About Heroes

Author: Ron Marz
Penciler: Adriana Melo
Inker: Marlo Alquiza
Color: Jason Wright

If you've heard the podcasts we've done since the Sinestro Corps story line started, you know how we feel about it. We are loving it! Personally I can't wait for each chapter to unfold and get excited when I see it in my stash of comics. When this one shot was announced and the name Ron Marz was attached to the project, I got as giddy as a schoolgirl during a Sadie Hawkins dance.

Marz is the man that introduced us to Kyle and his stories are usually pretty tight. Although his Ion maxiseries was decompressed it was still a fun story. Every part of this story takes place inside of Kyle's psychic plane. There are flashbacks about how Kyle is afraid of letting people down because of all the women he knew that passed away or killed because he couldn't save them. We see the women in Kyle's life from poor refrigerator stuffed Alex to Donna Troy and Jade and then to his mom that was killed by Sinestro. Kyle confronts the Parallax and is defeated, but rises again and again not giving up. He ends up finding hope in a painting that hung in his house that was painted by his mother. Ohh yeah and he stabs Parallax in the eye with a pencil, which goes to show you that omnipotent evil beings can be intimidated by the mighty pencil!

I have mixed feelings about this book because I was expecting more out of this story than what I was given, but I also enjoyed the psychological aspect. Marz does a great dissection of Rayner's character here by allowing the character to face his own fears while attempting to combat the Parallax entity within his own mind. At least we know now that Kyle is still in there somewhere trying to fight his way loose from the Parallax and by the end of the issue we see hope. This is of course no biggie since Kyle is now part of the Search for Ray Palmer cast and we know he makes it out somehow. It is definitely not as action-packed as the other Sinestro Corps books have been, but at times it was still engaging. To be honest with you it really reminded me of an episode of Bleach, where Ichigo confronts his inner demons (white Ichigo) in a psychic plane created by his sword, Zangetsu....go read or watch this phenomenal series.

I have to say that I'm not very familiar with Adriana Melo, but her work reminds me of Dale Eaglesham. She has a great sense of detail, shows incredible range in this issue, and finds a fantastic balance between action and emotion. It was a nice breather between all the cosmic destruction that is taken place in all the other books, but it kind of makes me worry about how the other Sinestro Corps one shots will be handled.
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