Green Lantern #5
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Keith Champagne, Mark Irwin, Tom Nguyen, Alex Sinclair, and Tony Avina
The short of it:
With Sinestro imprisoned by his former Corps, and a powerless Hal Jordan in the cell next to him, Sinestro ended last issue with the hail mary pass of giving temporary rings to a bunch of pisssed off Korguarians who immediately turned on him. They can’t hurt him, the rings he created won’t allow it, but he does give them the basics in using their rings. Their way out, though, is Sinestro with a back up plan involving his battery as a weapon. The Korugarian Green Lanterns provide a brief shock and awe tatic to allow Sinestro time to execute his real plan and save his homeworld. Still, no longer welcome there, he returns to Oa…sending Hal back to Earth with a new appreciation for the things he has in his life. It’s then that we are let in to more of the Guardians seemingly diabolical plans for the future!
What I liked:
- The people of Korugar have their voice heard though the mouth of Arsona, and while I can only imagine what they would have done had their rings worked against Sinestro, I like the way they were handled here. They felt like a race of battering victims looking for an outlet, and they got one. Yes, there’s not a true resolution to them by issues end, but that’s just because no matter what Sinestro does, how can he ever be loved by them again?
- Sinestro with a Green Ring is one of the most interesting characters in DC right now. It’s been so easy to forget that he didn’t title himself the greatest of Green Lantern’s, and to show this off he’s being granted levels of power and control that we wouldn’t expect from anyone. Everything he does is carefully worked out ahead of time, and everything he does is for a reason. Plus, he’s able to make his battery go on the war path for him, and that’s points.
- The contingency plan for elimination his Corps was ingenious, he makes it virtually impossible for them to try and come back for revenge.
- Hal finally got forward momentum with his character after what feels like forever, and I really hope it lasts.
What I didn’t like:
- ARMY OF INKERS!
- Despite the ingenious nature of Sinestro’s victory of his former followers, it almost feels too easy. Not to mention that I still don’t quite get what happened to Hal and why it didn’t happen again.
- I think Arkillo is now the only name brand Yellow Lantern left, but I’m left to hope that Karu Sil is too.
- I’m all about the Guardians being on the borderline of evil, but they sound like diabolical masterminds and it’s weird.
Final thoughts:
Getting the ring off of Hal already is a GREAT call, as it’ll be easier to get real and actual depth out of him as a person and not a super hero. His talk with Carol in this issue is one of the most human scenes I’ve seen the character take part in in quite a while.
Sinestro is a smart lead character, he has a defined personality and course of actions, and you see him stick to them. He doesn’t come across as someone setting out to prove their superiority, he’s just someone superior. Hal was always very much a super hero with how he went about things, but Sinestro is clearly a Green Lantern. His scope is larger, his actions bigger, and his explosions huger.
So can all batteries do that? Or is that just Sinestro?
The Guardians are a tricky subject. Over the past few years they’ve gone from impotent figureheads that can’t keep anything in line, to what appear to be some of the slowest burning universal level bad guys. I think that’s one of the reasons why Sinestro is so key to the story as the lead. It’s the comparison between order and control.
Overall: 8/10
