Sunday, February 15, 2009

Green Lantern Corps #33 Review

Creative Team
Writer: Peter Tomasi
Artist: Patrick Gleason
Inker: Rebecca Buchman
Colorist: Randy Mayor

Story - Emerald Eclipse: Part 1

Review
One of the major criticism's that I, as well as other fans, have had against DC is that they have relied on three writers to handle the bulk of their major properties: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, and Greg Rucka. DC has really had a hard time growing their own talent or cultivating talent from other companies. But with Peter Tomasi, James Robinson, and Gail Simone it seems that DC has finally found a couple other writers to help Johns, Morrison, and Rucka out and shoulder more of the DC major titles.

What is amazing about what Tomasi has done here on Green Lantern Corp is that he has been able to take a title that was living in the shadows of its big brother title and make this title stand out on its own since the end of Sinestro Corp Wars. This title has been able to become just as an important read that Green Lantern is as we head into Blackest Night.

It is a good move by Tomasi that he used this issue to slow things down a bit after the insane arc that just ended involving Kryb. I like that we are seeing the blossoming relationship between Kyle and Soranik got some attention as we see these two get together in this issue and agreeing to keep their relationship a secret. It should be interesting were this relationship is taken with the new law stating that relationships between Corps members to be forbidden.

Also it was not surprising to see the Green Lantern Corps have take a huge hit with the new law making so many members renounce there position as Green Lanterns. With all the new laws the Guardians are setting into place that continue to make it so that those who are Green Lanterns to become mindless soldiers it seems that it will be much harder for them to find new recruits that will be willing to renounce there emotions in order to become part of the Corps. And with there still 6 or 7 laws yet to be announced it only looks like there isn't going to be much left of the Green Lantern Corps once Blackest Night starts.

Now even though this was a slow issue we still got some action. Gleason did a great job building the tension between Mongul and Arkillo as they fight it out for the position of who will be the leader of the Sinestro Corps. With these two destructive forces meeting head we look to be in store for one sick fight and Gleason's art will only help the enjoyment of the fight.

And speaking of the fight it is cool to see that Sodam's homeworld of Daxam will be the battle ground of the huge fight. It makes for an interesting development since Sodam didn't leave his homeworld with the greatest memories since he was basically kicked out by his dad for taking care of an alien and then becoming a Green Lantern. So his return to help out his people should make for a strange moment for Sodam after all that has happened.

I have to say while I enjoyed the Origins and Omens back up for Nightwing I have not really got the need for the back up stories to be the books. This is just another cheap gimmick that DC is putting out there to promote Blackest Night which doesn't help that we just came off the Faces of Evil tag that ran across all the DC titles last month. And the story we got in this issue GLC wasn't anything that added to the story.

Issue Rating
Story: 9.2/10 - Tomasi just continues to kick ass with Green Lantern Corps as he has made this a must read going into Blackest Night.
Art: 8.3/10 - Gleason's cartoon type style perfectly fits this title with so many different creatures from all over the universe. It will be great to see Gleason's art as he draws the Mongul vs Arkillo in the next issue.
Overall: 8.75/10 - This was another great issue of GLC and for any still looking for a great time to start reading this title this issue is a great jumping on point.

2 Comments:

Matt Duarte said...

I have noticed the writers-at-DC thing you mentioned. It seems that Marvel is much better in tapping young or new writers (or at least writers new to the superhero comics scene).

Just off the top of my head, in the previous years they have given Fred Van Lente, Jeff Parker, Jason Aaron, Matt Fraction, and they keep getting bigger and bigger writing assignments.

Kevin said...

@Matt Ampersand: Also if you take a look at writers who are going to be huge by the end of the year we have Johnathan Hickman and Andy Diggle with both working on major Marvel titles.

The problem DC has, and the criticism they got coming out of NYYC, is that they promote the titles of books rather than the creative team behind there books (outside of Johns and Morrison books) when it is really the creative team that sells books not the title.