Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Green Lantern #50Green Lantern #50
DC Comics
Johns, Mahnke & Alamy

The war of light sees plenty of action in this anniversary issue for the main Green Lantern title as Hal Jordan turns from Green Lantern to Parallax in order to combat the Spectre. The comic contains some fun dialogue among some of the new corps and has a decent little side story to the whole Blackest Night climax that this event should be reaching by now. The issue is definitely a fun read even if it seems to be cramming so much into one issue.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThe comic dances around a lot in the first few pages. Some of the characters that see some face time in the beginning of this issue seems forced and almost pointless, while others seem vital to the story. In this regard I found the issue to be frustrating.

There is a four panel sequence on page four that deals with Firestorm. I'm not sure when this character last appeared in the various tie-ins but having only followed the main mini series and the two Green Lantern titles I haven't seen this character in months after receiving heavy page time in the first two issues of the main mini series. To have this plot seemingly wrap up in the Green Lantern title makes no sense and has no continuity with where it left off in the Blackest Night main mini series. This speaks to the larger problem of the event where DC seems to assume you are reading everything and know everything about every character in their books. A simple recap box or bubble could have gone a long way. It's frustrating and dumbfounding.

However, the newly deputized characters are a breath of fresh air. Take Mera, for example. She seemed to be a relatively normal character but slap a red ring on her and she adopts a personality that is very derivative of the red lantern characters which works out perfectly for some fun dialogue during the fights. This goes for Lex Luthor, the Scarecrow and even Atom as each character brings a new dimension to the comic as well as to their regular personality.

The bulk of the issue is made up of the fight with the Spectre. The best part of this battle is the interaction between Sinestro and Hal Jordan. The comic book captures this relationship perfectly as they seem to have the ability to coexist despite being former best friends and mortal enemies. There definitely seems to be a mutual level of respect which helps to convince the reader of their new alliance while still leaving doubt about their intentions once the threat is defeated.

The downside of the battle with the Spectre is that it is not clear why the whole Corps has trouble taking down the Spectre. He's a Black Lantern which would suggest he's dead. But wasn't he already dead? Also, does he seem to have a character trapped inside his chest? This goes back to the problem mentioned earlier where it is assumed you know everything about the character and their current state, which is clearly not the case when you resurrect a character from the dead that was already dead. I could have used a little recap sequence as they provided to illustrate Jordan's extraction of Parallax.

The comic book's highlight is the art. From pencils to inks to colors we have a gorgeous looking comic. The issue contains plenty of splash pages between the battles of the return of Parallax. It's a fun comic book that encapsulates everything that is great about super hero stories.

Green Lantern returns to one of my favorite characters in this issue as Parallax gets dusted off. The comic book makes great use of many of the new deputies, but leaves something to be desired about some of the subplots that just seem to get a random panel here or there. The artwork blows the story's doors off starting with the awesome cover. Overall, this is a great comic for an anniversary issue, the series and the event. I definitely recommend this comic.

4 out of 5 Geek Goggles