Green Lantern Corps #49 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Ardian Syaf (penciller), Vicente Cifuentes (inker)

The Story: Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns, Part 2: On the robot planet Grenda, things go pretty bad for Jon Stewart investigating the weird behavior of the Alpha Lanterns. In the meantime, Green Lanterns Ganthet, Soro and Kyle Rayner head out to Grenda to see what’s up. And most interestingly, there’s some activity on Qward around something that Boston Brand left behind during Brightest Day.

What’s Good: Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns is essentially a zombie story (not like Blackest Night or Necrosia) done in science fictional terms (but not like the Batgirl Flood arc). This is pretty cool in that the Green Lanterns, so used to throwing around their power, can have their power sucked away by the Alpha Lanterns. This makes the Alpha Lanterns a compelling and authentic opponent for the GLC. And this fits nicely into the mythos of the Green Lanterns, if you consider how well the Guardians’ last attempt at robotic servants (the Manhunters) worked out. In terms of pure writing, the dialogue was crisp and propelled the mystery-horror onward and the text boxes to tell us where the action was were effective and discreet.

The art chores were well done. The action was clear, the settings evoked a sense of wonder and the colors and shadowing matched the moods Bedard was writing. A few of my favorite images were (a) the panels on Qward, (b) the escaping lanterns blowing through the clouds and (c) the high altitude view of the lanterns looking down on Grenda. I thought some of the texture work on people’s faces and bodies was also quite well done, and along with the great settings, made for a visually satisfying read.

Green Lantern Corps #48 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Ardian Syaf (artist), Vicente Cifuentes (inker)

The Story: After ominously meeting in secret with Atrocitus and Guy Gardner, Ganthet tells his fellow guardians that he resigns from being any color of guardian and that he will permanently assume the duties of the green lantern of sector zero. In the meantime, something….odd is up with the Alpha Lanterns and the mystery of what’s happening on Stel’s homeworld deepens.

What’s Good: First off, the visuals. Wow. Vote Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes for regular artists of the GLC forever. They are freaking awesome in the level of gestural and facial detail. Bedard has written a great comic book, filled with mystery detail and growing suspense, but the art carries the feeling, the struggles and the inner demons, without a word of narrative required. Check out Ganthet’s eyes when he tells Atrocitus and Gardner his plan. Look at Ganthet forging his own battery and ring (which, in itself is an awesome visual sequence and fodder for countless hours of nerding out) – the splash page evokes the best elements of George Perez and Jerry Ordway in the flashy, gritty juxtaposition of body and energy. Ganthet (who obviously stole the show this issue), with his characteristic terseness, also comes off as the lone-wolf, maverick badass of the guardians and Bedard has written this perfectly. There isn’t a tin-noted phrase of dialogue. Bedard’s choice of settings also seems inspired to evoke a feeling of near-death and recovery. The lanterns fixing the city on Oa allowed for some moments of wonder that make any reader feel young again. What do you feel when Ganthet says “Most of these structures are barely a million years old”? All in all, the creative team is doing a fantastic job and should be kept together as long as possible.

Green Lantern Corps #47 – Review

by: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (art), Rebecca Buchman, Tom Nguyen, Keith Champagne & Mark Irwin (inkers)

The Story: Goodbye Darkness: The title says it all. This is the denouement of Blackest Night, the replanting of the trees in the Shire after the fall of Sauron. A lot of friends got hurt. A lot of friends are gone. Old relationships of trust were broken and new ones were made. Blackest Night was the near death experience for the Corps and this issue is about survivors.

What’s Good: If you’ve been following the Green Lantern corner of the DCU for a while, you care a lot about Guy, Kyle, Kilowog, Arisia, Salaak, and all the other heroes that filled the ranks of the Corps. After Blackest Night, I think the readers need a bit of a breather too – a time to miss characters lost. Tomasi takes that feeling, the need for a rest, the exhausted satisfaction at the end of a marathon, and he puts it into a book. He packs the emotional power of that near death experience with overt mourning (a mass funeral, picking up broken mementos) and the denial and stress and emotions of hidden mourning (changing jobs, living for today). And although I can’t say much about an interesting theme that Tomasi threads through this book without spoiling, at times I saw the Corps as a metaphor for the military and at times as a metaphor for the Catholic priesthood. Pretty cool stuff. Tomasi has written a great issue to give us the moment we need to catch our breath before we plunge headlong into Brightest Day.

