Green Lantern #41 Review

Johns continues to carefully lay a strong foundation for Blackest Night in the pages of Green Lantern. I suspect that we will get another slow moving issue that continues to get the various characters and plotlines in place for Blackest Night. Hopefully, the showdown between Larfleeze and Hal is entertaining. Let’s go ahead and do this review for Green Lantern #41.

Creative Team
Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Phillip Tan, Eddie Barrows
Inks: Jonathon Glapion, Ruy Jose and Julio Ferreira

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

Synopsis: We begin with Larfleeze ranting about how hungry he is and how he wants Hal’s blue power ring. Hal asks if Larfleeze is the leader of the Orange Lanterns. Larfleeze sneers that he is the Orange Lantern Corp. That he stole the identities of the members of the Orange Lantern Corps and he made re-made them. Larfleeze says that he is Agent Orange.

Larfleeze then focuses back on the blue power ring and asks what it is powered by. The blue power ring responds “Hope.” The blue power ring asks Larfleeze “What do you hope for?” Larfleeze comments that he hopes for many great desirables.

Larfleeze asks if hope is not simply just wishing for things. Larfleeze wonders if the blue power ring can finally fill his belly that is constantly hungering for more. No matter how much Larfleeze eats.

Larfleeze says that he hopes for the blue ring. Larfleeze goes to grab the ring and the blue power ring blasts Larfleeze. The blue ring says that hope is selfless. Hal then attacks Larfleeze. Larfleeze chomps into Hal’s shoulder. Larfleeze tells Hal to give him the blue ring or prepare to join Larfleeze’s Orange Lantern Corps.

We cut to the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps battling the Orange Lantern Corps. The Green Lanterns figure out that the Orange Lanterns are not real. That the Orange Lanterns are just constructs.

A bunch of Orange Lanterns grab a hold of John Stewart and are about to tear John apart. Suddenly, Fatality arrives on the scene and blasts the Orange Lanterns and saves John. Fatality says that in the past she has been focused on destroying John. Now, she has other plans. Fatality asks John if he has ever been in love.

We shift to the planet Ungara. We see Sinestro kneeling before a tombstone. Tekik radios Sinestro and tells Sinestro that they have gathered and they are awaiting Sinestro’s arrival. Sinestro tells Tekik that he will see him on Zamaron. Sinestro says “And then love will do what it always does. My Corps. Love will die.”

We slide over to Space Sector 666 where the Green Lantern that is working for Scar is located. (Damn, I am drawing a total blank on the name of the vampire hunting Green Lantern.) The Green Lantern writes a letter to his dead wife. The Lantern is sitting in complete darkness and hoping that it will draw vampires to him. The Lantern writes how the vampires killed his wife. And that the Lantern has killed many vampires since his wife’s death. The Lantern writes to his wife “Happy Anniversary.” Some vampires appear on the scene and the Green Lantern savagely attacks them.

We hop back over to Okaara where Hal is still brawling with Larfleeze. Hal offers Larfleeze a trade. Hal will give Larfleeze the blue ring in return for Larfleeze telling Hal about how Larfleeze met the Guardians. Hal replies that words are cheap. Larfleeze then agrees to Hal’s deal.

Larfleeze begins billions of years ago when Larfleeze and three other members of his guild pulled off the biggest heist ever. Among the loot that they stole was “The Box.” Larfleeze says that the Box was worth an entire star system. The Manhunters then attacked Larfleeze and his guild members. Larfleeze and his compatriots managed to escape from the Manhunters.

We cut to Larfleeze and his guild members on their ship. They find an ancient map among the loot from their heist. The map once belonged to the Guardian named Krona. The map told of a great treasure located on Okaara. We cut to Larfleeze’s group on Okaara. One of the four members of Larfleeze’s group gets killed during their trip through the jungle.

The remaining three members of Larfleeze’s party fall through the ground and land in the underground palace of Orange Lantern Corps. We see the orange power battery. The three guild members then all grab a hold of the orange power battery and fight over possession of it. The Guardians and the Manhunters then arrive on the scene. The Guardians tell Larfleeze and his guild members to back away from the orange lantern.

One of the three guild members gets killed so it comes down to Larfleeze and the last remaining guild member fighting over the orange lantern. The orange light from the main power battery takes down many Manhunters and a couple of Guardians. The Guardians state that they are not here for the orange lantern. The Guardians say they are here for the ancient relic, the box that Larfleeze stole.

The Guardians say that if Larfleeze gives them the box then Larfleeze can keep the orange light and the Vega system as long as neither Larfleeze nor the Orange Lanterns leave the Vega system. The Guardians then say that the one rule to the deal is that only one person can have the orange light. Either Larfleeze or the other guild member.

We cut back to the present with Larfleeze telling Hal that he won the possession of the orange power battery. And the Guardians buried their pact in order to bury the knowledge of the orange light. Just like how the Guardians buried the knowledge of the massacre at Space Sector 666 and Parallax. Larfleeze then reveals that it was Parallax who was inside the Box that Larfleeze stole and gave to the Guardians.

Hal is stunned at this revelation. Larfleeze then tells Hal that he held up his end of the bargain and for Hal to give him the blue power ring. Hal exclaims that he is trying to take the blue ring off but that it will not budge. Larfleeze yells “I want what I want!”

