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    Review: Green Lantern #38

    Matthew PetersonBy Matthew PetersonMarch 24, 2009Updated:March 24, 200913 Comments5 Mins Read

    Or – “You Down Wit’ RGB?  Yeah, You Know Me!”

    GL1.jpg

    Lasst issue, we were given a huge cliffhanger, as Green Lantern of Earth Hal Jordan was taken over by the power of the Red Lanterns.  Will the quintessential soldier of the Guardians of Oa switch sides?  Will he escape the power of rage and make it back to the center of the spectrum?  Or, alternately, couldn’t he use both rings to be the Festive Holiday Lantern?

    GL2.jpgPreviously, on  Green Lantern:  Hal Jordan and the bearers of the Green fought long and hard to take down the Sinestro Corps and their yellow power rings.  In the wake of that war, more variegated hues of lantern have arisen, including the Blue Lanterns of Hope (led by Ganthet), the Red Lanterns of Rage, the Orange Lanterns of Avarice, and the Periwinkle Lanterns of FAAAAABULOUSSSSS!!  With all those rings a’floatin’ around, it’s a wonder that there’s any energy left in the universe.  When one of his former protegees (a woman named Laira, the Lantern who was purple and dressed like Psylocke) was tainted by Atrocitus and the power of the Red Lanterns, Hal Jordan was spurred to action in an attempt to save her.  Atrocitus captured Sinestro as part of his evil plan, and between seeing his oldest enemy again and Laira’s death, Hal Jordan finally gave in to the power of raaaaaaage and transformed into a Red Lantern!

    Back on Earth, Carol Ferris and Jillian Pearlman have an awkward moment wherein Carol tries to call Hal, and finds Jillian (Cowgirl) andswering his phone.  The implication of cohabitation makes Carol sad, and she wistfully stares at a picture of herself and Hal as children (one of the less entertaining constructions of this new Green Lantern iteration has been the revelation that Papa Jordan worked for Papa Ferris.)  Light-years away, on Ysmault, Hal Jordan tries to fight off the possession of his ring, only to begin vomiting blood and howling about vengeance and murdering Sinestro.  Atrocitus pits the power of his red ring against Saint Walker and his blue one, but suddenly realizes that Walker isn’t using his ring.  “Without an active Green Lantern ring by their side,” Atrocitus realizes, “a Blue Lantern’s ring won’t work!”  Wait, what? 

    Walker quickly comes up with a backup plan, leaping into action, and sliding his azure fingerbangle onto Jordan’s hand, causing it to immediately go to war with the red one already there.  Hal is overcome by warring power as two primary color fighty-fighty in his bloodstream, and a massive explosion occurs.  Out of the corona comes Harold Jordan, now an RGB Lantern, suitable for color-balancing your video cameras.  He attacks Atrocitus, but the villain escapes (as does Sinestro) leaving Hal balancing the power of Blue and Green Lanterns.  Even Saint Walker has no idea what has happened to him, as Hal floats in mid-air, bursting with energy.  Sinestro flees to Korugar (to take care of a Family Matter), Carol Ferris is scouted by the Star Sapphires, and the Controllers make their way to Planet Okaara to track down the source of Orange power (Sunny D?)  Guardian Scar watches all of this and laughs her evil laugh, commenting that “The war of light has begun!”

    I have to say, as interesting a concept as it is, I’m not entirely sold on this “War of Light” spectrum of ring-bearers thing yet.  The Sinestro Corps was an interesting extension of the character we’ve hated for years, but to have EIGHT different Lantern Corps running through the universe kind of undermines the uniqueness of the GLC for me.  Heck, it wasn’t all THAT long ago that someone at DC decided that even ONE Corps undermined the uniqueness that was Kyle Rayner…  Even so, the buildup has been slow and steady, and this issue keeps up that sense of “WTF is going on???”  On the downside, though, Atrocitus has felt throughly cardboard and not-as-scary-as-he-should-be throughout this entire affair, and having the same cliffhanger two months running (Hal possessed by the power of a different color) makes the whole synergy feel a bit stale already.  Here’s my  prediction: Hal has currently worn four of the eight available ring colors.  Whaddaya bet the War of Light ends with him putting a ring on each of his fingers and channeling all their powers in a climactic somepin-somepin to end all somepin-somepins?  Humans have eight fingers, after all, and when dealing with rings of power, that can’t be coincidence.  Right, Mandarin?  Still, this issue isn’t bad, even with the bits that feel familiar or insufficiently developed, giving us a good bit of fighty-fighty, developments of the various hues of Lantern, and even a repowered Sinestro, it’s just missing that certain je nais sais quoi for me.  Green Lantern #38 earns a middle-of-the-road 2.5 out of 5 stars, and an admission that even I am looking forward to where this war may go…

    25stars.jpg

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    Matthew Peterson
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    Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.

