Convinced that Sinestro is to blame for the devastating explosion on Oa, Teen Lantern flies to Korugar in an attempt to confront him, taking on the entire Sinestro Corps alone – though it’s another mysterious wielder of the light of Fear that keeps Keli alive. Meanwhile, in the Dark Sector, John convinces his new allies that their home is no longer safe, leading them out into space – only to find that things aren’t much better out there for what Lanterns remain. Green Lantern #5 is written by Geoffrey Thorne, drawn by Tom Raney, Marco Santucci and Andy MacDonald, colored by Michael Atiyeh and lettered by Rob Leigh.
Armaan Babu: This month’s a strange one. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it – I kind of did. Only there were things about it that definitely bothered me. More than that, though, is that the parts of it that I did enjoy felt…incomplete. Instead of getting a full comic, we’re getting two halves of one. We’ve moved from earlier issues cramming everything in, to issues like this one that are really just bridges to what’s happening next, and I’m desperate to skip ahead. What about you, Jude?
Jude Jones: This is…better. Much better in many ways. It’s massively better than the previous few issues. But massively better than horrible isn’t necessarily great, or even good. And even though it’s much better in many ways, it’s still just not good on quite a few prominent others.
Still, better is better, no?
The Only Thing We Have To Fear…
Armaan: In the first story, we open on Korugar, moments before Teen Lantern’s attack on the planet in her quest to confront Sinestro. He’s appeared in earlier issues, but this is the first time we get a sense of Thorne’s take on the character and I’m not sure I like it. I’m used to a more persnickety villain, reserved in his judgemental arrogance, turning his nose down at pretty much everything. This Sinestro, though, is one who has embraced the decadent pleasures of being Korugar’s tyrant – one content to sit back and watch his underlings take on a new threat in his stead.
What do you think of the Sinestro we see here?
Jude: I think seeing him emerge from a threesome was a sexist cliche. I think the art failed me here, because getting a read on his face – “is he worried, is he dismissive, is he angry” – felt harder than it needed to be.
But I did appreciate that, like the true political leader (or villain, if there’s a difference) he is, he didn’t jump in the battle wontonly. This felt like an accurate portrayal of his sensibilities, and I appreciated it here.
Armaan: What I did enjoy here is the battle sequence we get. I know the Central Battery was blown up pretty early, but I can’t believe it’s been this long before we get to see the art team really get to let loose in a battle of constructs. Even before bringing in giant green versions of her allies in Young Justice, Keli’s constructs bring a real excitement to the page. Colossal tentacled beasts and razor wheeled protective bubbles tearing through Korugar’s defences. Superhero constructs facing off against sharp-toothed yellow monster constructs. Exploding ships and shattered fragments of light – this was fun!
Jude: This was…certainly something! To start I must say I appreciate the flipped the story order; telling the Keli-centric story first and leaving the much (much!) weaker John Stewart story for the end. Usually ending with the stronger story is better, but putting the weaker story at the end gives me the option to skip over it quicker.
Yes, that sounds mean. But it’s honest. You, the reader, deserve honesty.
Yes, the trope of Sinestro waking up out of a threesome seems tired and sexist. Yes, the art feels middling at best, not particularly able to communicate the spectacle of Keli beating back a horde of more experienced ones. And yes, Simon’s arrival toward the end of the issue – in an armored gestalt that looks like it came from Tony Stark’s parts bin, felt like more plot dictating action than anything else (Simon, if you need a new suit, I know a guy). And on and on and on. But I enjoyed it for what it was. There was purposeful action! Keli had agency! That was good.
Good is not great. But good is good!
….Are Monologues About Fear Itself
Armaan: So the entirety of the Korugar story is narrated by a mysterious stranger – some new, unidentified member of the Sinestro Corps – unless you read the Future State issues of Green Lantern, in which case it’s obvious that this is former Green Lantern Jessica Cruz. Two things bother me about her appearance here. The first is simply this: why hide her identity? Future State made it clear who she is, and even for those who didn’t read that, the payoff we’re going to get isn’t worth the mystery hook. I’m very interested in the idea of Cruz as a Yellow Lantern – but holding off on that reveal holds her story back.
The other thing that bothers me is her monologue – in order to make her seem more of a badass, the book makes the choice to make the Sinestro Corps seem like ineffectual fools with no real understanding of fear. It takes away anything that makes them interesting as villains, just to make Jessica look better, to the detriment of both. Jessica can stand on her own as someone with an intriguing approach to fear without having to claim that the Yellow Lanterns don’t know fear despite wielding its light.
Jude: So I can’t say I have the most thorough understanding of yellow rings; I know they’re powered by fear, and since fear leads to all kinds of bad things (hate, anger, oppression; January 6th) I can understand why fear was seen as a natural foil for willpower.