Green Lantern Corps #43 – Review

By Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Patrick Gleason (penciller), Rebecca Buchman, Tom Nguyen & Patrick Gleason (inkers)

The Story: Red Badge of Rage: Between the cliffhanger of last issue (the death of Kyle Rayner) and the cover of this issue (Guy Gardner becomes a Red Lantern), you have all I can tell you without spoiling.

What’s Good: When Joe Quesada was talking about Civil War (check it out on numerous Marvel podcasts), he said that it was really important to not just kill a whole bunch of fourth rate characters no one cares about. He wanted to kill one or two characters whose death would profoundly affect those left behind. Tomasi and company have done that here. This entire issue is about how characters we care about react to the death of a hero we really liked. This is good, good stuff and I felt (I actually felt) emotion throughout this issue. I felt the pain of Guy and Natu as they huddled over Kyle’s corpse. I felt their frantic grief as they struggled to hold his green lantern ring from going off to find a new bearer. I felt their fear and panic as they warded away the black lantern rings trying to claim Kyle. And I had a choked up high when the cavalry arrived, even though they could not turn the tide. And best of all, the emotions of this story drove the climax in a way that was totally unexpected for me. Tomasi earned his pay on this issue.

Green Lantern Corps #42 – Review

by Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Rebecca Buchman & Tom Nguyen (inks), Randy Mayor & Gabe Eltaeb (colors), and Steve Wands (letters)

The Story: Along with their new Indigo ally, the Green Lantern Corps make their last stand defending the central power battery.

What’s Good: This is probably the best issue of Green Lantern Corps since Blackest Night began in earnest, and that’s largely due to all of the black lanterns coming together for one attack. The book has felt far too scattered and disparate over the last few months thanks to the black lanterns singling out characters and their change of tactic is welcome, as it brings all of our heroes together. This feels like a coherent narrative once again as opposed to a series of 3 pages vignettes.

As a result, our protagonists feel like a team and not simply a bunch of tangentially related people doing different things in different places. This helps foster some very strong character moments. The character death at the end of the book is certainly a gut-punch and it’s only the book’s newly regained cohesion that makes it possible.

Strangely though, my favourite scene involved Kilowog. The combination of rage, denial, and sadness was fantastically executed and oddly touching. It was a fantastic summation of the emotional reaction, and aftermath, that the black lanterns are capable of bringing forth. Kilowog’s tragic dialogue is only so effective because it hints at deeper, existential issues and personal pain that the character has harbored, and concealed, for a very long time.

Gleason’s art is more intelligible this month and also provides some really jaw-dropping moments, with some particularly awesome splashes and spreads. The size and scope of some of Gleason’s work here is astounding, daunting stuff. The character death at the end of the book is rendered beautifully and the mass black lantern assault is a sight to behold.

What’s Not So Good: While it’s much improved, Gleason’s art still isn’t without fault. The chaotic nature of the action still makes it occasionally difficult to decipher. The opening scenes were a bit hard-going at some points and the later sequence involving a released red lantern is nothing short of incomprehensible. Also, Gleason again shows himself to have some difficulty drawing Soranik’s face, which at times feels overly cartoony, even comical, with expressions that feel exaggerated, misplaced, or both.

What really disappoints about this issue, however, is Tomasi’s handling of the major character death.  Putting it simply, he dropped the ball.  It’s clearly the most important occurrence of the book and the most emotionally significant moment of the series for quite some time, but I just didn’t feel as though it was treated as such.    It comes off as random, rushed, and hence, underwhelming.  It takes just long enough that it isn’t shocking, but there’s also not enough build up for it to carry the emotional weight that it should.  It’s just about the most abrupt last stand and farewell that I’ve ever read.

A major character’s dying, especially in such heroic fashion, should garner more of a reaction from me.  Hell, Tomasi could very well have had me tearing up.  Instead, it doesn’t feel as significant or powerful as the character deserves and the fact that I bordered on feeling non-plussed is almost a travesty.

