GREEN LANTERN CORPS #3

[ I WILL FIND FIND A BARGAIN ] 

There once was a Green Lantern called Porter. Whose blood was much thicker than water. And on top of that, his life ended in a splat, because he should not have been a rogue teleporter. OK, so now that this tale it ready to rumble, please thank, Writer: Peter Tomasi; Artist: Geraldo Borges; and Publisher: DC Comics in December 2011.



So what’s the story morning glory?

In ‘Force of Will’, we are presented with the continuing battle between the select members of the Green Lantern Corp and the ‘masked saboteurs’, upon the needy planet of Xabas.

Now I find that this adventure breaks down quite nicely into four parts, which are:

Part One – help – With Guy, John, and the rest of the gang, overwhelmed by these ‘saboteurs’, Guy contacts Salaak on the planet Oa, for the Corps’ aide.

Part Two – set-up – Salaak rallies the members of the Green Lantern Corps together, only for the teleporting GL, ‘Porter’, to then hastily teleport them all into battle.

Part Three – rescue – After John discovers that these ‘saboteurs’ have enhanced willpower, Porter and the Corps arrive on Xabas, and try their best to save all in sundry.

Part Four – ooops – Before things can get any worse, Porter, some of the Xabas, and some of the members of the Corps, all teleport back to Oa.

Please note – only some – due to Porters lack of control, John, Sheriff, Hanu, and the rest are still on planet.

What is the most memorable sentence spoken in this issue?

I liked it when Guy called Salaak for help, and Salaak queried Guys opponents abilities, stating ‘but that’s impossible’ - for me - Guys glib retort was the clincher ‘Yeah – Well try telling them that!’.

Class.

Was the story any good?

Yes – this issue of the Green Lantern Corps was much better than the previous instalment. Personally speaking, I liked the rather simple approach to this issue, as well as the way in which the ‘token’ Green Lantern, Porter, was used as a ‘bridging device’ within this tale.

Granted, conceptually, there wasn’t ‘that much’ to this tale. Still, at the same time, this ‘air of vacancy’ did aide the story with its simplicity.

Was the art any good?

OK, I know that it would be easy for me to bitch about Geraldo Borges art, saying things like ‘it is too Saturday morning cartoon’ or that ‘the green does overpower the artwork’. Though, on another level, when Geraldo has some time to really work on his panel work (and you can tell when he does, because his art has a more depths of field to it) his stuff is quite good.

Well, Geraldo did have a tough gig on this issue, right? What with all those Lanterns and ‘saboteurs’ he had to draw!

What is the best thing about this issue?

There are two things in this comic book, which I was very happy with.

Firstly, I liked it when I remembered the names of John and Guys 'ring-gang' – Sheriff, Hannu, Isamot, and the blue one – which goes to show that last issue did have some positive after-effects overall.

And secondly, I liked the nature of this story – because it did not try too hard to do anything to make it come across as being overtly taciturn or crass.

What is the worst thing about this issue?

Now I know that John and Guy had their little scenes in this book - but I would have liked to have seen more of them plus their gang. Fair enough, I acknowledge that this issue is primarily a ‘search and rescue’ part of the bigger picture. Still, more character means more personality, right?

If you could sum up this issue in a phrase or saying, what would that phrase or saying be?

Now the easy thing for me to say would be something like ‘Zap’ – as it is a sharp, snappy, and simple sound for me to convey what I feel about this issue.

Zap.

If this issue were a movie, an object, or a piece of music, what would that be and why? 

In the eighties, prog-rock group, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, made their lyrical anti-war statement within their composition ‘Two Tribes’. Since then, however, it has come to symbolise three things to me: (1) It is a product of it’s time. (2) A simple message draped in bad clothing. And (3) This issue.

What do you think would have made this issue better than it was?

Though I commend this issue on its simplicity, I would still have liked to have seen more depth within this piece – just something to make it exhume a certain je’ ne sais quoi (i.e. I don’t know what).

Final thoughts...

So far, this has been ‘improvement month’ for the DCnU, and I hope that this trend continues in the future. You see, this new 52 venture is a large gamble for DC Comics, and in my opinion, they are not out of the woods yet with their offerings.

Marks out of 10? 8