Rage is an emotion I, like all people, am not unfamiliar with. I have moments of rage from time to time, but its generally in check and nonviolent. When I think of rage though I immediately am drawn to an apartment I once visited that had a mini-fridge kicked into the Wall as though it was off set and designed to have just the door exposed. The culprit had come home after getting bad news from a significant other and indulged into an act of what was deemed "roid rage".

Any reasonable person wouldn't kick a min-fridge into a wall. There would be hours of repair to the wall and, as made clear by the boot print in the front of the fridge, there would be damage to the fridge. Judgement was clouded and rage took over. This kind of rage is a microcosm of the passionate unbridled rage that is the cornerstone of the Red Lanterns and the source of their power. Born out of the death of a civilization they are powered by the transgressions of the past and they vow revenge. If you kill someone unjustly the Red Lanterns will kill you back, harder and with no civility and they will probably kill anyone who gets in the way.

As a #1 issue "Red Lanterns #1" has to give the back story and get the new reader involved without bogging down the action with too many details. The books starts with an gruesome encounter featuring what could be considering the Red Lantern mascot, Dex-Starr the Cat. This blood thirsty feline burst on the scene to save a life and in the process scalp and maim a few evil doers. Dex-Starr is aided in this endeavour by Atrocitus, leader of the Red Lanterns and Devout owner of Dex-Starr. Atrocitus returns home and has an internal monologue about how he has lost his rage libid and thinks back on his origin and the genocide of his people at the hands of a rogue Guardian of the Universe. This serves not only as a vehicle to climb though the back story but also recharges his rage and allows him to spend the rest of the book gather his corp for the destiny he foresees. I thought this was great, as a new reader I could come in with next to zero knowledge of the Red Lantern and be able to learn all the pertinent details without actually having to start at the beginning.