Green Lantern: Lights Out (The New 52) Review

Green Lantern: Lights out (The New 52)

Hal, Kyle and John get serious hurt, while
Guy takes the time to frolic.

Writers: Robert Venditti, Justin Jordan, Van Jensen and Charles Soule.

Artists: Bard Walker, Sean Chen, Rags Morales, Billy Tan, Bernard Chang and Alessandro Vitti.

Collects: Green Lantern 23.1: Relic, Green Lantern-New Guardians #22-23, Green Lantern #24, Green Lantern Corps #24, Red Lanterns #24 and Green Lantern Annual #2.

Background Information:

So, the Green Lantern event known as Rise of the Third Army/ Wrath of The First Lantern the Guardians of the Universe were killed, and the Green Lanterns are now under control of Hal Jorden. Guy Gardner has been sent to infiltrate the Red Lanterns, becoming their leader. John Stewart is busy training new recruits, and Kyle Rayner is the new White Lantern, and is leading the new Guardians of the Universe on a voyage of discovery.

And Simon Baz? Well, he's apparently disposable.

Review:

Unless you're writing Batman, which, let's face it, is pretty hard to totally mess up, it's hard to envy writers who have to take over a series; especially when you're taking over from writers like Geoff Johns, Tony Beddard and Peter J. Tomasi. Together, these men revived the Green Lantern franchise and made its universe one of the most fascinating within the DCU. Considering that, it's pretty astounding that Lights Out is as good as it is; but don't expect fireworks.

Who's my little guy?

In an alternate universe lived the Lightsmiths. They used and abused the emotional light spectrum. These lightsmiths were more than content to use the power of resolve, faith, terror, empathy, gluttony and fury, for their own selfish purposes. They mocked the scientist who dared to claim that the light was finite, calling him Relic for preaching ideas that were considered out of date.

But Relic was right, the light eventually ran out and his universe died.

Jumping over to our universe, and the Relic has appeared again. This time, he's after the light of this universe's Lanterns, and the various Lantern heroes need to stop him from doing so.

A concept as deep as that one suggests quite a few changes to the GL status quo. Venditti does that, but the road to it seems far longer than the book's seven issues would have us believe. And that's odd, because this book deals with the destruction of Oa, the farewell to the Lantern entities, and various other big changes to the GL franchise. Yet the road to all of this happening, is littered with themes and moments that have happened again and again under previous writers and as you read you can't help but wish that the four different writers here thought, at least once;

"Maybe not spend ages agonising over Carol Ferris and Hal Jordan's relationship, or lack thereof."

"Maybe not hammer the Blue Lanterns as a metaphor for hope leaving the universe."

"Maybe not have an entity possess someone."

"Maybe not have a story that brings in multiple Lantern Corps."

Yet, all of these things are here. I appreciate that Venditti is trying to carve his own path with this franchise, and there are some things he does that certainly suggests he has a plan for the series as a whole. I just wish I didn't feel like I was reading "Geoff Johns-lite" (geddit? lite and light... it's a pun... yeah... is this thing on?).

That said, the writers surrounding Venditti are doing some pretty good things. I didn't expect Charles Soule to blow me away with his work on Red Lanterns, yet here I am blown away by the Red Lanterns chapter of Lights Out. And, if you need any more evidence as to how impressive that really is, that's just one issue in the whole book.

I also liked the fact that even though Hal Jordan is in the front and centre of the book's cover, this really is Kyle Rayner's book. I see Hal and Kyle as equally interesting characters, and I was glad to see that DC let Kyle be the driving force behind this collection.

All the pretty colours...

I feel a little bit conflicted about the art in Lights Out, however. There are no really bad artists here; one of them, Rags Morales, is actually one of my favourites. That said, though, the art really suffers when it comes to depictions of Relic. In the beginning of the book, Relic appears to be about the same size as Galactus. By the final issues, however, we get one that looks about the same size as a Transformer (yep, I've used those as standards of measurement). It's confusing at best, at worst it's a sign that there was little to no correlation between artists and if DC are going to insist on crossing over every Lantern title every six months, they're going to want to be on top of that.

