Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Green Lantern #30
DC Comics
Johns, Reis & Albert
The second issue of the Secret Origin arc. I loved a couple of things in this issue. However, there are one or two items in here that I absolutely did not like. That isn’t to say this is a bad issue. It is not, it’s a very good one. However, as a Green Lantern fan I was a little put off with some of the material and as a long time Green Lantern fan I was a little upset with the continuity aspects of the issue. It’s up to you to decide if you find these items annoying or not.
This issue begins with Abin Sur and his journey to Earth. This is outstanding. Yes, it’s seriously that good. We get the explanation as to why he is in a ship and not just flying himself. We get him talking to his best friend, Sinestro, and the information as to where he is and what he is to do should Abin fail. We get more about the prophecy. This whole sequence is terrific.
Next comes one of the worst parts of any Green Lantern comic I’ve ever read. We get the reintroduction of Hal Jordan’s friend, Tom, aka Pieface. Let’s recap that Hal called him Pieface for years and years in the comics. If this is a re-write of his origin then why not drop this derogatory comment? Instead of flushing this out of the history books we get a rebuttal in the form of another racist comment. This one page just didn’t sit well with me at all. It felt like its intention was to show how Hal didn’t like the biasness (although he used the same phrase for decades) so he uses racial comments to get his point across. Maybe newer readers don’t care. Maybe older ones don’t either. You decide for yourselves, but I hated this.
From here we get the re-introduction of Carol Ferris and how Hal’s path crossed hers again. This was pretty good, but nothing too Earth shattering came from this. I assume more of this will come into play later. Although, the issue ends with Ferris’s current boyfriend entering the fray. Hint, hint.
Next Hal gets his ring. The manner in which Abin meets his doom is simply outstanding. It ties together so much that it just feels like this was known but unsaid, all the years. It’s great.
Now the way Hal actually receives his ring doesn’t jive with me at all. You can decide for yourself, but from my perspective doesn’t a Lantern usually die and then get his ring? When does a Lantern start to die and hand off his ring face to face with the next bearer? This could have and should have been changed. If some other Lanterns got their rings directly from the previous owner than I’ll just drop it, but I don’t recall this being part of the Lantern’s past, except Jordan apparently.
The issue ends with Green Lantern attacking his rival pilot and then rescuing him in front of Carol and her boyfriend. I also don’t like that the Guardians would allow a rookie to use the ring (on his first action with it!) for personal gain. Perhaps this will be explained later, but seriously, the Guardians won’t let Jordan talk to his dead relatives and re-create Coast City, but he can attack a civilian because he doesn’t like him? Maybe this doesn’t bug you at all, but it bugs me. I guess I’ll see how it plays out.
So by now you are probably thinking I didn’t like an awful lot of this issue. This is not true. I expect perfection in this comic and if you want to redo the origin then do it right and do it better. From that end I expect everything to line up and click. I just want this arc to be as extra memorable as the Sinestro Corps War.
The artwork is stunning. Abin Sur looks awesome. Hal as insignia-less Green Lantern is equally as cool. This whole issue shines artistically.
If you like Green Lantern I would think you would like this issue overall. Maybe the long, long time fans would find this issue to be a little bit of reach, but maybe not. For me, it added the significant background about Abin Sur. This information has been long overdue but worth the wait. It’s outstanding stuff.
4 out of 5 geek goggles.
 Green Lantern #30 |