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    13 Comments

    1. Ricco on March 24, 2009 8:39 pm

      ““Without an active Green Lantern ring by their side,” Atrocitus realizes, “a Blue Lantern’s ring won’t work!” Wait, what?”

      The blue lantersn rejuvenated a sun by channeling the hope of the inhabitants of the solar system and my guess is that it also boosts Green Lantern rings by channeling their hope into their rings. They also drain the power of the Sinestro Rings when Sinestro was freed, which makes sense since hope and fear are opposite forces, also explains why it didn’t do anything to the red rings since rage and hope don’t really correlate.

      But hope has a mayor downfall it seems, like Tibetan monks that spend their whole days deep in meditation praying for a better world, hoping of that magnitude leaves no place for anything else and they simply don’t have the willpower to actually use their rings. It’s like having a loaded gun but no hands to pull the trigger, they need some of the energy of the green rings to activate their own.

      Humm, seems that fear and willpower are the only “emotions” that allow the user to feel other emotions and that emotions may be like Rock/Paper/scissors and give an extra edge when different corpsmen face eachother.

      Reply
    2. ~wyntermute~ on March 24, 2009 10:51 pm

      [snip] “that emotions may be like Rock/Paper/scissors and give an extra edge when different corpsmen face eachother.” [snip]

      Pokemon Ring Wars~!!!!! Blueachu, I choose you!

      Reply
    3. E-R Lass on March 25, 2009 9:53 am

      Come on! Rainbows! Plasma vomit! It’s like 6th grade again! wee!

      It IS kind of annoying all those colors rings flying around, but there’s no denying that the war of the Corps(es?) is a very original idea, not at all short of “Hell, Yeah!” moments. The Green Lantern titles have been consistently awesome.

      Yet, I really rolled my eyes at this issue. Carol Ferris becoming Star Sapphire AGAIN bothered me to no end. So did Rainbow Brite Hal. Totally worth the 2.5 rating. Sigh.

      Reply
    4. Tecrogue on March 25, 2009 10:16 am

      Go Orangeasaur!
      /PWR

      I’m with you though, (see comment on http://www.majorspoilers.com/archives/9600.htm ) it does look quite likely that we will end up with at least one omni-lantern by the end of this event..

      Reply
    5. Matthew Peterson on March 25, 2009 10:25 am

      Great minds think alike… :)

      I’m wondering, though, how much use the Blue Lanterns are actually going to be if their main function is to act as a “familiar” of sorts to a Green… At the very least, though, the war of the spectrum isn’t going to be seven guys who all do the same thing sluggin’ it out in different colors…

      Reply
    6. Ricco on March 25, 2009 11:00 am

      “I’m wondering, though, how much use the Blue Lanterns are actually going to be if their main function is to act as a “familiar” of sorts to a Green… At the very least, though, the war of the spectrum isn’t going to be seven guys who all do the same thing sluggin’ it out in different colors…”

      That was my greatest fear coming into this, that everyone would be fighting with different color constructs. Blue Lanterns are gonna be the Green’s field medics and logistic support, their role may be tiny or huge.

      Reply
    7. E-R Lass on March 25, 2009 11:17 am

      To be fair, no one said that the Corpses had, necessarily, to have the exact same amount of power.
      The “clash of opposite forces” has been done back in Sinestro Wars. Maybe the differences of power levels can add to the surprise, with all kinds of odds at play. Let’s see what those different lanterns can do.

      Reply
    8. Brent on March 25, 2009 11:31 am

      Did someone say Sunny D? FAAAAABULOUSSSSS! Thanks, Mom!

      Reply
    9. lordrodd on March 25, 2009 11:32 am

      I’m not reading this but it does sound like they’re raping my childhood. Green Lantern was cool. Lanterns of Many Colors is stupid.

      Reply
    10. Ricco on March 25, 2009 11:34 am

      The thing is, when you think about it, Hope and Death are just insanelly powerfull “emotions”. Okay death has next to no bite in comic books, but still everyone dies at some point and hope gets everyone going. Heck, the only reason anyone does anything is because they HOPE for a particular outcome/result. So it would make sense for the Blue Lantern Corps and the Black Lantern Corps to be hugely powerfull.

      Hope affects: fear (enemy of fear), willpower(hope becomes willpower), love(hope keeps love alive), greed(hope for more), compasion(hope for better situations) and even rage (in a smaller way, they hope to harm I guess). Death is the finallity of all those emotions and as such has a strong hold on them.

      Reply
    11. Lifeisaglitch on March 25, 2009 2:53 pm

      White Lanterns unite!

      Reply
    12. Matthew Peterson on March 25, 2009 10:43 pm

      Tell your childhood to stop dressing so provocatively.

      Reply
    13. lordrodd on March 27, 2009 12:19 pm

      lol. It’s all I have left. Don’t hate me because I was a provocatively dressed child, hate me because I’m now an old, fat, crotchety bald man.

      Reply

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