Green Lantern #33 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (writer), Billy Tan (penciller), Rob Hunter with Batt and Jaime Mendoza (inkers), Alex Sinclair (colorist)

The Story: “Remember being young and not knowing the universe can end?” “Barely. Lately all the universe does is almost end.”

The Review: “Uprising” has been a great boon to Green Lantern, providing a well written and engaging crossover for the Corps. Without an annual to cap things off, as has been the case with other recent Green Lantern crossovers, this issue seemingly marks the end of Hal Jordan’s involvement in the Durlan War. Unfortunately it seems as though he’s going out not with a bang, but with a whimper.

As the Durlans assemble on Zezzen, Hal and the Corps make one final stand, but I never expected it to be such a literal one. Indeed, much of the climactic battle is literally the Corps making a wall. It is, of course, a reasonable strategy but narratively it lacks a feeling of excitement or escalation.

Hal and the Durlan Elder are both pretty cool this issue, but their actions can’t live up to their bluster. “Your simple stratagems cannot outwit me. My mind has spanned millennia,” the Elder sneers late in the fight and I find myself wanting to believe him. Nevertheless, Hal’s response – “I don’t have to be a genius to see that one plus one equals- –you’re screwed” – doesn’t exactly do credit to either of them.

It’s actually kind of interesting; Hal Jordan is one of the more straightforward heroes of the DC Universe. He’s not known for being a brilliant strategist, just a sincere and courageous airman. I kind of like that he’s finding ways to win military campaigns without being forced into the mold of other heroes, but it feels like Venditti could have conceived a scenario that would have played to Hal’s strengths more. And that’s without considering the theme of Hal having to be more thoughtful and responsible as Corps Leader that’s been central to much of Venditti’s run.

Green Lantern #32 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (writer), Billy Tan (penciler), Rob Hunter with Jaime Mendoza (inkers), Tony Avina (colorist)

The Story: The Durlans discover that the cultural melting pot doesn’t interest them half as much as a culture living in a melting pot.

The Review: With Guardians of the Galaxy swiftly approaching, there’s really no denying the power of Marvel’s cosmic universe. Space has been the place to be for Marvel’s cult hits for years, from Nova to Runaways to Captain Marvel. Despite some of their biggest characters hailing from space, DC’s cosmic stories have lagged behind in recent years. Certainly there have been gems, but the rich intergalactic world building of the Silver Age has fallen largely by the wayside. This issue is yet another step on the path to correcting this.

Though there’s definitely some Lantern action in this issue, the real attraction is the interplay between the rapidly fracturing anti-Lantern coalition. I suppose it’s not surprising, given the consistently strong writing that Robert Venditti has brought to the Corps’ adversaries, but this month they really get the screen time such writing deserves.

Green Lantern #31 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (writer), Billy Tan (penciller), Rob Hunter (inker), Alex Sinclair (colorist)

The Story: A Durlan is everthing. A Durlan is everywhere…

The Review: I’ve generally enjoyed Robert Venditti’s run on Green Lantern, however I must admit that there has been something off about it that I’ve been struggling to put my finger on. Is it the balance between internal Lantern matters and the greater universe? Is it decompression? Event fatigue? The needs of the issues vs. that of the overarching story? Perhaps a bit of all of them but, regardless, this feeling of being not quite right has been a leach on the story. I’m honestly quite impressed at how Venditti has handled the nigh impossible task of following Geoff Johns’ franchise revitalizing epic, but the past year has been one of ups and downs – has it really been a year already? Still it’s all been leading up to this…

With this issue the long simmering Lantern-Durlan war enters a new phase. I don’t know if Venditti was biding his time until “Uprising” began or simply felt that he had lots of set up to do, but either way this is a big step up for the series. I mentioned last month that Green Lantern seemed to reset every month, starting from the same status quo without a sense of building tension. Well, in addition to picking up fairly directly from the impressive issue #30, this issue really feels like a shift in the book’s dynamic. Betrayals are revealed, mysteries discovered, and character tested.

