Written by Geoff Johns
Illustrated by Ed Benes and Ardian SyafIn this stunning prologue to the “War of the Green Lanterns,” an unearthly alliance is made, Hal Jordan and Sinestro make a difficult sacrifice, and the power of Parallax grows!
While many people have grown weary of the power ranger lanterns story arc that has overtaken this book over the last few years, this issue was really a return to form for Johns. Click below for that reviewy goodness!
The last give or take year of stories in this book since the start of Brightest Day have hovered somewhere between hit or miss…occasionally gravitating close to one or the other but never quite hitting. This issue though, both a culmination of the brewing Krona sub-plot from the last few months as well as a stage setting for the upcoming War of the Green Lanterns made me remember why I fell in love with Johns’ Green Lantern in the first place.
The opening slice of the book picks up from last issue’s stand-off between Hal Jordan and the heroes of Earth, which ended in Jordan and his fellow New Guardians Atrocitus, Larfleeze, Saint Walker and Indigo 1 making a hasty escape from the planet. This scene I feel is the weakest of the book, as Johns clearly needed to gather the entirety of the New Guardians, but Carol Ferris being brought to the scene through a flimsy, off panel deus ex machina and absolutely NO explanation given for Sinestro’s appearance, the scene fell flat. Either way, the issue picks up when the multi-colored uber-Lanterns find their way to Ryut in search of their stolen entities.
Uncovering the book of the black in the depths of the planet, they (and we) are forcefully exposed to the origin of Krona, the Mad Guardian that has captured all of the emotional entities. The relevant points of this origin are that Krona was the first being to ever harness emotional energy (Green, as the case may be) and that, by reprogramming the Manhunters, was directly responsible for their destruction of Sector 666. For a long time fan of this mythology, these revelations are immensely rad. The issue then wraps up quickly with an ominous prediction that one of the Earth-bound Green Lanterns will fall. And oh yeah, in between the lines we also find learn that the Guardians have grown weary of Hal Jordan’s current behavior and commanded Salaak to bring him in for questioning.
On the art side, the tag team duo of Benes ans Syaf complete their tasks adequately, but not in such a way that made me stand up and notice. Syaf’s scenes with Jordan and the other New Guardians did an okay job of mimicking the style of regulard series artist Doug Mahnke (to the point that I did not notice the first time i wrote this review), though I would have much rather had him stick a little closer to his usual style. Meanwhile, while Benes’ Krona scenes are definitely the prettier of the two, its still not quite up to snuff with what he usually cranks out.
While this outing was far from perfect, it is definitely a good sign not only because it was the first genuinely exciting issue in this series in give or take a year, but because of the groundwork it laid for the GL mini-event beginning next month. Can’t ask for much more than that.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Buy
