DCU Comic Book Reviews

GREEN LANTERN #51

Parallax Rebirth, Part Two

April 2010

Written by Geoff Johns

Pencils by Doug Mahnke

Inks by Doug Mahnke

Covers by Doug Mahnke and Greg Horn

Synopsis

To defeat the Black Lanterns, all of New Guardians have deputized someone into the various lantern corps.  Now, Orange Lanterns Larfleeze and Lex Luthor fight over the orange battery.  Meanwhile, Parallax in the body of Hal Jordan fights the Black Lantern Spectre.  Parallax severs the connection to the black power battery, freeing the Spectre.  Parallax then tries to destroy the Spectre.  Sinestro stops Parallax as Atrocitus blasts the Spectre, who then becomes a member of the Red Lanterns.  He refuses to join. The Spectre then asks Carol Ferris to help him release Hal Jordan from Parallax’s control.  Once free, Parallax seeks out a new host:  Hector Hammond.  Meanwhile, Spectre decides to deal with Nekron, but finds he can’t strike Nekron down.  Nekron has no soul.  Nekron then sends the Spectre away.  The Universe will die now.      

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Normally, Geoff Johns is able to craft a solid issue with a strong internal structure that not supports the single issue he is writing, but also the overall story that he is trying to tell.  In other words, he rarely makes a misstep that makes you scratching your head wondering, “that doesn’t quite make sense.”  He does it here with the opening section featuring the battle of the Orange Lanterns.  For as much as I liked their squabbling and their greed (and I did enjoy the opening pages), it doesn’t connect to the main story with Parallax and the Spectre.  And while one could argue it is part of the Blackest Night fabric, it is still an isolated moment removed from the main plot.  The same could be said for the opening page of Black Hand, but it is a small moment and I am willing to think that Johns introduced the issue with an idea of where it might be going down the road.  And, yes, you could say the same thing with the Orange Lanterns, but given the amount of space given to Lex and Larfleeze, you want something more than what we see here. 

The rest of the issue focuses on the battle against Black Lantern Spectre, which is somewhat perfunctory in the way Johns deals with it.  It isn’t bad, but as I was reading, you could almost tell that Johns was less inclined to write a good fight between Parallax and Spectre and more inclined to make sure he hit the right plot points. Johns uses the fight as a stepping on point to introduce some new concepts and ideas and tease what will be coming up with the next issue of Blackest Night.  For someone like me, who is deep into Blackest Night, a lot of this stuff was fascinating and certainly whetted my appetite for what is to come.  In that regard, this issue was a solid success.  But it certainly wasn’t due to what was there, but more what Johns was suggesting to come. 

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