Green Lantern Corps #17 Review

Green Lantern Corps has been a fun read over the past several issues. We are getting tons of sick action between the Lanterns and the Sinestro Corps members. This title is shouldering the duty of giving the reader the high octane action of the Sinestro War that we aren’t seeing over on Green Lantern. This makes Green Lantern Corps an excellent complement to the plot heavy story on Green Lantern. I’m sure that Green Lantern Corps #17 will be another action packed and fun read.

Creative Team
Writer: Dave Gibbons
Pencils: Pascal Alixe, Angel Unzueta, Dustin Nguyen & Patrick Gleason
Inks: Vincente Cifuentes, Rodney Ramos, Rob Hunter, Marlo Alquiza & Prentis Rollins

Art Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with the Guardians re-assigning the Corps to Earth. The Guardians agree that it is time that they convey the Ion power far earlier than they were prepared to do so. We cut to the Green Lantern Corps assembling outside of Earth. Salaak sends a team of Lanterns to Lubbock, Texas, another team to Las Vegas and a third team to Mount Rushmore. Soranik Natu appears on the scene and gets assigned to the team sent to Mount Rushmore along with Sodam Yat and Arisia.

We cut to Kilowog with his team in San Diego. Kilowog then locks horns once again with Arkillo from the Sinestro Corps. The two engage in their own personal duel.

We slide over to Mount Rushmore where our team of Lanterns runs into Guy Gardner on his way to get a painting to snap Kyle loose from Parallax’s control. Gardner is introduced to Yat and is duly impressed with the fact that Yat destroyed Ranx. Gardner continues on his mission to get the painting. Suddenly, Salaak contacts the Lanterns at Mount Rushmore and orders them to report to New York City immediately.

We cut back to Kilowog brawling with Arkillo. Kilowog refuses to use lethal force when dealing with Arkillo and that cause the needless death of some Earthling police officers. Kilowog ends up distracting Arkillo enough to drop an aircraft carrier on top of Arkillo. Kilowog then cuts off Arkillo’s ring finer and takes his yellow power ring.

Salaak then arrives on the scene and tells Kilowog that they have to go to New York City. We shift to Lubbock, Texas, where the Lanterns are killing Sinestro Corps members left and right. They then get the call to report to New York City.

We zip over to New York City where all the Green Lanterns are reporting onto the scene. Salaak tells the Lanterns to wait for the Guardians’ orders. Suddenly, Anti-Monitor and Sinestro appear in New York City. Sodam Yat and several other Lanterns decide that waiting is for losers and they immediately attack the Anti-Monitor. The Anti-Monitor blasts the Lanterns and kills all of them except for Yat who shakes off the Anti-Monitor’s blast.

Yat flies off and attack the Anti-Monitor once again. Anti-Monitor blasts Yat once again. Yat goes crashing to the ground and is knocked out. Natu rushes to Yat’s side. Natu scans Yat with her power ring. Her ring reports that Yat is Daxamite and exposure to the yellow sun is giving Yat increasing invulnerability and allied physical enhancements.

A hologram of Sinestro appears next to Natu and calls her a traitor. Princess Iolande appears on the scene and calls Sinestro a traitor to the Green Lantern Corps and the entire universe.

Yat gets up again and is ready to attack the Anti-Monitor once again. The Guardians then appear on the scene along with Ion. The Anti-Monitor comments that he thought the Guardians were frozen with fear of him and his Corps. The Guardians respond that they bring a power greater than fear. The power of the will. A power when fused with Yat’s courage and strength is unstoppable.

Ion then merges with Yat. Yat is now the new Ion. The Guardians call Yat their greatest weapon. Suddenly, Superboy-Prime appearas on the scene and says that Ion doesn’t look so tough to him.

Comments
The Good: Green Lantern #17 was a solidly paced issue. The reader certainly gets treated to tons of furious action. We get to see Green Lanterns and Sinestro Corps members slaughtering each other left and right. If you dig violent and bloody action then this issue is definitely for you.

I have to admit that I love seeing Green Lanterns being able to employ lethal force. It simply makes sense that a paramilitary police force like the Green Lantern Corps would be at least enabled to use lethal force as a last resort. The use of lethal force makes the Green Lantern Corps a bit more realistic and believable. I mean, can you image a single city in America using a police force that is never required to use lethal force? Heh, you’d have even more rampant crime than we do now.

Gibbons turns out some solid dialogue, but it is certainly nothing special or out of the ordinary. Green Lantern Corps is not a title you buy because of the deep character work or well crafted dialogue. During the Sinestro Corps story arc, Gibbons has assumed the task of providing for all the necessary action that makes the Sinestro Corps story arc feel like a true war and to place this conflict on a cosmic scale.

It was also nice to see the Anti-Monitor finally entering the field of battle and immediately making his presence felt. I’m just waiting for the moment when Superboy-Prime stabs Anti-Monitor in the back. You know it is going to happen at some point.

Being a huge Mon-El fan, obviously I dig that we have a Daxamite in the pages of Green Lantern Corps. Yat is a pretty cool character and I dig his indomitable will that keeps driving him to continue to attack the Anti-Monitor regardless of the obvious power difference between the two combatants.

And Gibbons pulls off a pretty wild ending with the Guardians deciding to make Yat the new Ion. Wow, talk about a real powerhouse. Combine all the Superman powers that a Daxamite possesses under a yellow sun with the massive power of Ion and you have one serious heavy hitter on your hands. Yat as Ion should certainly help boost our heroes’ power levels as they take on some monster villains in Anti-Monitor, Superboy-Prime, Cyborg Superman and Sinestro.

The Bad: Seriously, Kilowog comes across as a bit of a wuss for not using lethal force against Arkillo. If Kilowog had just killed Arkillo, then maybe some of the policemen wouldn’t have gotten killed. And cutting off Arkillo’s finger and taking his power ring accomplishes nothing. All Arkillo has to do is get a new power ring and slap it on one of his other nine fingers. Then he is back out there killing more innocent people all because Kilowog didn’t have the cojones to put down this mad dog permanently.

As far as plotlines are concerned, not much of substance occurred in Green Lantern Corps. #17. This issue’s main purpose is to supply the combat scenes that are lacking over in Green Lantern. The only plot movement that we got was at the very end of this issue when Yat is transformed into the new Ion and the Anti-Monitor arrives on the Earth.

The artwork by committee employed in this issue sucked. I completely and totally despise artwork by committee. And having nine different pencilers and inkers working on one regular length issue is an absolute joke. That is inexcusable and should never happen. The artwork by committee gave Green Lantern an extremely inconsistent and schizophrenic look that lessened the reading experience of this issue.

Overall: Green Lantern Corps #17 was a solid read. If you are a fan of fast paced and furious action then you will definitely enjoy this title. Even though this title isn’t nearly as strong of a read as Green Lantern, I’m glad that DC decided to dedicate Green Lantern Corps to carrying out the mission of making the Sinestro War event actually feel like a true war.

If you are following the Sinestro War event, and you don’t normally read Green Lantern Corps, then you certainly should not feel obligated to purchase this title. Nothing happens on Green Lantern Corps that is necessary for you to read about in order to enjoy the main story over on Green Lantern.