Everything’s Coming up Green

Three different comics about Green Lantern came out last week, so let’s take care of them right now.

 

Green Lantern #25

It’s the grand finale of the Sinestro Corps War saga, and tons of stuff happens. Are you ready?

It’s the Green Lanterns and Earth’s superheroes vs. the Sinestro Corps, the Cyborg Superman’s Manhunter robots, Superboy Prime, and the Anti-Monitor. Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner take on Sinestro in Coast City, Guy Gardner catches an evil Sinestro Corps virus, the Anti-Monitor unleashes waves of anti-matter to destroy everything. Guy and John Stewart drop a Death Star on the Anti-Monitor, then Superboy Prime tears him apart. Kyle and Hal take on Sinestro without their power rings. The Cyborg Superman finally gets to die, at least for a while, and one of the Guardians blasts Superboy into the Multiverse.

Beyond that, Sinestro, despite his defeat, figures he really won, because the Guardians’ new rules allowing Green Lanterns to kill means they adopted some of his preferred methods. The Guardians reveal a prophecy that a spectrum of new Lanterns will appear — in addition to the will-powered Green Lanterns and the terror-powered Yellow Lanterns, there will be Red Lanterns powered by hate, Orange Lanterns fueled by greed, Blue Lanterns to represent hope, Indigo Lanterns for compassion, and Violet Lanterns (actually the Zamorrans, like long-time GL villain Star Sapphire) powered by love. And finally, the remnants of the Anti-Monitor’s body are converted into fuel for a new, unpredicted Lantern — the Black Lantern, which has some nasty surprises in store for Earth’s cemeteries in another year or two.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Tons of stuff going on, sure, but most of it was very exciting, very entertaining, and worked wonderfully to get the reader interested and excited about future issues of the comic.

 

Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Ion

This is basically the first of two epilogues for the Sinestro Corps storyline, in which Kyle Rayner, the former bearer of the Ion symbiote, counsels Sodam Yat, the current bearer, about what it’s all about. They also smack around Alexander Nero, one of Kyle’s old archnemeses.

Verdict: Thumbs down. This was a completely unnecessary story.

 

Green Lantern Corps #19

Another epilogue. Everyone rebuilds. Kyle and Guy are assigned duty on Oa. The formerly dead Ice makes her return, and a still hopelessly lovestruck Guy tries to rekindle their relationship. The other Green Lanterns return to their lives and their duties, and a Sinestro Corps ring picks out a very familiar and very dangerous new bearer.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nothing earthshattering happens, but these little slice-of-life stories are always fun to read.