Green Lantern Corps #60 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Tyler Kirkham (penciller), Batt (inker), Rod Reis & Nei Ruffino (colorists)

The Story: That’s it—I’m finishing this, Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope style!

The Review: In my review of #58 of this title, I mentioned Bedard can usually be relied upon to write just about one character credibly, that character being Ganthet.  In #59, I suspected that while Geoff Johns will get to write all the truly impacting parts of this storyline, Bedard will be relegated to getting us through the background action with the secondary cast.  Both these points come into play to make this issue the weakest of this arc and this series overall.

What you get is the same event repeated over and over: Kyle and John try to make their new rings (Blue and Indigo respectively) do something productive, failing at every turn.  It definitely shows how under-developed the other corps’ powers are, none of them being nearly as productive as the GLC’s.  In fact, Kyle’s blue ring just makes everything worse, and John winds up a de facto Green Lantern anyway since that’s practically the only energy he channels.

Most of this issue really feels like Bedard trying out every idea he can think of to kill time before he can get to his big ending.  It almost feels as if he has such a limited idea of how the other corps’ powers work that he tries to play around with them through Kyle and John, which might explain the extraordinary leaps of logic they take in their experiments: “If blue rings can heal wounds, maybe mine can restore Mogo’s mind.”

Green Lantern Corps #59 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Tyler Kirkham (penciller), Batt (inker), Nei Ruffino & Rob Reis (colorists)

The Story: Things are getting crazy at the GLC—maybe it’s time for a job transfer?

The Review: The Green Lantern universe has really expanded its mythology in the last few years, with the pinnacle undoubtedly being the creation of six other colored, space-faring corps.  As fun and organic as the idea may have seemed at first, these new groups haven’t really sold themselves as equals to the Greens, with the possible exception of the Sinestro Corps.  Not only do they lack history, even the fundamental ideas of what they stand for are vague at best.

This issue points out these shortcomings even as it attempts to use the powers of the other corps to inject new energy into the plot.  Head honcho Hal takes the most useful yellow ring for himself while the others get the gimmicky remainders: Kyle finds himself involuntarily boosting the powers of the other Green Lanterns (who are trying to kill them); John unsuccessfully tries to siphon his pal’s energies; and Guy leaks corrosive blood all over the place.

If you’ve followed any of the GL titles at all recently, these tricks aren’t anything new, though there’s an endearingly pathetic humor in watching the guys try to figure their way through them.  Maybe Bedard will let them founder with their newly acquired powers for a while before letting them rip loose in the next issue—at least, that’s the only thing you can hope for, as this issue turns out a bust, substance-wise.

While this week’s Green Lantern features the actual moment where the guys induct themselves into their parallel corps, Bedard gets relegated to showing the growing pains of their new colors.  Nothing really pivotal happens in this title, except for the arrival of a planet-sized wrinkle to their plans in the final pages—and the fallout from that will play out in the next title in line for this crossover.

Green Lantern #51 – Review

by Geoff Johns (writer), Doug Mahnke (art), Randy Mayor (colors), and Rob Leigh (letters)

The Story: Parallax returns to battle the Black Lantern Spectre.

What’s Good: This is a really, really fun issue.  A lot of this is thanks to the twists and turns that Johns provides with the emotional spectrum.  One such twist, involving the Spectre and Atrocitus, is particularly well-played and is, at least for a moment, absolutely jaw-dropping in a “why didn’t I think of that” kind of way.

Then there’s the real star of the issue, Parallax.  Johns writes the character as well as he ever did, sounding absolutely monstrous with just the right amount of sneer.  The great thing about Parallax’s presence though is how Johns essentially writes the character as if he was pulled out of a timewarp from back issues.  Suddenly the old Spectre/Parallax conflict takes centre stage, as the two characters almost forget the Blackest Night around them.  The total disconnect of these two characters, Parallax in particular, from their current surroundings in favour of their old animosity feels clever and a little surreal, as though things are put on hold.

Another highlight is the grappling between Lex Luthor and Larfleeze that we all knew was inevitable.  Suffice it to say, the dynamic between the two is about as much fun as expected.  Hearing Luthor dress down, contemptuously deride, and belittle Larfleeze is comic gold, particularly since the latter never seems to really understand Luthor.

Then there’s Dough Mahnke’s artwork.  This issue is visually awesome.  The level of detail Mahnke manages to pack into the book while still completely maintaining traditional comic sensibilities is truly a sight to behold.  He’s able to pack a great deal onto the page while never having it become overwhelming, while also delivering the massive, iconic images that make a comic like Green Lantern great.  Truly, his Spectre looks amazing and his Parallax looks about as insidious as I can imagine a character being.

