Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2

Cover Date: 1986

Story: Steve Englehart, Mindy Newell, Paul Kupperberg, and Alan Moore
Pencils: Bill Willingham, George Freeman, Trevor Von Eden, Kevin O’Neill, and Gil Kane
Inks: Joe Rubinstein, George Freeman, Trevor Von Eden, Kevin O’Neill, and Gil Kane
Cover: Gil Kane, Joe Staton, and Bruce Patterson

Imprisoned deep within Oa, Sinestro tells the other captives many tales. First, he speaks of the MadGod Sector 3600, whom he believes is stuck in the “empty” cell beside him. The sentient sector once destroyed all life within it, and the Guardians themselves had to intervene to stop its spread. Next, mercenary Penn Maricc is hired by the Guardians to rescue an arrogant prince. He’s inducted into the Green Lantern Corps when he succeeds, but Maricc is none too pleased about being lied to. On the planet Naktos, Green Lantern Ghrelk’s senility is adversely affecting his job. Commander Varix tries to tell him this, but Ghrelk will hear nothing of it. After Ghrelk accidentally attacks allied ships and fails to stop an alien mining operation, Varix takes over as a new Green Lantern. Finally, as the sentient sector seems to stir in the neighboring cell, Sinestro tells his last tale: that of Abin Sur. Well before his untimely death, Abin was investigating a crashed ship on the world of Ysmault, where Qull of the Five Inversions told him of his fate and the eventual fall of the Green Lantern Corps. With this last story, the MadGod awakens long enough for Sinestro to escape his cell and seek vengeance against Hal Jordan and the Corps.

Unlike the previous year’s annual, this issue is an anthology. Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2 has gotten a lot of press in recent years, because Alan Moore’s story “Tygers” within was the blueprint for “The Sinestro Corps War” and Blackest Night. Geoff Johns took the basic story, heavily modified and retconned it for use in those massive crossovers, and their ensuing popularity has driven quite a bit of interest in this old book from 1986.

This is with good reason: “Tygers” is indeed great, but the other stories hold up just as well. We’ve got a history lesson, a hero for hire, an interesting twist on the coming-of-age cliché, and a look at things to come. Note that this annual very specifically started with the past, and ended with the future. In fact, “Tygers” contains the past, present, and future — all in the same story! The wide variety of art styles given to each tale suits them well; Sinestro and the other criminals are stuck in clean, perfect Sciencells, Maricc’s story recalls classic adventure comics, Ghrelk’s tale is grimy and spotted, and the demons on Ysmault are truly horrifying.

Also notable is the original cover, included as a pinup at the end of the issue. The piece was drawn by Gil Kane quite some time ago, but many of the Green Lanterns within it had been killed or changed in appearance before this annual was published. So, Joe Staton reworked it a bit for the new cover. Both pieces are fantastic, and kudos to DC for including the unaltered original.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #5

Release Date: January 25, 2012
Cover Date: March 2012

Story: Tony Bedard
Pencils: Tyler Kirkham
Inks: Matt “Batt” Banning
Cover: Tyler Kirkham and Matt “Batt” Banning
1:25 Variant Cover: Tyler Kirkham and Matt “Batt” Banning

Kyle Rayner and his motley crew of other Lanterns split up into pairs to investigate the Orrery. Arkillo and Saint Walker find what appears to be Tamaran, while Munk and Fatality apparently find themselves on Okaara. Meanwhile, Bleez tries to report to Atrocitus back on Ysmault, but he cannot understand her, so he tosses her into the Blood Ocean. Finally, Kyle and Glomulus locate a strange church, where a clergyman denounces them as servants of the Beast. There’s a statue of the Beast inside, and it’s Larfleeze! However, Kyle and Glomulus have other problems ahead: the Orrery’s protector, Invictus, has awoken inside the station’s sun.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #5 had plenty of action, but also some very good character development. Seeing Larfleeze cast as a Satan analogue is a fascinating twist; I can’t wait to see what his history with Invictus is, especially since it could be a rivalry spanning billions of years.

While we’re on the subject of Orange Lanterns, there seems to be more to Glomulus than meets the eye. We’ve always thought that Orange Lantern Corps are just constructs made by Larfleeze (which Kyle vocalizes), but Glomulus hints that he might be more than that. Perhaps Orange Lanterns keep their minds after death, even in construct form?

We see that the events of this issue take place before Red Lanterns #3. That explains why Bleez in New Guardians hasn’t regained her intelligence yet, and adds another reason for Atrocitus to dunk her in the Blood Ocean, though it would’ve been nice if the missing red ring has at least been mentioned in that issue.

Lastly, Fatality and Munk. Fatality explains what we already know: that atoning for her dark past was what drove her to join the Star Sapphires. (Though she incorrectly refers to them as the “Star Sapphire Corps.” Must’ve been a typo.) She wonders about Munk, though, as he’s clearly a trained fighter…but working for the seemingly serene Indigo Tribe. Other Tribesmen, like Indigo-1, seem to have forgotten their past selves, but the look on Munk’s face implies that he remembers all too well. This is likely just a hook for the upcoming “Secret of the Indigo Tribe” story arc in Green Lantern (Vol. 5), but I hope we see some of the ramifications in New Guardians.

