Retro Review – (Title Hidden)

Today’s Retro Review is a somber one as we look at an issue chronicling the death of one of the great heroes in the DC Universe. A hero whose recent resurrection in Blackest Night #1 has made the event infinitely more horrifying and heart-wrenching. Do I speak of J’onn J’onnz, the beloved Martian Manhunter? No. How about Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man? No again. Friends and fellow enthusiasts, I speak of....

Ch’p! Yes Ch’p, the bushy tailed alien squirrel member of the Green Lantern Corps. The issue that we’re looking at is, of course, Green Lantern : Mosaic #2 where our hero meets his untimely passing due to a horrible accident.

While Ch’p is helping fellow Lantern Corps member John Stewart locate a villain who is destroying supply roads on Oa, he loses focus and forgets where he is for a moment…but long enough for tragedy to strike.

Ch’p is violently struck down by a speeding yellow truck in much the same way that his Earth cousins often meet their maker. A sad but quick ending for such a valiant rodent. Do we get a huge multi-issue leadup? A twisting and turning Morrisonian psychological breakdown before death? A public execution? Nope. We get a thundering SPLAT and then Ch’p lying in the street, harkening back to the issue’s foreshadowing title : Roadkill.

But death is not the ultimate end for this brave little Green Lantern. Recently showing up front and center (well left of center) in Blackest Night #1, Ch’p has been resurrected as a Black Lantern…overalls and all. I, for one, am dying to see Black Lantern Ch’p square off against either Krypto the Superdog or Dex-Starr the evil Red Lantern cat. Geoff Johns if you are reading my blog (and I know that you do) please give us fans the Furry Fight of the Century somewhere in your epic story.

Ch’p is back from the dead folks…and there is nothing worse than an angry zombie squirrel in overalls.