It also bears being said that this issue is the first to give us some real hints as to where Johns intends Green Lantern to go after Blackest Night, as he plants some very ominous seeds, one involving Atrocitus and another regarding Parallax’s fate.

Green Lantern #42- Review

Geoff Johns (writer), Philip Tan and Eddy Barrows (pencils) Jonathan Glapion and Ruy Jose’ (inks), Nei Ruffino and Rod Reis (color)

The Story: The battle between the Orange Lanterns and the Green FINALLY concludes. Additionally, Hal finds something to hope for and activates the blue ring while the Guardians do some super shady double-dealing with Larfreeze. Meanwhile sector 666 gets even more interesting and reveals its important, if not transparently expected, connection to Darkest Night.

What’s Good: This is the best installment in the disappointingly tepid Agent Orange arc.  I gotta give Johns credit in how he naturally built up the “War of Light”, despite the sloppy execution. There are very interesting battles waging or about to be waged in the Lantern universe outside of the impeding threat of Black Lanterns.

As I’ve said in my previous reviews of Lantern books, the developments and characters hanging out in sector 666 are the most fascinating part of this “epic” story so far. Seriously, even though those two lanterns are most likely dead-meat, literally,  I would like to see a few stories just about their team-up.

The whole scenario when Hal lost the Blue Ring was good (that’s what I “hoped for”) and his vision at the end of this scene was very interesting. Many engaging things can come from this new development. Additionally, Johns effectively painted the Guardians as the sleeze of the DCU superhero community. I loved the way Johns made me hate them.

What’s Not So Good: The art. Seriously. This is a marquee title in the DC line-up and it looks like it was drawn with a carpenter’s pencil. And sometimes, curiously, with an airbrush. Obviously, not a good recipe here. I know that Philip Tan is a better artist than this and I have no idea what the reason for this outing is here.

Okay, last month my most annoying comic book moment was when Spidey and Wolverine trashed Bush and fist bumped in Amazing Spider-Man. This month’s is Hal turning into a…Orange Lantern! So. Bad. What was the point of this? It was so expected and ridiculous that I assumed Johns would avoid this move like a plague. But, no, oh no. Johns had to do it. He had to write Hal as every lantern possible. Prediction: Hal will be in drag as a Star Sapphire right after he dies and comes back as a Black Lantern.

Conclusion: Overall, this was a decent read and hopefully this momentum will filter into Blackest Night. But, it is great to move on from this Orange Lantern story. I should have known it was going to be a bumpy road when I had to look up “avarice” in the dictionary. I knew what it meant, sort of, but its not really part of modern vernacular. Anyway, basing a character on a fairly obtuse word isn’t usually going to pan out well.

Grade: B

-Rob G.

Green Lantern #37 – Review

By Geoff Johns (writer), Ivan Reis (artist), Oclair Albert & Julio Ferreira (inkers), Nei Ruffino (colors)

While Grant Morrison and Brian Michael Bendis fight furiously over whose “Event Story” is the bigger exercise in pretentious masturbation, Geoff Johns quietly toils away on Green Lantern, building on the fantastic mythology he first made famous in “Rebirth” and “Sinestro Corps War.” For the record, I don’t think his efforts during this time are receiving nearly as much recognition as they should, because what he’s doing on this title is nothing less than spectacular entertainment and grand storytelling on a level that, over time, will put Morrison and Bendis to shame.

There is an incredible element to Johns’ stories that I think is often overlooked, a feeling that every issue has been necessary, moving us along to greater ideas and plots that we need to understand before finally being cast into the upcoming summer blockbuster, “The Blackest Night.” Honestly, I am completely absorbed with these newly colored Corps, and I am devouring everything I can on who they are, what they believe in, and how they came to be. With that said, I think that is a true sign of what an outstanding job Johns has done thus far on orchestrating this epic of a story.  In one comic, Johns has members of the Green, Red, Yellow, and Blue Lanterns all interacting with each other, trying to achieve the various mandates that each Corps believes in.  It is is this one issue, we are witnesses to broad vistas of violence and compassion, and harmony and rage.  Imagine what we’ll see when the other three Lantern Corps show up.  Johns surely has us eagerly anticipating the events when all these pieces of the story finally fall into place and “The Blackest Night” comes around.

If I have one complaint, it’s that this issue was unfairly slapped with the “Faces of Evil” branding, which in my opinion has thus far proven to be a large disappointment.  Green Lantern has proven itself to be an outstanding title that can stand on its own without needing to be tethered to such pointless marketing schemes.  If you’ve been hearing the hype around this title, I want to assure you that you can believe in it.  Go, pick it up!

Grade: A

-Tony Rakittke