Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Green Lantern Corps #27
DC Comics
Tomasi, Ross & Laguna

Another solid issue for the Corps. Even though the arc with the big battle with Mongul has just ended, this issue doesn’t do an all out cool down issue. There are a lot of plot lines here. Some are meant to sort of kick your heels up and relax while others are definitely meant to provide information for future arcs and remind the reader that not everything is rosy. The artwork continues to hit on all cylinders.

The issue jumps around a lot so I will try to recap it as briefly as possible. It begins with the new bar and grill opening up for the Lanterns and this is peppered throughout the issue. This provides some humor for the story and the dialogue is very clever and true to the characters. Next is the resting place for Bzzt. He enters the hall of the dead Lanterns where he will be guarded by Morro, the Cryptkeeper. It’s a nice send off and a it turns into an interesting plot as we see that another Lantern is hanging out in there talking to the dead. He has some interesting things to tell Morro. This will obviously tie to Blackest Night somehow.

There is a one pager that deals with Mongul and it seems a little out of place. He doesn’t seem to be too dead. I would have thought the Green Lantern Black Mercy would have taken care of that by now. Interesting development, but not surprising. After Guy and Kyle shut down the bar for the night, Guy comes across a crazy drawing. It’s of a Green Lantern cut in half, but who? And who drew it? Another interesting development.

The issue concludes with Kyle hitting on a new girl (who will probably end up dying like all the others he dates) and it leads directly into something killing off Green Lantern rookie’s families. It’s a fairly gross way as to how they figure it out, but it is an excellent plot device for the next issue.

A great issue, near perfect. I realize for some it may seem like a setup issue and I guess you can think of it that way. For me, the issue is a perfect fit for all the characters it covers. We have a large cast here and I like that it jumps around and gives some light moments with some dark ones. I like that all of this will eventually coming crashing together. It’s a good way to start off a new arc and plant seeds for future ones at the same time. I found the comic to be heavily entertaining.

Another nice thing about this issue is that it gives some introduction to Morro, someone who you have seen but maybe not in months. That way a new reader (or a forgetful one) can get caught up to speed relatively quickly. It seems to do this with many of the characters and their current state.

The art is great. Some of the visuals that stood out for me were the scenes dealing with Mongul and the “eyeballs” scenes. Also, I found Kilowog to be especially detailed. One side note is that I found Natu to be more human looking than Sinestro. It was a minor detail, but I found it be a little odd. Guy looked particularly greasy, which is right on par in my book. Finally, I loved the use of all the dead Lanterns in the crypt. They really reach far back in the mythos for some of those dead guys. The art is very good in this issue.

This comic has a lot of characters to use and it seems to be doing a good job of juggling up the roster arc to arc and within this issue. I like the stories that we find them in as well. For a comic that doesn’t really have its own “rogue gallery” it seems to be doing a great job making excellent stories. If you are even slightly interested in Green Lantern then I advise you to check it out. This is a great start to this arc.

4.5 out of 5 geek goggles