REVIEW: Green Lantern #66 War of the Green Lanterns Part Seven

It’s time for another Green Lantern Thursday at MyLatestDistraction where we’ll take a look at the most recent chapters of DC Comics’ War of the Green Lanterns. This is a big series with big things happening for DC’s cosmic heroes and the final three installments before the finale are full of great moments. It’s also worth mentioning that a Green Lantern motion picture is coming to theaters everywhere on June 17th, 2011. It’s hard to believe readers of the various Green Lantern comic books wouldn’t have this on their radar already, but to make certain no one would miss it DC added a big green banner to the covers of all their books this month.

Spoilers for the issue and series will follow.

PTB: All three of these Green Lantern books shipping on the same day doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. In a way, it’s nice not having to wait for what comes next, but after following comic books for so long I don’t mind the wait.

KevinMLD: Agreed it was weird. They might as well have combined them into a giant-sized single issue.

PTB: I know I could have seen these cover images in the advance solicitations, but I still don’t like having them all in my lap at once. Before reading a page of these books, I can already expect from the cover art that Hal and Guy will be captured by the Entity possessed Guardians which follows from last issue, Kyle and John are going to be buffeted by loose green rings most likely by Mogo, but all four of them are going to be OK and eventually fight Parallax.

KevinMLD: I don’t think Parallax is the big bad this time. If he is, I think he will be in possession of Krona’s body.

PTB: I’m also not sure how I feel about the fact that I had to walk out of the store spending $9 on GL books instead of $3 a week for three weeks. I’m committed to the story, but I could see this potentially driving people away.

KevinMLD: I take you didn’t like that they shipped three issues of this series this week?

PTB: Not at all. I really loved that X-Men’s Messiah Complex and Second Coming series shipped a chapter each week and it gave me a lot to look forward to every Wednesday. In fact, those were some of the most fun months I’ve experienced collecting comics. Of course, when those series ended it seemed like all four of the titles they ran through immediately began shipping together on the fourth Wednesday of the month.

KevinMLD: That’s great that you enjoyed the way those X-Men issues shipped but Green Lantern was never on that schedule. Heck Countdown and Trinity shipped weekly and trust me… The publishing schedule did very little to prop those stories up. At least DC is not shipping multiple issues of the same title on the same day.

PTB: That’s a good point. While those X-Men series were weekly, they’re different animals from DC’s weekly macroseries as they were crossovers involving four titles and creative teams much like War of the Green Lanterns.

Miguel Sepulveda and Nathan Eyring’s cover here is interesting. On one hand, I really like the redesigned Entity infused guardians. However, while the idea for the cover really works, I’m confused by the relative sizes of Hal and Guy’s bodies. You’d think Guy is in the foreground but then how is Hal’s head in front of him? The way the images are assembled on the page makes it clear that this isn’t a scene from the book, but they look a little off.

KevinMLD: For that very reason I’m not a fan of the figure work here for both Hal and Guy. I think the coloring is nice and disguising a poorly drawn cover. Though maybe Guy is giant and we didn’t know it. There are multiple images within this issue that make him look way out of scale with Hal.

PTB: Clayton Crain’s variant cover is outstanding. The color, composition and heaviness are perfect and this is an image I’ll always associate with War of the Green Lanterns. Not to speak ill of the variants for last month’s books, but this is just head and shoulders above that set. It stands out while they don’t have much that distinguishes them. It’s also nice to see an image from Crain that’s not dripping with blood after his X-Force run.

The way the Guardians are using their newfound emotions to taunt and manipulate Hal and Guy is fantastically written. These are also the moments where Doug Mahnke’s art was at its best, particularly the Indigo’s play for Guy.

KevinMLD: Yeah, this is an interesting turn for the Guardians who choose to live without emotions. They’ve really taken a beating over the last few years between their treatment in Blackest Night and their possession here.

PTB: Seeing our heroes twisted by the effects of the Yellow and Red rings came so naturally and it reminded me a lot of Part Three of War of the Green Lanterns where the Yellow impurity was beginning to turn Hal and Guy against one another.

KevinMLD: I think the writing here was better than in those early issues. It felt less forced.

PTB: Krona’s power gauntlet is an incredible weapon and just when it seemed like it might be used to save the day we see Guy taste the rainbow as he’s assaulted by Krona himself.

KevinMLD: It does seem like a pretty awesome weapon, but like you said in a prior discussion: shouldn’t this weapon that is also powered by power battery have also been corrupted by Parallax? Then again maybe it is and that is what fries Guy.