But.
Hearing Jessica (because of course it’s Jessica) wax poetic about the frailty of fear when it meets an opponent who literally doesn’t know fear now has me questioning the concept of fear as an evil force. Are Yellow Lanterns motivated by fear, or have they conquered fear? Do Yellow Lanterns have a heightened knowledge of self that gives them control over fear? Do they use the fact others *don’t* have this enlightenment to their advantage? Is using the fear of your opponent as a weapon any less oppressive than *imposing your will* on someone else?
Does our perception of Yellow Lanterns come from an objective truth, or the subjective opinion of those who seek to impose their will?
The comic doesn’t ask these questions (at all!), but I give it kudos for describing a use of fear that sparked my imagination. That’s the purpose of art, no? To get you to think and reconsider what you see around you.
I’m sure that wasn’t the intent, but that’s the result, and I’m ok with that.
Armaan: It is something I miss about having an entire spectrum of Lanterns. Most of them have been put back into the bottle now – we’ll see a Blue Lantern pop up here and there, the odd Red Lantern – but we don’t always get a space for deep dives into emotions made manifest. I wasn’t entirely happy with what we got here, but I am hoping to see more of it in issues to come – and I think Jessica Cruz is a great character to explore that with.
My only question is, when is the comic ever going to have time to give this justice? Because there’s…there’s a lot going on, and despite an apparent end goal laid out by Future State, the road ahead looks bumpy.
Where Are We Going?
Jude: The second half of the book picks up with John Stewart surveying the aftermath of the battle. And, just like that battle, what we see in this section of the book is gruesome: gruesomely written, staged, and illustrated.
Just bad. Actually bad. Not horrible! Just bad.
How bad, you ask?
Two pages into the comic, they want to kill John for bringing enemies to their doorstep. Three pages later, they’re allowing him to lead a planetary evacuation. All of this appears to take place within 5-10 minutes.
Come on man.
I get that Thorne is most likely trying to fit a square peg in a round hole; I assume he’s got a place for Stewart to land, story-wise, and I get that he’s ushering him there as efficiently as possible. But this is too much. Too quick. Too unbelievable. I get that he’s in a place with time dilation; but my gosh it feels like we glossed over years (if not at least issues) worth of growth and nuance. It’s just moving too quick, without character growth for any character.
Because of this, the arrival back with the surviving Lanterns feels underwhelming. It’s not that it doesn’t feel earned; this doesn’t feel consequential. John’s confrontation with surviving Lanterns, where he’s supposed to be overwhelmed with guilt, doesn’t hold weight. If he can convince an entire planet *that wanted to murder him* to evacuate under his leadership within 30 minutes, what one angry coworker?
So yes, this was gruesome.
Armaan: While I agree it’s moving too quickly, this story landed a little better with me. Maybe I’m just looking harder for something to get me through off-putting art, but those flashback scenes of having integrated himself with the Sergilon community were heartening. I don’t know how long he’s been there exactly, but Sergilon seems just big enough for a few loud vocal extremists to want him dead while others agree he’s one of them. For them to look for him for leadership while facing a danger unlike one they’ve had to face for who knows how long.
Granted, my imagination is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, and that seems intentional, given how quickly we’re flying through a story that’s covering so much ground. Maybe that’s just the Green Lantern way.
Jude: The Stewart-centric art continues to disappoint. I’ve talked about this at length in earlier iterations of our conversations; I won’t repeat myself here. I will, however, note that great art has a way of making the mediocre malleable. We see it in the current run of X-Men, where Pepe’s art makes Duggan’s pedestrian (but much more serviceable) dialogue feel resonant.
As an old girlfriend told me as she was breaking up with me, calling me both stupid and ugly, “Jude, you gotta pick a struggle; you can’t be both.”
Someone needs to tell that to Green Lantern.
Armaan: I’m sure this doesn’t need saying, but I will say it anyway: Jude, you are a far cry from either stupid or ugly.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of much of this Green Lantern series. There are bright spots, here and there, a handful of glimpses of what could be really exciting if explored properly, but it’s far too obsessed with getting to a disastrous future than it is able to enjoy the present. Whether it’s picking a struggle or a better focus, I wish it would stop trying to be everything at once.
Few Details Shall Escape Our Sight
- Young Justice team members spotted: Ginny Hex, Amethyst, and Superboy.
- The Green Lantern Corp just clunkily dropping emerald orbs containing their soldiers onto planets where once they just flew in is very amusing to me.
A proud New Orleanian living in the District of Columbia, Jude Jones is a professional thinker, amateur photographer, burgeoning runner and lover of Black culture, love and life. Magneto and Cyclops (and Killmonger) were right.
Find more of Jude’s writing here.
