Green Lantern #55 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (writer), Doug Mahnke and Shawn Davis (artist), Christian Alamy, Tom Nguyen, Keith Champagne, Shawn Davis and Doug Mahnke (inks)

The Story: The New Guardians, Chapter Three: The Spectre is on the trail of an entity (in the Brightest Day, power ring sense) that is brutally slaughtering livestock. In the meantime, Lobo explodes into town looking to collect a big bounty on Atrocitus. Hal Jordan, Star Sapphire and Sinestro are forced to take sides. Atrocitus seems to know something he’s not saying and is hunting a particular entity himself.

What’s Good: Hal Jordan didn’t come off in this fight looking like he owned it, but Sinestro, Carol and that psycho red cat sure did. Props to those three, and to Johns for writing them well. Hal’s solution at the end seemed like it fit his character, but I loved the surprise ending which showed that some architect of events had been banking on those very reactions. Surprise is good. Well done to Johns. Red Lantern Dex-Starr’s part in the story and its origin was also a lot of fun. Whether Krypto, this spazzy, angry cat, or Lobo’s dog, Johns writes good pets (keep in mind how badly animals can be written…).

On Lobo, I had such low expectations that it wasn’t hard for Johns to meet them, and even exceed them. My major impression of Lobo prior to this was that he is a zero-dimensional, ultra-powerful white trash contribution to the DCUs affirmative action and diversity strategy who looks like he’s either coming from a Kiss concert or going to an audition for the Village People. His reactions and role in any story are unsurprising and uninteresting. Gee, do you think Lobo is going to do something violent? Duh! So what did Johns do right with Lobo? The one-liners were good: “Tour’s over everybody!” and, talking about all the power rings around, “I don’t know what god ate a rainbow and threw it up across the universe…” If we were to go more tongue-in-cheek and start rumors behind the school, I’d have to say I like where Johns is taking Lobo’s sexuality. Lobo called Hal “square jaw” and “handsome” and I definitely got the sense that he was overcompensating with Carol….some might say he’s trying to hide something? He is dressed like he’s going clubbing at the Blue Oyster Bar from Polcie Academy. Maybe Johns is laying down some subtle markers to show some real questioning and growth. I’m just saying….

Artwise, Mahnke and company delivered a fine issue with the detailed energy constructs you’d expect for a fight involving four flavors of power rings. The faces and expressions were detailed, as were skin, clothing and the environments, so there’s a lot of art for every panel, something I definitely dig. Shawn Davis’ work on the backup story was also quite fine and reminded me a bit of Quitely’s stuff.