I think the trick to enjoying Lights Out is to treat it as a cog in a greater machine. I genuinely want to see what Venditti and crew do with the Lantern books next, but for now, I'm giving Lights Out a three out of five Lite-smiths (geddit... no? C'mon!)

***

+ A Kyle Rayner centred story
+ The Red Lanterns issue is brilliant.
+ Definitely sees changes coming for the GL franchise.
- Art seems unclear on how big Relic is.
- Relies on oft-repeated clichés of GL.

Alternate Option: Green Lantern: Rise of the Third Army/Wrath of the First Lantern

Wait? The Guardians are dead? Find out why with these two books.

Green Lantern Corps Vol. 3: Willpower (The New 52) Review

Green Lantern Corps vol. 3: Willpower (The New 52)

Angry pose is angry.

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi

Artists: Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna

Collecting: Green Lantern Corps #15-20, Green Lantern Corps Annual #1 and Green Lantern #20

Background information:

Previously in this series, things have been bad for Green Lantern Corps members Guy Gardner and John Stewart. John has been accused of murder (which he kinda… did). And Guy has been kicked off the Corps and sent back to earth. All because the Corps’ bosses, the blue imps known as the guardians (who may or may not represent the lollipop guild, the lollipop guild, the lollipop guild) have been trying to replace the Green Lanterns with an entity known as the Third Army. They’re the Green Lantern equivalent of zombies… which has never been done before. Nope, never.

Review:

Sorry, Guy, you need to read the first
three volumes of three other comics to
answer that one.

To be honest, I can’t say that I’ve loved Green Lantern Corps it’s been decent, but I’m ready for it to end. Thankfully, Willpower offers a satisfying end to the series, even though it’s hardly the strongest Lantern book out there.

Guy Gardner’s angry…er. Having been kicked of the corps, he’s now roaming the streets of his hometown beating up bad guys and getting into trouble everywhere he looks. Meanwhile, John Stewart has joined Star Sapphire Fatality in hunting down the pieces of the destroyed planet (and Green Lantern) Mogo. Meanwhile again, the Third Army is making its way across the universe killing and assimilating everyone and everything.

If you’re reading this and thinking “Gee, that sounds overly complicated”, you’re kinda right. Willpower is a big enough trade to be able to cover all of these stories, but following all three, for the most part, separate stories feels jarring. The trade isn’t helped by the age old problem of all Lantern books crossing over because… yes. There are bits and pieces missing that you need to read all the Lantern titles to understand, and that makes for line of books that are very unfriendly to new and casual readers, who may not be ready to jump feet first into a book that requires so much financial and personal investment.

That said, one thing that Peter Tomasi has always been good at is writing a very character-driven book. Willpower is no exception. It’s very clear that Guy and John are both the driving forces behind this story. It’s their actions and personalities that fuel this entire story. Guy’s headstrong attitude and John’s constant guilt influence nearly every moment in this volume, and it makes for good storytelling.

Contrary to all appearances, there are no poo-people in this
book

Which makes it odd that the two issues that investigate these characters the most are the least interesting of the volume. There is a certain point where the first lantern Volthoom, the guy powering the third army, is diving into the memories of Guy and John. Tomasi obviously wants us to believe that these issues have some kind of emotional impact, and both chapters certainly are written to do so; but there is absolutely no reason for us to care about these moments. That Guy botched his job as a cop feels irrelevant, and though it slightly more significant to bring up all of John’s past mistakes, “past mistakes” seems to be the main description of John’s character, so his past feels pointless in a book where all we’ve seen are the past mistakes.

