Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Green Lantern #8Green Lantern #8
DC Comics
Johns, Mahnke, Alamy, Champagne & Irwin

Green Lantern continues to labor through stories with very lackluster issues that probably wouldn't make a lick of sense to any reader that hasn't read this entire run (or with Wikipedia handy). This issue marks the second chapter of "The Secret of the Indigo Tribe" and for the life of me I can't figure out what the goal of the tribe is. Add in that the issue has some very sloppy art in parts and I found myself disappointed with the comic book. I expect so much more from Johns.

The bulk of the issue is the Indigo tribe trying to convert Sinestro into a tribe member. Hal is also prisoner and with a pseudo-power ring he really doesn't have much to offer as help for Sinestro or himself. The issue ends with a big reveal but no explanation attached to it.

The overarching problem with this book is that the stories are so slow and makes the comic lost in the overall landscape of its broader goals. This comic book really doesn't place any context around how or why Hal or Sinestro are prisoner and it certainly doesn't offer any insight from the dialogue within the comic book. Part of the problem there is that most of the Indigo Tribe simply say "Nok" to anything and everyone.

The book also suffers from reusing the same tactics from previous arcs. How many different rings can Hal and Sinestro wear? All of the other Corps wants them as members for unknown reasons and each ring now seems to only be capable of using an energy blast as a weapon. The nuisances of each of the coloring rings seems to be have been wiped away which is a real concern. Even the uniqueness of the some of the corps members is gone. The Indigo Tribe is based on compassion and where among the saviors of Blackest Night. Here? They torture beings and convert them against their will to be….evil? It's not adding up and it's becoming very generic.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThe art is classic Green Lantern. Mahnke delivers the usual stellar cosmic book with a lot of fighting and posing and it looks great. However, the army of inkers definitely gets in the way, especially at the end where identifying characters on the last page is critical to the cliffhanger. The sloppiness spills into the lettering as we have at least one dialogue box pointing to the wrong character. The comic book feels rushed on multiple fronts.

This book is too slow and is not making a whole lot of sense, as a single issue or the general direction of the storylines. It seems like the book's direction is to play fish-out-of-water stories with Hal and Sinestro wearing different rings where they take turns rescuing each other. At least the book reads quickly, even if not advancing the story much at all, to give the appearance of being exciting. This is a disappointing comic book.

2 out of 5 Geek Goggles