Green Lantern Corps #2
Written by Peter Tomasi
Art by Fernando Pasarin, Scott Hanna, and Gabe Eltaeb
How do you send the Green Lantern Corps to war? That’s one of the things being addressed in this title as the story unfolds more in this issue. At what point does an incident stop being the problem of the Lanterns of a sector and become something that the entire Corps needs to tackle head on? Tomasi promised going into this title that we’d see the Corps go to war, and I’ll be damned if he doesn’t give us a good reason for it.
Last issue ended with a team of Lanterns finding a planet of water dwellers that had been stripped of all of its water. The entire population killed, and the two Lantern’s of the sector impaled and left to be seen. If nothing else, it’s interesting to see them have to find an answer to a question that nobody would ever normally ask in how to bury an entire planet. Not much time to breathe or decide, though, as they quickly have to leave for another world, one of endless trees, where the trees are being stolen. The enemy shows themselves, and the encounter is an interesting one to say the very least. It’s not often that the Green Lantern Corps find themselves backed against the wall by a foe that can make short work of them.
The villains don’t get a ton of depth, but there’s motivation. Their planet is without any form of resources and their leader has devised a method by which to return them. When the Corps interferes he sends a small force at them, and these black suited soldiers seem more than capable of taking on the GL’s. Sure, for the time being they’re still relatively generic, and how they are able to do what they do is still unknown, but a threat that can actually seemingly negate the effects of the GLC’s rings is nothing to be scoffed at. Especially one that seems to take some degree of enjoyment is tearing off fingers and other appendages. Especially one who has these kinds of numbers.
Fernando Pasarin turns in some awesome work here, but that doesn’t surprise me. There’s some great character work done, and I especially love the care given to Isamot as he’s one of the more spectacularly looking of the regularly used Lanterns. The constructs have a nice touch, though quite a few I didn’t even seem to notice (they could have been off panel, but they were actually discussed). I liked Hannu’s rare use of a construct being a giant version of himself. The bad guys don’t have incredibly defined looks, but black armor with green swords manages to become intimidating just in the way that they are used. The action is violent, and the scene with Isamot at the end looks incredibly brutal. Pasarin was good in Emerald Warriors, but his work looks even better here. Maybe it’s the inker or colorist, I’m not sure if either worked with him before.
It’s not a perfect issue, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t enjoyable. Tomasi is creating a threat powerful enough to give the Corps a hard time, and I’m going to give him credit for doing so without them wearing power rings. It’s been far too long since the Green Lantern Corps had rivals that weren’t wearing power rings. I expect our core cast to balloon up in the coming issues, and I really can’t wait to find out just who exactly is leading these black suited ravagers of worlds.
Overall?
8/10
