Green Lantern #18 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), Szymon Kudranski (art), Ardian Syaf (pencils), Mark Irwin (inks), Alex Sinclair & Tony Avina (colors)

The Story: Hey, we may be dead, but at least we’re all in this together.

The Review: Anyone who watches How I Met Your Mother should be very familiar with the many nonsensical rules of Barney Stinson, the most shortsighted of which has to be, “Newer is always better.”  If common sense and New Coke didn’t already tell you otherwise, you can quickly learn from experience that just because something’s new doesn’t mean it’s going to beat what’s already around.

That said, no one’s going to deny the fun of trying new things, and there’s every chance you actually will like it better than what you’re used to.  I must admit that personally, it was easy for me to get on board with Simon Baz because I never got all that attached to Hal Jordan anyway.  But even if you prefer ol’ Hal in the green suit, you can’t really hate Simon.  He manages to strike a balance between asserting himself, while still seeming well-intentioned and trusting.

His deference around Hal (“Am I supposed to salute you or call you “Sir” or something?”) does concern me, however.  Honestly, Simon hasn’t been on the job for all that long and while in that short time he’s already accomplished some noteworthy things, he hasn’t quite earned his stripes just yet.  So it seems a bit hasty for him to be offering to give up his ring already, especially since we know that in a few months, Robert Venditti will restore Hal to star status anyway.

To be fair, Hal makes it easy for Simon to believe all the hype about the Corps’ most (in)famous Lantern, as Hal spends his time reassuring the rookie that he isn’t dead and that he should keep the ring until further notice.  Meanwhile, Sinestro lives right up to his jerky reputation, almost immediately hating on Simon the moment he arrives.  Sinestro complains to Hal that Simon is “[s]omeone who doesn’t think and doesn’t plan.  A flawed individual, Jordan!” (meaning everyone, Sinestro!).

As surprising and grim as Simon appearing in the Dead Zone may be, it doesn’t actually lead to any attention-grabbing developments.  The late Tomar-Re manages to give us exactly one nugget of new information about our latest villain: “Volthoom was now the very light that started this universe.  And if the First Lantern is extinguished, we will be as well.”  An interesting wrinkle that’ll take some creativity to solve later on, but nothing to enliven this issue now.

Despite a largely understated second act, Johns always makes sure to throw in a few nice twists for the end.  A pairing between Sinestro and Simon—especially with the question of whose ring will prove dominant in such a case—is bound to lead to some exciting sparks.  Add in B’dg and the Hidden Ones, and suddenly you have a pretty cool mix of folks for the next few issues.  Then there’s Hal, suddenly getting a dark gleam in his eye about how he might singlehandedly escape the Dead Zone.  Obviously, this means an opportunity to dress up Hal in another Lantern color, but you can’t deny that’s a sight you’re willing to see.

I never would have thought of Kudranski to draw a sci-fi epic like Green Lantern, but for the story at hand, he’s actually kind of perfect.  With his shadowy style, and Avila-Sinclair’s eerie glows, the Dead Zone does come across as a fairly unsettling place, where nothing can be seen distinctly and everyone seems a little threatening.  The one downside is at times it gets hard to tell who’s doing what when they interact; occasionally, you’ll think you’re looking at one character only for it to be someone else entirely in the next panel.  Against this subtle, impressionistic style, Syaf’s work looks rather garish and broad, but someone has to draw the living in action, right?

Conclusion: An issue that gets some necessary work done, but doesn’t provide much in the way of thrills.

Grade: B-

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - Figures that when Simon’s gun finally comes in handy, it proves a total wash in a land where everyone’s already dead anyway.