When the Orrery first showed up, myself and many other fans poked fun at it by saying it looks like a solar system model you’d build for school. As it turns out, it actually is a model, but for what purpose we do not yet know. Well done, Tony Bedard, for heading off criticism with an intruiging plot point!

Let’s finish up by talking about the art. Tyler Kirkham handled all of the pencils this time (Harvey Tolibau helped out with the last few issues), and this gave the entire book much more consistency. Kirkham also flexed his artistic muscle by drawing many different environments; from the desolation of Ysmault to the jungles of Okaara, his linework is distinct and gives each world its own personality. He really made the Orrery look like the vast collection of worlds it represents, and I can’t wait to see more.

Then, of course, there’s his Invictus design. We’ve all seen the glowing armored cliché before, but in this case, it at least makes sense; he emerged from a damned star, and likely draws his power from the same source. His followers worship him as an archangel, so perhaps he’s laid claim to some divine power as well. (I doubt it.) We’ll just have to see what this demigod has in store for our ring slingers.

Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #1

Cover Date: 1985

Story: Paul Kupperberg and Len Wein
Art: Gil Kane
Cover: Gil Kane

Hal Jordan has left the Green Lantern Corps, but life goes on as usual for the other Lanterns on Oa. When a white dwarf star fragment hits, a few Corpsmen take care of the problem, but return to find the Citadel in ruins. Worse yet, something’s drained the Central Power Battery, leaving only six Lantern with fully charged rings! Three Guardians were also kidnapped, so the small Corps takes off to find them. The Lanterns split up in pairs, but each finds a seemingly insane Guardian at the end of their journey. In truth, the evil Maaldor the Almighty has controlled them in order to escape from his interdimensional prison. He easily defeats the Green Lanterns, but Arkis Chummuck knows how to take him down for good. Drawing on the combined energies of the other Lanterns, he grabs Maaldor and forces his ring to overload, killing them both in the ensuing explosion.

The story here is nothing special: mystery villain controls the good guys, easily defeats our heroes, and then one brave soul makes the ultimate sacrifice in order to save the day. What makes this issue a great read is the fantastic Gil Kane art.

From the bold linework to his renderings of the alien Lanterns (the only human one is John Stewart, and he only makes a cameo appearance in the last panel), Kane’s expressive art is a treat in every single panel. Maaldor is depicted as an incredibly ugly brute in comparison to the clean, heroic forms of the Green Lanterns. (Go ahead, make any comment you want about Katma Tui’s “form.” I’ll wait.)

On every page, the heroism of the Corps is never in question. As other Lanterns fall to their apparent deaths due to their rings running out, the situation becomes more desperate, and Kane expertly conveys this by quickly intercutting back to the main action as the last few Lanterns seemingly fail in their tasks to stop the insane Guardians. These art techniques may seem simple, but they’re incredibly effective.

Art like this probably wouldn’t stand up to modern audiences. It’s up to us classic era fans to keep it alive!

Green Lantern Corps (Vol. 3) #5

Release Date: January 18, 2012
Cover Date: March 2012

Story: Peter Tomasi
Pencils: Fernando Pasarin
Inks: Scott Hanna
Cover: Andy Kubert

Guy Gardner puts together a badass team of Green Lanterns, and the Martian Manhunter clues them in as to the true origins of the Keepers. The Lanterns realize that since the Keepers are immune to their rings, they need to make them feel afraid and fight with conventional arms. They retrieve two fear-casting Sinestro Corpsmen from the Sciencells and hijack a Khundian weapons transport. Now the Green Lanterns are armed to the teeth and ready to take the fight to the Keepers’ world.

Ugh. This issue was all kinds of awful. Not because of the basic plot, either; the Keepers’ true origin and the dick move the Guardians pulled on their world was just fine, albeit unsurprising given the blue immortals’ actions in recent years. Also interesting was the revelation that Green Lantern power batteries are not sent to a pocket universe, but to a distant world within the regular universe. The art looked fantastic, too; each panel was rife with cool details, and Fernando Pasarin’s double-page splash of the Keepers’ history was the high point of the entire book.

What made this issue an eye-rolling turd were the rampant errors and incredibly hamfisted homages. If you thought that “Av-eneg” nonsense from the last issue was bad, then buckle up.

First of all, the “Mean Machine.” Each of those guys is based off of a classic action movie actor, right down to their faces and builds. That’s okay, I guess, but then their names are thinly-veiled versions of their real world counterparts. Flint? Bronchuk? Come on! Does Peter Tomasi really think that his readers are so stupid that they wouldn’t get it just by looking at this crowd? At least with Ermey a few years ago, the character looked nothing like R. Lee Ermey. Tributes like this are more meaningful if they’re tastefully done. Shoving our faces in it by making everything blindingly obvious is insulting. Not only that, but the character design of these guys was just boring. They’re just wearing regular clothes with a Green Lantern symbol slapped on them!

