We Can Never Go Too Long Without Some Sinestro
Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner confront the Entity-possessed Guardians and become part of Krona's insane plan. We also get a glimpse of Sinestro battling his way through the Book of the Black, because as we all know, Sinestro is the real star of this series.
After not seeing much of the Guardians since they were taken by Krona in the beginning of this crossover, it is good to finally see them in action as their Entity-possessed selves. Truth be told, we only quick glimpses of each of them as they basically tag team our heroes, so it is not completely satisfying to that big cliffhanger from earlier. But it is at least something.
Another thing we finally see if Hal being affected by his yellow power ring. This was a criticism I had with previous issues, because everyone else had issues with their new rings while Hal seemed able to use his much too easily. Now, we see him being slowly seduced by the ring, which makes sense given his experience with giving in to Parallax.
The strongest part of the issue is a scene with Sinestro inside the Book of the Black. It is a little funny that we even have this scene, since it really doesn't relate a whole lot to the story at hand. But Sinestro has always been a main character of this series, and the truth is that the series has always been stronger for it. Through Sinestro, we get glimpses of what the other Lanterns are going through in the Book, especially a more substantial one with Indido-1 where we learn a bit more about her.
Krona's big endgame turns out to be rather silly, but that is mostly forgivable since Krona himself is rather insane. It wouldn't make sense for him to have a completely rational intent. It involves Geoff Johns once again pushing the idea that the human race is most in touch with the full Emotional Spectrum than any other race, which is honestly not a conceit that ever really worked. It implies that every other alien race is emotionally cut off to at least some degree, and that is really not something we've seen. It is just something we are being told. Has Kilowog ever really seemed out of touch with his emotions or many of the other Green Lanterns we regularly see? What about Superman? He's an alien. It's a shame that Johns is hanging plot elements on this idea, because it's not an idea he has been able to sell.
This is a strong issue of the series and the War of the Green Lanterns event. It would have been nice if the Guardians got developed a little more and Johns gave up on this idea of humans as the most emotionally capable race around, but that hardly drags the issue down. It succeeds at pulling the plot together and pushing it forward as Krona reveals his crazy plan. Plus, we get a fun interlude with Sinestro. It's hard to complain about anything here.
