Red Skies and Black Lanterns-- thoughst on Green Lantern Corps #42
There's a major event that happens at the end of Green Lantern Corps #42 but I can't tell if it's a real event or just a red herring. I'll try to avoid spoilers for the time being because I don't want to talk about the event itself but about everything leading up to it and why I'm finding I just don't care. The primary reason that the ending of GLC #42 rings hollow to me is the writing of Peter Tomasi. When Green Lantern Corp first relaunched out of Green Lantern: Rebirth, I really liked the title as it was being written by Dave Gibbons. When written well, the Green Lantern Corp can be a rich tapestry, with a wide array of characters and missions. In those early days of the relaunch, we were able to get to know the characters. Some were mortal enemies, some were brothers in arms and one or two were spoiled princesses. But, as much as you can in a book involving magical green rings and little blue men, you got to know and like the characters. For the past 2-3 years, Green Lantern Corps has been in event mode. Ever since Sinestro Corp War, the book has been barrelling forward, under constant attack and hardly giving any of the characters anytime to do more than fight. It beels like for the last year, Oa, the Corps home planet, has been under constant attack. All Tomasi has basically written is "and then the Green Lanterns battle the Sinestro Corp for the fate of Oa" or "and then the Green Lanterns battle the Black Lanterns for the fate of Oa." We've been told over and over here, in Green Lantern and in Blackest Night that Oa is so important but we haven't been shown it lately. The book has been in continuous battle mode and it's getting really tiring. The only bit of character development that's been able to happen during all of this is with Soranik Natu, who we've found out is the daughter of Sinestro and is in love with Kyle Rayner. Of all the Lanterns, she's the only one who's really been allowed to develop in the series. She's been given the beginnings of a story while all the other characters have only been given plot points. For the longest time in this book, everyone else has been cannon fodder. Hopefully either during this story or after Blackest Night, Soranik will be given a larger spotlight and her full story can be told. At this point, I'm all for abandoning the rest of the Corp and just focusing on her. At least they've got a nice artist drawing this storytelling mess. Since the beginning of this series, Patrick Gleason has defined the modern Green Lantern story, even more so than Ethan Van Sciver or Ivan Reiss. With him on GLC and Doug Mahnke on Green Lantern, there's a nice visual continuity between the two books. Both are rugged, solid artists who draw nice superheroes. Honestly, I think this is how I want my superheroes of the next decade to look. Because the status quo of Green Lantern Corps now is almost the same as it was two years ago, it's hard to view this as an integral part of Blackest Night. Sure there's been a lot of Black Lanterns fighting Green Lanterns but this almost has the feeling of a "red skies" crossover, where they sky turns red (or in this case black) and we're told that "yes, this has something to do with the main series." So there is a big event in this issue. So what? Tomasi hasn't really given us any reason to care about these characters or what's happening other than that they tie into Blackest Night.