REVIEW: DC Mech #5

DC Mech #5 is out and shines its spotlight on the Green Lantern mech. Jon Stewart and Hal Jordan, along with Wally West’s Flash mech, enact their Hail Mary play to end Darkseid’s invasion in an homage to classic Flash/Green Lantern team ups throughout comics history.

Every cover this month showcases Green Lantern, starting with Baldemar Rivas. The standard cover is saturated in green hues with a powered up GL mech in the background. In the foreground is a really cool split image of Hal and John with Alan Scott’s symbol combining the two characters. Only using various shades of green, Rivas pulls off a powerful and catchy cover that’s a true testament to his craft.

Ricardo López Ortiz gives us a great dynamic variant of the GL mech transforming from starship to robot mode. Hal and Jon smashing a button on opposite upper corners really makes this piece feel like a production still from an anime. One of the many cool things about the GL Mech is its ability to alter modes and Ortiz really captures it well. 

Dan Mora’s variant is naturally the schematic for the Green Lantern mech. These covers continue to be a real treat with the uniqueness in which Mora displays each schematic. The Green Lantern version appears to be made of construct energy and reveals it was built by Ferris Spacecraft in conjunction with Alan Scott’s estate. 

Mora’s variants are so popular they get their own incentive variants! Enlarging the GL mech image to take up most the page and washing it in green makes for a great background for Mora’s Hal and Jon images to take center stage. 

Baldemar Rivas, with colorist Mike Spicer, bring this issue to life with action oriented panels and eye popping colors. Between an awesome GL oath sequence, B1-2AR-0 coming online, Superman donning his colors, and the debut of The Justice Squadron, there’s a lot happening in this issue and none of it feels jumbled or out of place. DC Mech #5 keeps up with the high octane pacing the rest of the series has offered yet, thanks to this art duo, doesn’t feel rushed. And as I briefly mentioned, Superman earns his colors this issue! Both pilot and mech get a nice blended look inspired by Superman’s classic and mech pilot suits. It’s really great to see how story elements can play out differently and still end with similar results. 

Kenny Porter, lettered by Tom Napolitano, crafts a stellar story full of highs and lows. Starting off with Flash and the Green Lanterns following through with their high risk plan from last issue, we get a lot of insight as to the partnership of Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart. It was revealed previously in the series that Alan Scott’s battery is used as the mechs engine, but this issue delves a little deeper into why Jon is the ring bearer. As with all good plans, things go awry and tragedy strikes just before the Green Lantern oath is recited in a manor akin to forming Voltron or a Power Ranger’s Megazord.

All is not lost as our heroes find common ground and come together as a team to retrieve their impatient comrades. Meanwhile Lex is debuting his latest creation in B1-2AR-0 which also doesn’t go according to plan as it gains sentience and departs with an overwhelming need to “complete mission”. This was an unexpected turn of events in issue #4 and it’ll be interesting to see what kind of wrench Bizarro throws into the workings of next issue. Finally, we’re introduced to The Justice Squadron mechs now re-enforced with Nth metal frames and ready to defend Earth from Darkseid’s invading fleet. 

DC Mech #5 continues to deliver a fast paced, mech genre anime inspired comic using the building blocks of the DCU in fascinating ways that still maintains the essence of the characters we know and love. This series may see it’s last issue next month but hopefully that won’t be the last time we get treated to this unique world within DC’s multiverse.