Conclusion: The best issue of GLC in a while, but I can’t help feeling a little soured by the missed opportunity.

Grade: B

-Alex Evans

 

Green Lantern Corps #41 – Review

by Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Rebecca Buchman, Keith Champagne & Tom Nguyen (inks), Randy Mayor & Gabe Eltaeb (colors), and Steve Wands (letters)

The Story: Soranik teams with Kyle to fight Jade, Arisia wrestles with her family, and Kilowog is forced to battle an old friend.

What’s Good: This is basically 22 pages of almost  non-stop Lantern-related violence.  The huge blasts, numbers, and scope of what’s going on is impressive, as is some of the gore, which at times pushes the boundary of what you’d expect out of a mainstream DCU comic.

What GLC has done best with Blackest Night, however, is fully convey the emotional impact made possible by having the dead rise.  In fact, I’d say that Jade has made the best of use of a black ring in this regard. She and her mind games are downright evil.  Seeing Soranik team up with Kyle against her is as fun as it is troubling.  Tomasi makes use of every opportunity that raising a dead character provides in this scene: the guilt, lingering emotion, and history all come into play and are manipulated perfectly.

Arisia and Kilowog also provide a nice juxtaposition, as Tomasi shows the nature of a battle with the Black Lanterns.  If you don’t believe them to be real representations of the bodies they inhabit, you’re fine.  But the minute you start to talk to them or treat them like they really are your loved ones, you’re done for.  Tomasi makes this line very clear.  It’s also nice to see someone making use of those  Tales of the Corps stories that came out a while ago.  Readers who picked those up will really dig these two scenes, Kilowog’s surprise opponent in particular.

What’s Not So Good: Though it’ s not as bad in this respect as last month’s issue, as there aren’t any truly detached scenes, the fast and frenetic pace of this book again makes it feel as though its spread a little thin at some points.  While it’s all centered around a battle at Oa, it’s hard not to feel like every scene is its own separate story, treating its own separate characters.  As a result, GLC feels somewhat scattered.  Characters are off doing their own thing, and Tomasi seems to feel obligated to give us monthly updates on all of them.  The fact that I’d totally forgotten the two characters in the book’s final scene is a bit indicative of the book’s current state.  It’s just a bit “all over the place.”  I’m still not sure how necessary Gardner’s scene was.

Similarly chaotic is the artwork, which at times, particularly in the smaller panels, borders on being an incomprehensible tangle of limbs and light.  Though it’s generally all right, at times, it’s a bit hard to piece together what’s going on.

Conclusion: A generally enjoyable 22 pages of chaos with a nice surprise ending.

Grade: B –

-Alex Evans

Green Lantern Corps #40 – Review

by Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Rebecca Buchman, Tom Nguyen & Prentis Rollins (inks), Randy Mayor & Gabe Eltaeb (colors), and Steve Wands (letters)

The Story: Kyle Rayner battles his old lover, the Corps settles on who’s in charge of Oa with the Guardians gone, and the Black Lanterns do a good amount of chest ripping.

What’s Good: Tomasi really managed to get across the emotional impact possible in Blackest Night.  For instance, the resurrection of Arisia’s parents at the start of the issue made total sense, but was both surreal and unexpected.

As another example, the scene between Kyle and Jade was far and away the best of the issue.  For once, it was interesting to see a Black Lantern play a different role, appearing soft, sweet, and seductive as opposed to monstrous.  Gleason’s art played to this quite well, making Jade seem cute, and yet not quite right.  After what we’ve seen thus far from Blackest Night, it was definitely refreshing to see the psychological aspect taking the forefront as opposed to Jade just being another threatening monster right off the bat.  That said, Gleason does a wonderful job in turning Jenny from pretty to monstrous in the span of a few pages.

Tomasi also continues to make the Alpha Lanterns appear increasingly ominous.  The executions were bad enough before, but we now get hints of them almost seeking out a political power play.  Seeing Salaak take charge of Oa was expected, but cool, given that he’s been a bit underused the past few months.

What’s No So Good: I find that Green Lantern Corps is always a juggling act, and every month, it’s a battle to see whether or not Tomasi can pull it off or whether he’ll end up dropping a few balls from taking on too many.  Unfortunately, I felt that this month’s issue fell a little more into the latter category.

