Green Lantern #29 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (writer), Billy Tan and Martin Coccolo (pencilers), Rob Hunter and Walden Wong (inkers), Alex Sinclair and Tony Avina (colors)

The Story: Hal Jordan marks a new era of openness and humility in his leadership style by commanding a planet to move for him.

The Review: After an intrusion by Supergirl and the Red Lanterns last month, Robert Venditti’s Green Lantern returns to the task at hand.

Perhaps it was his meeting with Guy, or maybe just the place and time, but Hal is finally beginning to grow into leadership. His move to assemble a war council is a baby step for him, but it’s the first major action as leader where he’s opened himself up and asked for help. Likewise, it’s a strong move for the series, which has been excessively, some would say obnoxiously, focused on Lantern Jordan since Geoff Johns rebooted it ten years ago.

It’s not that Hal isn’t a fun character, it’s just that very few comic characters can handle that prolonged attention without growing dull. Batman shares his comic with a small gaggle of sidekicks and, more often than not, lets his villains do the heavy lifting. With Sinestro gone, it’s about time that Hal’s regular supporting cast expanded beyond Kilowog and this proves that Venditti is serious about continuing his strides in that direction.

The one downside of this is that it means that Hal has to do something to back up his newfound conviction. The raid on Gwottle that takes up just under half the issue is perfectly serviceable but, aside from highlighting another one of Hal’s inner circle, it’s not terribly interesting. Venditti makes strides in bringing a sense of space-spanning action and galactic realpolitik to the series, but once we set down it feels like they’re in competition. It’s the sort of thing that lets the issue claim a significant battle sequence, but wouldn’t be missed if you skipped this issue.

Green Lantern/Red Lanterns #28 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (writer), Billy Tan (penciller), Rob Hunter (inker), Alex Sinclair (colorist)

The Story: Hal Jordan and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

The Review: Things are a little complicated in Lanternland right now. With Hal and John finally working side by side, each Lantern’s title is spilling over into the other’s. For Hal, that means a set of surly new deputies, left over from Green Lantern Corps Annual #2. As Hal is forced to accept some unsavory help, dissention within the ranks is growing. Even so, all that will have to wait, as Kanjar-Ro is hardly the biggest guest star in this issue.

The issue does a fine job of expressing the constant pressure that Hal is under, even without any visible contribution from the Durlan resistance. The Corps never really recovered from the Guardian’s betrayal and “Lights Out” only made matters worse. If Venditti was looking to keep the Corps on their back foot, he’s succeeded, however series like Game of Thrones thrive on establishing comfortable status quos to be upset. The Corps disintegration is happening so slowly and so consistently that it can get a little sad, in more ways than one.

Of course, that’s not entirely this issue’s fault. It’s undeniable that this issue is strained by the pressures that other series are placing on it. Balancing tie-ins to three ongoing series is clearly taking a toll on Venditti’s pacing. Though he does the best with what he’s given, it never truly feels as though he justifies why things are quiet enough that this can be the primary concern. Perhaps GLC Annual answered that question, but last time I saw the Corps they had become galactic enemy #1, that’s not the sort of thing that you can brush under the rug.

Supergirl’s intrusion into the series is lengthy and predictable. The first five pages are visually engaging, but they end abruptly and serve little function, as they are fully recapped later. Likewise, Hal’s realizations are believable, but ultimately uninteresting. The story follows the track it’s supposed to take and Venditti seems unable to wrest control from the story he’s been handed.

Thankfully, the latter part of the issue feels less suffocated and more like the Green Lantern we’ve known in recent months.

Perhaps in homage to the sadly departed Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Venditti has struck up a delightful friendship between Mogo and Saint Walker, similarly ringless. While it’s a fairly obvious, and highly questionable, storytelling device to wound Walker’s faith Venditti does an admirable job of presenting a depowered Walker without drowning in angst. If he can continue to treat Saint Walker’s spiritual crisis with the respect it deserves, it could prove an engaging side-plot.

Failing to find answers with the last Blue Lantern, Hal turns to the Reds, leading into their crossover. Hal and his Corpsmen’s dialogue is much higher quality than in the pre-Walker sections and Venditti conveys a great balance of determination and uncertainty in Hal. The whole mess leads to an incredible cliffhanger that’s so brilliant in its simplicity that one has to wonder why its like has never been attempted before. Better still, you don’t have to wait a month for some resolution!

