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Rating:  -
Overall, this is a decent book. It starts out excitingly as many of the notable Green Lanterns go on an off-world mission to track down Sinestro Corps rings that have gone missing. The Green Lanterns end up fighting Mongol, an evil Siamese twin, and a sentient Plant-planet. Sounds cool, and it mostly is, but it's got some big flaws, many of which have already been discussed in other reviews.
After each issue, the quality of the story telling degrades. For me, much of this has to do with simple errors in writing. In one case, the planet Sedas is said to be in Space Sector 3550, while later it is in the Vega System of Sector 2020 (These numbers may not be exact, as I'm writing this on memory) Are we to believe that a planet can move this far across the universe in such a short amount of time?
Secondly, there are several scientific misrepresentations that are merely annoying, but that tend to pop up frequently in this title. In one instance, Lantern Iolande refers to the sentient plant as "merely fauna." Of course, fauana refers to animal life, while flora refers to plants. In another case, Mercy (The sentient plant) refers to her ability to feel the fear and pain of beings across the universe. She states something like "I can feel the emotions of others from hundreds of thousands of miles away." While this is indeed a magnificent ability on her part, it's important to remember that the moon is over 200,000 miles away from Earth. Had the writer really thought about this quote, he would have corrected it to say "hundreds of billions" to achieve the universal scope of this being's powers. These are minor mistakes, but to me it suggests that the writing is either rushed or simply uninformed. The story also feels weak, especially toward the end. I won't go into detail, but I'll just say that what should be a big emotional moment feels pretty insignificant.
Finally, the art just isn't that great either. Gleason's ink heavy art can be impressive at times, but can also make characters look awkward or distorted. In this collection, there are enough cases of this to really affect the flow of the book.
For true Green Lantern fans, this should be read. For those trying to catch up in time for Blackest Night, just skip this one and read a synopsis somewhere. The only thing that really happens is that Mongol appears to be in a place of greater importance, and the "Violet Lanterns" are set up to play an important role in the very near future.
Rating: -
The idea of the Green Lantern Corps is one of the genuinely genius concepts in the DC or any comics universe. Superficially similar in nature to the Jedi Knights of Star Wars, the Green Lantern Corps are essentially space police, and their tales chronicle the exploits of sentient representatives from various solar systems around the galaxy, given immensely powerful rings that are powered by will. Lanterns know no fear, or are at least able to overcome it.
This volume collects issues 19&20, and then 23-26 of the regular ongoing Green Lantern Corps (GLC) series, and is also the first full volume featuring the work of writer Peter Tomasi, previously an editor at DC. Generally, it's a mixed bag, both in the writing and the art department, because both are a bit uneven, and the inconsistency hurts a little. Nevertheless, it is an entertaining read. However, I wouldn't recommend it for non GLC fans or beginners who are intrigued by the concept of the Green Lanterns and are looking for a strong introductory volume. For those people, I would recommend previous volumes Recharge, or A Dark Side of Green, the latter of which continues to be the high water mark of storytelling for the collected volumes of GLC, thus far.
The premise of the story is that the ruthless and sadistic alien Mongul has come into possession of a Sinestro Corps ring, a ring analogous to the Green Lantern's ring but only yellow, and powered not by will but fear. At the same time, the GLC is ordered by the Guardians to track down and imprison every last remaining Sinestro Corps member they can find, or at least, to capture every ring without a carrier. This sets up a confrontation between a small team of lanterns, most of whom are the regular cast of GLC, and Mongul, a powerful foe who occasionally challenges Superman and whose lust for power is unrelenting.
As stories go, the execution by writer Tomasi tries hard to live up to the promised excitement inherent in the premise of the story, and for the most part, he succeeds. However, the writing is uneven in parts. Although the first two chapters are included here, the first is not strictly necessary and is mostly filler, focused on the permanent move to OA by lanterns Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner. Curiously, the second chapter announces that it is the first part of Ring Quest, though that too is mostly set up, split between the mundanity of both lanterns settling in to Oa and Mongul's scheming. It's an odd two issues that don't quite work either as single stories or that well together. Among other things, one of the glaring problems with the first chapter is that it is less a story than a "let's catch up with what each lantern's doing" checklist, which I find annoying, and had I been a buyer of the monthly comic, would have caused me to ask for my money back. (For the price of modern comics, I want an actual story where something actually happens in the 22 pages of "story.")