In an effort to keep us up to date on the comic’s myriad characters, things do end up feeling a little scattered, and some scenes end up feeling more extraneous and unrelated.  For instance, the side-story of Kryb seeking out her children felt jarringly detached from the rest of the issue and didn’t seem particularly pertinent to anything.  Furthermore, was anyone really pumped to see Gardner battle BZZD?  There’s just a little too much going on here.

That also leads to some elements not getting the development that they should.  For example, Katma Tui’s resurrection was a big deal last month, as it should be.  She gets one page here, flying in out of nowhere and munching on a random dude’s heart.  We should’ve seen a lot more of her than that.  Furthermore, Arisia gets mobbed by dead family members in the first couple of pages in one of the coolest moments of the comic, only for that scene to never be revisited or updated.  Every character gets his or her one scene, and that’s it.

Finally, Gleason finally cracks a little under the pressure of all this chaos.  Some of the action here is just too expansive and frenetic and becomes incomprehensible.  I challenge anyone to figure out the splash involving the Sciencell prisoners.  Gleason’s drawings of Kryb are similarly indecipherable.

Conclusion: Some really awesome moments, but there’s just too much going on here.

Grade: C+

-Alex Evans

Green Lantern Corps #39 – Review

by Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Rebecca Buchman & Tom Nguyen (inks), Randy Mayor (colors), and Steve Wands (letters)

The Story: The black rings assault Oa, Arisia’s work on Daxam reaches its unfortunate conclusion, and Mongul finds a new base of operations.

What’s Good: Strangely, I actually enjoyed the bits divorced from Blackest Night the most in this issue.  That’s not to say the Blackest Night stuff was bad, just that I really like the ominous background threats of Mongul and the incurably xenophobic Daxamites. The Sinestro Corps’ invasion has had a particularly nasty effect on the Daxamites, making them even more violent and racist, but also super-powered.  The menace they pose is definitely palpable. Meanwhile, I loved the short Mongul bit. The reveal of his new base planet is a real gut-punch.

As far as the Blackest Night stuff goes, this issue is, more than anything, another “credibility builder.”  Much like the last issue of Green Lantern, this issue of GLC is all about putting forth just how unstoppably powerful the black light really is. Watching the rings go through a shield as if it were nothing gets that point across well. Meanwhile, while it’s a futile struggle, I’ve never seen cryptkeeper Morro look so badass.

Gleason’s art continues to be fantastic. He does a great job of detailing all of the chaos that the rings brings, but manages to keep it comprehensible. With thousands of little black rings flying all over the place, that’s no small feat. Furthermore, his work depicting Morro is awesome and a good part of the character’s badassery this month comes thanks to Gleason’s efforts. I also loved Senator Diro’s facial expression during his conversation with Arisia. If that doesn’t say “this dude is monstrously evil,” I don’t know what does; Gleason made Senator Diro reach black lantern levels of frightfulness.

What’s Not So Good: With so much going on with Mongul, Daxam, and, of course, Blackest Night, Guy’s quips about Kyle’s romance with Soranik just seemed out of place this month.  It felt a little forced, crammed into an already packed narrative, and hence a little unnatural.  I love Guy, so I did enjoy the dialogue, which is of course in his trademarked “meathead” vernacular, but it just didn’t seem like the time or the place.  Oa is being assaulted by power rings, and Guy’s really going to bring up Kyle’s relationship with Soranik?  Yeah, I don’t buy it.

While fantastic, the scenes with Mongul and Arisia also almost feel too detached and distant from the rest of the book.  Blackest Night has become such a dominating presence in the GL world that when there are simultaneous strands running through this issue that, right now, have no connection at all to it, it just feels off-putting. If anything, it dilutes the Blackest Night stuff.

Also, I’ve gotta say that if you didn’t, on page 1, predict the identity of the resurrected Black Lantern coming for Kyle at the end of the book, you need to have your head examined

Conclusion: A solid issue that feels a little scattered. Neverthless it’s still a fun issue.

