Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps #50 - DC Comics

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS No. 50, Early October 2018

Sensationally described by “DC Comics” as “This. Is. It!” in its pre-publication promotion, this extra-sized anniversary celebration undoubtedly brought the title "Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps" to a rather satisfying conclusion in August 2018 due to its detailed depiction of the Darkstars’ devastating defeat at the hands of Kilowog's emerald-coloured crusaders. Indeed, the Guardian’s “intergalactic military/police force” have arguably never looked more impressive considering they manage to overcome a mercilessly murderous opponent which outnumbers them ‘ten to one’ “without killing” any of them; “Kill that Darkstar -- and we’ll point our justice at you!”

However, despite this title’s theatrical termination, which culminates with both the depressing low of Tomar-Tu’s suicide in Space Sector 0001, and youthful high of Somar-Le excitedly being “the newest Green Lantern” on Mogo, Robert Venditti’s narrative for “Last Charge: Finale” does still debatably fail to provide the truly sense-shattering confrontation between Hal Jordan and General Zod which Rafa Sandoval’s regular cover illustration promises and the mean-spirited Kryptonian’s angry arrival at the Darkstars’ Central Command portends.

John Stewart’s ‘alliance of convenience’ with a mass-murderer viewed by many bibliophiles as one of Superman’s “greatest and personal enemies alongside Lex Luthor” was always understandably a dangerous one, especially following the retconned architect’s “dramatic order” that lethal force was not to be used during the battle to save 'his' sentient planet’s populace. So the unstable megalomaniac’s hotly anticipated decision to simply seek vengeance upon the person he holds responsible for failing “to save my home” from destruction should have come as no real surprise to followers of this series. But rather than portray an already bruised Jordan slugging it out with Ursa’s co-conspirator, the Hollywood-raised writer instead pens Tomar-Tu simply disconcertingly dying by his own hand and Zod departing as disappointed as perhaps some within this comic’s 29,579 strong audience were at such an unexploited opportunity.

Of course such discontent is probably particularly picky when the enormity of the Green Lantern’s stunning victory is holistically considered. Dynamically drawn by Rafa Sandoval utilising all manner of defensive hard-light constructs, the numerous Corps’ characters imbue every panel within which they appear with the determined willpower of those indomitably desperate to ‘stick to the rules’ even when their forces are dwindling and their tactics are being questioned internally by the likes of Guy Gardner and Arkillo due to “the Darkstars… playing a different game.”

Writer: Robert Venditti, Penciller: Rafa Sandoval, and Inker: Jordi Tarragona

Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps #49 - DC Comics

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS No. 49, September 2018

Despite commendably being the sixty-seventh best-selling comic in July 2018, at least according to “Diamond Comic Distributors”, some within this publication’s 27,998-strong audience may well have felt a little nervous at a twenty-page periodical devoted entirely to a colossal confrontation between the Guardians’ intergalactic police force and their mortal enemies, the Darkstars. But whilst Robert Venditti’s narrative for “Disrupted” does rely somewhat upon the splash illustration skills of pencillers Rafa Sandoval and Sergio Davila to help pad the storyline out, there’s still arguably plenty of plot progression within it to have kept the majority of the title’s readers thoroughly entertained.

Foremost of these thrills has to be the titular character’s opening fracas with the utterly despicable Tomar-Tu, whose infuriating hubris and self-righteousness is finally brought back ‘down to Earth’ with a satisfying bump when he realises that his exo-mantle’s cowardly teleportation ability has been nullified; “Tell me if you see this one coming! Whammm”. The sheer look of terror within the beak-headed traitor’s eye is marvellous to behold, and shows very plainly just why the son of the “legendary hero Tomar-Re” is himself unfit to be a Green Lantern any more.

Similarly as successful is the Florida-born writer’s demonstration as to just how formidably powerful Hector Hammond actually is by depicting the telepath easily overpowering seven mentally linked Controllers within the space of a single heartbeat. “DC Comics” firmly focussed their pre-print promotion upon John Broome’s co-creation by highlighting how desperate the Green Lantern Corps must be to “ally itself with the monstrous” and “evil” physically disfigured mind manipulator, so Jordan’s all-too apparent unease at just how readily Hammond cut the strings to the Darkstars’ “puppet masters” makes for one of this comic’s stand-out moments.

