Green Lantern #57
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Doug Mahnke
The other day I was reading through the Blackest Night: Green Lantern hardcover and I realized that the Black Lantern’s laid complete and utter waste to Zamaron and the Star Sapphires, even going as far as to raise Khufu and Chayara, the earliest versions of Hawkman and Hawkgirl (as well as the everlasting eternal love that fueled the Violet Battery), as Black Lanterns. The Violet Light was seemingly extinguished, though several Sapphires appeared in Blackest Night after that point (Carol, Miri, Diana), but it hadn’t been referenced again.
That’s what this issue is, thankfully, Johns explaining the fate and future of the Violet Light. This also means that it’s predominantly a Carol Ferris story and….it’s good. Carol has been a more centric character the past few years since she received her Violet Ring, but she’s still really just been Hal’s ex with a power ring. Johns has been trying to develop more out of her, but with an ensemble cast it’s not always easy to do. This issue gives her some spot light, much like the Blackest Night issue where she fought Sinestro, and it helps to show why she’s important aside from…being Hal’s ex.
This issue also features the first real usage of the Predator since the War of Light, where it could be seen on Zamaron several times, and was referenced, but never really did anything. And my only real spoiler free comment is that I kept seeing the costume as a cross between Kanjar Ro and Yellowjacket, and that’s not me saying anything bad about it, it just seemed….I dunno. It’s not just me, right? That dude on the cover totally looks like Kanjar Ro (spoiler warning, he isn’t Kanjar Ro).
Doug Mahnke turns in his usual powerhouse art performance, and I remain glad that he’s on this book. Sure, I miss Ivan Reis, but Mahnke is a superstar in his own right who has been doing amazing things with this title. Not the least of which is his ability to seemingly never need a fill-in artist, which only helps the book. I mean, I remember when Daniel Acuna came on for three issues during the last Sapphire centric story arc (before the Sinestro Corps War), and it just looked awful in trade. To have a bunch of Reis drawn issues and then three by Acuna? You could tell. Same thing about when Phillip Tan did the Larfleeze arc, though in that case it wasn’t bad (in fact, I’d put it up there with some of his better work), but it broke the flow of the book by shifting artistic tones. Mahnke brings a level of consistency to this title every month that a book of this profile deserves.
The pacing is nice and we get what really does feel like a full story in a single issue as opposed to the typical decompressed arc form that is the norm for most titles, then again, most issues since Blackest Night have felt like that and it has been a nice touch. We got a few pages of resolution to last issue, a lot of Carol, a look at the Violet Entity in action, and even a major status quo shift at the end. An incredibly complete experience in just one issue, which is pretty awesome. It’s one of the best issue the book has seen since Blackest Night, and that’s saying a lot as the book has been consistently good. If you’ve been enjoying this book then expect nothing to change, as Green Lantern is still one of the best books out every month.
Overall?
9/10
