[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Rafa Sandoval
Inker: Jordi Tarragona
Summary
In this issue, Kyle and Hal skip out of the big Sinestro Corps/Green Lantern Corps meet up so they can hunt for hope. Sure, that sounds easy. Guy has been tasked with finding information for the new leader of the GLC, John Stewart. Guy decides to work really hard and do some solid detective work to find his information…just kidding like Guy would do anything that required that kind of work; he kidnaps a space cabbie. Meanwhile, John is trying to make peace with Sinestro Corps by joining them together with the Green Lanterns to create a super duper space cop force. Sure, that sounds even easier.
Positives
Robert Venditti has a lot of fun with these characters. It is hard not to. Seriously, one would really have to make an effort to ruin this book. Luckily for the readers, he does not do that. Every single joke lands even when they are bad jokes (which land because they are bad on purpose). To cut the jokes up, my used to be favorite Green Lantern (sorry John, Jessica is kind of awesome), is in charge. John Stewart, the architect from Detroit. The guy who can look at everything from all angles and make anything work, is in this book to make sure that everything is going to be okay. Do you know why we know it will be okay? Because John says that even if he isn’t sure how to make it work, he will figure it out and history has proven that John Stewart keeps his word.
As is often the case with books about teams, the artist is busy. That plays out here as Rafa Sandoval has his hands full. Take a look at page five of this book. The GLC and the Sinestro Corps are having a meet up. There is so much to see. In the hands of an inferior artist, this could look messy, but at the top of Sandoval’s pencil comes a really wonderful team poster. He has all kinds of critters and creatures who occupy the opposing factions and he makes each character spring to life. Later, he has to get Kyle and Hal through space, which in and of itself sounds reasonable, but space is just a black void. How does one make that look like real place instead of an unfathomable concept? I have no idea, ask Sandoval.
Negatives
As is often the case in team books, when the team is in disparate locales, the story is spread a bit thin. While it seems that a lot is happening, really, nothing is happening. In a 21-page book, divided into three stories, means that there is not much going on. I get that this is part one of a new story arc, so I have no doubt everything will converge. Still, super cops standing around is not everyone’s cup of space tea (which is what I assume Green Lantern’s drink).
Verdict
Green Lanterns are not for everyone. Hal is a pompous jerk all the time and John is a bit sullen and Guy is a giant bag of douche. You throw Kyle and a whole bunch of other super will and fear wielding beings you have the perfect mess of awesome. Seriously, this is really going to be the perfect template for the newly announced movie.
