I’m
realizing I’m probably going to have to go back and start re-reading some of
the books I’ve already read, because making the decision to review my most
recent read: the 3rd and final Omnibus in Geoff John’s completely
game-changing Green Lantern run, while excluding the 1st and
(arguably best) 2nd omnibuses (omnibi, omnibii, omnibus’?) was not
easy.
But
here we are.
For
those who are familiar with Geoff Johns, you already know his reputation. He’s
essentially the boy-scout of DC comics; the golden boy if you will. While other
writers may be more popular, divisive, or notable, Johns is easily the most
prolific writer in DC’s stable. He pumps out more work than Arnold Schwarzenegger
in the early 80s on a chest day.
Now,
I’ve always considered him to be a very “safe” writer, in that he’s going to
compliment continuity, entertain in some way, never fully disappoint, but
rarely change my life. If I were to give Johns a score as a writer, I would
give him an 8 out of 10.
Green
Lantern is the exception.
Now at
the time of “Rebirth” Johns’ introduction to the GL series, the Ring Slinger
was not an exceptionally popular character. By the end of his run in 2013
(included in this omnibus), Lantern was able to go toe to toe with the Caped
Crusader himself.
Now
compared to the first 2 omnibuses (which I may review later), this was probably
my 2nd favorite. It had a slow start coming out of the Legendary
“Blackest Night” event which was the culmination of years of careful world/plot
building by Johns who had introduced such concepts as the emotional spectrum as
warriors and entities beyond the green, and the history of the Guardians of the
Universe. However, this “down-time” was still very active by any other writer’s
standards (especially Bendis’) and we were quickly whisked into a plot
involving the scattering of the emotional entities across the Universe.
With
the largest prophesied threat apparently taken care of, it seemed like all that
was left to do was round up these emotional entities that had escaped. However,
in an interesting twist, Sinestro, our main antagonist for much of Johns’ run
became a green lantern again, and Hal, our
vanilla-as-all-hell-but-apparently-still-the-best-green-lantern was dismissed
from the Corps. What ensues is an interesting tale that adds a new layer to the
relationship between Sinestro and Hal as they work together to stop a renegade
Guardian, the resurrected Black Hand, and ultimately the Original Lantern.
There’s
a lot to love here. From the return of my favorite Orange Lantern of Avarice:
Larfleeze, who steals every scene he’s in, to the revelations concerning the
Guardians, and finally the introduction of (yet another) new Green Lantern human,
Simon Baz, character development gets kicked into high gear on a scale not seen
in the first 2 omnibuses.
And
that brings me to my main realization.
I think
where this book shines is in highlighting the complex relationship between two
men at odds who still want what’s best for the Universe. They have wildly
differing ideas of how to go about accomplishing this, and there’s no doubting
Sinestro’s significantly more of an ass, but the lines of good and evil become
blurred, especially when dealing with the likes of the Red Lanterns and a
PARTICULARLY interesting revelation about the Indigo Tribe.
Throughout
the book, you really get the sense that while the past GL omnibuses were
setting up an extraordinary event with fantastic characters, this 3rd
omnibus is giving us a much more personal look at these characters as they take
on the final threats prophesied in the Book of Oa. As always, Johns writes a
fantastic Sinestro – one who is nuanced, easy to hate, yet also easy to
understand the motivations of. The extra layer of having Sinestro be a Green
Lantern again – shackled in some respects to Hal Jordan adds more to his
character as well. His constant highs and lows of successes and failures, more
of the latter, add more drama to the events that unfold. Hal, who I largely
found to be an absolute wall of drying paint in previous issues, also comes
into his own here, and the extra attention to their relationships – as well as
relationships in general, is a nice change of pace.
Now
don’t take this the wrong way, there are plenty of epic moments in the book,
(although not as many as in omnibus 2), the final issue alone clocks in at 60+
pages of pure epic/emotional goodness, I had moments of extended frisson for a
solid 20 pages as I closed out the back cover of “The End”! But there is a lot
in here that deals with personal relationships and interactions, with the
complicated concepts of morality on an intergalactic scale, with
responsibility, with emotion and its role and relationship with logic and
reason.
The
most poignant aspects of the closing pages are not the ones that deal with the
defeat of evil, but rather the glimpses of redemption, of requited love, of a
never-ending friendship, and of bitter-sweet reunions that are a much-welcomed
far-cry from Johns’ usual bombastic, action-oriented storytelling.
I will
say this, it’s hard to even fathom continuing ANY Green Lantern after the
conclusion, because almost every plot thread and relationship is tied up with a
nice little bow in the most satisfying and consistent way as far as I’m
concerned.
Luckily,
the following issues sucked, so you really don’t have to.
I’ll definitely
return to review the first 2 omnibuses at a later date, but for now, the
closing to this epic masterpiece gets…
4.5/5
Green Lantern Rings
The
funny thing is, until specifically this
omnibus tremendously fleshed him out, I thought Hal Jordan was the blandest
superhero ever. This was the summation of my opinion of him; I wrote this
before really getting into Omnibus 3: “He’s like the default setting to a
create-a-character in every video game; he’s like white person averaged out to
the lowest common denominator. His defining trait is that he can overcome great
fear – like every other fucking hero in any fictional universe ever. He’s also
got brown eyes, brown hair, and a boys’ regular haircut. If Superman is jacked,
Batman hulky, the Flash cut and wiry, Hal Jordan is whatever generic
distillation of “muscular” you need to be to manifest green light objects that
do all the work for you. His personality is “cool guy with no real flaws”. Kyle
Rayner, Guy Gardner, hell even John Stewart each have more personality in their
pinkies than Hal has in his whole body. He’s the male equivalent of that Bella
chick from Twilight – My only real complaint about the way Johns writes Hal,
especially considering he used to be hilarious and more dynamic in earlier
comic runs.”