Green Lantern #37 Review

Creative Team
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Ivan Reis
Inkers: Oclair Albert and Julio Ferreira
Colorist: Nei Ruffino

Story – Rage of the Red Lanterns Part 3

Review
With “Secret Origins” well behind us Johns has really picked up the pace of Green Lantern in order to preparer “Blackest Night.” This issue was packed with twist and turns that at no point the reader is able to predict what will happen next. Johns does a good job balancing the four different Corps he has in this story and showing how each Corps differs from the other.

Johns has done a great job building the Red Lanterns into one of the villains in this summer’s big event. While it is known that the Black Lanterns will be the primary villain of “Blackest Night” but more and more the vicious Red Lanterns have been set up to play the villain role in the opening chapters of “Blackest Night” and may be killed of by the Black Lanterns in order to show how bad that corp is. Johns did a nice job at revealing that a Red Lantern will die if their rings are taken off due to the nature of it being tied to the blood of the user. This fact along with rage being one of the most uncontrollable emotions may lead to the downfall of the Red Lanterns in “Blackest Night.”

I love how Johns is writing both Attrocius and Sinestro as two beings with a vested interest in Hal by each giving him a version of his future. From the beginning of the issue it is clear that there are many different paths that Hal will be able to make in the upcoming war of light. It is interesting to see that both leaders of their respective Corps continue to play mind games with Hal. Both Attrocius and Sinestro are ruthless characters and this issue was a great example how ruthless both men are: Attrocius torturing both Hal and Sinestro with trying to instill rage in both men; and Sinestro killing Laira right when Hal promised to save her.

Also, I get the feeling that some of Attrocius prophecy of Hal betraying the Guardians to be correct. From both Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps I continue to get the feeling that Guardians will die in the war due to how unemotional and detach they are becoming with each issue of both series. Since every Lantern Corps is linked to one of the emotions in the spectrum of light the Guardians have only shown their disdain for all emotions and it is clear that most if not all the Guardians will die because of their lack of emotions when they themselves are drawing from the power of emotion with out them realizing it.

Back to Hal, I was surprised to see Johns turn Hal into a Red Lantern. It is not that surprising to see Hal show a lot of rage when he is fighting, especially when it is Sinestro, but for all that rage Hal has within him to lead to him becoming a Red Lantern is something I did not see coming. Though from the image of Hal as a Red Lantern with both the Red and Green Lantern rings on each hand is making me think that Hal will be wearing each of the rings from all the Lantern Corps, like many people are already predicting.

What I am expecting to see is that during “Blackest Night” Hal will actually gain all the Lantern rings towards the end of the war and will go of into exile due to having all of the power of the Lantern rings but before the last issue will finally find a way to control each individual ring as one and become the first (and maybe only) White Lantern. It would make sense since the Black Lanterns are not even part of the emotional spectrum and White holds the whole emotional spectrum that their would be a White Lantern to stop what may be the unstoppable Black Lanterns. So Hal will basically be the messiah of the war of light, fulfilling Ganthet prophecy of Hal’s importance, and lead all the corps against the Black Lanterns as the balance White Lantern.

The only complaint I have against this issue is that it completely focused on what was happening in Ysmault. In the previous issue we saw Fatality full transformation as a Star Sapphire member complete and her stating that she is going after John Stewart was not mentioned or seen in this issue. I hope that after “Rage of the Red Lantern” arc is over that we get to see the face off against Stewart and Fatality in the next story arc.

Anyways, we still have some time to go before we get to “Blackest Night.” But I have to say that Ivan Reis continues to be DC’s best artist when it comes to drawing all the cosmic characters. Reis has done an incredible job drawing all the different Lanterns and showing how each Lantern Corps varies in their look. He does a great job with all the action scenes and the two splash pages of Sinestro Corps and the Blue Lanterns appearing Ysmault.

Issue Rating
Story: 9.3/10 – John’s continues to do a great job building each Lantern Corps as being different from one another and power ring works differently from one another.
Art: 9.2/10 – Reis artwork was just awesome in this issue and I hope that he is the artist for “Blackest Night.”
Overall: 9.25/10 – Green Lantern #37 does a great job building the storylines for Blackest Night and it is great to see both Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps doing a fantastic job building all the Lantern Corps for the war.