It's weeks like this when I wonder if I'm wearing down. I've been a big fan of Geoff Johns' run on Green Lantern, and I've really enjoyed Blackest Night, so I expected I would really enjoy this 50th issue of GL's adventures.
But surprisingly - not unlike yesterday's review of Captain America: Reborn - I find this to be a surprisingly average issue.
The problem is not in the art. Doug Mahnke is turning in some fine work here, with an incredible amount of detail, zillions of characters and huge, over-the-top battles.
Where the issue fails is in the story department. You really get the feeling that Johns thinks he can tackle any story and make it work.
Here he takes Hal Jordan back to two of the lowest points in that character's published history. (Most writers would avoid those, since they're downright radioactive.)
Those of you who have been reading for a while will remember when Hal went crazy, killed a bunch of people and became a villain named Parallax. (That event was so distasteful, it led me to stop collecting Green Lantern for about 10 years.)
Johns revisits the character in this issue (as the cover shows).
The other "worst" moment was when Hal became the Spectre, the spirit of vengeance. Johns finally corrected that horror in the "Rebirth" mini-series.
Johns revisits that character here, too, as we finally get the follow-up to the story following the Spectre becoming a Black Lantern in Blackest Night.
If any writer could make that story work, I would have thought Johns would be the guy - and perhaps it's too soon to make the call, since there's more to the story next issue - but on the basis of this issue, I have to say: this is the first GL issue in a long time that left me cold.
The events here don't advance the story, we don't gain any new insights - we just see Hal exercising some really poor judgment.
What a week, when both Cap and GL show up in average-at-best comics. Shocking, really.
Grade: B-
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