Green Lantern (2005) #26-35

Green Lantern #26-35

Originally released in 2007

Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Mike McKone (#26-28), Ivan Reis (#29-35)

In the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps. War, the Guardians Of The Universe feel that some changes need to be made.  During that war, they made ten new laws, with the first of them being that Green Lanterns are allowed to use lethal force against members of the Sinestro Corps. All things considered, this seems like a reasonable adjustment.

Less reasonable is the second new law, which states that lethal force is allowed against all enemies of the Green Lanterns, a concept which is vaguely defined to say the least. It's put into place because the Guardians are concerned about other Lantern Corps., representatives of the emotional spectrum, emerging, and they want the Green Lanterns to kill those other forces before they can become threats.

The Guardians seem to feel that emotion - any emotion - is a source of danger to the universe, and they're taking a flying leap off the slippery slope to stop it. If this doesn't end with the Green Lanterns rebelling or the Guardians turning evil, I will be very surprised.

Not helping matters is that, in these first three issues, the Guardians show that they have learned absolutely nothing from their mistakes eons ago by creating the Alpha Lanterns, cyborg monstrosities made out of Green Lanterns.  Acting as Internal Affairs for the Green Lanterns (policing the police), Alpha Lanterns combine the cold logic of the Manhunters with the power of the Green Lanterns.  The Manhunters rebelled against the Guardians and slaughtered an entire sector of space, which you would think one of the Guardians would have brought this piece of history up during the planning stages.

The first task of the Alpha Lanterns is to pass judgment on a Green Lantern who killed Amon Sur, a Yellow Lantern who slaughtered an entire planet as revenge for the Sinestro Corps. losing.  The characters insist that he's definitely dead, but given that he survived having his head blown off, he's the son of the alien who died and gave Hal his Green Lantern Ring, and this is comics, I feel like he'll be back to life within a year or two of the time that this came out.

There are some interesting ideas here - the Green Lantern who killed Amon Sur becomes a Red Lantern from her anger over the incident, and Amon Sur's ring makes its way to Arkham Asylum, specifically the cell of Jonathan Crane.  However, the momentum is cut short by a seven issue storyline retelling Hal's backstory and his early days as a Green Lantern.

This backstory treads some familiar ground, though it also expands on events and recontextualizes them. (For example, Hal's mechanic, Tom Kalmaku, had a racist nickname back in the Silver Age; this issue acknowledges that nickname, but the only person who refers to Tom by that name is racist, sexist, and quickly humiliated)

The biggest addition that this backstory does is expanding on Sinestro before he became a mustache-twirling supervillain.  He feels a lot more fleshed out now, and I can see why his portrayal under Johns is held in high regard.

This also builds up the Red Lantern Corps., with Atrocitus being responsible for the death of Abin Sur, the former Green Lantern of Earth's sector and a friend and mentor to Sinestro.  While on Earth, he seeks a host for a powerful darkness that could threaten the Guardians - Atrocitus's race was annihilated by the Manhunters, and Atrocitus wants revenge against the Guardians for letting them loose in the universe.

Atrocitus finds a compatible host in the form of William Hand, who will later become the supervillain known as the Black Hand.  This seems to be setting up the Blackest Night event.  Hector Hammond, a recurring Green Lantern villain, also makes an appearance here, before his head becomes giant and deformed.

Once Atrocitus is defeated, Hal and Sinestro are brought back to Oa to explain why Sinestro broke an anti-fraternization rule that the Guardians have. Green Lanterns are supposed to stick to their own sectors, and this section does well with developing both Hal and Sinestro - Hal is constantly questioning authority, trying to figure out why things are the way they are (including the Green Lanterns' vulnerability to yellow), while Sinestro gives a speech opposing that rule which helps me see why he was considered the best of the Green Lanterns before his banishment.

During the impromptu trial, Hal accuses the Guardians of being afraid, despite Sinestro's efforts to get Hal to be quiet and let him do the talking.

The Guardians don't take it well. I wasn't a fan of the flashback at first, feeling like it stopped the Red Lantern story in its tracks, but I wound up changing my mind about it, as it served as a way to introduce a character who's (as far as I know) the main Red Lantern, Atrocitus, while building up Blackest Night and developing Hal, Tom, Carol Ferris, Hal's family, and Sinestro. The Sinestro Corps. War didn't flesh Sinestro out as much as I expected, but this flashback more than made up for that.