Perhaps you are familiar with the Green Lantern and the Green Lantern Corps. Perhaps you know about the Guardians and the power rings. If not, then this is a super hero graphic novel review that is probably not for your eyes.
The universe is under attack by mysterious invaders that subsume all life it encounters. They can even convert the powerful (Green) Lanterns … if the ring is removed. However will the good guys save the day? With the help of new friends and new power ups and a little ass kicking courtesy of Guy Gardner. Sorry if that’s a spoiler.So I should start with the confession that I’m not a big Green Lantern fan. And if it wasn’t for wikipedia I probably would have been lost when I started reading this book. Not that I went to consult it as I read; I sometimes peruse the articles about comic book heroes to try and figure out what happens in their respective universes. Which is how I knew that there were other color lanterns. Red is rage. Yellow is fear. Blue is compassion and orange is … avarice?
Kyle Rayner is on a quest to master all of the emotions so he can wield the powers of all seven rings. He’d be the first person to do it. Spoiler: he forms ultra megazord and his super super seiyan powers make him the white power ranger. I mean … *sigh* predictable outcome at the end. I’m not even sure the tasks he went through made sense for their respective emotions. I’m not saying it’s like getting the cliff notes version of Heracles’ Thirteen Tasks but … sometimes it’s like he shows up, chats with a different colored lantern, and then zooms off to the next one.
I liked the part where Guy Gardner is dumb and predictable and then is stripped of his powers and tries to fight crime by threatening to do Green Lantern powered things. It’s a very Guy thing to do, yell at your enemies to try and get them to give up.
Hal Jordan and Sinestro are trapped in a book or a ring or something and are barely in this 400 page book.
There’s a talking squirrel that helps some new kid out…
I finished this in a day. There’s a lot to get through. But there’s really no surprises and no heavy textual passages to muddle through. I bet if you read comics then you’re used to it. I hope this is never turned into a movie. Mainly because I’m hoping to see Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool more than I am eager to see him as Green Lantern (again).
I don’t think I can recommend this. Probably because I’m burned out on superheroes in general. I’d recommend it to a fan. Are you a fan of Green Lantern?!? Then this is a kick ass epic throw down. Are you the type of person who can’t bring themselves to watch seasons of Power Rangers because you basically know the plot? Fight in costume. If lose fight, upgrade weapons. Fight in giant robots. If lose fight, upgrade giant robots. Win. Three out of five stars. (This is a review of a digital galley)