Admittedly, the wealth of large panels presented within this second instalment to “Last Charge” does still mean that initially those bibliophiles simply perusing the action might finish Issue Forty Nine of “Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps” in record time. But almost all of these over-sized illustrations contain plenty to capture the attention and hold the eye, such as the sheer number of Kilowog’s followers drawn during John Stewart’s formation of a blockade to “keep the Darkstars inside the disruption zone” surrounding Mogo, or Guy Gardner’s gratifyingly graphic attempt to ensure he isn’t “upstaged” by his colleague’s efforts to non-lethally subdue their enemies by leading a spearhead consisting of Guy Gardner, Arkillo, General Zod, and Orion straight into the ranks of their numerous adversaries.

The regular cover art of "HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS" No. 49 by Tyler Kirkham & Arif Prianto

Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps #48 - DC Comics

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS No. 48, Early September 2018

Chock-full of the Green Lantern Corps and featuring some truly scintillating space-based shenanigans of the highest order, Robert Venditti’s script for “Divided And Conquered” must surely have pleased each and every one of the publication’s 28,341 bibliophiles in July 2018. For whilst the twenty-page periodical’s plot quite understandably predominantly focuses upon the tense exploits of its titular character and his secret mission to stealthily infiltrate the Darkstar Stronghold “when everyone else is fighting” so as to “cut the head off the snake” by disconnecting the Controllers’ brains from the isolationist’s factory, the Florida-born writer’s penmanship is equally as up to the challenge of providing his audience with a comprehensive understanding as to just how the large scale invasion of Mogo is progressing as well.

Indeed, arguably this twenty-page periodical’s highlight is Kilowog’s bravely defiant defence of the Green Lanterns’ sentient homeworld, as the Bolovaxian geneticist leads the intergalactic police force in a noble counter-charge against Tomar-Tu of Xudar and his oribiting fellow Darkstars. Stunningly pencilled by Rafa Sandoval across a series of wonderful pulse-pounding panels, the widowed scientist’s fisticuffs with Tomar-Re’s beaked son provides plenty of punch and truly captures the sheer savagery of the fighting between two sides whose moral compasses are totally incompatible; “I know yer some poozer, Tomar-Tu. Don’t have what it takes to stay green, so you went and changed colours. You’ll be black and blue when I’m through with ya!”

Similarly as riveting a read though, has to be Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner’s fantastic-looking use of solid-light constructs to literally drive through their cold-hearted homicidal opposition. Whether this publication’s audience preferred the former Baltimore policeman’s “pedal to the metal” monster truck bowling over countless “jackasses”, or the one-time White Lantern’s far more sophisticated-looking Gundam-styled robot sweeping the spaceways clear with its over-sized samurai sword, the pairs side-by-side battle against a veritable tidal wave of mantle-wearing murderers is hard to fault.

In fact, Venditti’s narrative for Issue Forty Eight of “Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps” even debatably will have had its fans cheering for the likes of the devious General Zod and Hector Hammond as the Kryptonian dictator temporarily allies himself alongside the likes of Arkillo and Orion in order to temporarily incapacitate swathes of Darkstars with his formidable eye-lasers. Whilst the “God Brain” provides the American author’s serious screenplay with some levity when he humorously bestows upon John Stewart and others the mental illusion of being at a celebration, a baseball game and a beach bathing party simply because “I just want everyone to be happy.”

Writer: Robert Venditti, Penciller: Rafa Sandoval, and Inker: Jordi Tarragona

Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps #47 - DC Comics

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS No. 47, August 2018

Absolutely action-packed with its depictions of Hal Jordan’s draining mental battle with Hector Hammond, Guy Gardner’s savage fisticuffs session with Arkillo and Kyle Rayner’s desperate escape from New Genesis, Robert Venditti’s script for Issue Forty Seven of “Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps” demonstrates just why the imminent departure of the title’s longtime writer made such headlines when he first announced he was “about to exit his five-year run on the franchise”. Indeed, having penned a staggering ninety-seven editions focusing upon “the adventures of [the] outer space super-cop” it was probably hard for this comic’s 27,825 readers in June 2018 to imagine anyone else helming the “cosmic crusade”, especially when the Hollywood-raised writer’s “Corps Values” contains such a powerful message as to just why the former fighter pilot gained his power ring from the dying alien Abin Sur in the first place; “You just proved that you’d never do these things. You wouldn’t even let me do them. Your actions are what make you a Hero.”

