Green Lantern #44 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Robert Venditti
Art By: Billy Tan, Martin Coccolo, Mark Irwin, Tony Avina
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 2, 2015

Pit Stop

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Let's continue our foray into Hal Jordan's adventures in being a "Renegade".  In the previous issue we saw our former Lantern go looking for answers about the Corps' disappearance in all the wrong places.  Well.. technically it was a pretty astute place to go asking around because our hero met up with Relic, who now that he's unstuck from the Source Wall is continuing his study on the emotional spectrum and his former prison Source Wall itself.  Only problem with this idea is that Relic still hates anyone who uses the emotional spectrum due to it threatening the destruction of the Universe and all that, but he especially hates Green Lanterns.  Since Hal and old Relic have a history together, Hal approaches the big guy incognito........ but really we don't learn anything except that Relic believes that Black Hand is behind planets turning to stone, but since we know this to be untrue, it doesn't really matter.  Eventually though, Hal's new crew member Virgo being the big dummy that he is, decides that Hal needs backup and puts on Krona's Gauntlet....... which knocks him out instantly and alerts Relic that he's being fooled.  Luckily though, Hal and his new crew were able to get away and our search for the Green Lantern Corps continues here.......kinda.

Explain It!:

Our story begins with a new status quo to our group that I really enjoy because it allows our crew of Darlene to trust one another.  You see, Hal sets Trapper up with a bracelet that activates a paralytic if Trapper happens to wander too far away or you know, happens to stab Hal Jordan in the face.....  So right away I can put my fears aside that Trapper will be betraying our hero anytime soon because if he did, it could stop his own heart in the process.  Now that Trapper's on a leash, we can get to our main story and that's finding a doctor for Virgo, who looks to be on death's door since he went and touched something that didn't belong to him.........see, there's a lesson here kids.  Keep your damn hands to yourself.  So our hero and his crew make port on a planet that Hal has a funny feeling about because the last time that he was there the place was booming a bit, but now the streets are desolate and when he approached a little alien girl about a doctor, she screamed and ran away....... I say it's the long hair Hal, I bet Guy had the same problem when he went all hobo too.  Eventually Trapper and Hal find a doctor, but they have to forcibly enter his building to get Virgo some help because initially they were turned away.  Strange happenings going on on the planet Gallun. 

After Virgo begins getting fixed up we realize what all the hubbub about "guests" is that everyone keeps jawing about and it's pretty freaking out there.  Apparently awhile ago, a group of body modification addicted Thanagarians came to this space port, build a secret headquarters so they couldn't be found and began robbing and killing anyone who happened to stop at the port.  This is a crazy ass band of Thanagarians and it's not only because of their predilection towards augmenting their body either, it's because Venditti took the time to name them all making me think that these characters will be recurring........that or it's just a shout out to characters that have already been around and he's just bringing them out and dusting them off...... but like I think in most facets of my life...... if I don't know about it, it's not real.  So that's going on.  After taking on these Thanagarians that are known as Olio's Wake, Hal is injured and we get the best part of this story where we see how Trapper has to play nice with his new Captain for their mutual survival.  Working together, Hal and Trapper take down the winged warriors, but it seems that Hal was injured worse than we initially thought and our hero passes out.

In the end, we continue to see how the dynamic of this crew has changed...... even if it's only due to a death machine hooked up to Trapper because the once kidnapper of Virgo got Hal back to the doctors and saved his life.  When we leave this issue with Virgo and Hal up and kicking again, our heroes take back off to the stars now that the Thanagarians are locked up and Gallun is once again safe........ Well, kinda.  Yeah, Olio's Wake is beginning their time in Gallun's prison, but throughout this issue we saw some fat Gollum sounding bastard hooked up to visor and machines like he was the lawnmower man and since he wasn't arrested with the rest and Venditti took the time to name all of these characters, I'm guessing Hal Jordan will be dealing with this planet again......... or not.  Either way it's off to get some more answers about the Green Lantern Corps.

That's it for this issue of Green Lantern and for as much as I've been complaining about each issue of Green Lantern "Renegade" not doing anything but creating more setup for a story that we never seem to get to...... I really found myself enjoying this issue due to the new dynamic between Hal and Trapper.  Yeah, you can pish posh the idea of a true status quo change because Trapper is simply being controlled through his desire to stay alive, but by the end of this issue it really seemed like there was some sort of mutual respect between our hero and this former villain and I think that this relationship will only grow stronger as this series continues and that's something I'm really interested to see because I loved what we got here.  While yes, we didn't get any further into the story that we're all waiting to begin, what we got was enough to keep me entertained and to keep my jerk off mouth from complaining the whole time.  This new dynamic that I keep prattling on about is enhanced even further with this issue's excellent dialog.  It felt spot on for the situation and it was also very funny at times.  If that wasn't enough to get you excited for this issue, the art in this book was fantastic as well and I don't know if it's simply Hal's new "Renegade" mindset or Krona's Gauntlet affecting our hero but Hal's newer constructs are really cool to look at and I hope after all is said and done that Hal continues with these unique shapes of his will because they are way more impressive than a boxing glove.

Bits and Pieces:

While I would have loved to finally get to either the story about planets turning to stone or the Green Lantern Corps' disappearance, what we get here instead is some excellent character development that really enhances the dynamic to this "Renegade" story as we built an actual team for our former Green Lantern to count on in the future.

7.8/10