Green Lantern #29 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (writer), Billy Tan and Martin Coccolo (pencilers), Rob Hunter and Walden Wong (inkers), Alex Sinclair and Tony Avina (colors)

The Story: Hal Jordan marks a new era of openness and humility in his leadership style by commanding a planet to move for him.

The Review: After an intrusion by Supergirl and the Red Lanterns last month, Robert Venditti’s Green Lantern returns to the task at hand.

Perhaps it was his meeting with Guy, or maybe just the place and time, but Hal is finally beginning to grow into leadership. His move to assemble a war council is a baby step for him, but it’s the first major action as leader where he’s opened himself up and asked for help. Likewise, it’s a strong move for the series, which has been excessively, some would say obnoxiously, focused on Lantern Jordan since Geoff Johns rebooted it ten years ago.

It’s not that Hal isn’t a fun character, it’s just that very few comic characters can handle that prolonged attention without growing dull. Batman shares his comic with a small gaggle of sidekicks and, more often than not, lets his villains do the heavy lifting. With Sinestro gone, it’s about time that Hal’s regular supporting cast expanded beyond Kilowog and this proves that Venditti is serious about continuing his strides in that direction.

The one downside of this is that it means that Hal has to do something to back up his newfound conviction. The raid on Gwottle that takes up just under half the issue is perfectly serviceable but, aside from highlighting another one of Hal’s inner circle, it’s not terribly interesting. Venditti makes strides in bringing a sense of space-spanning action and galactic realpolitik to the series, but once we set down it feels like they’re in competition. It’s the sort of thing that lets the issue claim a significant battle sequence, but wouldn’t be missed if you skipped this issue.

Still, while the action is hardly revolutionary, Venditti does open the issue with one of the strongest scenes since he took over the title. While Lantern Jordan in this issue is not actually that different from the version that appeared before the Durlan invasion, you can really feel the weight of command bearing down on Hal Jordan of Earth – or, perhaps, no longer of Earth. There’s a realness and a brokenness to the family dynamics that absolutely carries this sequence. Jim has always been the exact opposite of Hal; cowardly, stable, available; but little glimpses and glimmers sneak through Hal’s ever-jacketed exterior to that, behind the superhero veteran act, there’s another Hal Jordan; self-destructive, chronically unemployed, and completely absent from the lives of those closest to him. Hal has rarely been as interesting as in this scene and I sincerely hope that Venditti continues this trend.

Speaking of hope, Bro’Dee Walker is still doing some soul searching in the jungles with Mogo. While Venditti avoids becoming too morose, Walker doesn’t really add anything to his position from two issues past. Luckily, Mogo gets some really nice lines. There aren’t a lot of surprises, but Walker and Mogo just have a natural chemistry together and Venditti puts it to good use.

I’d also mention that one of my favorite elements of the run seems primed to make a comeback: the sympathetic, fallible villain. Fans often want to see disputes resolved through skill and power alone, however, Venditti has proven adept at cleverly utilizing chance and humanizing both sides of his conflicts in the past. It adds an element of tension and complicates the moral delineation of the title.

Billy Tan is the primary penciller for this issue, as usual, and he brings the distinct and familiar look that fans have grown accustomed to. Tan’s art has a knack for finding the humanity in alien features. While his Hal doesn’t do much emotional heavy lifting, Saint Walker, the Gwottlens, and the Lantern strike force all come through clearly thanks to Tan’s subtle emotions. He’s also shown a talent for rendering light constructs, a trademark that’s very much in play again this month.

Despite the solid work that he brings to the battle, Tan actually doesn’t handle most of the scenes I mentioned earlier, instead turning things over to Martin Coccolo. Coccolo’s compositions are almost universally strong. Many artists settle into a standard way of imagining a scene, but Coccolo’s panels just have a spark of life in the blocking. Unfortunately his detail work is weaker. facial anatomy, in particular, is wonky. One panel of a guilt-ridden Hal looks more woozy than anything and the next renders his niece and nephew as slightly simian at best and positively terrifying at worst. Even Kilowog looks off at times. That said, he draws a mean Simon Baz – built sturdy and with loads of attention to his costume.

It’s also fascinating to see how each of the artists fare under the care of the book’s two colorists. It’s particularly strange that they don’t match up more closely with the pencilers, but it does give a great opportunity to see how much energy Alex Sinclair can bring to the book. Make no mistake; Tony Avina is no slouch and does some particularly beautiful work with Mogo and Walker, but Sinclair’s work on this title is so vibrant that Avina’s more subdued work suffers by comparison.

The Conclusion: Perhaps unsurprisingly after DC’s rather risky crossover, this issue is a solid jumping on point for the series, with all of the strengths and weaknesses therein.

Venditti is making some smart changes, upping the importance of supporting characters and focusing on the strain that the war is already taking before its even begun. Sadly, one of the first skirmishes is nothing special and the second half of the book lags. Likewise, while Tan and Coccolo are both talented artists in their own way, the book’s juggling artistic teams often highlight each other’s weaknesses rather than their strengths and generally can’t stand up to what readers of this title are used to.

Green Lantern is looking to fly high again, but it’s a turbulent ascent.

Grade: C+

-Noah Sharma