Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Green Lantern #64 / Green Lantern Corps #58
DC Comics
Johns, Mahnke, Alamy, Champagne, Bedard, Kirkham, Batt & Hunter
Part Two and Part Three of the "War of the Green Lanterns" shipped this week so it once again makes a little bit of sense to review them together. Interestingly enough the issues manage to tell self contained stories, for the most part. Each issue has its own scope, but the Green Lantern chapter holds much more weight to the overall story than Green Lantern Corps. Both chapters are good reads and show only a slight amount of overlap. Overall, these issues are worth picking up.
Chapter Two, in Green Lantern, contains a lot of the back story. While the opening chapter focused on Krona, the chief villain, this issue focused on just about everyone else. Hal and his colored corps cohorts find the Black Lantern book and run into an old friend (and the trouble that comes with it). While this is going on Krona finds the Guardians and enacts his special plan for them. The Guardians are without their Green Lanterns because most of the rest of the corps are chasing Hal and his partners in crime. Johns jams a lot of recap as well as story in this issue. Overall, the comic book is very entertaining and takes the plot in two interesting directions, one dealing with the Guardians and the other with the rings.
Chapter Three, in Green Lantern Corps, focuses on John Stewart, Kyle Rayner and Ganthet. Sure, other Green Lanterns are in the issue, but events spinning out of Chapter Two impact those lanterns, leaving the three mentioned above the only ones left standing. The yellow impurity infects their rings and has them acting on the fears against one another. Ganthet, who is extremely powerful, finds a unique solution to keep the three sane. However, it isn't going to be good for the three going forward in this crossover.
I found the art in Green Lantern Corps to be more consistent than that of Green Lantern. Both issues seem to stick with the house style and will probably hold up reading together in a collected edition. I wasn't crazy about some of the character renditions in Green Lantern but the art shines during the battles and that's really what makes the Green Lantern line such an interesting and fun read.
The War of the Green Lanterns is shaping up to be a three-sided war. The Green Lanterns from Earth seem to be hunted by Krona and his crew as well as the faction that splinters off from these two issues. The crossover is showing a lot of promise and I am enjoying it more than Blackest Night in the early going. There is a lot to like here and I am finding the presentation to be fairly straight forward even for a newcomer to Green Lantern. These issues are worth checking out but there does seem to be more meat to the plot in the Green Lantern title over the Green Lantern Corps one. I definitely recommend these two issues.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
