DCU Comic Book Reviews

GREEN LANTERN #26

Sinestro Corps Epilogue:  The Alpha Lanterns, Part 1

February 2008

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Mike McKone

Inks by Andy Lanning, Marlo Alquiza, and Cam Smith

Cover by Mike McKone and Andy Lanning

Synopsis

In the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps War, the Guardians enact the second law of Book of Oa:  the Alpha Lanterns.  Yesterday...Sinestro believes that he has won the war, because with the first law (lethal force enabled) fear of the Green Lanterns will spread throughout the universe.  Hal Jordan tells Sinestro that because of the first law, Sinestro is not just in jail, but on death row.  Meanwhile, John Stewart deals with the end of the war in his own way.  Elsewhere, Salaak asks the Guardians to allow the “Lost Lanterns” to return Ke’Haan’s body back to his home planet.  The Guardians acquiesce.  On Earth, Stewart is helping to rebuild Coast City, now known as The City Without Fear.  In Space Sector 786, the “Lost Lanterns” return to Ke’Haan’s home planet to find everyone has been killed.  Amon Sur admits he is responsible and surrenders.  Laira, once trained by Ke’Haan, decides to enact her own form of punishment and kills him.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Part ending, and part beginning, Johns begins the third and final stage of his Green Lantern saga with the non-debut of the Alpha Lanterns.  Except for that little detail, this was a great issue.  The opening sequence with Sinestro and Jordan effectively puts a great end to the war.  The rest of the issue shows everyone getting on with their lives, rebuilding their lives in the wake of such tragedy.  Everything works well in this issue, although the grief felt by the “Lost lanterns” is, er, um, lost on me because I don’t know these characters all that well, but I can relate to Laira and fully understand why she does what she does. 

The cover to the issue asks the question:  “Who are the Alpha Lanterns?”  First, it would be nice if we learned what they are supposed to be.  How can a group of people be considered a law?  Unless they are supposed to be the ones who make sure the laws are carried out, but is that the job of the Green Lanterns in the first place.  So, the Alpha Lanterns will police the lanterns?  Will we get, in essence, an Internal Affairs group, special lanterns who will investigate the conduct of others, such as Laira, whose use of lethal force overstepped her role?  And, yes, I realize that I just answered my own question.  Now you know that these reviews are a lot of stream-of-conscious pieces.  This might explain a lot, don’t you think.

In his own way, John Stewart has been a “lost” lantern, often forgotten in the Green Lantern book because of the other, higher profile characters.  The brief moment with John amongst the rubble of the Xanshi star system and he deals with his grief poignant and helped to strengthen his character (and continually add and expand his history) and hopefully a harbinger of seeing him more in the book.

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