enslaving pollen, but the fight against Kryb induces labor early. She conjures up a ring-powered mega-fetus to pound on Kryb, but Kryb’s slaves still subdue her.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Just unrelentingly grim stuff. Kryb is a creepy babynapping horror, and she’s got Green Lanterns helping her steal more babies. Heck, she’s even got an enslaved father preparing to kill his wife to give Kryb another baby to steal. Grim, grim, grim. I’d quibble with Kryb’s pollen attack, though — the way we understand the power rings, they have enough consciousness on their own to counteract the ring bearers if they get enslaved.

B.P.R.D.: War on Frogs #2

We follow a small squad of soldiers from the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense as they try to track some “frogs” — powerful supernatural froglike monsters that the Bureau takes a special interest in wiping out. Unfortunately, the squad keeps losing members, one by one, as the frogs use the darkness and cramped quarters aboard a derelict ship, to pick people off when no one’s looking. Will any of the soldiers survive to get rid of the frogs? Spoiler: Probably not.

Verdict: Thumbs up, but still so, so, so grim. And I think this is the last segment of this story, so it just ends on a really, really pessimistic note.