Or – “Glow-In-The Dark Dinosaurs On Parade!”
A couple of years ago when Geoff Johns began revealing the various OTHER colored Lantern Corps, I had a niggling worry in the back of my head that it would all get silly and overblown and ridiculous with that many different characters and colors and powers in play. Now, as Krona prepares to capture all the inflatable dino-bugs that represent the seven spectrums, part of me just wants to laugh at the silliness of it all. Does this issue have the wherewithal to overcome the inherent goofiness of it’s source material?
GREEN LANTERN #63
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller(s): Ed Benes & Ardian Syaf
Inker(s): Ed Benes, Rob Hunter & Vicente Cifuentes
Colorist: Randy Mayor
Letterer: Steve Wands
Editor(s): Brian Cunningham, Adam Schlagman & Eddie Berganza
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
Previously, on Green Lantern: Hal Jordan has spent the last few years in near-constant outer space battle, and has recently returned to Earth in the company of Atrocitus, Larfleeze, Sinestro and other neer-do-wells, causing his pals in the Justice League to question his new alliances and his coping skills. Having abandoned his old friends, Hal has taken off into space with the unsavory colorfully powered aliens, only to find that Krona of Oa has returned seeking revenge on his old pals the Guardians. There’s also more glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs than my last trip to the dollar store, so they got that going for them…
Is Doubting Your Mission A Bad Sign?
So, this issue begins with the portion of the story that we’ve been seeing as a preview in EVERY SINGLE DC COMIC for the last few weeks, with Krona (in his old-school head-like-a-milk-jug phase) being confronted by the Guardians of the Universe about his wild and wacky theories. Notably, all the Guardians wear white robes with the symbol of the White Lantern on ’em, rather than their usual red bathrobes with green symbols, which I’m sure is representative of something… In another ominous display, Hal (World’s Greatest Green Lantern, soon to be portrayed by Berg from ‘Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place’) Jordan starts to think that the Guardians’ belief that emotion must be controlled might actually have some merit. Suddenly, Carol (Star Sapphire) Ferris and Sinestro (Sinestro) show up out of nowhere, returning from Brightest Day and Green Lantern Corps, respectively. I have a problem with their sudden reappearances, especially since both of them have been INTERSTELLAR distances away for several months, and the story of Krona retrieving the Predator is told either off panel or in another book…
The Rainbow Coalition Reunited!
With all seven colors once again together, they fly off to find Krona’s lair, where they discover a text only hinted at in the oldest legends of Oa: The Book of The Black, consisting of the excised chapters of the Book of Oa. Hal and his pals trigger some sort of signal, and a voice says “New Guardians detected!” Suddenly, they are transported into a group hallucination, wherein we see the true origins of the green power of will, the real reason why the Manhunters went insane and murdered every living entity in sector 666, and even the origins of the phrase “Beware my power”, which I have always considered to be sort of an odd boast for fearless and honest heroes to be throwing around. The issue ends with the cryptic tease “There will be only three” as the Rainbow Coalition members hang comatose in space, seemingly enwrapped in the same chains that Krona used to imprison the various day-glo entities. One of the real problems with the sequence comes with the storytelling of Ed Benes, or honestly, the lack thereof. The art doesn’t seem to pace with the story, making the whole issue a series of stop/starts without much real continuity in terms of the visual side of things. There are a decided lack of non-starfield backgrounds, but since the majority of the issue takes place hanging in space, that may not be a valid complaint…
The Verdict: Wha-HUH?
MAAAAN, this arc is going slow. We’ve been reading about Krona’s plot for the better part of a year now, and there’s clearly a lot of padding going on in this tale. Hal is becoming more and more unstable, while Atrocitus, Larfleeze and Saint Walker have become one-note characters parroting the same sentiments over and over. There was a point a few issues ago where it seemed that we might see the entities inhabiting new bodies, but that was cut short, while the bits with Krona and the Guardians history this month are strong, but are way out of balance with the soul-searching of Hal Jordan. I’m sure I’m overthinking this, but it feels like we’ve been stretching this whole arc to get the big War storyline to coincide with the upcoming Green Lantern movie, and the characters and plot are suffering. Green Lantern has been a series of escalating battles for about five years worth of stories now, and I’m dying for a quiet moment with Cowgirl, or even the appearance of a supporting cast member who doesn’t wear a ring. Green Lantern #62 has some strong sequences, but doesn’t hold together as a whole, and the art isn’t really up to the job of conveying the emotions the script wants us to experience, leading to a somewhat disappointing 2 out of 5 stars overall. This issue is at least a beginning of explanations of all the portents and omens, though, which is encouraging.
[rating: 2/5]Faithful Spoilerite Question Of The Day: Is it time to give Green Lantern a respite from endless cosmic conflicts? Or is Hal better off in space war after space war?
17 Comments
Ugh, I still find the concept of the multicolor lanterns to be obnoxious, it seemed like it might be good for a while but now it’s back to making them the emotional power rangers. it just smacks of that horrible fan fiction when someone inserts themselves as the Brown Ranger, a gravity bender, the accordionist for the Holograms or Sexy Smurf.
Same thing goes for the strange necessity to find meaning in each phrase of the green lantern oath.
Ganthet: Hal, you are not seeing what is in front of you?
Hal: What do you mean?
Ganthet: Haven’t you figured it out? The word “in” appears twice in the green lantern oath.
