Off The Shelf Reviews: Green Lantern Edition!
I bought a few Green Lantern trades at the Philly Comic Con, and I've finally managed to make it through all of them. Most of my thoughts were similar, so here is one post where I'll tackle the three books: Green Lantern: No Fear, Green Lantern Corps: To Be A Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps: Sins of the Star Sapphire.
Green Lantern: No Fear (Geoff Johns, Carlos Pacheco)
This book reminded me a lot of Green Lantern: Secret Origin, which chronologically takes place before this book but in the Green Lantern series appeared much later. First of all, I recognized many pages in this book as being taken from that story (or Secret Origin took them from here?) when talking about Hal Jordan and his past. They leave it very mysterious, giving us a hole that was probably designed on purpose so that Secret Origin could fill it. I thought it was so awesome, as it showed that Geoff Johns did a lot of planning for this series and had the storyline mapped out a good ways in advance.
One other thing that I noticed, and its something I look forward to in the new DC Universe: Green Lantern outside of an "event". I started reading comics (and Green Lantern in particular) right before the big "Blackest Night" event. Ever since then, Hal Jordan has been involved in one sort of event or another between Blackest Night, Brightest Day, and the War of the Green Lanterns. Its very refreshing to see Hal doing his Green Lantern duties without the fate of the universe being in jeopardy. CONCLUSION: Buy this!
Green Lantern Corps: To Be A Lantern (Dave Gibbons, Patrick Gleason)
This is the first trade of the revitalized Green Lantern Corps series. Ever since I started reading Green Lantern, I've not felt as strongly about GLC as I have with the main series, and this trade reinforces that. There are so many characters in the Corps and many of them I just don't care about. One or two of the storylines were entertaining, but the rest of the trades was just kinda blah.... I guess I really prefer Hal Jordan as Green Lantern over Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner. I need to read more of their stories to be sure. CONCLUSION: Borrow.
Green Lantern Corps: Sins of the Star Sapphire (Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason)
Leading up to Blackest Night, this trade introduces us to the "Star Sapphires", the corps whose rings are powered by the violet color of love. I liked this story a lot more than the other GLC trade I just talked about, partly because I loved Blackest Night and this gives good background information on this corps. The first storyline is very short and somewhat entertaining, but doesn't really pertain to the "Sins of the Star Sapphire" theme. Its not until halfway through the book that we get into that storyline, which is when the trade really starts to pick up. CONCLUSION: Borrow. Its a great story, but only if you want some more information about the Star Sapphires. Other than that, you probably aren't going to be interested.
Disagree with me? Have another recommendation of a Green Lantern trade? Then comment below!