Flashpoint: Hal Jordan #2 – Review

By: Adam Schlagman (writer), Cliff Richards (artist), Allen Passalaqua (colorist)

The Story: Snakes and planes!

The Review: Last issue churned out so little noteworthy material that it produced my shortest review on record.  I’m usually never at a loss of what to say, but when the story gives so much plot and scenery that’s been done before without a new take on it, talking about it seems a waste of time.  Even to the final panel of the issue, Schlagman gave us a tale that bore no reflection on the changes of Flashpoint, and could simply have been a watered-down Hal Jordan origin story.

This time around, Schlagman strives to be a little more true to the new reality, but not in a very coherent way.  While Ferris Aircraft has traditionally had a major role with the US military, it doesn’t make any sense they’d have full access to Abin Sur’s spacecraft to reverse engineer its tech with their own aircrafts, especially considering the ultra-secrecy with which the military has taken with other extraterrestrials (see Flashpoint: Project Superman #2).

But logical holes abound this issue.  Hector Hammond raves about Hal’s friendship with Abin, “We can’t trust that freakish extraterrestrial…!  Who knows what secrets he’s stealing from us.”  The fact he can say this with a straight face and absolute sincerity at the same time he takes Abin’s ship apart for its advanced systems is nonsense enough, but you also have to wonder what possible secrets can prove to be of any value to a race several dozen degrees superior to our own.

Flashpoint: Hal Jordan #1 – Review

By: Adam Schlagman (writer), Ben Oliver (artist), Allen Passalqua (colorist)

The Story: It’s Hal Jordan’s life—we just live in it.

The Review: With Hal Jordan, it’s easy to get a grasp on the man under the ring: a daredevil pilot with cockiness coming through the wazoo, but somewhat redeemed by his hopelessly devoted yet constantly resisted love for boss Carol Ferris.  He’s stayed pretty true to this characterization even through a couple origin rewrites, although now he also comes with some lingering daddy issues (which seem quite the rage among male heroes nowadays).

All of these elements get played up rather shallowly in the Green Lantern film, and here Schlagman offers a rendition of Hal’s early days that actually stays very close to the movie’s portrayal in almost every way.  He even includes a scene of Carol and the other employees of Ferris Air berating Hal for destroying their state-of-the-art aircraft and thus losing government funding, which seems a petty concern considering he does it to save his and Carol’s lives.

In fact, the story plays out so close to the bone of Hal’s original continuity that the whole issue, without exception, could work as a typical Green Lantern origin story.  The closest thing you get to a Flashpoint tidbit is a scene where some telepathic, King-Shark-type character latches onto Hal’s plane and vows to chomp on some air-breathers in the name of Atlantis, or something.  But since Hal dispatches of the creature quickly in spectacular fashion, nothing ever comes of it.

Green Lantern – Movie Review

The Review: Green Lantern isn’t really a property that opens itself up to particularly provocative themes or questions, or at least, most people don’t tend to view it as such.  As a space opera with a whole universe for its setting, its spirit is almost purely adventurous.  Even when its ideas reach dizzying heights of creativity, they rarely attain a level of sophistication or intellectual thought as many other comic book mythoi have done.

With that in mind, the film adaptation achieves great success in the action department.  Warner Bros. has invested a lot of money into the imagery of the movie, and it shows.  The effects are wildly dazzling and, rest assured, do credit to the most imaginative, potent weapon in the universe.  Every fight scene runs at a high pace, occasionally moving a little too fast, cutting the sequence short before the tension reaches a satisfying climax.

You’ll also find it fairly easy to get caught up in the film’s events, as you rarely dwell in any one scene for very long.  The stream of back-and-forth cutting between what’s happening with Hal Jordan and what’s happening elsewhere (Sinestro and the Guardians’ concern over Parallax, Hector Hammond’s encounter with Abin Sur’s dead body and his subsequent transforming infection), keep you mostly intent and engaged.

