DC Comics Review: Green Lantern #45

Rating: ***

When we were first given information about the Blackest Night min-series, we were told that this story would involve all of the various Ring Corps that exist in the universe.  So far, we haven’t seen much of them - only the Black Lantern rings racing across the universe and resurrecting the dead into Black Lanterns.  That all changes with this month’s issue of Green Lantern.  All of the various ring colors are represented here, but the major feature of this issue is the battle between yellow ring leader Sinestro of the Sinestro Corps and Carol Ferris of the violet colored Star Sapphires Corps.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a long-time Green Lantern reader so I didn’t know until recently that Carol Ferris was at one time a Star Sapphire.  So the impact of her as a Star Sapphire again and her fighting Sinestro does have the same impact on me as a long-time reader would have.  Still it’s very cool.  You don’t normally have the girlfriend/wife of a super-hero becoming a hero herself and then fighting her boyfriend/husband’s archenemy all that often.  Have we ever seen Mary Jane get powers and fight the Green Goblin?  So this is very cool and it adds a whole dynamic to the relationship of Hal Jordan, Carol, and Sinestro.

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Too many corps in the world of Green Lantern?

I just finished reading “Green Lantern” #36 which continues the “Rage of the Red Lanterns” storyline. It’s a pretty good issue. I’m not a huge Green Lantern fan, but this story arc is a prelude to the big storyline coming out later this year called “The Blackest Night” and I’m interested in reading it.

One of the plots that has been going on in Geoff John’s run of Green Lantern has been the emergence of different colored Lantern corps. We first saw the “yellow” Lanterns with the debut of the Sinestro Corps - which I think is a great idea. I always liked the idea of an evil version of a particular hero or team in comic books. But over the past few months or so we have been seeing the debuts of other Lanterns: Red Lanterns, Blue Lanterns, and long time Green Lantern enemy Star Sapphire has her own corps. I love Geoff Johns, but I think this maybe overkill.

I think with the introduction of all of these different types of Lanterns, it diminishes the uniqueness of Green Lantern and the Green Lantern Corps. As I said, I’m not a huge Green Lantern fan and I don’t read it every month. Maybe the hardcore Green Lantern fans are okay with this, but I think it will be too much if this all stays around post-Blackest Night.

I’ve done a little research and according to ComicVine.com, there will be seven different corps each representing a different emotion. They are as follows: Red=Hate/Rage, Orange=Avarice/Greed, Yellow=Fear, Green=Willpower, Blue=Hope, Indigo=Compassion, Violet =Love. There will also be a Black Corps appearing I’m assuming during “Blackest Night”. We know that some DC characters will be resurrected during this storyline, so I guess all the resurrected characters will be members of the Black Corps.

What Geoff is doing in “Green Lantern” is great stuff, but I hope it’s only temporary. I think having the Green Lantern Corps vs Sinestro Corps should be enough. The eternal struggle of good vs evil with Hal Jordan vs Sinestro.