Billy Tan, Rob Hunter, and Alex Sinclair bring their distinct look to the title once again this issue and we’re all better for it. Though much of the issue is standard for the team, that’s hardly a slight and it does contain a couple of standout panels. A couple of shots of Lantern Lok in the opening scene and a wry look between Hal and Kilowog stand out as particularly lovely work. On the other hand, some characters, like Vath Sarn, remain unpleasantly stiff and lifeless.

The whole team, Sinclair especially, has benefitted greatly from the Corps’ relocation to Mogo. The entire issue is awash in beautiful color and lush backgrounds. Though Tan can’t provide an unreasonable amount of detail, he clearly gives it his all, reaching a crescendo during Hal’s discussion with Saint Walker.

The unique look of the series is also continued in Tan’s page arrangements. As ever, clever use of circular panels, gutters, and empty space define the issue’s look. It’s also worth mentioning how effectively Tan uses momentum, especially in the opening battle.

The Conclusion: Though the art is the standard high quality work that GL’s art team has provided, Green Lantern #28 never escapes the shadow of its multiple crossovers. Scenes tend to linger, giving the impression that the issue is merely treading water until its primary plotline can resume. Though the later portion of the issue bears a greater resemblance to Venditti’s output in previous months, it’s not quite enough. An earnest but, ultimately, tepid beginning to “Red Alert”.

Grade: C+

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By: Charles Soule (writer), Alessandro Vitti (artist), Gabe Eltaeb (colorist)

The Story: Zilius Zox refuses to accept that it’s hip to be square.

The Review: At the same time Guy Gardner is dealing with a situation on Earth while attempting to patch things up with Ice. I admit that I didn’t pick up Justice League of America #7.3 or The Savage Hawkman, but it is positively refreshing to see a Hawkman villain showing up in a Lantern title, especially considering that her archnemesis’ title has been canceled.

The Shadow Thief is more than a little shallow in characterization, but her over-the-top hatred and vitriol provides an amusing counterpoint as Guy, Zilius, and Skallox try to keep themselves under control.

Once again, Soule proves that humor may be the key to making this series work. The mindless fury of the original Red Lanterns soon proved insufficient to support an ongoing series, but it seems that a quiet anger, sometimes a passive-aggression, may be what it takes to elevate the series up to meet its Lantern brethren. Particularly as rendered by Alessandro Vitti, every blow thrown, every hit taken, and every retort fired contain a spark of anger.

There’s something cathartic about seeing anger unleashed, but Soule does a great job of reminding us that rage is scariest not when it’s constant, but when the threat of it is. In that, Guy’s dalliance on Earth becomes an impressive look at what it means for him to be a Red Lantern, rather than just a superhero romp around Paris.

While this could easily have sustained a full issue, Soule still has a crossover to handle and handle it he does. In half the pages, Soule delivers an equivalent experience to Venditti’s story and, in honesty, it proves quite a bit more gripping. Now that Green Lantern has set the stage Red Lanterns takes a moment to play with the toys it’s been given, and I assure you that getting Hal and Guy together is the equivalent of Christmas.

Their interactions actually remind quite a bit of Jason Aaron’s most recent Wolverine and the X-Men arc, and I mean that in the best possible way. Both Lanterns are given respect and consideration by the writer, each flawed and each fragile, and the attention paid to their complicated friendship is the core of what fans love about the Corps.

Meanwhile Atrocitus is none too pleased about that being killed and deposed business. Especially in Vitti’s toothy depiction, Atrocitus has returned to the terrifying threat that he started as. His new priestly persona can read a little forced, but his ever looming presence and ominous calm combine to create a legitimately intimidating character.

Vitti utilizes weaker inks and scratchier lines for the scenes on Groy, which contribute to a sense of immediacy and realism. It feels less like a style for the spandex-set and brings out the cosmic horror in characters like Bleez, Atrocitus, and Klarn

A much more sturdy style follows Guy and his troop around. As if representing the shift in leadership within the Red Lanterns, the scenes on Earth and Ysmault have the cartoon bounciness of a classic Superhero yarn. Vitti has a tendency to draw panels that resemble each other just a bit too much, but it’s a small price to pay for exciting and expressive compositions. I also have to say that he seems to have a thing for bangs and, seeing it, so do I. That said, his take on Guy’s mustache is either amazing or horrifying depending upon your position.

The Conclusion: This may not be the book that Charles Soule will make his name on, but this issue certainly proves how solid he can be in his delivery. While the initial slew of Red Lanterns stories were wordy musings on what it means to be angry, Soule presents a deeper, more familiar look while Alessandro Vitti provides forceful artwork that fleshes the ragtag corps out.

