Green Lantern Corps #56 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Tyler Kirkham (penciller), Batt w/Rob Hunter (inkers), Nei Ruffino (colorist)

The Story: The showdown between the Sinestro Corps and the Qwardians commences, with the Green Lanterns caught in the middle.  One rule: no rings.

The Review: Considering the enormous scale of the Green Lantern universe, it makes sense to deliver a few titles under their banner, just to get some decent coverage of their stories.  The writers just have to make sure each title gets a distinct flavor, with a mission and character all its own.  While Hal Jordan romps around Earth in his own title, Green Lantern Corps dedicates itself to the actual policing efforts of his fellow Corpsmen across the universe.

Tony Bedard’s work on this series doesn’t have the nuance or sentiment of his predecessor, Peter Tomasi, but if anything, he delivers even more high-octane action.  From the beginning rally of the Sinestro Corps to the arrival of the armed and dangerous Qwardian backup at the end, this issue just gets you pumped for major space craziness going on.  The battle royale gets even wilder when out begrudging respect for the truce between Corps, the use of power rings gets restricted.  It’s a nice break from the slightly tedious, destiny-driven stuff happening in the other Green Lantern titles.

Still, you can’t help feeling that most of the action is a little brainless.  Not that you really expect much subtlety with these kinds of things, but a little attention to strategy and tactics would have elevated the creativity of the battle scenes some.  Perhaps it’s the recent drop in page count, but the pace is so electric that you never really get the sense that any of the Green Lanterns are in real danger.  It just seems like a missed opportunity to show off what they’re really made of in a fight, even without their rings.  Frankly, I expected more from the anticipated confrontation between Sinestro and the Weaponer, but the arc’s not over yet.

There isn’t much character work to speak of here, and the dialogue often comes off over-the-top.  Take one Yellow Lantern’s fightin’ words to Kyle Raynor and Natu: “Sinestro said the Weaponer is his alone.  I should let them shred you just for thinking of disobeying him.”  Even within the context of a sci-fi action comic, the line is pretty dumb—just one of many.  It just doesn’t feel like Bedard has much more than a shallow handle on these characters.  Their interaction feels less like actual personalities bouncing off each other, and more like clichés.  It’s not out-of-character or anything; it’s just not particularly inspired.

Green Lantern Corps #53 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Tyler Kirkham (penciller), Batt (inker), Nei Ruffino (colorist)

The Story: The Weaponer, Part One: The story opens on a flashback of the Weaponer of Qward, building Sinestro his yellow ring as well as holding his secrets. Fast forward to today, where Kyle is on Korugar, trying to help with general problems, but he runs into three of Sinestro’s thugs. Things aren’t going badly, until the Weaponer shows up, with an axe to grind against Sinestro. Things go down hill from there.

What’s Good: I really enjoyed the new art team. Batt appears to be generous with his inks, giving a thick, darkened, textured feel to the people, the aliens and the environment, slightly reminiscent of Cascioli’s stuff. However, Kirkham’s lines tend to be more stylized and the figures *just slightly* exaggerated (check out the fingers). There are also a lot of extra lines that added a scratchy feel to the artwork, a bit like Sylvestri’s work. This style worked for me. At the same time, the postures and expressions were dynamic, evoking movement. In fact, if you want movement, check out the three thugs bearing down on Rayner, or the double splash page (pun intended) entrance of the Weaponer. Nice visuals all around.

Bedard’s writing, plotwise and dialoguewise, was good. Right off the bat, we get the Sinestro-Weaponer connection, then an exciting slap-down start to a new arc. The Weaponer is weird and tough and shows Kyle the goods. Sinestro is arrogant, badass, but interesting enough for me to wish he’d had more pages in this book. His thugs are even better. I’d love to say more about the writing, but I don’t want to spoil.