Green Lantern – both the character and the series – has reached phenomenal new heights of popularity under the guidance of superstar writer Geoff Johns. For me though, the comic has become a victim of its own success. The title seemed trapped in this never-ceasing loop of mega-events that required buying ever more series to stay involved. So, after Blackest Night, I dropped it from my reading list. Not because it was bad, but just too sprawling in its scope.
Fast forward to the latest issue, which is Part One of the War of the Green Lanterns (with this week’s Green Lantern Corps featuring Part Two), and I thought it was time to give the series another try. I’m glad that I did. Thouh I still have a few questions regarding what I missed, this issue had some pretty epic moments; moments that do not require me to be reading a dozen tie-in issues.
Krona, a renegade believed to be imprisoned Guardian of the Universe, has managed to capture all the entities that power the respective lanterns/light spectrums. All of this was pretty new to me, but the best way of explaining it is to use Parallax as an example. Remember how it once possessed Hal Jordan? Well, by the end of Green Lantern Corps #58 (SPOILERS), Krona has affected a similar transformation upon the Guardians themselves. And this is just the beginning of Johns’ latest storyline, which to me, is far more interesting and exciting than the Blackest Night event.
Doug Mahkne and Tyler Kirkham pencil Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps respectively, with Tony Bedard writing the latter title. While the two books essentially fold together to tell one larger story (with the addition of the Green Lantern: Emerald Knights title), there aren’t any other tie-ins or crossovers. Which makes this storyline that much more appealing to me. I, like a lot of fans, am suffering from “event fatigue”; a grand plotline doesn’t necessarily require dozens of titles carry the event logo to make it epic. Instead, a tightly woven, detail rich plot, that offers exciting changes to the status quo can actually outshine another mega-event – both in terms of quality and issues sold!