Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Review | Tagged: Barnaby Bagenda, dc comics, green lantern, Green Lanterns, jessica cruz, justice league, mick gray, night pilot, sci-fi, simon baz, superheroes, tim seeley, Tom Derenick, ulises arreola

Green Lanterns #41 Review: Noticeably Padded, with Underwhelming Art

Green Lanterns Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz have a lead on the disappearing superheroes and the off-world origins of the technology behind Caper. That lead is Scrapps, the mercenary hired to protect the Earth HQ of Caper.

This leads them to a crime-ridden world with no resident Green Lantern. That planet is Garnet, but it's known as Hellhole to the locals. Our Green Lanterns go undercover as a pair of mercenaries themselves with Scrapps leading the way.

This is an uncharacteristically wordy issue for Green Lanterns and Tim Seeley as a writer. That wouldn't be a problem if it did more to develop the promising plot of "Superhuman Trafficking" instead of getting cute with its characters and dialogue. Even that wouldn't be a problem if this issue were more charming and fun than it is.

It introduces two more crooks named Zecz and Tomb-Or, and they aren't terrible characters. They have charms of their own, but they're not especially interesting beyond one or two decent one-liners. Much of the comic is dedicated to them eluding Jesse and Simon, but, as per modern comic practice, the story doesn't go anywhere until the last page.

More lip service is paid to the developing "will-they-won't-they?" between Simon and Jessica, which I really didn't need. Whether or not it comes to fruition, this tension is forced at best.

That said, the comic does have its high points. Again, Zecz and Tomb-Or aren't awful characters. There are some good jokes, like Tomb-Or being on a dating app for criminals, called "Shyster," and Jessica becomes frazzled by the amount of dating apps out there. Jesse also gets a pretty badass moment where she conjures a horde of pigs and boars to ward of danger.

Scrapps, on the other hand, does receive some fleshing out. She isn't a completely heartless mercenary, and she has a decent sense of humor of her own. She comes to care for our Green Lanterns on some level.

The art leaves a bit to be desired. While there are undoubtedly some good panels, many scenes are noticeably light on detail at a relatively short draw distance. The inking is a little distracting in some spots too. The color art by Ulises Arreola is the strongest part of the art, as Arreola has well proven to be very adept at bringing the cosmic wonder to life in the color section by now.

Green Lanterns #41 isn't an especially bad issue. It's mostly a weak issue by the high standards of this series. The pacing is drawn out, the issue feels superfluous to the overall story, and the art is under par in the grand scheme of the series. I can still recommend this one; it's just not as good as previous issues of Green Lanterns. Feel free to pick it up, though.

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