Green Lantern #66 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (writer), Doug Mahnke (penciller), Keith Champagne, Christian Alamy, Mark Irwin, Tom Nguyen (inkers), Randy Mayor (colorist)

The Story: Little blue midgets have never seemed so frightening.  No, not the Smurfs.

The Review: The Guardians of the Universe have had a large role in the Green Lantern mythos since the Silver Age, and plenty of the great stories of the series involved them in some way or another.  And yet, despite all the past history about them that has come to light in recent years, they remain rather enigmatic, their motivations unclear.  Perhaps it’s their disavowal of emotion (other than utter condescension, that is), but their goals always seem a bit obscure or suspect.

If nothing else, War of the Green Lanterns, by having Krona as a lead character, has cleared up some of the whys and wherefores of the Guardians became hobbit-sized, emotionless men and women.  Certainly, the unbalanced behavior of the possessed Guardians in this issue give weight to the idea that maybe it’s not such a good idea to have our universe’s watchers be too emotional (they definitely don’t know how to flirt: “Come closer.  Let me care for you.”).

But in a way, their inscrutable natures are precisely what make Krona a compelling villain for this storyline.  Once you look past his seemingly ruthless actions, his intentions have even a kind of pureness to them.  You don’t usually expect the typical villain to tell someone, “You will is strong…your heart is not.”  Actually, his philosophy of melding emotion with willpower makes him much more relatable than the Guardians he overthrows, and you can’t call him a dictator out for power when he’s so willing to share universal power with our very own heroes.

You also get some interesting revelations from Sinestro’s sojourn in the Book of the Black, where in his attempts to escape he encounters a crazed, semi-hysterical Indigo.  But then, Indigo isn’t really her name, and considering the major alteration in her previously evenhanded attitude, this seems to indicate she may have had a shadier past before being forced into the Indigo Tribe the way she did to William Hand, just as Hal suspected before.  It’s also notable that all the other trapped Lanterns are accounted for except Carol, implying she has a part left to play in this arc.

But mostly this issue gives you a brawl-fest pitting Yellow Lantern Hal and Red Lantern Guy versus the emotional entity-driven Guardians, which is pretty fun.  One thing Johns always does well, no matter what you may say about his overall storytelling, is deliver gripping action.  He never allows a moment for the characters to take a breather; they no sooner escape one scrape before another overtakes them.

Blackest Night #7 – Review

by Geoff Johns (writer), Ivan Reis (pencils), Oclair Albert & Joe Prado (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors), and Nick J. Napolitano (letters)

The Story: The nature of the white light of creation stands revealed.

What’s Good: How high can a single cliffhanger ending raise the overall experience of an entire issue?  That’s often a question I wonder when I write my reviews, but in the case of a comic like Blackest Night #7, the answer is “very, very high.”

The last few pages are guaranteed to make your jaw hit the floor.  This is, barring any sudden reversals, the biggest single development that I’ve read in a comic since Captain America got himself shot.  What makes the surprise most effective is that it is very close to the conclusion most readers saw coming since the start of Blackest Night.  In fact, leading up to the book’s final page, Johns seems to gesture towards this expected conclusion and then, seemingly out of nowhere, he hits a hard left and essentially sucker-punches the audience who were sure they had it all figured out.  Johns shows himself to be a master of playing with our emotions, and the whole episode is executed in an epic fashion that gave me chills.

While the ending of this issue is what defines it, that’s not to say that the rest of the comic isn’t solid as well.  Some of the newly deputized lanterns are a lot of fun.  Scarecrow in particular is just awesome, his insanity bubbling over into a sort of glee that is so contrary to his surroundings that you can’t help but enjoy his raving.  Lex Luthor, meanwhile, boils over in explosive fashion as the orange ring ends up removing his restraint and fully unleashing his worst characteristics.

Between Scarecrow and Lex, there’s a whole lot of chaos and seeing Scarecrow fight Luthor and Black Hand for attention in a comic brimming with massive characters and developments is a laugh, as in a fit of self-awareness, he screams “this is my moment.”  It’s a clever little moment, as  Johns makes literal the battle for the spotlight that often plagues comics like Blackest Night.

As far as the artwork goes, Ivan Reis continues to stake his claim to being the best artist in DC’s stable.  The sheer number of characters he’s able to cram into the page without sacrificing detail is ridiculous. Everything continually gives off the feeling of being barely contained.  There are a couple splash pages that will definitely catch breath and give pause and Reis’ work with the White Light in particular is alien, creative, and creepy while still awe-inspiring.