Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates, Review | Tagged: Comics, dc, geoff johns, tony bedard

Wednesday Comics Review: Green Lantern 65 And Green Lantern Corps 59

Comics supplied by Holy Goat Comics of Kingston Upon Thames, London. Pop by and say hello.

Never has war looked quite like a string of fairylights.

DC to have the habit, it seems, of issuing both of these books in the same week, giving the reader double the punch of the same story, told by two creative teams. But how do they stack up? Especially telling a big crossovery story about a war or, well, light. You can tell there's a deadline to hit when a book has five inkers, but Doug Mahnke is doing an impressiove job of grounding all the pyrokinetics, his style fitting somewhere between Kevin Maguire and Steve Dillon. This week we discovered his Major Bummer series was to be collected by Dark Horse (in October though, sadly, not July) and he's still showing that wonderful storytelling abilities here, even when faced with some of the more bizarre scenes to portray, interrupting the cosmic with the mundane. Well, relatively mundane. In Green Lantern walking across the snow ravaged wastelands sans rings is mundane. And with some great Guy Gardner acting to match.

This is very much a chapter of an ongoing saga, and heaven help anyone who comes to it fresh. Geoff Johns doesn't even bother to mention the Big Bad by name, even though he appears at the start, you're just left guessing. "Welcome to my Green Lantern Corps", yes, yes, but who exactly are you?

Although odds are, very few people come to this afresh, you've been reading the book for years and this is the culmination of much that's been building up. This is the forces-are-massing part, as antagonist and protagonist prepare their own competing plans, and we are party to… some of them. And then we have the final last ditch assault, there's an Empire Strikes Back reference in the artic waste and the structure of the story is very Star Wars similar.  You've even got a Yoda or two to make it official.

Of course the cover of Green Lantern Corps, which you picked up at the same as Green Lantern, spoils the ending of Green Lantern completely and rather uninspiringly, so you may want to be careful about that. Maybe buy it with your eyes closed or something. Or just realise it' going to happen anyway and roll with it.

Because, as Green Lantern had scenes that grounded you, Tony Bedard and Tyler Kirkham's Green Lantern Corps takes place in the centre of Green Lantern mythology. But first… training brings you back to earth. Or Oa. We're so used to seeing these characters as capable as they come, using Green Lantern powers naturally as a extensions of their own body, that now that everything has changed, there's a lack of confidence, a lack of ability, a lack of… will. And as battle is forced upon them, their lack of organisation, understanding or even anything resembling a plan, results in mess. Nevertheless in the chaos, there is a pattern, and the unshakeable belief that Something. Is. Going. On.

There is one problem with extending a narrative like this for so long. With all the assaults, with all the attacks, the principal characters do seem to manage to survive relatively unscathed. You'd buy it in a one shot or in a two parter, but damn, this has been going on for ages, with so many battles and despite a little dribbly blood or ripped clothing, most people seem like they've had little more to deal with than a green flashlight. It has the unfortunate consequence of diluting the Green Lantern powers, even if the last few scenes promise an end to that.

Light. Fury. Still not sure what it all signifies.

Comics supplied by Holy Goat Comics of Kingston Upon Thames, London.

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