Green Lantern #20 Review

Green Lantern is a title that The Revolution always looks forward to reading. Johns is building up to a huge war between the Sinestro Corps and the Green Lantern Corps. I’m sure that Green Lantern #20 will be another good read that continues the path to this wild impending conflict. Let’s do this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Daniel Acuna

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Hal telling Carol to pry the Star Sapphire from Cowgirl while he deals with the Zamarons. Hal thinks how the Zamarons are an off-shoot of the Guardians of the Galaxy. That the Zamarons have embraced emotions and cultivated the parasitic power of the Star Sapphire to tap into the “violet light of love.”

Hal brawls with the Zamarons. They tell Hal that Carol and Cowgirl will be the first of their angels. We see Carol pry the Star Sapphire from Cowgirl. The Zamarons gets the upper hand on Hal. The Star Sapphire then immobilizes both Carol and Cowgirl and asks which one does Hal Jordan want? One of the Zamarons tells Hal to choose which woman will be his mate before the Zamaron crushes Hal’s skull.

Hal breaks free from the Zamaron’s grasp and grabs her and gives her a huge French kiss. The Star Sapphire says that Hal has chosen neither Cowgirl nor Carol. That the Zamaron is the one Hal has chosen. The Star Sapphire then attaches to the Zamaron that Hal kissed.

The other Zamarons grab the Star Sapphire Zamaron and restrain her. The Zamarons decide to retreat so they can safely remove the Star Sapphire from their fellow Zamaron and discuss the future of the Star Sapphire and the coming war. With that the Zamarons teleport away.

We cut to Hal having a drink with Carol and Cowgirl at a bar on Edwards Air Force Base. Since Hal’s power ring gave Carol a clean bill of health, Carol decides that she is going to leave Hal and Cowgirl alone together. Carol leaves and Cowgirl asks Hal if everything is all right. Hal comments that Carol has moved on. Cowgirl asks Hal if he has moved on. Hal then responds by asking Cowgirl what is she doing Saturday night.

We shift to Zamaron. The Zamarons agree that Hal Jordan was right about how the Star Sapphire’s power is overwhelming to the host. That the farther from the center of the emotional spectrum the greater the influence over the bearer. The Zamarons say that they can rectify this by taking a page from the Book of Oa. We see the Zamarons transform the Star Sapphire into a power ring.

The Zamarons admit that they have been so obsessed with the study of the one emotion of Love that they have abandoned all other emotions. That they can turn away from the other emotions no longer. That it is time to not only collect love, but to combat the prophecy. We then see a violet Star Sapphire lantern.

The Zamarons place the violet lantern and power ring on a pedestal in a room with a green lantern and power ring on another pedestal and a yellow lantern and power ring on a third pedestal. There are still four empty pedestals. The Zamarons state that they “must collect them all.”

We cut to Hal visiting Ferris Air. Hal talks with Tom who is working on a plane. Hal says that he just wanted to check in on Carol and make sure she is all right. Tom says that Carol is up flying a plane right now. Tom says that Carol has really been smiling a lot more since her divorce. Hal is stunned that Carol got a divorce. End of story.

We have another Tales of the Sinestro Corps back up story. We see Amon Sur being told that he will be placed in a fear lodge and put into absolute darkness. That his ring will be drained of its power. That it will be up to Amon to charge his ring without a power battery.

That the secret of the rings is that the power batteries do not make the yellow energy of fear. They collect it from all of the sentient emotion. That Amon Sur will only be capable of creating little more than a spark, but that will be all the ring will require to open the fear lodge. Some of the recruits have died in this ritual. But, those that can light their rings and emerge with the ability to instill great fear are fully realized.

But, before Amon Sur enters his Fear Lodge, he is told of a story about a Sinestro Corps member named Bedovian who never had to enter a Fear Lodge, because he inhabits one. We see Bedovian attacking and killing a miner who had struck it rich buying an asteroid belt that were used to make fuel. The miner became a rich man whose corporation was benevolent and he became a symbol for the working class.

Bedovian lives in a fear lodge. He had not eaten in 600 years. After he ate the miner, a Sinestro Ring came to Bedovian and selected him for the Sinestro Corps.

With the story over, Amon Sur then enters his own Fear Lodge. Amon is told to face what he fears the most and to turn it against those who would stop them. Amon enters the Fear Lodge and is asked what he fears the most. Amon Sur answers “Jordan.”