PTB: I loved the Sinestro flashback and the brief panels with Saint Walker, Larfleeze and Atrocious as he walks through the Book of the Black.

KevinMLD: Agreed this section and the closing moments really made this a special book. The potential for great things to spin out of these events is immense, but I have zero faith in DC’s ability to deliver on it.

PTB: The Indigo tribe fascinates me and I take it this connection to Abin Sur is a new revelation?

KevinMLD: As far as I know. I don’t know that we know much about Abin Sur beyond he was Sinestro’s best friend, he believed in the prophesy of the Blackest Night, and he died when his spaceship crash landed on Earth. This flashback makes it seem that like Sinestro, Abin may have had a dark side. I wonder if that will payoff in his Flashpoint series.

PTB: That might be enough to get me to look at the Flashpoint: Green Lantern miniseries. As we see the pages of the Book of the Black with the image of Sinestro burn, are we to take it that Krona has killed him?

Does the inclusion of the recap of his history here suggest he might be gone for a while? Hal embracing the Yellow power might suggest Sinestro is dead as well.

KevinMLD: If the entire book had burned up I’d believe he was dead. I think he’s just trapped again. I’m surprised to see Sinestro in his blue costume here. I hope this outfit doesn’t make a comeback.

PTB: The ending was awesome and I didn’t see making the Green Lanterns of Earth into the new Guardians of the universe as Krona’s endgame.

KevinMLD: Yeah, I loved it. I kind of want Krona to succeed for a while. With the promise of a new Green Lantern of Sector 2814 and the fact that Abin Sur is the Green Lantern of Flashpoint, if DC is bold they could have a very exciting new Green Lantern status quo come August 1. But since they definitely will be trying to capitalize on the Green Lantern movie featuring Hal Jordan, I anticipate a disappointing resolution to all of this.

PTB: Evolving bandages, Gotta love that.

KevinMLD: I thought this was such a cool idea.

PTB: I had to read the preview for Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for the Swamp Thing after putting all that time into Brightest Day. The artwork is much better suited for the subject matter than the last time we saw Swamp Thing and John Constantine, but I don’t think is something I’ll be investing in.

KevinMLD: I might read the series, but I’m not excited for it at all. Who wants to see Constantine-Superman-Batman-Hawkman vs. Swamp Thing.

PTB: I’m assuming Constantine’s doubts about the Swamp Thing’s actions are to sell the idea that this isn’t the Swamp Thing we know.

KevinMLD: I guess. Constantine’s kind of a jerk, I don’t know how much we’re supposed to relate to his view of the world.

PTB: While we’re on the topic of Brightest Day, after reading Flashpoint #1 and learning of the Reverse Flash’s role in changing history I couldn’t help but remember that this guy was one of the resurrected characters from Blackest Night. I don’t remember hearing (and certainly never read) anything about his mission from the White Lantern or whether or not he completed it.

Since this is all written by Geoff Johns, could Reverse Flash’s return have been the set up for Flashpoint all along?

KevinMLD: I don’t know. The Reverse Flash’s history is confusing to me as a non-Flash fan. He’s from the distant future. Barry Allen killed him. But I think an earlier version of him was still running around because he’s a time traveler. Then he was resurrected. So I don’t know what his resurrection really accomplished… unless we end up with the Reverse Flash of different points in his own life running into one another at some point.

PTB: I also had a discussion with a friend at my local comic shop about Reverse Flash and Professor Zoom and how there’s more than one of them. The Reverse Flash that caused Flashpoint is Professor Zoom? He just has two different code names?

KevinMLD: Exactly. Wally West had his own Reverse Flash but it’s a different guy. Zoom is Thawne is the current Reverse Flash.

PTB: And this is the original Barry Allen Flash villain who was resurrected?

KevinMLD: Yes. But like I said he was already back for Flash: Rebirth so it’s all garbled time travel nonsense.

PTB: It seems a shame to end a discussion of a great issue of Green Lantern talking about another book, even if they are from the same writer. We’ll make up for it later when we talk about Green Lantern Corps.

I also wanted to mentioned the Green Lantern movie banner printed on the covers to these books. I wasn’t sure who those ads were really meant for.

KevinMLD: It’s a really strange promotion running pretty much across the line, not only the Green Lantern books. I’ve even seen Vertigo books with it on the cover. Is there really anyone buying any comics who is somehow in the dark about the existence of this movie?

Follow all of our War of the Green Lanterns posts:
Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #9 (Part Six) / Green Lantern Corps #60 (Part Eight)