Despite a crossover reminiscent of a child’s toy box, Red Lanterns #28 feels like just another issue of the series, for better or worse. It’s a fine jumping-on point, if not one that feels like a must read.  Regardless, fewer responsibilities and a greater focus on character work make Red Lanterns #28 the superior brother in this strange but wonderful DC experiment.

Grade: B-

Some Thoughts:

• Charles Soule seems to come naturally to the kind of simple, brilliant world-building that I love. Little details like Klarn’s reaction to “the blood ritual” or Guy’s explanation of the Shadow Thief are absolute gold, wrapped up in a single word bubble.
• Much as I loved the way the team handled Tora in this issue, one particular panel of Bleez and Rankorr distressed me. The panel in question put the two of them looking deeply into each other’s eyes, inches apart. There’s nothing explicitly sexual or romantic about it, but it definitely recalls such scenarios. Given Bleez’ backstory, I’m oddly uncomfortable with the prospect of pairing her up with Rankorr. Obviously it’s not the most unsettling element of the character, but it doesn’t sit right with me. Did anybody else feel similarly?

– Noah Sharma

Green Lantern: New Guardians #23 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (story), Bradley Walker & Andrew Hennessy (art)

The Story: Hope burns bright! But is it for the last time?

The Review:  Like many of DC’s august offerings, Green Lantern: New Guardians #23 is a comic in the shadow of Villain’s Month. In this case the dastard in question is Relic, the giant well-spoken remnant of a past universe that’s been wandering space, spouting cryptic ramblings, and generally being a headache for Kyle Rayner since this series’ creative switch-up.

It seems kind of unfair that Green Lantern #23.1: Relic will be written by Green Lantern writer, Robert Venditti as Justin Jordan’s been the one who’s  had to deal with the character this far. The frequent teases as to Relic’s past are growing stale and overused this month, but this is, of course, to encourage people to purchase the aforementioned issue.

Green Lantern #22 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (story), Billy Tan (pencils), Rob Hunter & Jon Sibal (inks), Alex Sinclair & Tony Avina (colors)

The Story: The orange monster becomes the green-eyed monster.

The Review: I miss Sinestro.  I know that’s a rather odd thing to say on this title, but the more I read Venditti’s Green Lantern, the more I realize why Geoff Johns kept Sinestro around for so long when the title relaunched.  While Sinestro in himself is a thoroughly compelling figure, one of the best characters Johns has ever reinterpreted, I think we’ve overlooked the importance he had as a foil to Hal Jordan.  In many ways, Hal is only half himself without his frenemy.

So long as you had Sinestro throwing his arrogance and insensitivity around, Hal always seemed much more sympathetic by comparison.  Sinestro’s flaws minimized Hal’s and humanized him as a result.  Now that we don’t have Sinestroy playing bad cop, Hal has to kind of take on that role himself, especially in his leadership position.  Granted, we find him in the middle of a crisis and no one’s at their best in such circumstances, but that doesn’t make him seem any less a jerk when he berates a gaggle of clearly terrified, unwilling recruits for doing nothing in the face of Larfleeze’s attack: “Are you four just going to stand there—or are you going to fight?”

Green Lantern Corps #20 – Review

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

The Story: Guy experiences his most excruciating trial yet—a sabbatical.

The Review: In addition to the anomaly that was Aquaman #19 amidst its #20 brethren, we have another bit of scheduling weirdness that resulted in the epilogue of Wrath of the First Lantern released before its final chapter.  I don’t begin to understand how or why this happened.  My best guess is that since Geoff Johns is the undisputed architect of this current era of Green Lantern stories, DC felt he should have the last word rather than Tomasi, his right-hand man.

This does result, however, in a few significant spoilers (alert), though probably none you couldn’t have predicted: Guy and Kilowog belching blood under Red Lantern influence, the appearance of Black Lanterns, and Sinestro in some slick armor killing one of the Guardians (it’s unclear whether it’s Ganthet or not).  Thankfully, Tomasi refrains from any hard information, and we know nothing of the First Lantern’s fate at all.

Green Lantern New Guardians: Annual #1 – Review

By: Keith Giffen (Writer), Scott Kolins, Andrei Bressan (Artists), David Curiel (Colorist)

The Story: Arkillo, Carol and Saint Walker get into the Tenebrian Dominion thanks to the help of Jediah Caul, a green lantern. In there, they find the harsh reality of this space sector on the planet called Tolerance.

