----

Oh my days, I’m so close to having completed this, erm, daily challenge now. I'm going to keep this one brief too, since I'm sure y'all have read this awesome little tale. If not, then go and rectify that. Now?

Anyway, today’s choice got me thinking for a bit, and left me stumped for a while. But then, on a second thought, a certain character sprung to mind. Larfleeze! I love Larfleeze, and this was his proper introduction into the Green Lantern line of books. From the days before the “Blackest Night”, this is when Geoff Johns was finalising his take on the emotional spectrum. And well, the introduction of Agent Orange was pure awesome.

But saying that, this storyline isn’t all about how darn awesome Larfleeze is. This storyline introduced the Orange light as being the power of avarice, and had plenty of awesome character moments throughout the four issue storyline. Taking place after Saint Walker had rescued Hal Jordan from the Red Lantern Corps, our hero was adorned with a Blue ring which he just couldn’t remove, which led to plenty of amusing moments as the ring continually asked him what he hoped for.

----

Whilst Jaime may currently have a new ongoing series (which is due for cancellation, bah), it just quite hasn’t managed to reach the heights of his first ongoing series. Honestly, it has been lacking that little something, and I think it could just be that it is this overall storyline which ran through the original series for a few years.

“End Game” was the culmination of quite a few issues of story for Blue Beetle, seeing Jaime really come into his own as a hero, effectively ending the slow invasion of the Reach (which admittedly kind of sped up a bit at the end). Seemingly alone in his struggle, this concluding story saw Jaime realise that he wasn’t alone – in fact, he was far from it, with his friends and family all there to support him, along with his newfound friends in the Superhuman community, who he had made during his short career.

This was a really nice story, which didn’t just explore Jaime’s relationships with his friends, but also with the scarab itself – as it developed its own personality, and chose to side with Jaime against the invading forces of the Reach.

——

I now remember why I was so easily put off continuing this, despite attempting a couple of revivals since I got my new laptop. Doctor Strange is why. He is not a character who really has an awful lot of good stories which spring to mind when I think of him, with the character mostly being associated with the New Avengers for me.

For some reason, I didn’t enjoy Busiek’s Defenders, but I did find The Order to be a good read. Essentially a spin-off from Defenders, this title so the original Defenders – Doctor Strange, the Hulk, Namor and the Silver Surfer go through some strange transformation, where the group comes to believe that the best way to protect the world is to conquer it. This alarms the other members of the Defenders, who soon seek to try and prevent the Order from bringing their plans to fruition.

----

I’m somewhat cheating with this choice, since technically, I should be going for the Teen Titans, and not just the plain ‘ol Titans. However, I don’t think I have ever read any Teen Titans stuff, so if I was picking something for them – this choice would suck.

My reading Titans wise is hardly much better to be honest, since JLA/Titans is the only storyline where they have featured prominently that I have read. Fortunately, it is a pretty nifty story then (although not everyone agrees apparently…)!

“The Technis Imperative” revolved around the return of Vic Stone to Earth, after having departed some time previously as an integrated part of the Technis. As part of the collective, his personality is dormant however, with only his desire to be reunited with his old friends shining through – leading to their kidnapping and implanting into virtual reality to keep them happy. His old friends are of course freed by a JLA and newly formed Titans partnership – before the two clash over whether Vic is beyond help, or worth saving.

----

I must confess, I haven’t read as much material featuring Dick Grayson as I should have. Apart from a few appearances in JLA, the bulk of the stuff I have read featuring the original Robin really is when he stepped up to claim the mantle of the Bat after Bruce’s disappearance.

Out of all those stories, the one which still stands out is the opening storyline on Morrison’s Batman and Robin title (a series I appear to using a fair bit actually…). Within the opening six issues, Morrison established Dick Grayson as the new Batman, and as you would expect, it was a whole different reading experience with Dick behind the cowl. I really enjoyed the idea of him finally having graduated to take over the role of the mentor, with Damian Wayne being his Robin – and I especially enjoyed the reversed dynamic, of Batman being the lighter character of the two.

----

Cable is a tough character for me to pick a favourite story for. Despite having read stories featuring him in X-Men, the bulk of Cable-related material which I have read is the excellent Cable & Deadpool series, which kind of focused more on Deadpool overall. (I do have the first three collected editions of the 2008 Cable series, but they are yet to be read…)

“The Burnt Offering” was probably one of the more Cable centric storylines of the series, seeing him reach the peak of his powers after having successfully suppressed the techno-organic virus which he had long suffered from. Having reached new heights power wise, Cable decides to set an example and lead the world to a bright new future, by acting both decisively and idealistically, trying to force people to adapt to living in a peaceful world.

This of course alarms a lot of people, seeing Nick Fury, the X-Men and countless heroes attempting to neutralise Cable, fearful of the power he now holds. It all leads to an epic battle scene on Providence, the floating island which Cable had crafted as the base of this utopian new future, where the Silver Surfer joins the fray to try and make Cable see sense.