Despite containing no actual physical altercation between the two combatants, this battle of wills between the titular character and “the God Brain” is arguably the publication’s highlight, focusing far more upon the Justice Leaguer’s inspirational ability to overpower his opponent’s truly formidable mind through sheer perseverance and an intuition as to what is just or wrong, rather than simply utilising a plethora of innovative light constructs. Devoid of his past knowledge, or even a basic understanding as to his personal identity, Jordan still heroically battles against Hammond’s tempting offer “to kill every villain in the universe” just because “that doesn’t sound right.”

Naturally however, any publication featuring the ever-aggressive Gardner is almost certainly going to contain an element of violence, and on this occasion Venditti manages his audience’s expectations ‘in spades’ by having the former Baltimore Police Officer batter a ringless Arkillo to within an inch of the Yellow Lantern’s life in a last-ditch effort for Gil Kane’s co-creation to free himself from the machinations of his recently donned Darkstar mantle. As with Hal’s aforementioned triumph over adversity, this pulse-pounding passage provides something of an emotional journey for both the participants and any perusing bibliophiles, courtesy of a truly emotional Guy tapping into the rage he felt towards his alcoholic “pop” for regularly beating him as a child, and artist Fernando Pasarin pencilling a series of awesome-looking, sense-shattering fight scenes.

The regular cover art of "HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS" No. 47 by Tyler Kirkham & Arif Prianto

Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps #46 - DC Comics

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS No. 46, Early August 2018

Considering that the arguable highlight of this twenty-page periodical is the distasteful threat of Guy Gardner giving “an old drunk the easy way out” by conferring upon the vulnerable old man “some final justice”, it’s probably something of a safe bet to believe that some within the comic’s 28,085 strong audience weren’t overly entertained by Robert Venditti’s narrative for Issue Forty Six of “Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps”. Admittedly, the newly recruited Darkstar has a substantial grudge against his target “for the crime of knocking me around when I was a kid”, but even for someone as violent as the former Baltimore Police officer, murdering his own aged father in cold blood is a rather unpalatable proposition; “Go on. Cry now. Think you’re some big man?”

Just as deadly, though debatably far less emotionally penned, is the American author’s bizarre scene featuring Hector Hammond and the titular character on a dead world in Space Sector 563. It makes perfect sense for the superhero to bring the supposed “evolution of mankind” to an uninhabited planet which is “out of the way and has breathable atmosphere” in order to fulfil the madman’s dream whilst the “God Brain” considers Hal’s proposal to aid the Corps against the “huge threat” of the Darkstars. But just how the former test pilot thought he could trust someone who spontaneously shows a mortified Jordan “how I’ll kill all the villains” with a mere thought is utter madness, and doubtless led to many of this book’s readers probably sympathising with the Justice Leaguer when in a moment of weakness he asks Superman “You ever think, if you just squashed a head now and then, there wouldn’t be so many ticking time bombs in the world?”

Regrettably, Hammond’s unsurprising assault and subsequent personality ‘mind-wipe’ of his guileless “friend” is probably as exciting as “Death Sentence” gets, with the Hollywood-raised writer’s story-line for the rest of the twenty-page periodical proving to be little more than endless conversations about betrayal and broken promises. Indeed, even John Stewart’s tense discussion with General Zod as to an effective way in which the Kryptonian can assist him countering “the new Darkstar mantles [which] have tactical teleportation capabilities” is rather plainly pencilled by Clayton Henry as nothing more than a series of word-heavy panels. Whilst Kyle Rayner’s incarceration inside New Genesis, the home of the New Gods, is no less statically sketched, despite the furious Green Lantern’s ferocious argument with the spineless ruler of “a realm beyond our universe” after saving the Highfather's son, Prince Orion, by keeping “a construct heart beating in his chest when his real heart was cut out!”

The regular cover art of "HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS" No. 46 by Tyler Kirkham & Arif Prianto

Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps #45 - DC Comics

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS No. 45, July 2018

Packing plenty of punch with its graphically grotesque depiction of Green Lantern Weggett’s death at the hands of the Darkstars, and Hal Jordan’s subsequent skirmish with Atomic Skull, Robert Venditti’s treatment for “New Recruits” must surely have provided the vast majority of its 27,682 buyers in May 2018 with plenty to enjoy. Indeed, the twenty-page periodical’s pace doesn’t really stop until it focuses upon John Stewart’s confrontation with the House of Zod a third of the way through the publication, and even those tense negotiations for the Kryptonian general to ally himself with the inter-galactic police force are far from being a dull read; “Then afterwards we’ll tear you apart and hang your pieces from the Fortress spires. Before the twin suns set, the Green lantern Corps will be searching for a new leader.”

