Review – Green Lantern #2
Review – Green Lantern #2
Comic Title: Green Lantern #2
Writer: Geoffrey Thorne
Artist: Dexter Soy and Marco Santucci
Published by: DC Comics
Available: 5th May 2021
Synopsis
A Guardian of the Universe lies dead, and the universe teeters on the brink of war. As the summit of the United Planets and the Green Lantern Corps falls into chaos, an even bigger threat looms. With John Stewart reassigned to the role of an ambassador, a surprise appearance by one of the newest Green Lanterns may be all that stands between the Corps and oblivion. (Spoiler: it’s Far Sector’s Jo Mullein.)
So DC has decided to include the big (ahem) spoiler in the bloomin’ synopsis this month, well done that marketing department!!! Job well done! Let’s pick up at the end of the last issue Koyos the Guardian has been killed and magic-wielding figures are after a McGuffin… But’s let’s break down this issue…!
Writing
I freely admit last month I hated the first issue of the newly resurrected GL series.. in fact, you can read my rambling here! This issue Thorne cram more processes and protocols in and it still has a genuine feel of George Lucas in the 1990s!
Far too much of this issue is taken up getting to the final explosive double splash pages. The series is trundling along with too many characters, too many plot threads (for a second issue), and again the overuse of bloody FLASHBACKS! I’ve bored you all before with tales of my formative years in school when an English teacher told the class that as a plot device you should use the flashback only to add to the current story. If you cut out the pages in this issue and put them in chronological order it would make more sense.
Anyway back to the story…blah blah Dragon!….. blah blah Funeral..blah blah.. hold on.. who’s the new Guardian why it’s Miss OA 2021…Nemosyni. Nemo likes long floats in the rain and her hope is for universal peace.
She dumps a quarter of the galaxy out of the Corp and wipes out all the layers, levels, and guards DC has added in over the past 20 years in 3 panels!
She talks about crux worlds and then dumps poor old John Stewart off into the “dark sector” with a thousand Lanterns and just as they take off…it all goes quiet.. then…
BLAM!
What the Fork? Out of nowhere the Battery and anyone close is vapourised! As spoiled by the now sacked intern at DC Comics almost every Lantern is wiped out leaving the annoying Scrappy Doo of Lanterns… Teen Lantern with poor Jo Mullein who arrives just after the blast.
Artwork
Soy and Santucci pair up the work on the artistic side of the issue. The issue is neatly divided in half, with Soy handling a funeral sequence for the fallen figure in Green Lantern #1 and Santucci handling the aftermath.
Soy draws the Lanterns in funeral wear with black overtaking their main uniform colour. He has fun designing a massive action splash featuring the Lanterns taking on a random dragon, when their rings fail to penetrate its magic hide Gardner works out it has a weakness for solid rock. I have a big question though.. why does Nenosyni not have a giant, ugly bald head? Suddenly, the genetic pool of Oan inbreeding has provided us with a rather attractive one?!!?
Santucci though draws the big plot twist and change in direction! The double set of 2-page splash pages that showcase widespread destruction followed up by various heroes and villains watching the devastation. The board has now been cleared of most or all of the “current” Lanterns from Earth but instead of being upset I kind of signed a relief as too many Lanterns spoil the plot!
Final Thoughts
This series is still trying to find its feet but perhaps with the explosion on OA and the decimation of the Corp (again) perhaps we’ll see a tighter, less cartoonish style story.
The sooner they dump Teen Lantern in crappy Saturday Morning cartoon solving mysteries with her pet ferret and Tom Selleck the better. It’s better than issue one.. but you could argue that Attack of the Clones is better than the Phantom Menace and forget that beside Empire they are a long way short. So for my review of Green Lantern #2, I give the story 2 stars and the artwork 4 stars! Do you agree?
[yasr_multiset setid=1]
[yasr_visitor_multiset setid=1]
Buy tickets for BGCP Comic Con in and around Glasgow Scotland – BUY TICKETS
Check out all of our Comic, Movie, Television and Videogame Reviews HERE and our Podcasts/Interviews HERE
If you want to be part of the BGCP community, Join us on Discord, Twitter, Instagram etc then click HERE
