DCU Comic Book Reviews

GREEN LANTERN #46

Feared

November 2009

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Doug Mahnke

Inks by Christian Alamy, Doug Mahnke, Tom Nguyen

Covers by Doug Mahnke and Francis Manapul

Synopsis

On Zamaron, eternal love is under threat from Black Lanterns.  The Queen tells her sisters that no matter what happens, the predator can not escape.  Elsewhere, Sinestro and Star Sapphire Carol Ferris are fighting Black Lanterns.  They are joined by Green Lantern Hal Jordan and members of the Indigo Tribe.  The join in the fight against Black Lanterns.  Sinestro then attacks Hal and Carol, but is stopped short by the Indigo Tribe who were told to seek him out by Abin Sur when Blackest Night began.  Just then, black power rings find Khufu and Chay-ara and they are freed.  In doing so, Zamaron is destabilized and the predator is freed.  Violet light floods the black central battery.  The Indigo Tribe then teleports Hal, Carol, and Sinestro away from Zamaron.  However, it alerts Scar, who tells the Black Lanterns to follow the Indigo Light.  In Space Sector 1313, John Stewart hears a voice from the resurrected Xanshi that he can save them.  John heads to the planet surface.  Meanwhile, Hal, Carol, and Sinestro find themselves on Korugar, where Mongul has taken control of the planet and its people.  The two fight for leadership of the Yellow Corps.  Sinestro wins the fight.  The yellow lanterns pledge allegiance to Sinestro, who then says he will be the one to lead the battle against the Black Lanterns.  Just then, they are confronted by Black Lanterns Abin and Arin Sur.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Sometimes I have difficulty trying to put into words how I feel about an issue of a book.  Most of the time it is because I am not quite sure how to accurately reconcile the good and the bad parts into some kind of overall summation.  And sometimes it is because the issue in question is so good that I have trouble finding the right way to say it is good without coming across as either stupid or nerdy.  For this issue, it definitely falls into the latter category.  So I will say it simply:  this was a great issue.  I loved it.  It was fun and exciting and I enjoyed every page.  I don’t care how that may have sounded as you were reading.  No matter what, this was a great issue. 

The first half of this issue felt like I was still reading Blackest Night, especially when Hal and the Indigo Tribe arrived on the scene since that is how the previous issue ended.  Yet, thinking about it, the truth is the first several pages of this issue pick up directly from the end of the last issue of this title.  And even after Hal joins the cast, Johns returns to other events that began in this title.  I think, because Johns is the writer of both books, I am getting confused as to where events are occurring.  This is not a bad thing, mind you.  So far, Johns has been able to weave events in both books together and has done it seamlessly.  I am not sure if someone reading just this title or just Blackest Night will be able to make fill in the blanks of what they haven’t read, but somehow I don’t think people are reading on book over the other.  I think these two books are tied tightly together as Johns has crafted a tightly plotted story with disparate parts coming together nicely.  There is the feeling of a complete story being told rather than a main story and various tie-ins. 

What is going on with John Stewart and Xanshi.  For months we have been getting a couple of pages of Stewart, the story not moving forward.  In fact, it seems like it has taken a long time to just reach the point that we all knew we were getting:  the return of Xanshi.  Now, in this issue, Stewart is relegated to one page.  Is Johns planning on devoting more to this or is this somehow going to get resolved in a couple of pages?  More importantly, I wonder if Stewart is going to connect to the other characters of Blackest Night or if this particular story will remain separated from the rest. 

What amazes me is that Johns makes this issue feel so epic and important as events unfold that have this significant impact to Blackest Night.  And yet the strength of the story is the relationships of Hal and Carol and Hal and Sinestro.  Johns focuses on these three and what they mean to each other and for that reason the story feels so immediate.  It is all about the characters, who they are, what they feel, and what they feel about each other. 

My first thought when I saw Khufu and Chay-ara is that this will be DC’s way to somehow streamline the convoluted history of Hawkman and Hawkgirl (or Hawkwoman) to make it more palatable to the masses.  If this is true, I think it is a shame because Johns, in the recent Hawkman title, managed to make sense of the continuity without the need to actually ditch it.  However, my second though when I saw Khufu and Chay-ara was that as the avatars of the Star Sapphires and eternal love, the duo made the perfect sense.  They are doomed to continually fall in love with other, only to die when they proclaim their love and then be reborn to repeat the process.  It fits the theme of eternal love about as perfectly as you can get.