Green Lantern #3 - Comic Review

 

Hal Jordan has a pretty unusual power ring. Not only did he previously charge the ring from Manhunter powered armour, but in this issue we learn, via flashback, that it has some powers and abilities that sets it apart from the standard Green Lantern weapon. After almost falling to his death when his loses power as he attempts to leave the Earth, Hal manages to create a burst of willpower that reignites the ring and saves his life. After this, he learns that he's able to create projections that can look realistic, losing the all green energy construct to become indistinguishable from the real thing. 

It very much feels like this series is both doing new things, but also regressing in other ways. The ring that seems to only work on Earth, tying Hal to the planet, is an interesting idea, and can make for a cool status quo as Hal becomes a GL purely for the planet (to the point where going up in space to the Watchtower would result in a loss of powers). However, the costume is very classic GL, and the ring being able to make full colour replicas of things also has a very Silver Age feel to it. In those early Green Lantern books the ring was basically able to do anything Hal wanted, with new powers and abilities added every issue. And making perfect, indistinguishable replicas of people and objects was one of these powers.

The fact that the supporting cast for the book also feels like it's taken from older comics, with a big focus on Hal and Carol and Ferris Air. So far, Carol has become the biggest co-star of the book, and she's become the main focus of Hal's life, with him wanting to get into a relationship with her again, and doing whatever he can to stay in her life; including getting a job as her personal pilot. This stuff, however, feels a bit gross in some ways. There's a moment in this issue where Carol calls him and needs to talk and the first thing that he thinks is that she's broken up with her partner and wants Hal back. He's become almost single minded in his desire to be with Carol, and it feels a bit creepy at times. Hal is close to just being a creepy stalker, and I don't want that. The relationship stuff between the two of them has always been the weaker parts of Green Lantern books, and if we're going to be stuck on Earth and watching Hal be a creepy stalker it's going to drag the quality down a lot.

Whilst Hal is trying to force his way back into Carol's life, however, Sinestro is plotting and scheming. He approaches a mysterious group of aliens hiding out on Earth, and makes a deal with them to gain access to tech and weapons that they have; even getting a few goons thrown in too. Together with his new crew of lackeys, Sinestro attacks Ferris Air and causes a ton of damage and kills several people. The security footage gets back to Carol, who immediately shares it with Hal. Hal retreats to a bar to formulate a plan to find Sinestro, when the villain just walks right up to him.

So, this issue finally feels like it's beginning to actually do something with the plot. The first two issues spent some time laying the groundwork, showing us Hal's new civilian life and his special ring, but it hadn't done much with an overarching narrative. With Sinestro stepping up and causing some shit, however, it feels like we're finally getting somewhere. Where is that? Honestly, I have no idea. So far Sinestro's motivations are not obvious. He could have some convoluted scheme, or he could just want to mess up Hal's life. The fact that it could be anything, and that he could be a big arch villain, or a petty bitch makes Sinestro a lot of fun in this series so far. Whatever way it goes, with their history it's sure to be an interesting scenario.

The art on the issue is really good, and the book looks fantastic. The art has been a big part of my enjoyment for the series so far. As mentioned, I found the first two issues somewhat slow, and the art kept my interest as the book spent its time setting things up. Here, however, we get to see some bigger moments, with Sinestro's assault on Ferris Air adding some much needed action to the story, and being presented in a way that felt genuinely frightening at times too. We've not really seen Sinestro operate this way before, attacking with a gun, getting up in people's faces, and he feels a lot more threatening this way than when he's just using a ring.

The back-up story continues to set the stage for the upcoming John Stewart title, focusing on this alternate universe version of John where he's a living power battery and leader of the corps. The other universe lacks anything that really stands out or feels interesting, mostly because we're dropped in the middle of things with no real explanation of who people are or what's going on. However, with their villain having been cast out into the multiverse (wonder which Earth she'll end up on) I'm sure we'll start getting things explained when out John ends up involved.

This issue does have a nice scene where John and Guy have a personal conversation with each other which reminded me of the older Green Lantern Corps series where the two of them were often put together and developed a really strong and interesting friendship. This is something that I hope the new series will give us more of, as their friendship was a big selling point in that series for me when it was coming out and I'd love to see it make a return.

Overall, this is perhaps the best issue of the series yet as it feels like stuff is finally happening. As a long time GL fan who has been somewhat disappointed in the books we've been given for the characters since 2018 (Far Sector not included as it was great) I've been hoping that this new wave of Lantern books are going to be great. So far, this series has been enjoyable, but it has also been a struggle at times. Hopefully from here on out it'll just continue to improve in quality.

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