Grade: B-

-Alex Evans

Green Lantern Corps #38 – Review

by Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Rebecca Buchman & Tom Nugyen (inks), and Randy Mayor & Gabe Eltaeb (colors)

The Story: Things settle post-riot, and the Guardians reaffirm that they’re biggest little assholes in the DC Universe.

What’s Good: This is a really solid issue of Green Lantern Corps.  Clearly the core issue this month is the philosophical differences that Guy and Kyle see, opposing the Guardians.  On the surface, the disagreement seems to be merely a situation of yet another comic lamenting capital punishment.  However, what makes the conflict so engaging is not the topic itself, but rather how it defines the characters.  Kyle and Guy take the stance that we’d expect them to, but the Guardians once again show the failings of the emotional spectrum.

I really enjoyed this depiction of the Guardians’ rigid and single-minded dedication to Will and found it especially effective due to its sublety. In other words, Tomasi has the Guardians personify Will and carry the failings of single-minded dedication to one emotion without having them stomp about screaming asinine catch-phrases (Geoff Johns, take note).

The more this arc goes on, the more I truly begin to fear the Guardians. What they order in this comic is pretty damned brutal and their increased rendering of the Corps as an authoritarian construct is disturbing.  This is just one of those moments where you KNOW the bubble will burst.

As for Gleason and things down in his end, his work continues to serve the book well.  It balances a whimsical, Saturday Morning feel with the realism of a mainstream, modern blockbuster comic.  I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever regarding his work this month, as his storytelling feels fluid and effective.

What’s Not-So-Good: Aside from the philosophical conflict with the Guardians, this issue is more of a denouement and thus isn’t particularly action or development heavy, for the most part.  Oa is on clean-up duty, Soranik tries to remove Sinestro’s mark, Voz is rushed to sick-bay… It’s really just a lot of consolidation and tidying up before Blackest Night.  It’s necessary and it’s not bad, but it’s also not particularly edge-of-your-seat gripping, either.

Also, the last page of the comic really seems to come out of nowhere.  With most of the issue spent dealing with clean-up and the Guardians, the final page really felt a bit like Tomasi suddenly remembering that an event was coming up, and yelled “WHAM! BLACKEST NIGHT!” just before sending his script off.  It just felt pretty random.

Conclusion: A solid book that works well as a denouement for the last arc at the expense of leading into the next one.  That said, I’m sure this menacing portrayal of the Guardians will pay dividends during Blackest Night.

Grade: B

-Alex Evans

Green Lantern Corps #32 – Review

By Peter Tomasi (writer), Patrick Gleason (artist), Rebecca Buchman (inker)

The Story:  As a part of the “Faces of Evil” event running through DC comics this month, this issue finds Kryb battling Kyle and Saranik Natu, so that she may rip Amnee Pree’s baby from the womb and protect it from the evil of the green.  If they hope to stand a chance against Kryb though, the Green Lanterns must put aside their differences with Star Sapphire Miri and fight together for the greater good.

The Good: Three words: Miri and Kryb.  The more I learn about these various, emerging Corps and their members, the more impressed I become with this incredible mythology the Green Lantern creative teams are weaving.  Miri is an interesting character, so similar to the Green Lanterns in bearing and methodology except for a slight twist: her ring communicates to her entirely in terms of love.  Whether the ring is tethering her to the heart of an individual in order to facilitate interstellar travel, or warning Miri of an impending disaster to eternal love, Tomasi does a great job of setting up little details like these make the Violet Lanterns as a force every bit as dedicated and powerful as their counterparts.  Also, I think Kryb is easily one of the most horrific and visually terrifying villains I’ve seen in a long time.  The cover to this issue alone is enough to induce nightmares. I especially loved how she dealt with KT-21, which was just memorably gruesome.

The Not So Good: I love Kryb as a villain, but I was disappointed by how quickly she was defeated.  Being a “Faces of Evil” issue, I was expecting Kryb to be more prominently featured here, or at the very least be more of a threat. Instead she was used as a punching bag by the Lanterns, seemingly so that Rayner and Miri could have more time to argue over who gets to imprison her.

Conclusion: Although this issue was a weak installment in the “Faces of Evil” event running this month, it is still a solid and completely satisfying story.

Grade:  C+

-Tony Rakittke