Friday, April 22, 2011

Green Lantern Corps #59

I started to write that I was worried about writer Geoff Johns - and then I remembered that he doesn't write Green Lantern Corps.

But I suppose he still has to take some heat if the "War of the Green Lanterns" event isn't working - and so far, it isn't.

Oh, it's not terrible - it just seems to be way off course. The story is running through the three GL books, and it follows the events after the mad Guardian named Krona manages to take control of every being who wears a Green Power Ring - except for Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner, who manage to avoid control by taking off their green rings.

As the cover to this comic gives away (ditto for Green Lantern, which was also released this week), those four heroes have powered up by using the rings left behind when the Black Book of Oa swallowed up the leaders of the other colorful Lantern Corps.

They each spend most of this issue trying to figure out how their new rings work - which makes for a pretty dull issue, despite a huge battle between the Corps and the Guardian named Ganthet.

There's a big surprise on the last few pages, but that doesn't make up for an issue that otherwise just seems to run in place. (I should note that the issue is written by Tony Bedard.)

The art by Tyler Kirkman and Batt (?) is pretty solid, though it's difficult to get much in the way of storytelling when the events in the issue are either wildly chaotic or completely static.

We're halfway into this series, and it mostly suffers in comparison to other Johns-created events, like the Sinestro War and Blackest Night. There's still time to right the ship here - and if not, I guess we'll have to hope for better things from Flashpoint.

Or at least a return to form by Johns.

Grade: C+


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