Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: Greetings From Sector 2814
Written by: Benjamin Raab
Penciled by: Chris McLoughlin
Inked by: David Roach
Colored by: Moose Baumann
Lettered by: Kurt Hathaway
Assistant Editor: Nachie Castro
Editor: Bob Schreck
Publisher: DC Comics
Will blunders never cease?
I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in DC for removing Ben Raab from Green Lantern! Reports of Ben Raab’s impending exit from the title started when Bob Schreck passed on the editorial duties to Peter Tomasi. It didn’t take long to be a fact, and a major injustice occurred before Ben Raab even had a chance to get started. As a huge fan of Kyle Rayner, I’m thrilled to see the man that started it all, Ron Marz, coming back to the book. Yet, it still doesn’t take away the foul taste of DC’s move, and I think we’re going to miss out on some great stories.
Ever since Ron Marz tore asunder the Green Lantern Family of titles with the amazing “Emerald Twilight†storyline, much of the focus has been a slow rebuild of what was lost. While the rebuild does negate a lot of what Marz did, I am all for seeing a return of the Green Lantern Corp. What I’m not in favor of is Hal Jordan becoming Green Lantern once again. Kyle Rayner has been GL for nearly 10 years, and if DC plans to mess with that, they just may lose a regular GL reader. If Hal’s got to come back, that’s fine, I’m against it but I can deal with it. What cannot happen is Kyle Rayner being thrown away like it’s the early 90’s once again.
RANT OVER
This month in the pages of Green Lantern we get a bit of a breather, after all of the major occurrences of the past months as Kyle sought to rebuild the Corps. Instead we get a nice summary–this is a great spot to jump on board folks–of recent months, as well as a chance for the secondary characters to shine. A nice aspect of the issues that Ben Raab has written thus far has been the ability to keep these secondary characters around each month, and moving their stories forward as well as Kyle’s.
Kyle’s message to his Earth bound friends makes them aware of the impending conflict he’s got brewing with Amon Sur and his Black Circle Syndicate. Raab has brought GL back to space in high style, and I’m stoked to see the mayhem that’s going to occur as this plotline winds down. It’s not like GL hasn’t spent his share of time in space in the past, but this is first time in a long time, that there has been such a prolonged and engrossing plotline that brought GL to the outer reaches. This era, as short lived as it may be, will be long remembered for the great change of pace it brought.
It would seem that change is the only constant.
Chris McLoughlin does a nice job filling in on the book this month. I’m sad to see Rick Burchett moving on so soon though, thanks again DC, he’d only just begun to settle in here. I really hate frequent artistic changes on a book, and next month will bring yet another change as James Bosch comes on for the foreseeable future.
Man, I’ve been blasting Marvel for poor handling of talent for an eternity, it seems that DC can screw up as bad, if not worse. Next year supposedly will bring “big†things for Green Lantern at DC. I was pretty happy with the way things were already. Changing mantles and directions of books didn’t work out so well for the industry before; whatever DC’s got planned next year, I hope they don’t create a bigger mess than they did before.