But the film immediately does itself a disservice by trying to include both a more accessible, ground-based villain in Hector and the world-endangering, more conceptual Parallax.  As a result, you’re forced to constantly switch your attention from one to the other, never sticking with either long enough to really feel their threat to the characters.

It’s hard to tell which villain would’ve made the better focus.  Hector has the most relevance to Hal’s personal conflicts, but his connections to Hal and Carol get revealed rather late in the film, and never get explored beyond a predictable, futile love triangle among the three.  On the other hand, Parallax has the most potential to give Hal a reason to work with the Corps and a truly epic first mission, which also get grievously truncated.  In movie time, Hal spends all of ten minutes training with Tomar-Re, Kilowog, and Sinestro, scenes which sold so well in spite of their briefness that they should have been expanded and made more integral to the story at large.

Instead, the film unwisely grounds Hal by concentrating almost obsessively on his inner fears, a theme emphasized ad infinitum until you feel almost insulted by the underestimation of your intelligence.  Certainly there’s a lot of drama to be had in his childhood trauma watching his father perish in a piloting accident, or his commitment-phobia with old friend Carol.  But the script never seems to take the time to explore these issues with any serious thought.

Green Lantern #57 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (writer), Doug Mahnke (artist), Christian Alamy, Tom Nguyen, Keith Champagne, Doug Mahnke (inkers), Randy Major with Gabe Eltaeb (colors)

The Story: What Happens in Las Vegas: Hector Hammond has swallowed the orange power lantern. The main power battery for the Star Sapphires is petering out. Carol Ferris has to trap the purple entity to power it.

What’s Good: Johns on a lantern title almost ensures that we’re going to learn some new and interesting subtlety about one of the colors of the power spectrum, or their bearers, or their rings. This issue is no exception. This issue is Carol’s story. She owned this book and took names, including Hal Jordan’s. Shoulda put a ring on it, Jordan! The solution Carol comes up with to fight the sapphire entity is interesting, creative and takes some guts, especially considering that not even her own Star Sapphires believe that she’s on the right track. Conflict. Suspense. Colored rings. Revelations about the power batteries and a surprise, twisty ending! What else do you want? Good on Johns!

Artwise, Doug Mahnke and his enormous inking posse never fail to deliver the bacon. The action is fast-paced and dynamic, especially the opening sequence with Hector Hammond trying to own Larfleeze like a fat kid on a cheese doodle. The faces, costumes, clothes, hair and environments are, for the most part, textured and detailed. The classic art superhero-fight greatness builds as the story progresses until the double-splash page climax, a shot which is well worth slowing your read over, especially Jordan’s face. You had your shot, buddy. Suck it up! The color work is necessarily good (for a story where a bunch of different power rings have to play against mood-hued backgrounds) and Randy Major and Gabe Eltaeb earn their pay. Panels dominated by passion purple, greedy yellow and everything Las Vegas set some intriguing color tones for the story.

Green Lantern #56 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (writer), Doug Mahnke (pencils), Christian Alamy, Tom Nguyen, Keith Champagne and Doug Mahnke (inkers)

The Story: The New Guardians, Chapter Four: A really creepy Hector Hammond is sprung from prison by an even creepier former guardian. In the meantime, Hal is trying to deal with Larfleeze, who is discovering the true meaning of Christmas. Why does Hal bother? Larfleeze has done something that interests Hal very much – he has trapped the entity of greed in his orange lantern. Hal might need access to that trick soon– for the other six entities. As always, there’s a complication…

What’s Good: Johns and Mahnke have delivered another fun ride full of characterization and surprises. The dialogue is crisp and relatively spare, considering the heavy conceptual lifting it has to do. Hal and Larfleeze and Hammond have distinct voices, interests and intents and that comes out in the writing. The humor and irony are equally good (Larfleeze contrasted against the concept of Santa Claus) and lighten the load for the heavier stuff that hits later on. Johns and Mahnke also use Hammond’s telepathic abilities to full dramatic effect to show us, in pictures only, a glimpse of Larfleeze’ past and motivations. It was a cool window to press my nose to and left me itching for other views of this fascinating, ultra-powerful, unstable muppet.