Unfortunately however, the Hollywood-raised writer’s narrative does seemingly start to slow down once proceedings reach Heep in Space Sector 1974. Guy Gardner’s attempt to recruit Arkillo to his cause via an “emergency drink-up” is somewhat reminiscent of Ben Grimm’s draughts alongside his old nemesis the Sandman, but the dreary dialogue “preaching forgiveness” carries little of Tom DeFalco’s Early Eighties charm, and only proves enlightening once the former Baltimore law enforcement officer suddenly accepts a surprising invitation from Tomar-Tu to become “a new deputy” for the Darkstars.

Disappointingly events soon simmer down within Stryker’s Island Penitentiary as well, with Hector Hammond’s telekinesis laying low Albert Michael’s radiated alter-ego without a moment’s thought, and arguably reducing what potentially looked like a fearsome battle between Atomic Skull and this comic’s titular character into nothing more than a truly word-heavy conversation between two former foes in which Jordan manages to convince Gil Kane’s co-creation that he shouldn’t dispose of his gaoler by ‘popping his brain’. This somewhat monotonous interchange debatably would have proved far more entertaining if it had been shortened in order to provide the easily overpowered Metropolis Special Crimes Unit agent with a couple of opportunities to take his best shot at the Green Lantern, especially when Venditti imbues the skeletal former-villain with such entertaining dialogue as he threatens to “spew a radioactive hole right through your overripe melon!”

This book’s success therefore rather rests somewhat upon the shoulders of Ethan Van Sciver, whose superb pencilling fortuitously makes even the most tedious of scenes within this magazine perfectly palatable. Marvellously dynamic in his sketching of Hal’s disappointingly short-lived fracas with Atomic Skull, and simultaneously able to provide Zod with a gloweringly-formidable demeanour when simply talking with Stewart, the Utah-born artist’s attention to detail provides ample reason alone as to why this comic is worth it’s cover price.

The regular cover art of "HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS" No. 45 by Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza & Arif Prianto

Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps #44 - DC Comics

HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS No. 44, Early July 2018

Featuring a truly gripping opening as the demented Darkstar Tomar-Tu suddenly surprises Keith Kenyon’s alter-ego inside Central City’s Iron Heights Penitentiary, and cold-bloodedly murders Goldface whilst he's 'sleeping off' a custodial sentence for knocking “over a couple of jewellery stores”, Robert Venditti’s narrative for this inaugural instalment to “Enemies Closer” sadly soon degenerates into little more than a disinteresting recruitment drive for the Green Lantern Corps. True, the comic’s subsequent brief cameo from “the fastest man alive” is enjoyable enough, especially when it initially appears that Barry Allen's incarnation of the Flash will be teaming-up with Hal Jordan to further investigate the gold-skinned prisoner’s partial disintegration. But before long all the Florida-born writer’s plot actually provides is a string of scenes featuring fleeting appearances from the likes of Guy Gardner, Arkillo, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart and General Zod.

These word-heavy, dialogue-driven sequences would arguably be perfectly stomachable if they were interwoven between some pacier, action-orientated panels, yet as they stand the constant conversations and dreary discussions arguably do little to encourage any perusing bibliophile to keep on reading. Indeed, in many ways the former “Top Shelf Productions” author may well have been better served to simply have extended either the renegade Kryptonians all-too brief violent altercation with the “second African-American superhero to appear in DC Comics”, or alternatively bring forward the titular character’s cliff-hanger confrontation with the “boss turnkey” Atomic Skull, and leave part of this twenty-page periodical’s patter for its following publication; “You’ve miscalculated… You’re alone! One meagre ring against a family of Kryptonians gifted with the power of this world’s yellow suns!”

One thing Issue Forty Four of “Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps” does not suffer with however, is substandard artwork. Whether it be Jordi Tarragona and Rafa Sandoval’s outstanding cover illustration, which rather delightfully seems strangely reminiscent of the classic “Judge Dredd” ‘I am The Law’ covers used for the “weekly British science fiction-orientated” anthology comic “2000 A.D.”, or Brandon Peterson’s boldly coloured, highly-detailed story-boarding, this book is a treat for the eyes. In fact, what little energy this magazine potentially generates, such as Joseph Martin’s sensational entrance to thwart Hector Hammond’s shock escape from Stryker’s Island, is debatably due to the “X-Men spinoff” illustrator rather than anything which Venditti himself has penned.

The regular cover art of "HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS" No. 44 by Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona & Tomeu Morey