It gets worse with Fat Man and Little Boy. Aside from the fact that one is fat, and the other is little — wow, how original! — they’re aliens. Why would their names be English terms? The real offense, though, is that they’re named after the nuclear bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima during World War II. That’s in very poor taste, and it’s compounded by the fact that within the story, the pair will also be used as powerful bombs. Not cool at all.

This issue was also rife with other nits that were equally annoying, yet easily could have been avoided. The Martian Manhunter had made clear in issue #4 that he’d wipe Guy’s memories of their meeting. But now, Guy remembers J’onn without a problem. Next, it’s said that the batteries are retrieved through a “temporal conduit.” The correct term would be a spatial conduit; the batteries aren’t traveling through time!

Then there’s the matter of the Khundian weapons. You’d think a spacefaring warrior race would have some cool rayguns or phasers or something…but no. As Orion Pax of the Green Lantern Corps message board pointed out…the guns the Corps retrieves are all Earth-made firearms!

Finally, that bit about a “force of will” being encoded in the Keepers’ DNA makes absolutely no sense. Not only is willpower not an emotion (no matter how much DC Comics says otherwise), it’s also not something that can be hardcoded into beings’ cells. Give me a break.

It was nice to see the story move forward a bit, even though it was predictable, but the poor writing and crappy homages just sank this issue.

Green Lantern Sinestro

As you know, Sinestro has been a Green Lantern since he was mysteriously chosen by a green ring in Green Lantern (Vol. 4) #67. Since then, he’s been the star of Green Lantern Vol. 5, and Geoff Johns has stated that Sinestro will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Aside from the obvious fact that I think it’s bullshit that Hal Jordan is dumped in the backseat of his own goddamned book (which he has been since 2007!), I don’t mind the concept of Sinestro returning to the Green Lantern Corps. Johns has done an excellent job of making Sinestro a much more interesting character over the past seven years, and seeing the arrogant villain thrust into a role he was once comfortable with but had grown to despise makes for some fantastic comics.

What I don’t like is that the “New 52″ reboot will likely be used as an excuse to whitewash or erase most of Sinestro’s evil deeds. Johns did the exact same thing with Hal in Green Lantern: Rebirth, and Hal’s “crimes” were a drop in the ocean compared to what Sinestro has done. Given Johns’ reliance on retcons, there’s a lot of precedent for throwing away Sinestro’s history.

Without doing so, the choice of Sinestro as a Green Lantern just doesn’t make sense. He’s not just a villain; he’s a supervillain. The man is quite literally responsible for the deaths of billions, not to mention the conquest of entire worlds, committing genocide, and the creation of an evil army. That just doesn’t fly with being a Green Lantern, no matter which continuity you may prefer.

So, in order for any of these recent stories to work, a lot of those past sins would have to be wiped clean. That MadGod Sector 3600 business? I doubt it ever happened. Even recent stuff, like “The Sinestro Corps War,” is likely to be dramatically altered. My guess is that it’ll be retconned as a small, localized conflict rather than the original intergalactic bloodbath (if it happened at all). I’d be surprised if we even get an explanation as to why a green ring chose Sinestro again!

I should also point out that Sinestro’s path to redemption undercuts the entire rationale for Green Lantern: Rebirth. Just like Sinestro, Hal was a hero before going rogue. Thus far in the current comics, Sinestro is having to work his way back up and redeem himself. Hal, on the other hand, was retconned into the perfect hero by having all of his foibles be the fault of a giant space bug. If Sinestro can redeem himself, why couldn’t Hal? Unless, of course, Sinestro’s legacy of villainy will be blamed on Parallax as well. That’ll make his sins that much easier to expunge, as nothing will be his fault anymore. Ugh.

But I digress. Rather than retcons, what kind of explanation for Sinestro’s return to the Green Lantern Corps would I prefer? Instead of Sinestro’s horrible crimes being erased, keep them in continuity…and have his current Green Lantern status be a forced penance. And as to why the ring chose him, and is stuck on his finger…that’s the work of the Guardians. They’re simply lying to the rest of the Corps about it, as they’ve done countless times before. Rings can no longer choose their wielders automatically due to Mogo’s destruction, and some intelligence clearly guided it to Sinestro’s hand. Why not the Guardians, in order to make Sinestro pay? While he’s stuck with the green ring, Sinestro wouldn’t be able to use any yellow rings, either. We’ve already seen that his own Corps has marked him for death, so if the Guardians are responsible, they’re punishing Sinestro and tearing apart his army in the same stroke.

This is all just wishful thinking. I’m worried that we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment if we expect any satisfying answers, or for something truly great to come out of Sinestro’s new role. Regardless, all we can do is wait.