DCU Comic Book Reviews

GREEN LANTERN #21

Sinestro Corps, Chapter One:  Fear And Loathing

September 2007

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Ivan Reis

Inks by Oclair Albert

Cover by Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert & Andy Kubert

Synopsis

After the Sinestro Corps attacks Oa, freeing Superboy Prime and Cyborg Superman from their cells and killing numerous members of the corps, the Green Lanterns want to know what the Guardians are doing about it.  Meanwhile, the Guardians debate over the Book of Oa as they want to erase the last chapter and the prophecy of the blackest night, but Ganthet and Sayd think it is too important to be forgotten.  Later, Ganthet and Sayd visit Hal Jordan and tell him he needs to be the one to save the corps.  Hal is unsure if he can bear that burden again.  While recharging his ring in the power battery, Hal is attacked by Parallax, who asks what Hal is afraid of.  Hal witnesses his dad’s death and is told that Hal is afraid his father died in fear.  He is then asked to share the fear.  Hal tells Parallax that his friends, the corps will defeat him.  Parallax then welcomes Hal to Qward.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Given the fact that the Sinestro Corps Special was so packed with action and plot, it is a surprise that not much really happens in this issue.  Based on the special, I was really expecting a lot of action.  Instead we get a bunch of fallout and not much else.  Not to say that is a bad thing, just what I was not expecting.  As for what was in this comic, it was still very good, especially the encounter at the end between Parallax and Hal, which manages to once more tie in Rebirth (which is more and more looking like the true first part to this storyline).  But it was the only storyline with advancement.  Everything else was kinda treading water as the corps gets back on its feet, the Guardians argue over the prophecy, and Sinestro continues its reign of fear.  Really, you could cut away half of this issue (the first 11 pages) and not lose much (if anything) of the story.  Hopefully, more will happen next issue. 

I am not quite clear on why Ganthet thinks the blackest night prophecy is so important and why the Guardians are intent on erasing it from the book.  As far as I can tell, the forgotten chapter simply fortells certain events.  I don’t think it actually provides any method to beat Sinestro because it would be stupid to erase it (Look, it says here you can defeat Sinestro by...no, we don’t like what it says, destroy it).  But the Guardians desire to erase the chapter just smacks of someone hoping that if it goes away, the problem will resolve itself on its own. 

When someone talks about the age of trade paperbacks, they often refer to the concept of decompression, which is taking a story that can be told in one or two issues and spreading it thin to make it fit into six issues.  While this is true to some degree, I offer this issue as another example of the trade paperback era:  recaps.  The first four pages recap the life of Hal Jordan, which can only really be done for any new (or newish, I suppose) readers not familiar with Green Lantern.  And those people who most likely be the ones in book shops who pick it up because they kinda, sorta remember the character or the cover looks cool or the plot is neat or whatever might drive someone to pick it up.  For someone like me, and probably everyone else who put this on their pull list, the first couple of pages will be redundant material.