Green Lantern Corps #63 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: A Lantern’s life for me—as long as it involves burgers and fries in some capacity.

The Review: Let me assure you, I don’t like handing out bad grades.  To be specific, I don’t like being put in the position of having to hand out bad grades.  Even though the excruciating quality of the two comics Scott Kolins wrote obligated me to give them among the worst marks (one of them in fact receiving the very worst mark) I ever have, I still felt like a jerk doing it, so much so that I never wanted to see that kind of mess from Kolins again, just to avoid another ugly review.

Issues like this one prove that wishes do come true—in a tepid, don’t-get-too-happy-about-it sort of way.  This should in no way imply that Kolins’ writing has improved significantly, or that the ideas at work are much more inspired than before, but at least they attempt to create some unexpected angles to the characters, and that’s above and beyond what he ever gave us before.

Sadly, even when he takes a step forward, he ultimately trips himself up, in this case with a format perhaps a bit too ambitious for his current skill level.  We get a series of vignettes, each featuring a different set of characters, each opening some interesting questions, but none really get invested exploration, nor do they end with what can be considered a satisfying resolution.

Boodikka as a warrior willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of victory may be a shallow rendering of her character, but a compelling view just the same.  But that’s all it is: a view, with no exposition to support it, and no plot to test it, and plagued by Kolins’ tortured narrative: “And now with her emotions restored and her aggressive personality that only accepted victory returned—how can she deal with so many defeats?  How can she go on as an Alpha Lantern?”  Despite the soapy monologues, Joe Prado delivers fantastic detail and dynamism to the wing-helmed lady, enhanced by Hi-Fi’s usually radioactive colors, making it even more regrettable that we don’t get to see her in action.

Green Lantern Corps #62 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Daniel HDR (penciller), Keith Champagne (inker), Nei Ruffino (colorist)

The Story: Love hurts…love scars…love wounds…and mars…

The Review: Boy, nothing quite like romantic squabbles to make for cheap yet reliable drama, huh?  A dose of it in can definitely spice up your fiction from time to time, though some people can handle far more than a dose.  I suspect for most of us, however, that kind of thing gets tiresome pretty fast.  As in real life, relationship craziness is often best left between the lovers, sparing bystanders from the awkward helplessness of something which ought to be personal.

That pretty much sums up the tense situation between Kyle and Soranik, a couple who have gone through plenty of turbulence together before, making their current rough patch seem forced.  It certainly does nothing for Sora’s credibility as a Lantern.  Personal issues have swayed other Lanterns’ behavior before, but in this issue, her lashing out (somewhat unjustly so) at Kyle in the middle of a firefight comes across unprofessional and borderline childish.

Since the animosity in their relationship seems entirely one-sided on Sora’s part, it makes sense Bedard would attempt to give her something worthy to get mad about with the revelation that Kyle lied about seeing her as his true love in Miri’s gem, some months earlier.  While deceiving Sora certainly wasn’t the wisest choice, Kyle’s reasons for doing so were reasonably, sincerely, even lovingly motivated, which should be as obvious to her as it is to us.