Larfleeze then chops off Hal’s hand. Larfleeze then pulls the blue power ring off Hal’s chopped off hand. Larfleeze comments “Mine.” The blue power ring says “Larfleeze of Ogatoo. Welcome to the Blue Lantern Corps.” End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Green Lantern #41 was a solid read. The main purpose of this issue was to continue to lay a strong foundation for Blackest Night. Johns continued to focus on fully fleshing out the Orange Lantern Corps and Larfleeze. Johns clearly is enjoying continually adding more depth and texture to the Green Lantern mythos.

The manner in which Johns is handling the Green Lantern mythos gives this setting a rich sense of history. It also helps to make Blackest Night feel like a true mythic tale with a grand and majestic scope. This also fits nicely with the strong presence of religion and myths that dominates the Blackest Night story.

Larfleeze’s story explaining his history is the centerpiece of Green Lantern #41. Johns reveals to the reader why the Vega System has always been off limits to the Green Lanterns. We also learn that the Guardians gained possession of Parallax in the deal with Larfleeze that involved giving Larfleeze the Vega System and the Orange Lantern Corps. Larfleeze’s history continues to cast the Guardians in a questionable light. Johns has done a fine job getting the reader to become more and more distrusting of the Guardians and their actions.

I enjoyed how Johns contrasted the greed and unrelenting sense of wanting of the Orange Lanterns with the selfless hope of the Blue Lanterns. This moment hinted that Hal has to realize that he cannot “hope” for anything that is not genuine or selfish if he is to every properly power the blue ring. Perhaps Hal’s conflict with Larfleeze will enable him to better understand how to utilize the power of the blue ring.

Green Lantern #41 is short on action. We get a quick brawl with Hal and Larfleeze and a short two page fight scene with the Green Lanterns battling the Orange Lanterns. While there is no doubt that exposition ruled the day over action in this issue; Johns did give the reader just enough action to keep Green Lantern #41 from being too dull of a read.

Johns teases the reader with three one page scenes that address several different dangling plotlines that are sure to be accelerated once Blackest Night gets underway. We saw the appearance of Fatality as she saved John Stewart from getting killed by several Orange Lanterns. I am fascinated by this plotline and I am curious to see John’s reaction to Fatality’s dramatic change in personality.

Johns gave the reader a neat one page teaser scene with Sinestro at a gravestone. I am wondering if this is Sinestro’s wife’s gravestone. I enjoyed how Sinestro is allowed a quiet moment for introspection. This one page scene gives Sinestro some depth and shows that he is more than a one-dimensional evil villain. Johns also reveals that Sinestro is set to take his war to Zamaron with the intent of destroying the Star Sapphire Corps. It makes sense that the Yellow Corps and the Violet Corps would collide with each other during Blackest Night.

Johns ends Green Lantern #41 with a pretty wicked hook ending as we see Larfleeze chop off Hal’s hand and taking control of the blue power ring. I was not expecting that. It certainly had quite an impact on the reader and helped to make up a bit for a story that was a dry due to the large amounts of exposition by Larfleeze.

Green Lantern #41 sports artwork by committee. More often than not, I do not enjoy artwork by committee. Luckily, I like both Tan and Barrows. However, the fact remains that there were a total of five artists on this title and the result is that this issue had a bit of a schizophrenic look.

The Bad: Green Lantern #41 was a slowly paced read. Johns continues to give us a story that is rather decompressed. There was very little in the way of plot progression in Green Lantern #41. Green Lantern #41 basically ends at the exact same spot where the last issue ended: with Larfleeze trying to get the blue power ring from Hal. The reader feels cheated since we never got the fight between Hal and Larfleeze that was teased with the ending of Green Lantern #40.

There were several scenes in this issue that felt like Johns was simply stalling for time. Both the one page scenes with Sinestro and the one with the vampire hunting Green Lantern felt like filler. It was almost like Johns was acknowledging that he had the dangling plotline involving the Green Lantern working for Scar and was trotting him out for one page to show the reader that he had not forgotten about this plotline.

The short fight scene with the Orange Lanterns and the Green Lanterns also felt like filler. Yes, Johns brought Fatality into play with the end of this scene. But, the vast majority of this scene was devoted to re-hashing how the Orange Lantern Corps members are created and how the Orange Lantern Corps operates. Johns also spent three pages with Larfleeze and Hal re-hashing what we already knew about the Orange Lantern Corps.

Johns also gives the reader tons of exposition with Larfleeze’s story dominating the issue with nine pages. Larfleeze’s story felt awkwardly shoehorned into Hal and Larfleeze’s fight scene. It is obvious that Johns was not too sure how else he could get this information to the reader. Unfortunately, Larfleeze’s “secret origin” read like one of the back-up stories that we have gotten that gives the reader the origins of the various members of the different Lantern Corps. It might have made for a smoother read if Johns had saved Larfleeze’s origin for a back-up story instead of forcing it into the main story.

Overall: Green Lantern #41 was a solid issue that continued to lay a strong foundation for the upcoming Blackest Night. Johns remains committed to fleshing out the Green Lantern mythos. The majority of Green Lantern #41 was dedicated to stalling for time and moving the various characters into position for Blackest Night. Green Lantern is the opposite of the more action packed build-up that we have been getting over on Green Lantern Corps.

Still, if you are interested in every detail that builds up to the Blackest Night event then you should probably pick up Green Lantern #41. Johns gives the reader some important information about Larfleeze and the Guardians that should interest readers who are devouring every little aspect of the Green Lantern mythos.