The Review: Annual issues are not exactly the easiest kind of issues to review. The reason why they usually are is because of one thing: their purpose. An annual can be written for many reasons: it can be a celebration of everything the series stand for in a standalone tale that is usually inconsequential to the actual storyline, or it can be setup for something much larger in the work for the series.

Unfortunately, this annual is neither of those options, as it tries to be two things at once and fails at both. It tries to be about the New Guardians, yet it also tries to set up some important characters and information about the new ongoing from Keith Giffen, Threshold. Why it fails is very simple: the focus is never really well divided, providing us with neither enough information about the cast of Threshold, like Jediah Caul, but it also gives us only half of the New Guardians cast in a story that has not much purpose in their actual storyline. I doubt very much that Lady Styx will pop up in New Guardians anytime soon.

Green Lantern #53 – Review

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

The Story: Brightest Day, The New Guardians Chapter One: This story sweeps slowly and deliberately over a wide cast of characters, from locations as diverse as a New Orleans prison, the planet Ryut, Coast City, Metropolis, Ysmault and beyond. Each character is surveyed for how they have reacted to the end of Blackest Night and where they will fit into the puzzle of Brightest Day.

What’s Good: Wow. Johns delivered absolutely top notch work on this issue. The slow pacing was perfect for the slowly-unfolding mystery. We didn’t get details, but we were tantalized with the scope of what will come, where the battle lines will be drawn and where the tense alliances may form. But as this is Johns, he made sure to also throw in romantic tension, the seeds of betrayal and conflict, and the deep, ancient roots of the Green Lantern mythos that he seems to effortlessly expand with every issue.

Johns was well served by Mahnke, the inkers, and Mayor on colors. Pages two through seven (the planet Ryut) had me completely fascinated with the level of detail, the texture, the mood, and the impending horror of the setting and the little bits of symbolism. Bones, old ones, are everywhere, as the sky is cut by lightning of every color of the ring spectrum. The sequence of the ground swallowing the narrator was simply awesome and perfectly reflected the sparse, creepy monologue. Even deeper, the foreground and background of chains and skeletons and symbols was breathtaking. Carol Ferris was lovely and expressive, and the sequence with fighter planes was an excellent visual to accompany the reaching, straining, wary conversation that Hal and Carol had.

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.

Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1 – Review

By Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi (writers), Jerry Ordway, Doug Mahnke, Chris Samnee, Rags Morales (artists), Tom Nguyen, Christian Alamy (inkers)

The Stories: This three-issue limited series contains three stories. The first is about the Blue Lantern Saint Walker, and his sad origin and the nature of hope. The second story is an interesting father and son tale about Mongul. The third story is about a new group, the mysterious Indigo Tribe, and its encounter with a Yellow Lantern and a Green Lantern.

We are also treated with some great splash pages of the Blue Lanterns, the Green Lantern Corps, the Sinestro Corps and the Indigo Tribe. This means that Johns and Tomasi don’t need to do a whole lot of exposition during the story to keep new readers on track.

What’s Good: Saint Walker’s story is an intriguing look at hope, faith and religion in the face of terrifying disaster (think trials of Job). Walker’s faith is well done, compelling and it makes me want to read more about him. I obviously knew that Walker was going to get a blue ring and I expected a cliché ending, but Johns misdirected and surprised me. As for the story of Mongul’s son and how he perceived his father was interesting, and it ended neatly enough. And for the Indigo Tribe, the story was meant to tease and it succeeded.

Art: All the art was well-done. Ordway iss a strong, experienced penciller who did some fine work with Saint Walker against Larfleeze. All the images were clear, despite the fact that many panels had a lot going on. I loved Ordway’s take on a sun getting younger – a spectacular image of blue and red. Mahnke, Samnee and Morales were also strong visual storytellers in this book.

What’s Not So Good: The concept of a montage book of stories is good, but given that these are origin stories and character study stories, there’s a lot less incentive to collect this book. In fact, throughout, I was wondering why this was part of Blackest Night, when pretty much everything in this book could have fit perfectly into the Blackest Night preludes. Also, while Saint Walker had a complete arc, the story of Mongul’s son was not only brief, but I didn’t feel that anything changed for anyone enough to justify the story being told.

Conclusion: Did anything super-important happen in this book? Not really, which was a bit of a disappointment given the advanced excitement Blackest Night has been getting. This is a collection of back-stories with one teaser for the future. Well-executed, but if you don’t buy it, it shouldn’t get in the way of your enjoyment of Blackest Night.

Grade: C

-DS Arsenault