Everybody loves a good redemption story. There was “that guy who plays Iron Man”, Andy Dufresne, and Lando Calrissian. And we can now throw one more name in the mix, Sinestro.
GREEN LANTERN #5
Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Doug Mahnke
Colors: Alex Sinclair & Tony Avina
Letters: Sal Cipriano
Editor: Brain Cunningham
Publisher: DC
Cover Price: $2.99
Previously in Green Lantern: Sinestro and Hal’s plans to free Korugar from the enslavement of the Sinestro Corp have so far been a failure. Hal is alive, alone, and locked in a cell after being disintegrated from flying into the yellow central battery. While Sinestro is facing down the vengeful, captive citizens of Korugar whom he just created power rings for.
PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!
I believe that part of this story arc was just to show us how much power and understanding Sinestro contains about the power ring. Adding to what he has already done, created over a dozen power rings from his, in this issue Sinestro uses his lantern to split a corpsman in half, told Hal that he has previously broken two power rings from his power, and to finish it off, carried the yellow central battery and all corpsmen from Korugar back to Oa by himself. How he ever loses a battle is beyond me.
But this issue, or arc, isn’t about the power Sinestro possesses, but who it is that Sinestro has become and his emotions following the creation of his Corps. Sinestro is not arrogant enough to ignore the mistakes that he has made, and doesn’t expect to be forgiven by the people he has hurt. After essentially saving the planet he says to a child who celebrates him, “I do not deserve your praise or your trust, little one.”
The final piece to this puzzle is the relationship between Sinestro and Hal. We all just have to come to the conclusion that their relationship will never be perfect, they will either be attempting to kill each other or operating in a “I will help you but only because I gain something from it” kind of way. To reinforce this idea, after all that Hal did to help Sinestro free his people he sends Hal back to Earth with a powerless energy ring since he only promised him a ring and not a lantern to power it.
THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB
As I said in my review of issue #4, Doug Mahnke was been bringing his “A” game in the art department. He brings such detail into both the still moments of dialog and body-splitting action scenes. In an issue that played up the emotions of everyone involved, the facial expressions and dialogue always matched and were never over done.
The issue wasn’t perfect though. There were two spots that arose in the art that left me scratching my head. In the panel where Professor Insidd is split open by Sinestro’s lantern, the anatomy of his upper torso just doesn’t line up. The second was towards the end when Hal and Carol are speaking. Suddenly in the middle of conversing it goes to a complete reverse shot for no apparent reason and completely took me out of the story.
BOTTOM LINE: FAVORITE OF THE NEW 52
Green Lantern has been exactly what I hoped it would be when I saw the announcement previews way back in the middle of 2011. Geoff Johns and the rest of the creation team told a story that showed the depth of Sinestro’s power and emotions. I hope that this team is kept together and continues to give us story arcs as well done as this one. Green Lantern #5 falls in line with the previous issues and earns 4 out of 5 stars.
[rating:4/5]
2 Comments
I loved the story behind this arc. Sinestro has always said that he was “The Greatest Green Lantern” and despite his deeds he’s shown it through all of his interactions with Hal Jordan in recent years. He started his own lantern corps. We’ve found out that he’s mastered not only ring manipulation but mastery of his power battery and the power levels of his ring and battery. He was the first to get the power of the White Lantern and now he’s returned to the Corps with the mission to clean up the Sinestro Corps (which makes me wonder how the ending of this story and Sinestro becoming Yellow Lantern Hunter will affect the New Guardians title.
So far Detective Comics, Superboy, Green Lantern and Demon Knights have become my favorite titles of the DC relaunch with Suicide Squad and Justice League not far behind. I’m also warming up to Teen Titans, Blue Beetle, Flash and others. I like Hal Jordan being handed his ass by Sinestro, especially with the way he’s being portrayed in both JLA and the relaunch as having been pretty much a douchebag from the start. I’m sure Hal Jordan will get his ring back one day (probably about time for Green Lantern 2) but for now I’m happy to see him try to get his life on Earth together and let the bad-ass from Korugar be the one to face off with the Guardian’s “Third Army”. It makes sense as Jordan’s always trusted the little blue jerks and Sinestro never has.
Hal Jordan’ll find a lantern in no time.
“Yo Kyle? Could I borrow your lantern for a bit? No? Cool, I’ll just call John or Guy, see you.”
Also. This is tangential to your point, but I wonder… did Sinestro really take charge of the White Lantern? Because in the new 52, there was no Firestorm, a lot of the heroes haven’t died yet, heck, I’m not even sure if all of the Black Lanterns even EXIST in the new 52… so did The Blackest Night happen?