Hal: My God! You’re right! I and N! I the first roman numeral and N, a variable. But you can’t have two firsts and two unknowns! Since everyone speaks english this can only mean one thing… THE GREEN LANTERN OATH IS THE ANTI-LIFE EQUATION!
There you go DC, write THAT for two and a half years, you’re welcome.
Ugh, I still find the concept of the multicolor lanterns to be obnoxious, it seemed like it might be good for a while but now it’s back to making them the emotional power rangers. it just smacks of that horrible fan fiction when someone inserts themselves as the Brown Ranger, a gravity bender, the accordionist for the Holograms or Sexy Smurf.
Yeah, the Power Ranger/Captain Planet thing is really hard to overcome, especially given that the whole thing quickly got out of control, and now we only see the core seven “Leader” Lanterns anymore, with the exception of the all-important Earthmen in GLC…
I would definitely respond yes to that question. It seems the whole Green Lantern portion of the DC Universe is suffering from event fatigue, even when there isn’t actually an event taking place. Primarily because these books have been on the same trajectory ever since Rebirth and because, since Brightest Day spun out of Blackest Night, Green Lantern has been trying to carry the DCU on its shoulders. Without much success, seeing as a I pretty much gave up on GL after Blackest Night.
I think Geoff Johns did a fantastic job with Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War, and I think that there are some very interesting ideas with the various Corps. But as you said, Matthew, the silliness is starting to show a little bit much and it stretches our willing suspension of ridicule.
I don’t know what’s going on in Green Lantern Corps, but I really enjoyed things as they were in Recharge and in that series, the more day-to-day life of a bunch of space cops.
Green Lantern has been running for 6 years now, maybe it’s time to sit down and catch its breath. Or at least give us a sense of time going by between cosmic catastrophes, with some quieter scenes.
Sorry if this sounds fanboyish, because it will:
This is why I generally like Marvel more then DC. Marvel has the street level stuff that DC just doesn’t have with the sometime exception of the Bat family. I really enjoyed the Green Lantern stuff until Blackest Night and now I find it unreadable, too many people with too little character development, and the epic space stuff that feels very similar to the last epic space stuff. I guess at the end of the day I just don’t feel like I can connect to any of the characters.
I’m actually a fan of the multi-colored rings. But my complaint is that they don’t differentiate the powers enough. They all do pretty much the same thing just with different colors. Especially the Star Sapphires, GLs and Sinestro Corps. I would find it much more interesting if they would play up the way the powers interact with each other more. Like how the Indigos can absorb other’s powers, Blues boost the GLs, Orange can absorb other people entirely and make them puppets. That’s what I find truly interesting, but it just hasn’t been played up enough.
I do like that they’re keeping GL in space. It seems like a more fitting setting for him. He’s the GL of an entire sector not just Earth. But to elaborate more on this and what I said earlier, I would like to see the colors joining forces in more subtle ways. Like having a small group of GLs infiltrating planets with a Blue with them to give them the edge. Or Indigos and being sent out to help motivate a group of people to overthrow a dictator or something like that. Ya get where I’m going with this?
I’m with you – the multicolored Corps have potential, but except for Blue & Indigo (who are mostly ignored), they’re just being used as “the Green Lanterns but eeeevil/hopelessly misguiiiiided”. The concept has become tired because they seem so determined not to tap its potential as much as they should. Of course, the event fatigue that’s been inflicted on the DCU as a whole & GL in particular is probably to blame for that.
That’s what I hate the most. When they introduced the corps and their special powers… THAT’S what made it so exciting!
Now they’re just multi-coloured complications.
I just hope they’re still around when the dust settles from all the ring-related events. Maybe then they’ll be treated fairly.
Especially Larfleeze. Stop cutening him up and dumping him in stories for comic relief! HE OBTAINS HIS CORPS BY KILLING PEOPLE AND ABSORBING THEIR IDENTITIES!!!
But, no, cheapening him with the childish attitude. That works.
That top image looks like a really bad-ass baby.
“Lantern Corps, Taste the Rainbow.” So what now one ring to rule them all……..
I don’t think that having multi-coloured Corps are a bad thing, but I wish they would do something with them inside of making them GL sidekicks. *cough*Blue lanterns*cough* I’d really like to see Hal being the space cop he is supposed to be instead of going from battle to battle to battle.
> I’m sure I’m overthinking this, but it feels like we’ve been stretching this whole arc to get the big War >storyline to coincide with the upcoming Green Lantern movie,
I don’t think you’re overthinking, Matthew. I think you’re spot on. If this stuff doesn’t scare away people sampling the comic when the movie comes out, I don’t know what will.
War of the Supermen, War of the Green Lanterns, War of the Gas Prices Eating My Comic Book Money…I don’t know about any of you, but all this is wearing me down.
I still think this whole thing is the best late-80’s cartoon ever.
Now when do they all form a giant multicolored robot? Huh? Huh?
“Thare can be only one!…..Um….Three!”
Next storyline will be about the invisible beings that secretly influence every one of the colors. You’ve been reading about the ones that fall under the visible spectrum, but soon, you’ll witness the unseen might of the Infrared and Ultraviolet Lanterns!
Dun dun DUN!
Yes, much like the monster created from the people’s “id” in Forbidden Planet.
Doug Mahnke was sorely missed on this issue.
I voiced this concern, I think, when the Sinestro Corps War was getting started: “This is awesome and all but, really, where do they go from here? They can’t just keep ratcheting it up a notch or it’s going to get dumb.”
It’s reached dumb.