Comments
The Good: Green Lantern #20 was another good read. Johns turns in a well plotted issue. Finally, we see the big picture that Johns was leading up to with this somewhat slow Star Sapphire story arc. Johns has excellent long term vision and I appreciate the fact that he moves at a measured pace in setting the stage for what should be an action packed and frenetic paced story arc involving the Sinestro Corps. Johns does a fine job setting the stage for the upcoming war and successfully uses Green Lantern #20 to create plenty of excitement and intrigue in the reader.

Of course, Johns gives us his typical well done dialogue. Johns manages to give Cowgirl and Carol their own unique personalities and contrasts them against each other. Carol and Cowgirl are both brave and tough women who can take care of themselves. However, Cowgirl is definitely more of a redneck style girl who likes hanging with the guys and drinking beer. Carol is more refined and feminine and that is reflected in her higher end choice of beverage at the bar.

I totally dig the uncomfortable scene at the bar with Hal, Carol and Cowgirl. This is one enjoyable little love triangle. Poor Hal doesn’t even realize the trouble that he is in for. It is obvious that Carol still has strong feelings for Hal. And despite what Hal says to Cowgirl, he still loves Carol. I liked the awkwardness between the three characters and how Hal appears far too eager to dismiss his feelings for Carol as he quickly asks Cowgirl out for a date.

Of course, I thought that the little love triangle was about to end when Carol walked out of the bar. However, Johns wasn’t done yet. Johns then ends Green Lantern #20 by dropping the bomb that Carol has gotten a divorce. That hits Hal like a ton of bricks. The absolutely only thing preventing Hal from falling for Carol all over again was that he thought she was still married. It should be interesting to see how Hal solves his impending girl trouble.

I liked the Johns has the Zamarons transform the Star Sapphire into a power ring. This now gives us three different groups of ring bearers in the Green Lantern Corps, the Sinestro Corps and now the Star Sapphire Corps. I dig the concept of the Star Sapphires being ring slingers rather than mindless hosts to a parasitic gem. Plus, it should spice up the upcoming war by having a wildcard group like the Star Sapphire Corps involved in it.

Of course, the best scene was where Johns throws a huge curve ball at the reader by unveiling the Zamarons new plan of collecting each and every type of power ring and battery. And on top of that, there appears to be four other types of power rings other than the Sapphire, Sinestro and Green Lantern power rings. Fantastic. Johns kicks it up another notch. Just when I thought the addition of the Sapphire power rings was a cool twist, Johns blows the roof off by hinting that there are four more.

The Zamarons state that they have too long ignored the other emotions outside of the emotion of love. That they have to collect the rest of the power rings. Each different colored power ring represents a specific emotion. Sapphire is love. Green is courage. Yellow is fear. I suspect that the remaining four will represent four additional unique emotions. It should be an absolute blast seeing what Johns has in store for us.

I’m also glad that Johns is creating more power ring bearers other than the Sinestro Corps and the Green Lantern Corps. It would have been cool just to see the green ring slingers and the yellow ring slingers lock horns. But, the addition of other power ring Corps makes this upcoming war even grander in scope and more intriguing.

The final Sinestro Corps back up story was pretty cool. Bedovian is a particularly nasty fellow. I’m glad that Johns took the opportunity to use these backup stories to introduce the reader to the main Sinestro Corps members so that we don’t have to waste time with background stories when the war between the two forces starts. Johns also does a good job giving the Sinestro Corps more depth by explaining their initiation ritual in order to become a Sinestro Corps member.

Johns also continues to flesh out Amon Sur’s character. Amon Sur’s transformation is almost complete. Amon is going to become one of Green Lantern’s greatest enemies once Amon emerges from the Fear Lodge. Hal is going to definite be facing a much more formidable Amon Sur the next time they meet.

Daniel Acuna provides some solid artwork. It wasn’t the best stuff that I have seen from Acuna, but it still got the job done.

The Bad: I have no real complaints with this issue.

Overall: Green Lantern #20 was another excellent read. Johns concludes the Star Sapphire story arc and finishes laying the proper foundation for what should be one hell of a ride involving the impending war between the Sinestro Corps and the Green Lantern Corps. It is incredible how Johns just keeps outdoing himself on this title. I definitely recommend giving Green Lantern a try. It is well worth your money. And now is the perfect time since we are about to kick off a major story arc.