Green Lantern Corps #13 – Review

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

The Story: Even in dead space you gotta watch your back.

The Review: A lot of people have already compared this Rise of the Third Army storyline as a thinly veiled rip-off of Blackest Night, and I can see why.  You are dealing with yet another series of dronish Lanterns who multiply by infecting others—and then you have the similarities to the Rot over in Animal Man and Swamp Thing, who are conceptually a hop, skip, and a jump away from Marvel Zombies, but for the nature themes.

So no, I won’t give much weight to Rise of the Third Army for originality.  Still, I’d be remiss in my duties if I don’t point out the slight, but important differences between these Third Army creatures and their counterparts elsewhere.  For one, it’s unclear if the assimilated people actually die in the process, notwithstanding the disposal of their hearts.  For another, the assimilation itself is a creepier, more traumatic experience for those involved.

Green Lantern Corps #10 – Review

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

The Story: Generally, it’s not a good idea for prosecutors and judges to be one and the same.

The Review: I think I’ve said this before about a couple characters, but the reserved, purposeful type of people can be difficult to connect to.  Let’s not mince words here; most of us are impulsive, confrontational, part-time morons.  We like to stand out somewhere in the spotlight, rather than linger in the shadows.  We flail around, making a ruckus, and get a lot of attention, while the reserved, purposeful people actually make the sacrifices to get the job done.

John Stewart easily lands in this category.  Think about it.  He’s an architect, so the whole of his work involves not only having a vision of his end product, but figuring out the means to make it come to be—and ultimately, people will admire the results more than the work or worker that goes into it.  He’s also a soldier, so his instinct is to think through even the most chaotic situation before making a move, and he knows when to lay down his life for the greater good.

Green Lantern Corps #9 – Review

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

The Story: This is space law—you don’t get no Miranda rights out here!

The Review: After a year in law school, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for America’s judicial system, believe it or not.  My property professor made the best observation about our courts and the way they handle conflicts: it’s an everlasting struggle between efficiency and fairness.  Try too hard to be sensitive to the intricacies of each case, and you make bad precedent for everyone else.  Stick too hard to the rules of law and a lot of people will be unjustly punished or deprived.

We definitely have the latter problem in the case of Alpha Lanterns v. Stewart.  While last issue had one of the Alphas make note of the stressful circumstances which led to John’s damning choice, this time around they can’t seem to see beyond the simple facts, which John himself admits.  We know nothing about the corps’ penal code, particularly in how it’s enforced against their own, which makes it all too easy for this case to proceed unfavorably against John.

Green Lantern Corps #7 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Claude St. Aubin (penciller), Scott Hanna (inker), Gabe Eltaeb (colorist)

The Story: There’s a reason why the benefits are so good when you join the Green Lanterns.

The Review: I don’t know about you, but I know that for me, living in our pampered, lily-handed world, the sweatiest decisions I’ve ever had to make involved no higher stakes than minor monetary loss or brief social discomfort—and if you can live out the rest of your days that way, consider yourself lucky.  For those who go into professions where they actually hold people’s lives in their hands, the burden of being the one to call the shots is a heavy one, indeed.

That said, we all understood John did the best thing under the circumstances last issue when he put Kirrt down before the young Lantern screwed all of Oa (and thereby much of the universe) by giving way to the Keepers’ torture.  Vandor, who witnessed the act, serves as our voice in the issue, supporting John in his decision, even going so far as to request that he hopes John would “give me the same honor you did Kirrt before allowing me to betray the Corps.”  Note the use of the word “honor” to blunt the harsh truth of what John did.  Note also that Vandor fails to realize that he has the luxury of giving John permission to do such a thing to him; Kirrt did not.

In any case, Vandor obviously feels there’s no reason for John to feel shame for what he did, and he says so.  John, of course, doesn’t quite see it that way, but for all his manifestations of guilt and angst, you also have to consider how he doesn’t report what really went down to anyone—not even Guy, to whom he flat-out lies so as to make Kirrt’s death not the tragic result of betrayal it was, but rather an act of heroism.  Such deception must stand revealed, sooner or later, so John’s cover-up seems rather imprudent and fruitless.

On the other hand, he has good reason for feeding those white lies to Kirrt’s family.  This is the kind of thing Tomasi does so well: even though we’re dealing with completely alien creatures and fantastic circumstances here, the emotions are entirely recognizable to us.  It doesn’t get more heartrending than the son who goes off to battle in honor, only to return in sorrow.  Yet despite the obvious pathos of the sequence, I’m not sure Tomasi does anything out-of-the-ordinary with it, besides the even more pathetic exchanges with Birrt, Kirrt’s younger bro.

Green Lantern Corps #6 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Fernando Pasarin (artist), Scott Hana (inker), Gabe Eltaeb (colorist)

The Story: Admit it, Guy—you’ve always dreamed of a Rambo moment like this.

The Review: I’m no historian, so I don’t know when comic book writers started doing this kind of thing, but nowadays, it’s common practice for them to have a long-term plot in place for their series.  While each arc stands on its own to some degree, they tend to serve some other plot down the line.  You often get that feeling on Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern; no matter how major the outcome of one story, you always feel like it’s setup for the next.

Of course, that’s not really a bad thing, although it does kind of steal the savor of satisfaction you get at the end of an arc.  Not so here; while Tomasi may very well have big plans to use this issue’s aftermath for some purpose in the future, he doesn’t make it obvious.  By the time you reach the last page, you can close the book, sit back, and happily mull over the resolution.  It’s the feeling you get when you can finally close the door and shut out the draft of loose ends.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, talking about the ending when this review has only just started.  Let’s talk about John Stewart, instead.  Since his frequent companion Guy comes off so frenetic and boisterous, you sometimes get misled into thinking John’s somehow less of a warrior.  Here, John’s will proves the equal of Guy’s, only whereas Guy seems to practically leak his will all over the place, John’s feels more contained and centered—to a degree (in response to a Keeper saying he’ll break sooner or later, John screams, “I’d say later you son of a bitch!”).

Left behind as a hostage in enemy territory, John must rely on that will to make some fairly sticky decisions.  As veteran Lantern, he has a duty to look out for the greenhorns under his wing, but he also has to think of the big picture and do what’s necessary to keep that picture from spoiling.  In this case, it means John takes a leaf out of Wonder Woman’s past-universe book and chooses the lesser of two evils.  Despite Vandor’s reassurances that he did the right thing, his actions will undoubtedly haunt John very personally in the near future.