Review: Green Lantern 4

STORY

Grant Morrison weaves another great tale with this month’s Green Lantern. One of the fun things about this book so far is the fact that Morrison is actually treating the Corp like a police force. He’s enhancing this idea by having Lanterns call each other office and using well-known police vernacular like protective custody. It’s a brilliant making it feel like you are reading a cop comic but he never lets you forget you are also in a galaxy far, far away. He builds upon long time reader’s expectations by having one of the set pieces be Rann, the adopted homeworld of the Adam Strange. Further Morrison develops the ideas of Sun-Eaters further than I’ve personally seen before by means for flashbacks told from two parties. A literal Space Cowboy Man With No Name and a member of the Blackstars. The Black Star agent remarks that the Sun-Eaters are her kin in some unknown way and that these creatures have names and hierarchies amongst themselves. A breeding pair of Royal Bloods have been selectively produced, immensely more powerful and hungry than conventional Sun-Eaters. And it’s up to the Lanterns to stop them. But Morrison maintains a recent plot threat in the fact that Hal Jordan must soon stand before the Guardians for killing an unarmed villain who was attempting to purchase the Earth for consumption. Its nice bits of world building and continuity like this that I really appreciate as a reader.

The story continues with Jordan facing the Guardians in court and it does not go well The Guardians as the powerful and immortal overseers of the entire universe have to take a long view in how they deal with cosmic affairs, and unsurprisingly there are politics involved. However their agents, the Lanterns, are mostly mortal beings who have to deal with situations of an immediate nature and often don’t have the luxury of prolonged considerations before they must act in defense of their sectors of space. This is not the first time this sort of thing has come up in the pages of Green Lantern but it is handled well here by Morrison and gives the clear perspective of both parties involved in the business of policing the universe and the divisions between them. There is a nice reveal at the end of the book by our two narrators which is not unexpected as Morrison didn’t take major pains to hide the coming “twist”“ but given his past work I can’t help but think this was intentional and it does lead me to wonder about certain aspects of the narration. Guess I’ll see next month if my suspicions are correct.

ART

Liam Sharps art is well…sharp! A long time favorite of mine I’m pleased to see the work he’s doing here continues to be excellent. The heroes look suitably heroic and the man quite muscular (a particular trope of Liam’s), lantern jaws (no pun intended) and throbbing veins. His women are draw with equal strength but also with the idealized curvaceousness of a Frazetta painting and his alien designs are exquisite! He really knows how to make aliens very alien and yet even his most inhuman designs are relatable thats to excellent work portraying expression and body language.

Steve Oliff brings his A Game with beautiful colors that perfectly compliment the art and establish both setting mood and emotion. I particularly like the way he chooses to render both the suns and sun eaters in a painterly technique in this story.

LETTERING

I would also like to mention that letterer Tom Orzechowski does a brilliant job here, complementing the flow of art by skillfully using his text balloons to help lead the reader’s eye to the exact place it should going. The entire team on this book is to be commended for the work they’ve done.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The new Green Lantern series is of too a great start. This has the makings of a classic run in my opinion and I hope they can this up. I strongly recommend this book. 5 out of 5!

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

REVIEW: Green Lantern 4
Writer:Â Grant Morrison
Art: Liam Sharp
Colors:Â Steve Oliff
Letters: Tom Orzechoski