Green Lantern Corps #36 Review

Tomasi has been money on Green Lantern Corps. He has made GLC into being more than just a complementary title to Green Lantern and this title has been able to stand out on its own especially as we head closer to Blackest Night. And so far Emerald Eclipse has been a great follow-up to Sinestro Corps War. I expect Green Lantern Corps #36 to be another great chapter to Emerald Eclipse.

Creative Team
Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artist: Patrick Gleason
Inkers: Rebecca Buchman & Pretis Rollins

Story Rating: 9 Girls Night out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Girls Night out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Girls Night out of 10

Synopsis: Continuing from were the last issue ended with Sinestro revealing that Soranik is his daughter and that she should accept their shared relationship. Soranik is done listening to Sinestro and attacks him with different medical equipment she constructed from her Green Lantern ring. As it looks like Soranik has the advantage; Sinestro absorbs Soranik’s attacks and uses his Sinestro Corp ring to nullify all of Soranik’s powers and hold her still in order to tell her the true origin of her heritage.

We then flashback to when Sinestro was still a Green Lantern welcoming Soranik to the universe and holding her in his arms on the day of her birth. Sinestro goes on to explain that there were three things that defined him: Love, Loyalty, and Order. But the day Soranik was born his motivation turned from those three words to it being a good father and husband, and making the world safe for his daughter and wife.

As time went by the people of Korugar grew scared of the new world Sinestro was looking to achieve and that included his wife. When Soranik was still an infant her mother decided that it was not safe for her to be around Sinestro and decided to give her up to Karroll, who was the one who delivered Soranik, and Dgibb Natu.

Due to Soranik’s mother being very good at keeping secrets from him it took Sinestro many years to find were Soranik was being keep. It wasn’t until after being exiled from the Green Lantern Corps and gaining his yellow power ring that Sinestro was able to find a then teenaged Soranik.

Realizing that it was safest for Soranik to remain with the Natus; Sinestro left Soranik with the tatto she has under her eye as a sign of his love for his daughter. The flashback ends his story by saying that on the day Soranik got her Medical Degree that Sinestro disguised himself as a camera man and took a picture of Soranik with her Med Degree and the Natus.

Back in the present Sinestro tells Soranik that he knows that this new revelation is something she did not expect but that she should know that he is very proud of all of her and accomplishments. Soranik says that she does not need any parental praise from a murderer like Sinestro and that she has a father and it is not him.

Sinestro tells her she should not be so angry and that the anger she is feeling is not because of him but because she is questioning what the Guardians are currently doing. As they go back and forth Princess Iolande wakes up only to be knockout again by Sinestro.

Sinestro than explains that Soranik is now seen as the protector of Korugar and seen in a different light than Katma Tui who ia known as “Katma Tui the Lost.” Sinestro says Katma’s death was the justice served to her for betraying and leading a rebellion against him.

Soranik ask Sinestro what his betrayal represented and Sinestro replies that he always had the best interest of the universe in mind. Sinestro says that throughout everything Soranik has been in his thoughts.  Soranik retorts that she could care less about that as the only thing they share is DNA but nothing else.

Sinestro stops Soranik’s renewed attacks and tells her to watch out for Atrocitus.  That the Red Lantern  is looking to use Soranik to get to Sinestro and that if somehow Atrocitus does find her that Sinestro hopes she will call him for help. As Sinestro leaves to go deal with with Mongul Soranik looks like she is going to shot Sinestro with her ring but decides not to in the end.

On Oa Kyle, Guy, and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps continue their battle with the Sinestro Corps all over the planet. All the members of the Green Lantern Corps fight to their limits as all the laws from The Book of Oa are in full effect.

The fighting is fierce and only made worse for the Green Lanterns as the Red Lantern they had in the prison continues to decimate other Green Lantern members. To make things worse all the prisoners from their cells escape. But even in the face of death all the Green Lanterns prove that they will fight until they can’t anymore.