One thing that’s interesting to compare between Johns and Venditti are their moments of apotheosis. While these moments in Venditti’s run lack something of the ‘hell yeah’ quality of Johns’, it’s worth mentioning that the latter’s often felt like the climax of an argument one held with oneself; not so in Venditti’s stories. The universe doesn’t justify or disavow Hal Jordan in this issue and, while he has a moment of triumph, there is the sense that the other shoe could still drop. It’s an interesting and sincere look at a man like Jordan, who’s used to being right. As a Lantern he could make do on the strength of his beliefs, as Corps Leader he’ll be judged on their content as well, and he won’t discover the verdict till it’s all over.

Legion of Super-Heroes #10 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Wayne Faucher (artists), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: Family, the ties that bind…and gag.  Chameleon Boy finds to his regret that having a rich aunt isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Review: Before I get to the specifics of this issue, I think it’s important I stake my claim as to why I think this series generally has been so unsatisfying to me so far.

I’m not a longtime Legion reader.  I started when Jim Shooter, a veteran Legion writer, took over the “Three”-boot Legion.  After I fell in love with the series, I read some of the biggest stories from past Legions, just to get myself up to speed.  Those stories were great, but they only made me happier to read the new adventures of a fresh Legion.  I was disappointed when DC chose to bring back the Silver Age team, but since I considered myself a Legion fan, I gave it a shot.

To me, the current Levitz legion reads much far too much like his run from the eighties.  It has all the stylistic qualities of overemotional, explicit dialogue and exposition that may have been the rage back then, but now just seem outdated and exaggerated.  Now, you have to remember that Shooter wrote and worked in the same period as Levitz, but his “Three”-boot scripts read as fresh and contemporary as any other title on the stands at the time.

Of course, the problem doesn’t lie entirely with Levitz’s writing.  You have to consider that this Legion is no longer a team of fresh-faced youths.  They aren’t so much the Teen Titans of the future anymore, but the Justice League—but considering how the current Justice League has so many young’uns on the team, this Legion feels even older than that.  I wrote in my first review of this series that it feels like the bulk of this Legion’s great tales have already passed; I have no reason to change that opinion.

Legion of Super-Heroes #9 – Review

By: Paul Levitz (writer), Yildiray Cinar & Wayne Faucher (artists), Hi-Fi (colorist)

The Story: Brainiac 5 and Chameleon Boy hit up Durla for some new leads to the assassinations on the United Planets Council, while Tyroc and Timber Wolf try to prevent more deaths.

The Review: The Legion’s massive cast tends to pose a lot of difficulties for writers.  For one thing, it takes a lot of effort to give each Legionnaire a fair chance in the spotlight.  For another, keeping track of all their different personalities and backgrounds in the context of whatever storyline they’re caught up in can be a taxing juggling act.  Then there’s the obstacle of dreaming up a mission/opponent big enough to challenge for the two dozen or so members.

Paul Levitz has the expertise to handle all three of these problems, but he doesn’t do so with much inspiration.  This Durlan plot to assassinate the UP council just doesn’t have much teeth to it.  Some of the missing bite comes from how unthreatening the assassins have been portrayed so far.  They’re quite lousy at assassinating people; across three issues, they’ve only managed to kill off two individuals, one of which had almost no importance attached whatsoever.  If there’s a bigger mastermind behind all this, let’s hope he or she (or it—we’re dealing with Durlans here, after all) shows up soon, because the henchmen aren’t really selling.

There’s little reason to hope more formidable opponents will pop up anytime soon, considering the sluggish pace Legion has now.  By the end of the issue, all you’re left looking forward to is a visit to Chameleon Boy’s aunt, who may or may not be directly or indirectly connected to the Durlan conspiracy.  That’s the kind of stakes the Legion deals with now.  Like Timber Wolf says, “We’re Legionnaires—not nursemaids!”  Quite right—shouldn’t they be out preventing galactic war, or trying to stop an invasive species of hyper-flies from eating the time-space continuum, instead of mostly waiting around for an opportunity to thwart some raging shapeshifters for the umpteenth time?