Green Lantern Corps #4

Unlike the other titles in the franchise, Green Lantern Corps continues to struggle to find anything new to offer readers, giving us yet another story that uncovers a dark underbelly of part of the Green Lantern mythos. Part of the secret of the Keepers is revealed, and frankly, this is just getting silly now.

Taking a little piece of Green Lantern mythos and turning it on its head is storytelling method that has arguably already been overused by Geoff Johns. A secret pact with Larfleeze is the true reason for the Vega System being off-limits. Krona practically laid the groundwork for the Green Lantern Corps with his willfulness and inventions. Abin Sur was actually killed by Atrocitus. The yellow impurity was actually a fear entity called Parallax, who is in fact just one of several creatures of pure emotion. Sinestro and Abin Sur were BFFs, and Sinestro hooked up with Abin's sister. And so on. This has gotten to be something of a cliche in the franchise, but it seems no one has told Peter Tomasi.

I won't spoil the specifics of the Keepers' connection to Green Lantern lore, but I will say that it is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Seriously, what's going to be next? Will an upcoming story arc expose the truth that the Guardians' robes are made from some ancient and forgotten race, whose skinless survivors are now yet another party seeking revenge? That is an exaggeration of what Tomasi does here, but honestly, it's not much of one. It reeks of desperation that he is really trying to make a story out of this.

What makes this worse is that the Keepers themselves are pretty poorly realized characters so far. I'm sorry, but if give me black armored guys with lightsaber katanas, you have failed. Or you are eight years old.

I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating in regard to this issue. Tomasi doesn't really handle complex emotions well. Emotional subtlety is also completely lost on him. This was prevalent in the character arcs he was attempting for Kilowog and Arisia in Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors, and it's getting exposed in this series now as Tomasi has all of the Green Lanterns respond to the attack of the Keepers in only one way. Overdramatic anger expressed through acts of violence. Shouting and punching things, basically. I am really beginning to think Tomasi only writes one kind of character well, which really doesn't bode well for a writer of a book with an ensemble cast.

This issue also features a guest appearance from Martian Manhunter. The best thing I can say about it is that I really like how Fernando Pasarin depicts the newly designed J'onn. Seriously, this is one of the few New 52 redesigns that I rather like. Too bad the scene itself isn't that good. It essentially bails Guy Gardner out of a ridiculous interrogation scene, which would be forgivable if Tomasi was able to justify it. He's not able to, though. Martian Manhunter's appearance really makes no sense at all. Given that this situation has nothing to do with Earth, it's a huge stretch to believe that Stormwatch would have a vested interest in it or even be so quickly aware of it. Yet, that is what we are asked to buy into. But along with that, the scene hits us in the face with some of the new continuity. Now, it's already been made clear the no previous iteration of Justice League International ever happened. I really didn't expect Guy and J'onn to have much of a history anymore. This takes that one huge step further, though. It even goes a little beyond them having no history, which really doesn't seem to gel with what has been implied about J'onn in Stormwatch. Can DC not even keep their new, stripped-down continuity straight?

Green Lantern Corps doesn't live up to the standards of what is supposed to be one of DC's leading franchises. It tries to recycle ideas that have worked for other Green Lanterns but does so in an inferior way with the scraps left behind. It sports an ensemble cast of characters, but they aren't really written with any variety to their personalities. Nice art and scenes of violence can only carry this book so far.