Over on Daxam we see the citizens of Daxam being used as slaves to rebuild the planet in Mongul’s image. While this is going on Sodam and Arisa talk about how they are on their own as all the back-up they requested has not arrived due to the all the Green Lanterns fighting in Oa against the Sinestro Corps and the Red Lanterns.

Sodam says that they need to take Mongul down before Mongul’s Superguns are complete and create a defensive shield around the planet that will make it impossible for any help to breach the shield and come help them. Sodam reassures Arisa that he can take Mogul down as he still has his Green Lantern ring and Ion power. Sodam then flies off while Arisa takes all the remaining citizens of Daxam to safety.

The scene then shifts to Mongul were he is overseeing the completion of his statue and telling the Daxam architect that he wants his statue to look more dominant and powerful (Talk about a giant ego). Before he could finish saying what he wants his statue to look like; Sodam attacks him from behind and drives Mongul into his own statue.  Mongul quickly recovers and uses his Sinestro ring to create some Rhino looking constructs which Sodam is able to overpower with his ring and send Mongul flying.

Sodam then requests for access to his Ion power but the Guardian who is working for the Black Lanterns denies his access to the Ion power. Mongul gains control of the fight and Sodam ask his ring if there is another way to get access to the Ion powers. His ring replies that he can have a limited access to the Ion powers by creating some massive surge of power but it is unknown how much power he would have access to. Sodam then orders his ring to take down his protective shield just as Mongul hammer punches Sodam straight through his statue.

As Mongul looks over Sodam’s burnt body lying on the ground Sodam’s Ion powers activate and Sodam flies into the sky. Mongul sends his Sinestro Corps members after Sodam but they are unable to keep up with an Ion powered Sodam.  Even the huge snake around Daxam cannot stop Sodam as Sodam goes straight through it.

Sodam then tells Arisa that the Guardians are shutting down the Ion powers and that their is only one way to keep his Ion powers permenetly. Arisa tells him there has to be another way but Sodam says that their isn’t and he takes off his Green Lantern ring and flies into Daxam’s red sun.

Sodam tells Arisa to keep fighting.  Arisa screams Sodam’s name as Sodam causes an explosion in the red sun. End of issue.

Commentary
The Good: Green Lantern Corps #36 has another spectacular read. I don’t know if it is just me but Tomasi has made GLC such a fun read lately that I am enjoying this title much more than Green Lantern. Since the end of Sinestro Corps War, Johns has focused much more on introducing the characters that will be involved in Blackest Night.  Therefore, Green Lantern has been reading like one big prologue to Blackest Night since the end of Sinestro Corps War. While that is not a bad thing I have found Green Lantern less fun to read as we aren’t getting that galactic fun that we had before on that title.

But where Johns has become focused on leading up to Blackest Night; Tomasi is telling a story in Emerald Eclipse that is the type of fun I expect from a galactic story. And Emerald Eclipse can really be called a sequel to Sinestro Corps War as it continues the war between the Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps while throwing in a wild card in the form of the Red Lanterns. The inclusion of the Red Lanterns helps tie-in and build up Blackest Night.

Even though we only got two spread pages dedicated to the battle going on in Oa; I liked how all the dialogue in these pages didn’t come from any of the Green Lanterns.  Instead the dialogue came from the Guardians.

This was a great move by Tomasi and helps emphasis how hard each Green Lantern Corps member is fighting to protect Oa. The battle on Oa helps to show the reader that not just anyone could be a Green Lantern and that to be a member of this Corps a person must be able to push themselves beyond their limits and not fear death.

Seeing how brutal the battle is it was a smart move by the veteran Green Lanterns to keep the rookies in a safe place as they would only get in the way. Also, the rookies are not prepared to overcome fear like the veterans are. And from the look of how brutal the battle between just the Green, Yellow, and Red Lanterns has been during this story then it should be insane once all of the Lantern Corps are fighting at one time throughout the galaxy.

