Review: Green Lantern #47

Or – “The War Of Light Rages On, And The Key Players Gather For Operation Roy G. Biv…”

Indigo-1 and her Indigo Tribe have provided Hal Jordan and the heroes of the galaxy with the weakness of the Black Lanterns’ rings: multiple spectrum emotions.  In an attempt to give the BLC as much multi-spectrum as possible, Indigo-1 has gathered the primary bearers of the green and violet light, and has brought them both to Korugar to find the man who embodies yellow.  Sinestro is, however, understandably distracted by the return of his dead friends and lovers, and also might have a little problem with NOT KILLING HAL.  Five bucks on the gourd-headed guy…

Green Lantern #47

Previously, on Green Lantern: In the wake of “Dead Superman Day,” Black Hand (with an assist from crazy-blue-space-midget Scar) set in motion a series of events that released a plague of ebony rings into the universe.  Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Sector 2814 (Earth, for those of you without your galactic maps) engaged one of the first Black Lanterns, in the form of his old comrade J’onn J’onnz.  As  more and more dead folks rose out of the Cadillac Desert, Hal was surprised to find the Indigo Tribe showing up in the midst of it all, wielding the light of compassion.  When combined with his light of will, their luminance caused a fatal disruption in the black rings:  in short, a short, causing the deaders to get blowed up real good.  Hal (grudgingly) left Earth with Indigo to gather more ring-bearers, to create “the white light of creation” and burn the Black Lantern infestation out once and for all.  Carol Ferris was easily swayed, but Sinestro was more complicated, having to face Mongul, son of Mongul, in combat for the control of his self-named Corps.  This challenge was barely out of the way when his closest friend, Abin Sur rose from the dead, bringing with him his sister Arin, whom only Sinestro knows is his true love…

While a cadre of Green Lanterns fights Atrocitues and his Red Lanterns on Ysmault, things don’t go so well for the wearers of the green.  The playing field is leveled by the raising of the demons of Ysmault (“The Five Inversions”) as Black Lanterns, cackling about how their tales (told to Abin Sur years ago) helped to bring us to this point.  Atricitus stands against his brother, fillled with a mighty rage, only to have his heart ripped out.  A Black Lantern ring arrives, and intones, “Atrocitus of Ryut…  Ri–” before being rudely interrupted.  Atrocitus rips into his former brehren, needing no heart to fuel his anger, only the power of the red ring.  At the same time, on Korugar, Abin Sur plays the standard Green Lantern mindgames on Hal Jordan, only to find H.J. immune to such mind-gamery.  Sinestro faces Arin Sur alone, and being much more cerebral than Hal, finds himself wavering at her declarations of love.  The battles intersect, and Hal, Carol, Sinestro and Indigo combine their powers to blast the Sur family into atoms (though not before Abin babbles that he KNOWS her…)  Hal asks Sinestro pointedly who the girl was to him, and Sinestro replies coldly, “Nobody.”

With their common enemy gone,  a terse standoff ensues, as Sinestro doesn’t like standing alongside the Earth creatures  for ANY reason.  Sinestro is nothing if not pragmatic, though, and agrees to join the Rainbow Coalition to protect Korugar from the blackness.  Far away, on planet Xanshi, John Stewart is drawn further and further into a maze, created of the planet he destroyed so long ago.  On planet Odym, the home of the Blue Lantern Corps, Ganthet and Sayd (Guardians of the Blue Lantern Corps) fight off the Black Lantern rings, while Saint Walker and company fight off Larfleeze and the spectres of his orange light.  The arrival of of Hal and company turns the tide for Saint Walker, but the Orange Lanterns all dissolve mysteriously.  The action cuts to Okaara, where Larfleeze runs from the risen Black Lantern bodies of all his various victims (as his orange light allows him to create avatars of those who he kills) when he suddenly falls.  Fortunately (for SOME values of the word, anyway) Larfleeze is saved from the brink of oblivion by the arrival of Atrocitus.  “I want your battery, glutton.  NOW!” roars the monstrous Red Lantern as we fade out.

I’m having great fun with the main Blackest Night title for some time now, but I have to say I’m not as in love with this issue, or with the Green Lantern portion of the overall.  Various pundits have been joking about the inevitable appearance of a “White Lantern” for since pretty much day one, and this book does little to dispel the thought that we’re headed precisely there.  Hal Jordan is a bit limiting as a main character (at least for me) in that his current portrayal is a little bit too “Cosmic Batman,” positing that nothing will ever throw Jordan off his game as he’s just too darn awesome.  When the rest of the cast includes his ex-main-squeeze and his best frenemy, I want to see a little more psychological ramifications.  The real star of this issue is Sinestro, who deals decisively with his ex, as well as his former best friend, and even makes a remarkably rational decision when faced with death.  The overall effect is to make me like HIM more than our ostensible hero, at least if we base all our assessment on what we see in the issue.  Johns’ tendency to add a tortured core of nobility to his evil characters  is in full effect here, so long as we forget that Sinestro is basically a pink-skinned-gourd-headed-space-Nazi.  All in all, the issue has some decent character moments, and Doug Mahnke delivers on art, but it seems like we’re spending a lot of time on the “gather seven guys with different colored rings” portion of the program.  All in all, Green Lantern #47 earns 3 out of 5 stars, delivering just enough to offset the whispers of sagging in the plotting and pacing of the story.  If we’re going to do this for another six months, though, I hope there are some heavy twists in store for Hal and the Halleys.