Writer: Robert Venditti / Artist: V Ken Marion / DC Comics
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps is such an underrated title in DC’s arsenal. Any book that can make Guy Gardner a likeable (using that term loosely) character deserves an Eisner award just for that alone. It’s as if Robert Venditti took the remnants of what Geoff Johns left behind and expounded on that to make a mostly enjoyable book.
Issue 18 starts off a new story arc that we mostly only get insight into at the beginning and the end. The lion’s share of the issue goes toward highlighting the fact that the union between Green and Yellow Lanterns is simply not working out. Once again, Venditti takes this as an opportunity to show what an absolute badass Gardner is. It’s hard not to love a superhero that basically makes hardheadedness a superpower unto itself. This book is turning out to be a hell of a redemption run for a character whose greatest moment to date is getting dropped by Batman in one punch. As far as a conventional setup for a new story goes, issue #18 definitely isn’t that, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t effective in establishing that a) there’s a threat coming and b) this new joint venture of yellow and green does not have its shit together enough to deal with it.
It could very well be that I find Ethan Van Sciver’s artwork less than enjoyable and anything is a vast improvement from it, but V Ken Marion’s work this week seemed to hit all the right notes for me. He particularly has a good handle on the ring constructs which largely populated this issue. He even made Kyle Rayner’s perpetually terrible-looking mask not so bad to look at, yet another accomplishment that deserves a medal.
Bottom Line: Not a strong as the past few issues, but even at half speed, this is still an immensely fun book to read. Also, the art puts it over the hump for a decent grade this week.
Reading Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.
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