Release Date: February 8, 2012
Cover Date: April 2012
Story: Geoff Johns
Art: Mike Choi
Cover: Doug Mahnke and Keith Champagne
Variant Cover: Ivan Reis and Joe Prado
While Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris play lovers’ games on Earth, Sinestro tracks down Nova Starstorm, a hero who gave him all sorts of trouble in the past. Sinestro wants revenge on Lyssa Drak for betraying him, and he needs Starstorm’s help in order to find her. Starstorm is a broken shell of a man, but Sinestro presses him into service and locates his quarry. Lyssa is a formidable foe, and when Sinestro tears out a page from the Book of the Black, he receives a vision of many things to come. He manages to defeat Lyssa and retrieve the Book, and he speeds to Earth to recruit Hal once again.
This could’ve been a great done-in-one story…but a single page had to go and screw it up. You know which one I’m talking about: Sinestro’s vision of the future. Not only is the whole vision thing incredibly hackneyed and cliché in comics, it’s been completely beaten to death in the various Green Lantern books over the past few years. Some douchebag with a power ring has a vision every few months, it seems. We don’t need a teaser of things to come…just tell the story in good order!
Not only that, none of the shit Sinestro saw will have any permanence. The Corps will not be replaced, Hal won’t stay dead (if he’s even killed at all), and Sinestro won’t become a member of the Indigo Tribe any longer than it takes to sell an action figure. Even the White Lantern ring is a joke, since that whole subplot was horribly botched during Brightest Day. This kind of cheap bullshit ruins the entire story, which was just fine without it.
Other than that godawful mess, there were a few positive points in this issue. Mike Choi’s art is a welcome change; no offense meant against Doug Mahnke, but it’s still nice to shake things up every now and then. The only thing I didn’t like was Choi’s rendition of Hal; he looks like a teenager!
If this story had just focused on Sinestro’s vengeance without the stupid Book of the Black page, then it would’ve been orders of magnitude better. Instead, the cliché absolutely killed it. Overall, Green Lantern (Vol. 5) #6 stinks on ice. What a waste.
Loved how Siniestro needed Hal. Hated how goody goody Hal was all of the sudded not wanting the ring and being the super boyfriend to Carol and just how dumb Carol is.
I thought Hal looked like Cody from Final Fight. That cracked me up. Wish Doug Mankhe was still doing the artwork. I liked his stuff from Major Bummer.