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.
Filed under: DC Comics, Other, Reviews | Tagged: Blackest Night, Blue Lanterns, Comic Book Reviews, comic books, DC Reviews, Eddy Barrows, Geoff Johns, Green Lantern, Green Lantern #42, Green Lantern #42- Review, Jonathan Glapion, Nei Ruffino, Orange Lanterns, Philip Tan, rod reis, ruy jose', Weekly Comic Book Review | 2 Comments »
Weekly Comic Book Review 