I like how this ongoing war between the Green and Sinestro Corps is split into two different battles: one in Oa and another in Daxam. But what makes the battles different is that while over on Oa it is a full on battle between the Green, Yellow, and Red Lantern members; over on Daxam Sodam and Arisa are alone in having to fight Mongul and the Sinestro Corp members under his control. By not having any other Lantern around like Hal or Kyle around this helps to give Sodam a chance to step up and show what kind of hero he is in the face of his whole planet, that exiled him, has been taken over.  It also gives Sodam a chance to show why he was deserving of the powers of the Ion powers at the end of Sinestro Corps War.

It was smart that Sodam didn’t just have himself and Arisa rush and start fight all of the Sinestro Corps on Daxam as that would have been just suicide. It is good to see Sodam show himself as a good leader and tell Arisa to stay back and take all of the remaining Daxam citizens to safety while he fights Mongul.

And it was interesting that Sodam was denied the use of his Ion powers by the Guardian, Scar, who is helping the Black Lanterns. It made the Sodam vs Mogul fight more interesting as Sodam had to find a way to access the Ion powers on his own since his Green Lantern ring wouldn’t be enough to take down someone as powerful as Mongul.

It was pretty ballsy move by Sodam to let Mongul clobber him just for a slight chance that it would allow him to use the Ion powers. It was a big risk that did help Sodam at least get partial access to his powers and it was cool to see him use his powers to go straight through the big snake Sinestro Corp member that was circling around Daxam. It was a nice show of how powerful Sodam is with only a small access to the Ion powers.

And it was even more interesting to see Sodam take off his Green Lantern ring and fly straight into Daxam’s red sun for the chance that the explosion will grant him full access to the Ion powers. It was a great hook ending and a huge risk since it may not work.  And even if Sodam’s plan does work, I have to wonder if his Ion powers will keep his lead poisoning from killing him since it was only his Green Lantern ring that was keeping him from dying from lead poisoning.

My favorite part of this issue was the confrontation between Sinestro and Soranik. It was just what I was expecting from this reunion between estranged father and daughter. This confrontation balanced out all the action we got for the whole issue by adding some drama to the issue.

Tomasi did a nice job using the flashback scene of Soranik’s life to serve as a great origin story that gave plenyt of information about Soranik in order to help new and old readers to get to know her history.  The best part is that Tomasi gave this background infromation without making this issue feel like an origin story was shoe horned in it like most origin stories in the middle of ongoing books sometimes feel like.

Also the flashback serves to help the reader get some more insight on Sinestro’s motivation to gain control as he did.  It was not just simply because Sinestro saw the way the Guardians were doing things to be wrong and things needed to be changed; but Sinestro did those things in the past to make the universe safer for his wife and kid.

This made Sinestro a much more sympathetic character.  Tomasi also made Sinestro more sympathetic in that even though he is rejected by his daughter, he still warns her about Atrocitus and also promises that he will be there for her whenever she needs him. And I like the little hesitation Soranik showed at the end when Sinestro was leaving to deal with Mongul.  I hope to see these two characters interact further during Blackest Night.

Another thing that I like with having Sinestro and Soranik having a father and daughter relationship is that it adds another layer to the rivalry between Sinestro and Kyle as Kyle is currently going out with Soranik. It helps to give the rivalry something different from the rivalry Sinestro has with Hal. And it would be interesting if something does happen to Soranik during Blackest Night that both Sinestro and Kyle will blame the other for what happens to her.  It would also be interesting to see Sinestro and Kyle have to team up to save Soranik.

Patrick Gleason provided plenty of solid artwork and the war setting of this issue plays to Gleason’s strength with all the action. All of the action scenes in this issue were very intense and I especially like the two two-page spreads of the battle going on in Oa. Gleason really stepped-up his game in this issue and I hope he is given even more action scenes to draw in the next issue.

The Bad: I had no complaints with this issue.

Overall: Green Lantern Corps #36 was another solid issue by Tomasi and Gleason. This title has become such a fun title that I recommend any who enjoys great space stories to give Green Lantern Corps a try as it has become more than just a supplementary title to Green Lantern and stands on its own as one of the best titles DC has.