Green Lantern (2005) #18-20

Green Lantern #18-20

Originally released in 2007

Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Daniel Acuña

While these issues partially build up to the Sinestro Corps. War, with back-up stories establishing some of the members of Sinestro's fear-spreading army, the focus here seems to be more about building up other types of Lantern corps. using the emotional spectrum.  I'm not entirely sure of the history of the Star Sapphires or the emotional spectrum concept within the Green Lantern franchise - I know that the Star Sapphire briefly possessed Carol Ferris (Hal's boss and one-time love interest), turning her into a supervillain, though I don't know how common of an event this was, or if the Star Sapphire had any ties to the Green Lantern Corps. before this.

This issue serves as a rather dramatic example of a love triangle, as the Star Sapphire parasite returns to Earth, bent on possessing whoever Hal Jordan loves the most.  As a result, she switches between Hal's ex-girlfriend, Carol Ferris, and a woman who's kind of his girlfriend but nothing's official and it's a bit complicated, Jillian Pearlman (who goes by "Cowgirl" when flying).

In addition, we get the background of the Star Sapphires, which began when the people of the planet Oa became the Guardians.  Some of the women objected to the idea of becoming emotionless beings and fled to other worlds.  Humorously, the men and women of Oa look like completely different species, with the men (who became the Guardians of the Universe) being short with massive heads, while the women (who became Zamarons) are blue Amazons. (though there are some similarly-proportioned men, so maybe the Guardians are just weird-looking)

The Zamarons believe that life without love is meaningless, though their definition of love involves covering a planet with crystals and preserving it forever.  Centuries of isolation seems to have warped their viewpoint.

We also learn about other members of Sinestro's forces through Amon Sur, a recent inductee.  I'm assuming that the members who were introduced here, which include a sentient bacterium and a bug that's willing to wait for centuries to devour its prey, will play a part in the upcoming war with the Green Lantern Corps.

I probably could have kept going until the Sinestro Corps. War itself, since its second part is the issue after this, but that storyline is spread out over at least two series, so I wanted to group those issues together once I reached them.  These issues were all right, though my lack of familiarity with Green Lantern history likely resulted in some of the impact being lost on me.