Green Lantern Corps: #1 Review

I’m just a little embarrassed to admit this, but I bought this comic because it came with a free Green Lantern Ring. Its a simple plastic ring that only fits on my pinky, but still, it had to be mine. So, I haven’t read any of the preceding series, in fact the last Green Lantern book I read was “Recharge”. In my mind, the $2.99 ring came with a free comic book as a bonus. How much of a bonus? Read on..

Creative Team
Writer: Dave Gibbons
Penciller: Patrick Gleason
Inker: Prentis Rollins

Art Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10.
Story Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10.
Overall Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10.

Synopsis: This will be short, shorter than most of my synopsis. Mine are shorter than Rokk’s, because I like cover the plot, but leave some of the fun things that really can’t be given justice to in a synopsis to the comic. If a comic book you read about here sounds good to you, I still want you to enjoy it when you buy it, not just get a sense of deja vu.

This one is short, however, because the story is cliched, and never seems to offer any surprises. I don’t like being critical, and I’ll never be harsh, but in the world of $3 and $4 dollar comic books, I want more. I realize I’m mixing my commentary into my synopsis here, but I had to explain my deviation from the “norm”

Green Lantern Dr. Soranik Natu of Sector 1417 leaves her partner due to defend the planet’s royal family alone because of her inability to save someone due to a “suspected” defect in her power ring; an inability to stop yellow that is a rookie GL’s psychological issue, not an impurity in the rings anymore.

Soranik finds Guy Gardner, who after a year of penance wants a vacation and demands (but is rebuffed) to see the Guardians, and asks him for help with the apparent impurity. Gardner gives her confidence to get over the issue, and Kilowog sends the two back to help Natu’s beleaguered partner.

There is a two-page subplot with two GL’s, and the issue ends with Natu’s partner waiting for help to arrive.

Comments:

The Good: The issue came with a cool plastic Green Lantern Ring. And the near full two page spread of the planet OA, all armored up, was just plain cool. In fact the backgrounds and aliens are quite well done. The characterizations of the individual GL’s, from the main characters to the one panel’ers are unique and entertaining. Gibbons strikes a nice balance in Guy Gardner, walking that line between brash and annoying. Cool cover.

The Bad: I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that, even though I’m reading an issue Number 1, that there is a miniseries out there that this is continuing from. This issue feels like I’m coming in to the middle of a story arc, and makes little attempt to explain what came before. There is no hook that entices me to read the next issue, as I fully expect Natu to be able to use her ring fully once she gets back to help her partner (the only hint that she might not be able to is the teaser for next month’s issue). I’m not invested enough in Guy’s shore leave for that to be a reason, the two-page subplot mentioned earlier was too vague, and I have virtually nothing invested in two character that I’ve not read before. Even the bit about one of the GL’s going to meet Guardians (he seems to be the only one allowed to) was too vague to draw me back to issue #2.

The character art is quite functional, and does not detract from the story. However, as a strictly personal taste, I found the full facial figure of Guy on the credits page to be a little to stylized for me. Skilled work, especially with the shadow, and the emotion conveyed, but not my personal taste. Not a reason, however, to keep from buying the comic. I understood what was going on in every panel of this issue, so the art was very clear.

In short, I might check this out as a trade, later, if the title improves, but this title is not making it onto my pull list, even on probation. I wish the creators the best of luck, and hope I’m just not their target fan base. Maybe if I had read whatever came before…