Green Lantern #6
Summary
After the conclusion of last month’s arc, Hal tries to settle down with Carol, while Sinestro sets off on his own agenda – hunting down Lyssa Drak. However, the bearer of the Book of Black has many revelations in store for Sinestro and a new Green Lantern epic may be just over the horizon.
What I liked
· Confirmation of Direction: We are shown a scene in this issue which depicts a lot of future events in the Green Lantern series. This is not uncommon of Geoff Johns, having seen this sort of thing before, during Brightest Day and leading up to Blackest Night. I don’t know if Johns did this intentionally, but I am comforted by a page like this, once in a while, to reaffirm by belief that the writer knows what they are doing. It seems we have a lot of exciting events in the near future for, what is personally, my favourite DC series. Make sure you study this page hard, it’ll probably be very important in issues to come!
· Sinestro: Sinestro has been a villain for most of the Green Lantern continuity; even when he was a Green Lantern he still used unethical methods to achieve his desired results. I appreciate, therefore, that, now he is the person we are meant to be rooting for, he hasn’t been toned down too much. He is still calculating, manipulative and arrogant. This threatening demeanour brings a fresh feel to the Green Lantern stories, with Hal Jordan’s character getting ever so slightly stale near the end of the last volume. It is interesting to notice differences (and sometimes even similarities) in how Sinestro handles a situation, compared to Hal.
· Starstorm: Upon reading this issue, I thought this was a character from an old Green Lantern story that I’d perhaps not read, but, through searching Comicvine afterwards, I have discovered (as far as I’m aware) that this is this character’s first appearance. It is a tribute to Johns that he can insert a new character and make them feel like they have been there the whole time. My only one concern with Starstorm is that he has the potential to be really interesting, yet his character is completely glossed over in this issue and it may well be the last time we ever see him. I hope this is not the case and he is a welcome addition to the Green Lantern cast.
What I didn’t like
· Art: The artistic styles used in this issue are all over the place. It is not often that I can so decisively criticise a comic’s artist. Yet, in this issue we are given characters which look nothing like how they ought to. Hal Jordan could be any random person with brown hair (I specifically showed the pictures to people to see if they could guess who the character was – they couldn’t) and Sinestro’s head is a bit on the small side. Also, there appears to be a lack of backgrounds in most of the scenes – giving the comic a really half-finished feel.
· Jump right in: This issue opens with Sinestro already in pursuit of Lyssa Drak. He has already figured out how to find her, and acquired an object to help find her. Once his plan had been set into motion... he is on her doorstep in the panel. I have no problem with a fast paced comic, but when the final page of the issue is basically the same as final page of the first issue of this series it makes me wonder why they even bother developing Hal’s relationship with Carol if he keeps getting whisked away whenever there seems to be some signs of progress. It would make more sense, to me, if we had a couple of issues surrounding Lyssa Drak or Starstorm before we returned to the old “Dynamic Duo” formula to make the end of this issue a bit more impactful.
· The Hal Scenes: I don’t really see how they were necessary. The opening scene of the issue randomly tangents and we are shown Hal beating up some bad guys without the use of his ring. I understand that this is meant to explain to us that he is no longer dependant on his power-ring and I understand that this shows that he is still a hero without superpower but, in light of the ending of this issue, to me this felt unnecessary. It would have been cool to see Hal fight crime without his powers behind Carol’s back – but he only does it once and he will almost certainly never do it again. I would much rather have explored how Carol and Hal’s relationship was doing in a bit more depth; since he proposed last issue – that seems a lot more relevant and interesting. It’s not too much of a big deal; I just didn’t really get the point.
Verdict
This was still a very good issue, but it seemed to lack the glossy premium feel that most Green Lantern issues have. Due to the lack of backgrounds, weird character designs and a few inconsequential scenes it was very hard to make this feel like I was reading my favourite comicbook series. The ending of the issue promises for better stories to come, but it does still sour this issue a bit.Yet, with the promise of revelations to come, and with Sinestro being an overall bad-ass, this is still an issue not to be missed.
7/10
