DCU Comic Book Reviews

GREEN LANTERN #3

Flight Delay

September 2005

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Carlos Pacheco

Inks by Jesus Merino

Cover by Carlos Pacheco & Jesus Merino

Synopsis

At Edwards Air Force Base in Hanger 44, a new and improved Manhunter is attempting to destroy an older model Manhunter.  Hal Jordan attempts to interceded and stop them both.  During the fight, the new Manhunter reveals a power battery for a skull, a battery that easily drains Jordan’s ring of its power.  Without sufficient ring power to follow the Manhunters, Hal demands a jet, but General Jonathan Stone refuses.  Hal punches him in the jaw.   Stone relents.  In the sky, the new Manhunter is able to set off the self-destruct system on the old Manhunter before turning its attention to Hal, whose jet spirals out of control.  Hal jumps free just as it explodes.  He then grabs the new Manhunter and uses the battery skull to power his ring and remove its head from its body.  Hal finds the old Manhunter and takes it to outer space.  Just before it explodes, the old Manhunter feels emotion:  fear of his upcoming death.  The next morning, Hal goes to visit General Stone to apologize for previous actions.  Stone accepts and tells Hal he’s been hit in the jaw twice and both felt the same, so he welcomes Green Lantern to the Air Force.  Later, Hal wonders if fear controls everyone but decides not as he sees his brother Jim and his family returning to live in Coast City.  On the Artificial Planet of Biot, the Manhunters need the Green Lantern Corps to return, they need the rings, and no one will escape them, not even Hal Jordan…

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

The first half of this issue is a bang up action sequence and the last half of the issue is a little bit introspection and I like the way both parts worked.  It is kinda like riding a roller coaster:  it is exciting while you are on it, but when you get off you need a moment to relax before you back to stand in line to do it again.  Interestingly, my favorite part of the whole book was Hal standing on his balcony mussing about the Manhunter’s sudden experience of emotion, and that emotion being fear of death, and questioning if we all live in fear.  It was a nice moment, especially balance with his brother driving back to Coast City after Jim had talked about how freaked out he was by Coast City.  But I have to wonder why there are so many sky scrapers when there are so few people.  Wouldn’t it make sense to wait until there is someone to occupy it before you build?

My least favorite part was near the beginning when General Stone refuses to give Hal the jet and the Hal decks him.  I would assume this was done simply to allow Stone a reason to know who Hal Jordan really is, but it felt so contrived and so out of place that I groaned aloud.  Think about this.  You just saw two androids destroy a hangar and then fly away.  Green Lantern asks to borrow a plane.  What would you say? 

I love the shot of the Manhunter crashing into the cockpit.  The weapon that new Manhunter is carrying is different but not really terrifying.  I really hope it is like a Swiss army knife and contains all types of bad as stuff instead.  The only thing they showed was some kind of grappling line.  And they never said if the Manhunter head with the power battery had been retrieved or not.  Hmmm, future story?

It looks as if Geoff Johns is building upon the story several years ago (was it really that long ago?) that featured the Manhunters and Kyle Rayner.  In that story, the Manhunters captured Kyle in an attempt to use his power ring to bolster their collective intelligence.  In this issue, the final page with the cloaked leader of the Manhunters also suggests that they will need the rings.  I like the fact the despite the story being several years old, the continuity is being maintained.  It is the little things like this that give the DCU a cohesive whole.  Plus, unless I am totally off, the old Manhunter that was used to build the X-2020 was left over from the Invasion cross-over event from nearly 20 years ago (wasn’t it right after the first crisis).  Of course in comic book time it was only a decade or so, but I do like these touches.

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