Green Lantern #13
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Mark Irwin, Tom Nguyen, Keith Champagne, Marc Deering, Alex Sinclair, and Tony Avina
The short of it:
Amanda Waller gives the President a briefing on Green Lantern’s, Simon Baz, and Simon Baz having a Green Lantern ring. It leads to a discussion about how Green Lantern’s are chosen, and essentially they think it has to do with a strong moral standing instead of being absolutely fearless. Whoops. Simon wakes up in the Florida Keys, fresh out of Gitmo, and his shiny new broken ring is trying to figure him out. We get some flashbacks, and then find out just how broken his ring is as Hal and Sinestro both leave him messages at the exact same time talking over each other. Simon is confused, but the ring begins to respond to him and helps him away from danger.
Back in Michigan his father takes his sister to work and we find out that due to the accusations against Simon that they’ve been ostracized from their community. Worse than that, she loses her job simply because the people in her office assume she must be some sort of terrorist now because her brother was accused of being one. Simon shows up to talk to her, to apologize for everything primarily, and then to beg for her help to clear his name. She gives him a location to meet her at and heads out. That night he’s waiting, sees a camera, makes his mask, and then gets bitch slapped off the building.
It seems there are some people with some questions for this new Green Lantern.
What I liked:
- Waller has intel on every Green Lantern. John and Guy are obvious, they wear no masks, but she even knows who Hal is. Then there’s the picture of Kyle and while she can guess he’s an artist, she’s got nada on him. Just more proof as to why Kyle Rayner is the best Green Lantern, his mask actually works!
- The broken cobbled together message from Hal and Sinestro is pretty cool. Nice visual, point gotten across, and a reminded that Hal and Sinestro are still on the same page for the most part.
- Man, despite my complaints last month that the feds were dicks, this issue redeems one a bit. It’s nice to know that one thinks Simon may actually be innocent instead of just swearing by ‘Muslim in sketchy position must be terrorist’.
- I love Baz’s sister. You get this sweet, caring, loving person that only sees the best in her brother and the rest of the world, you take her world away from her, and you don’t have her falter in her compassion. Now, they tease her calling him in, but I get this feeling that she called someone else. She’s the emotional center, and the motivation for much of what Simon does. After all, he did leave her husband brain dead.
- Can I put over the art? I find it hard to not put over the art. I like the way Simon’s costume works on a visual level, with it being the base that eventually grows when he realizes he needs a mask.
What I didn’t like:
- Total nitpick, but if any Lantern could give themselves a logo then why are there any white circles? I thought only senior Lantern’s were able to hand those out.
- With the Third Army stuff kicking off, and the covers this month being the first piece of the Rise of the Third Army poster we’ve seen, I expected more than two pages.
- The Justice League: Hit first, ask questions later.
- Obama is the President. Now, this isn’t me coming down on the President or stating my personal politics but…I’m just not a fan of real political figures being used at Marvel and DC. It dates the material heavily, I mean, Bill and Hillary Clinton spoke at Superman’s funeral, which forever places that story before the year two thousand. Fictional politicians in fictional worlds work wonders, it even lets you do horrible things to said politicians without anyone assuming you’re making any political statement.
Final thoughts:
Baz is an absolutely fantastic lead character and an absolute credit to Geoff Johns as a writer. In two issues he’s crafted one of the most human characters I’ve ever seen him write, something I feel he failed to truly do with Hal Jordan over the course of the past seven years. Superheroes are something that seems to come absolutely natural to Geoff, so seeing a hero who is compelling despite their abilities is just a huge added bonus.
Kyle Rayner is the master at maintaining a secret identity, dude should write a book.
Speaking of Kyle, knowing that he’s had his ring for two years works for me. It means that there was probably a year where he was the only GL. I imagine that Judd Winick’s run never happened now that Jade doesn’t exist, but I have to wonder what the League felt about him running around. Obviously he was never a member if the only non-founder to join was J’onn, but that may work in his benefit. I loved Kyle in the League, but I love him so much more as the Torchbearer.
Agent Fed being able to see past the evidence and not blindly assume that Baz is definitely a terrorist was a credit to the character after last issue. Last issue where he was “Agent Waterboard”. Him saying he was out of character, and now willing to give Baz the benefit of the doubt, that makes him a better character. And since he’s going to be recurring for the indeterminate future it’s nice that he’s not some generic terrorist hating fed.
Still waiting to pay an extra dollar for more pages of story. Hell, do the Third Army set up stuff in a back up for that extra dollar! Two pages was not nearly enough.
Overall: 9/10