The remaining four chapters go directly to the lanterns' quest to find the Sinestro corps members or rings, and are far more engaging than the previous two. (For non readers of the regular series, it is also a little disconcerting that issues number 21&22 are mysteriously excluded from this collection, though one presumes that it's because they aren't directly relevant; the only problem with that being that "Ring Quest part 1" strangely takes place two issues before "Ring Quest part 2...") Once we get into the confrontation though, chapters move along briskly, Tomasi is able to build a real sense of drama and suspense with the capture of lanterns Arisia and Sodam (I know!) Yat, among other things, and the likeability of the characters as individuals and as a group, pulls you in as a reader. There are some genuinely harrowing parts, such as where the two captured lanterns get swallowed and digested, and where the other corps members are compelled to fly through collected debris in space of millions of dead bodies and body parts. A little grizzly, to be sure, but the horror aspects of this book have been one of it's mainstays since it launched.
There are some weaknesses though. Tomasi's dialog is a little melodramatic in places, even for comic books, and Mercy's narration about her origins is just very occasionally cringe-worthy, possibly because she is a sentient, telepathic, plant... (I know, even for a series featuring aliens that look like talking lizards, it was a bit much; a sentient plant, maybe, but telepathic too? Love that fertilizer! And it gets better, the plant has other powers and abilities far beyond those of physics... and gravity!) Similarly, Tomasi makes Mongul here a bit of a bombastic talker in parts, which oddly undermines the menace the character should represent, and is something other writers have been wise to avoid. The banter between Mongul and his acolyte is also silly, and a little misjudged. To my mind, Mongul wouldn't spend time talking to threaten you. Instead of wasting energy to speak words designed to scare, he'd try to scratch out your eyes and break open your skull to dine on your brains. Tomasi makes him occasionally an, "I shall this, and I shall that, and you shall obey, or I shall threaten you to death..." type. It doesn't work. Thankfully though, it's infrequent enough to only be slightly annoying. Thankfully, Tomasi is smart enough to exploit one of the real strengths of GLC, which is that it's large cast means that characters really do face peril. In GLC, characters you love really can get killed, and Tomasi uses that fact to bring a poignant end to his tale.
This volume definitely does not showcase Patrick Gleason at his best. His art in these stories is inconsistent and obviously rushed in places, and the multiplicity of inkers only makes that worse. Gleason also continues to suffer from stuffing his panels with way too much detail and to rely too heavily on strong blacks, that end up confusing the reader (something that both hurts and helps him in the previously mentioned scene of flying through suspended planetary rings of dead bodies. Few other pencillers could make it look so genuinely horrific/morbid, and yet in some places, a lot of it gets lost completely). In more panels than are acceptable for a penciller of a monthly series, I just can't make out what's going on. Gleason improves his storytelling here only marginally from previous volumes, where his story flow and panel size selection were hit and miss. Gleason's at his best when he ignores his quirky instincts and plays it straight instead of cartoony, and his art in this volume swings between both extremes, aided and abetted by whichever mad inker is on him for that page. Gleason is obviously talented, but hasn't decided whether he wants to be a cartoonist or a penciller. That said, he pencils all six issues in this volume, and his work ethic is impressive, and it needs to be born in mind that the pressures of producing a monthly title will test even the most committed pencillers. The art is not Gleason at his best, but showcases his occasional flashes of brilliance and generally serves the story well.
Overall though, this definitely a volume worth owning for GLC and Green Lantern fans. It's an interesting, exciting tale, plants seeds for some future stories even as it ties up some ends from the previous excellent Sinestro Corps War epic, and even for it's weaknesses, ends up being a solid addition to a very satisfying library of modern Green Lantern tales. I highly recommend it for people who are already fans of the GL concept, and are looking for a good read. Amazon sent me a copy with two pages missing, but I gave it three stars nonetheless.
Rating:  -
Althoug Sinestro Corps War is over, the members of the green lantern corps aren't resting or in a kind of vacation. They losted a lot of lanterns and some enemys are around turning hope into fear.In this book, Peter Tomasi did it again: an interesting plot and a wondrous story. If I had one concern in all this, it's the continued use of the mercy plant and mongul, it's time to stop with this alien. The story could have been written without this creature of debstam IV, even if he has the ability to instill great fear...The art of Patrick Gleason is as brilliant as allways was and this paperbak edition is quite tidy indeed.
Rating:  -
This is a great story following the events of the Sinestro Corps War. The GL Corps are chasing the Yellow rings orphaned from the dead Sinestro corps members. One finds it's way to Mongul, and fun and violence occurs!!
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