Green Lantern Corps #40 Review

This is the second issue of Green Lantern Corps to tie into Blackest Night. Green Lantern Corps #39 did a solid job bringing in the rest of the Green Lanterns into the event. Tomasi as always provided great character work and I’m interested to see how the Green Lantern Corps deals with the Black Lanterns appearing on Oa especially since they are dealing with the War of Lights. Hopefully Green Lantern Corps #40 is another solid issue in Tomasi’s run on this title.

Creative Team
Writer: Peter Tomasi
Artist: Patrick Gleason
Inkers: Rebecca Buchman, Tom Nguyen, and Pretis Rollins
Colorists: Randy Mayor and Gabe Eltaeb

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

Synopsis: We begin with Arisia flying to Oa after her mission in Daxam. As she reaches Oa she see that the Oan Shell is missing. Her ring responds that it only has limited information on what is going on in the planet.

We cut to Oa were we see Kilowog and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps are fighting off the Black Lantern Corps.

Back in space Arisa is approached by her dead parents who are now Black Lanterns. Arisa’s parents analyze Arisa’s current emotions and they see that she is currently feeling Love, Hope, and Fear. Arisa is in shock from seeing her dead parents returned. Her parents get closer to her saying they should have a group hug.

Returning to Oa Kyle and Jade are in the middle of the battle field with Jade creating a black cloak around them to shield them from battle with her Black Lantern Ring. Kyle is feeling both Will and Love while Jade asks him if he believes it’s her. Kyle says yes and Jade moves them up into Oa’s atmosphere so they can get some alone time.

Jade tells Kyle that his love for her is what leads her to come to Oa. She and Kyle, who is feeling Love, Compassion, and Will, lean into each other ready to kiss with Jade saying their hearts don’t lie.

We cut to Sector 3599 were Kryb is searching for her “children.” Before Kryb can reach her “children” she is attacked by Star Sapphire member Miri. Before Miri can continue her attack her ring starts shinning because of the love Kryb feels for her “children.” Miri tells Kryb she will help her find her children and after that she will take Kryb back to her cell in Zamaron.

The scene shifts to Oa’s Planetary Citadel of the Guardians of the Universe were Green Lanterns Salaak and others find the Guardians held captive by the black substance Scar put them in. Before any of the Green Lanterns in the group can do anything an Alpha Lantern step in and say that the Guardians are nowhere to be found. They continue to say that from that moment forward the Alpha Lanterns are in charge much to Salaak’s charging.

The Alpha Lanterns tell Clarissi’s that they have been given absolute power at moment due to what is going on with the Black Lanterns. Clarissi activates a hologram the Guardians created in such a situation where they inform the Alpha Lanterns that without the Guardians that Clarissi, Kyle Rayner, and Guy Gardner are in charge. Clarissi’s tells the Alpha Lanterns to get out into the battle field and that they must go to the new recruits and take them to Mogo in order to ensure their safety.

Back in Oa’s atmosphere Jade is still trying to seduce Kyle but he finally snaps out of it and tells the Black Lantern Jade that she is not the his Jade. He continues to say that he did all this to find out more about the Black Lanterns but now all he cares about is giving her pain. He then gives her a full blast from his that disintegrates part of Jade’s body.

Jade’s body starts to regenerate and as soon as she does she wraps Kyle in her power ring construct of the Black Lantern logo. Inside the construct Jade use different images of herself to inflict psychological torture on Kyle.
Back in Oa some of the Green Lantern Corp members try to contain some of the Black Lantern rings but are unsuccessful. Some of the Black Lanterns then start attacking and killing the Green Lantern Corps members, which raises their power levels to 46.31%.

Guy comes out of knowhere and captures a Black Lantern fly but it is to strong and escapes his grasp. Guy uses his ring to squash the fly. Guy is then attacked by a Black Lantern member.

We shifts to Sector 3599 were Miri and Kryb locate were Kryb’s “children” were but see that they are all gone. Kryb is disheartened by this but Miri says she can locate Kryb’s “children” by using her ring.

Back in Oa we see the Black Lanterns attacking the Green Lanterns that are in the Infirmary. As the Black Lanterns kill the Green Lanterns they are attacked from behind by Soranik. End of issue.

Commentary

The Good: Green Lantern Corps #40 was a solid read. Tomasi did a great job showing how chaotic things are with not only the War of Lights but also the Black Lanterns entering the picture of the war.

One of the complaints about Blackest Night that I have had so far is that it doesn’t feel like a big event as Geoff Johns has put all of the focus on the even on what is going on in Earth while only briefly touching on what is going on in the rest of the universe. For me the Black Lanterns haven’t felt like a big threat as they only appear on Earth without much of a sign that their appearance having universal ramifications.

But Tomasi does the job that Johns has failed to do as the Black Lantern threat finally feels like it affects the whole universe. And he largely does this by showing us different battles that the Green Lanterns are having with the Black Lanterns. Even though it seemed Tomasi was trying to handle too many storylines within the 23 page count I appreciate that he showed us there are many interesting aspects of this event that could be played out and that he did not need big names to be in the scenes for them to be interesting.

Throughout the issue I was excited to see what happened in the next page as I did not know what was going to happen or if someone would die next. And it was mostly because of the constant shifting of scenes as when we went from one scene to another we went from one big thing happening to an even bigger thing.

My favorite scenes were the ones with Kyle and Jade. The thing that made these scenes stand out was that I felt that at any time Jade would try to kill Kyle as he was letting his love for her get in the way. I liked the swerve Tomasi put in with Kyle only using Jade to find out more about the Black Lanterns, though he felt some love for his former girlfriend. It was awesome seeing him blast Jade with his full power only for Jade to regenerate. I look forward to seeing how Kyle gets out of his situation and if Soranik will get involved.

I also liked how the Green Lantern Corps were quick to discover that the Guardians imprisoned by Scar. I was thinking that the Guardians would be imprisoned for most of this event but am glad to see that the Guardians aren’t completely out of the picture for this event. Though I wonder were Scar is as he was not with the Guardians anymore.

Also I thought the Guardians plans for the Alpha Lanterns was great. I like that they have learned their lesson from what happened with the Manhunters and did not just program the Alpha Lanterns to be in control if they were gone. It will be interesting to see if the Alpha Lanterns do turn into another version of the Manhunters as they did not seem happy that they are now working under Green Lantern Corps members.

Patrick Gleason did great job with the chaotic nature of Blackest Night. This was a very fast paced issue and Gleason did a fantastic job making everything in the issue stand out. I especially liked what he did with the Black Lantern fly. Maybe it’s the fanboy in me but I would love to see a Krypto vs. Dex-Cat vs. the Black Lantern fly drawn by Gleason.

The Bad: While I enjoyed the issue I did have a problem with the Miri and Kryb sub-plot. With everything going on across the universe with the War of Lights and Black Lanterns it is odd that this weird team-up is given some spotlight in this issue. I would have preferred seeing more of the Mongul takeover of the Sinestro being developed as it is one of the more interesting plotlines in the War of Lights.

Also, while I didn’t mind the continuous shift in scenes I can see how some people have problems with it. At times it did seem Tomasi was trying to handle too much within this single issue which is one of the things that has me worried about Blackest Night as a whole since there are so many plotlines for Johns and Tomasi to handle.

Overall: Green Lantern Corps #40 was another solid issue in Peter Tomasi’s run on this title. Tomasi did an excellent job capturing the big event aspect of Blackest Night that the main series has. Though I don’t think this issue is a must read to understand Blackest Night it does help further the story for those interested in the event.
__________________________________________________________________________
Kevin