Art in Green Lantern Corps bugged me to no end for a long time. Each angry/stressed face looked at first like Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna learned to draw by tracing pictures of constipated guys trying to pass stones. No it’s kinda’ grown on me. I still don’t love the faces, but there is some amazing action drawn here that somehow manages to be brutal and epic without being overdone.

Willpower is a fitting end to a decent series, and it gets a three and a half out of five passed stones.

*** ½

+ Character-driven story.

+ Superbly-drawn action.

- Need to read the whole series to understand.

- Some character investigation falls flat.

Alternate Option: Green Lantern: The End

Read one, and you have to read them all.

Green Lantern Corps Vol. 2: Alpha War (The New 52) Review

Green Lantern Corps Vol. 2: Alpha War

Hmmm... where would we find two shiny
people in a dark room...

Writer: Peter J Tomasi

Artists: Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna

Collects: Green Lantern Corps #0, 8-14

Background Information:

In the last volume, Guy Gardner and John Stewart took on an alien race called the Keepers- the ones formerly tasked with storing the green light of willpower. During that time, John was imprisoned and interrogated with other Lanterns over codes that would allow the keepers to enter Oa, the home of the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians of the Universe. In order to stop one lantern from giving the codes away, John killed him. He then went on to take that lantern’s body to his home planet where his parents and younger brother gave him a farewell. Of course, at that point, nobody knew that the lantern died at John’s hands.

Yep, that’s totally not going to blow up in his face.

Totally won’t.

Review:

Quick, shoot the green guys... oh... wait...

The first volume of Green Lantern Corps could have been much better, even if it wasn’t bad. I seriously doubt people would be desperate for a second volume based on the previous one, were it not for the fact that the series crosses right over with the other GL titles. Good thing that Alpha War seriously ups the game in Tomasi’s New 52 run; producing a story that rewards you for slogging through the first volume and ramps up interest in the third.

This volume concerns the fallout of John Stewart’s lantern killing. The Alpha Corps (the Green Lanterns charged with policing the Green Lanterns), have footage of the dastardly deed and have come with an arrest warrant for Stewart. Naturally, Guy Gardner opposes the arrest and you can bet people are going to smash each other with green objects.

The story is deeply rooted in how bad the Guardians are, and it almost goes without saying that to people familiar with the years of GL history. There’s nothing new here in that regard, but there’s a sense here that it’s finally going to boil over and that makes the volume interesting.

Tomasi also does a fine job at digging into GL history as references to the Manhunters, Mogo and the Psions. They’re all wrapped into the story and it’s entertaining in many ways. The battles between the Alpha Lanterns and the Corps is also well-done in the way it takes advantage of that history. Let’s face it; the Alphas are able to switch off the Lantern rings, so Guy needs to pull out something pretty clever. I’m more than happy to read that, but there’s one issue that bother me.

This book is supposed to be about Guy and John- two equally awesome lanterns that work together to save the universe. Why, then, does this title seem to be almost exclusively Guy’s book? Between this and last volume, John’s position has been relegated to “person in need of rescuing”. That has to be insulting to Stewart fans, and it smacks in the face of all the work DC did at the beginning of the New 52 to diversify their line.

The cliffhanger at the end of this book, however, is worth the price of the book and definitely validates buying the next volume. I won’t spoil it, but there’s some suggestion here that Guy won’t hijack the whole title for much longer.

It never occurred to me that Guy had an even stupider
haircut at some stage.

Somehow, though Pasarin’s art was distorted and not pretty at all in the first volume, the art in this volume looks a lot better. The constipated faces aren’t there anymore, nor do they look botoxed. There is still a lot of green here, and you’re gonna’ get sick of that colour by the end of this volume, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Alpha War has successfully validated Green Lantern Corps. It gets a four out of five people in need of saving.

+ Rewards you for reading volume 1.

+ Draws on GL history.

+ Art looks better.

- Guy steals too much spotlight

Alternate Option: Green Lantern: The Return of Black Hand

If you start this series, you need to read all the GL line.