Green Lantern Corps #10 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Fernando Pasarin (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Gabe Eltaeb (colors)

The Story: Generally, it’s not a good idea for prosecutors and judges to be one and the same.

The Review: I think I’ve said this before about a couple characters, but the reserved, purposeful type of people can be difficult to connect to.  Let’s not mince words here; most of us are impulsive, confrontational, part-time morons.  We like to stand out somewhere in the spotlight, rather than linger in the shadows.  We flail around, making a ruckus, and get a lot of attention, while the reserved, purposeful people actually make the sacrifices to get the job done.

John Stewart easily lands in this category.  Think about it.  He’s an architect, so the whole of his work involves not only having a vision of his end product, but figuring out the means to make it come to be—and ultimately, people will admire the results more than the work or worker that goes into it.  He’s also a soldier, so his instinct is to think through even the most chaotic situation before making a move, and he knows when to lay down his life for the greater good.

Green Lantern Corps #5 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Fernando Pasarin (artist), Scott Hanna (inker), Gabe Eltaeb (colorist)

The Story: For fast, easy disposal of mortal enemies, send ‘em to the Mean Machine!

The Review: The best part about a piece of serial fiction, one that can go on indefinitely, is the opportunity to build and flesh out a world, letting it grow into something you can become nearly as intimate with as the life you live.  So it’s amazing how many comic book series I’ve read where a whole year passes and, aside from the random villains who wander in and occupy the hero for an issue or so, the writer does little to expand the title beyond its star.

Tomasi does not do this.  His opening story arc stretches across the vast playing field of the Green Lantern universe, involving handfuls of planets, a variety of organizations and races, and an ever-growing roster of characters.  It takes a deft hand to manage all these elements and integrates them into a cohesive story, one where each of them gets an important role, but Tomasi juggles them all, rarely missing a beat.

As if the pretty sizable cast isn’t enough, Tomasi brings in a fair number of beloved featured players, all of whom he writes as credibly as the leads.  Former regular Kilowog gets a brief yet fun appearance (him yelling at new recruits never gets old), and Salaak once again plays the crusty downer, hassling Guy for breaking protocols as he attempts to spirit away several Sinestro Corpsmen for his master plan to defeat the Keepers.

In this case, it doesn’t take too long for Guy to appeal to Salaak’s better self, since he brings up a topic the four-armed alien easily bristles at nowadays: the treachery of the Guardians.  In the last five years or so, we’ve learned about one dark secret of theirs after another, and now we have yet another one involving the Keepers, who devoted their lives under the Guardians’ employ for the sake of attaining prosperity for their homeworld, only to have it wrenched away for no apparent reason.  Seems like a pretty good reason for resentment to me.

That gives them no excuse for taking revenge on the Corps, however, particularly by torturing John Stewart and the other captive Lanterns for information to break through Oa’s defenses.  Guy has asserted himself so much into the story that it’s it’s nice to see him being a hero in his own, tight-jawed way.  Plus, the fact he and the other Lanterns withstand the Keepers’ torture so valiantly is a nice parallel to Guy’s futile attempts to make his own prisoner Keeper talk.

Green Lantern Corps #4 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Fernando Pasarin (penciller), Scott Hanna (inker), Gabe Eltaeb (colorist)

The Story: Wanted: a suitable candidate to be good cop to Guy Gardner’s bad cop.

The Review: With all these different teams and organizations and forces running around the DCU, with all their various agendas and missions, you’d expect there to be a tremendous about of overlap among them, so it’s kind of a wonder that crossovers don’t happen more often in these comics.  It’s understandable, though; writers don’t always want to interfere with their peers’ projects or establish things their fellows will have to be responsible for.

But when a writer does make an effort to enforce a shared universe, the results can be quite thrilling, like Tomasi’s use of Martian Manhunter in this issue.  The green man’s appearance can’t come at a better time, as Guy Gardner makes little headway in interrogating his captive.  Even after stripping the enemy’s armor and getting some face-time, Guy and Salaak’s “good cop, bad cop routine” goes nowhere, as even the Guardians have zero data on their prisoner.

We don’t get to see how Guy plans to execute on that threat, but we do get the entrance of J’onn J’onzz instead.  Interestingly, Guy and J’onn act as strangers to each other (making you wonder what this means for J’onn’s League membership, as hinted in Stormwatch #1), and there’s even a simmering hostility between them.  Tomasi makes logical sense out this, however, as he has J’onn express his particular grudge against Green Lanterns.  Guy scoffs, “No one’s from Mars.”  J’onn replies, “It was not always that way.  Where was your…Corps when Mars needed you?”

Green Lantern Corps #3 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Geraldo Borges (penciller), Scott Hanna (inker), Gabe Eltaeb (colorist)

The Story: With the Green Lantern Corps, you’ll learn all about the importance of teamwork!

The Review: While diversity is something we all like to promote in theory, the fact is anytime you have a lot of people with diverse backgrounds all together in the same place, you’re going to have conflict.  The Green Lantern Corps serves as a perfect example.  In the last five or so years alone this intergalactic police force has had major upsets within their system and plenty of strife among members and factions in between.

At the end of the day, though, the Corps stands together, and this issue displays that pretty positively.  When Guy Gardner calls in an S.O.S., good ol’ Salaak, despite his crusty devotion to protocol, sends over thirty Lanterns to their aid.  As he wisely notes, “If Gardner’s requesting assistance, the situation is dire.”

While all the Lanterns risk life and limb on this rescue mission, a few go above and beyond the call of duty.  Teleporting has always been one of the “advanced” skills in the green power ring set, and Lantern Porter manages to whisk himself but a whole cavalry of corpsmen across light-years—twice.  He pays a terrific price for the effort, however, and you can’t help feeling for the guy when he whispers exhaustedly, “Please…tell me the truth…is everyone all right…?”

It’s a credit to Tomasi’s character writing that he can get you to empathize so quickly with a brand-new character such that you actually miss him by the end of the issue.  But he really needs to focus that skill into building up a core cast we can really get attached to.  While he’s done an admirable job giving the non-human Lanterns some strong moments, they’ve still mostly acted in reaction to Guy and John, who continue to drive nearly all the important points of the plot.