Writer: Robert Venditti / Artist: Clayton Henry / DC Comics
The “Darkstars Rising” saga in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps has been building tension for the past couple of issues, but now the story is taking an interesting turn. There’s a lot of panel time devoted to the Corps assembling their allies to take on the Darkstars aka The Space Murder Squad. For an issue with not much action, the dramatic exposition was pretty effective. Everybody seemed to get a reasonable amount of panel time, Hal surprisingly receiving the least.
Kyle’s current predicament was a little predictable but still mainly entertaining. But the most compelling of all by leaps and bounds was easily Guy’s story. I’ve written before about how amazed I am that Venditti could breathe such life into a former D-list character like Guy Freaking Gardner. But a good story can inspire you to root for even a lower tier character if the writer deems it so and make no mistake, Venditti has a good story on his hands. We’ve read about Gardner’s past before but seeing it come back to haunt him (or him coming back to haunt it in this case) is a truly gripping experience that serves as an emerald shining testament to how far this character has come. Visually, Clayton Henry mostly does an amazing job filling in for this issue.
There’s a panel or two where he sort of botches the faces for me, but his linework is mainly on point, working well with the bright color palette. The story stays interesting and well paced to the eye despite Venditti’s script not giving Henry much action to work with.
Bottom Line: I believe I’ve said this before but I never thought I’d care this much about Guy Gardner. Venditti’s puts together a highly convincing script that manages to set the stage for what promises to be a hell of an ultimate showdown.
Reading Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.
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