Sinestro #22 Review and *SPOILERS*

Fear and Rage Go Hand In Hand

Written By: Cullen Bunn
Art By: Martin Coccolo, Blond, Dave Sharpe

Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: April 27, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

After Sinestro's confrontation and defeat of the Pale Bishop and his Paling lackeys, Sinestro is a shell of his former self and little more than a feeble old man, not in the way he looks, but in the way he needs everyone to help him along and as I suspect to help him bath and go to the bathroom as well.  I also suspect this is more of a fetish thing, but that doesn't matter.  What matters is that Soranik is now the leader of the Sinestro Corps and I love this turn of events because Soranik is a great character and I love her getting all the panel play that she can, not to mention she's now the head of a group that she's spent many years loathing........... DRAMA!  Let's jump into this issue and see if the people who don't believe that Soranik should lead are brought down and if Soranik herself lets this power she now has go to her head.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our story begins a lot like you'd suspect it to, with Soranik being overwhelmed with her new position and wondering if she's able to do everything she can to see that the Korugarians are taken care of and to keep the Sinestro Corps in line as they set out to become the new police force in the Universe.  Yeah, I'd imagine that would be pretty stressful and we're seeing that on Soranik here.  One thing that she can be less stressed out about....... if she actually knew it was going on is that the Corpsmen who wanted her put down and pretty much everyone else that wasn't about raising hell in the Universe are actually put down themselves by Sinestro and his new Black Circle, that is made up of his most loyal supporters.  So yeah, initially it looks like everything is coming up Millhouse for Soranik, but wouldn't you know it, the Red Lanterns are out and about and attacking a space center in order for a distress call to go out to alert the new police force in the Universe.  We've seen the Red Lanterns recently in the Sinestro/Lobo crossover and even though I'm a big fan of the Red Lanterns, I hate their presence here because it goes against everything that we ended the Red Lanterns book on. Just the fact that Bleez is working for Atrocitus feels like a slap in the face for reading all those issues of the Red Lanterns and even though she's a fan favorite character, I feel it would have been better to leave her out and just simply create a new Rage Corps for Atrocitus to control.  Which we essentially have here with the exception of Dex-Starr and Bleez, but at least it makes sense for the kitty to keep following his master's orders.  

Back on New Korugar, we find out that Soranik has not only sent out Yellow Lanterns to police the Universe and take out multiple threats, but she's also sent out a group to hunt down clues about what happened to the Green Lantern Corps and while you'd suspect that this would chap her daddy's ass, he surprisingly seems okay with it and even suggests to send out a squadron of Manhunters to help with the search.  Yeah, this has got to be some sort of ruse, but for now it was just kind of cool to see Sinestro allowing Soranik to lead as she sees fit.  The biggest problem in this section is that we see all the cool stuff that the Sinestro Corps is doing, but only with one panel each.  We've got Arkillo and Saint Walker going up against Solomon Grundy, Fear Lanterns taking on Lobo, Durlans and Starro.......... Mother fucking Starro!  That sounds amazing, but we're stuck with the Red Lanterns because that's what the story calls for leading into Rebirth and as much as I'm looking forward to Rebirth coming along and making stories all about the meat and potatoes of the characters, I have to say that this is the first time that I hate it because I want to see these stories that we'll never get because of it.

In the end, we see Dez Trevius looking in on the research space station that sent out the distress call and as much as it looks like Soranik is having a pretty good day, Dez is having the complete opposite because he's pulled into the burning blood of the Red Lanterns and is confronted by what I'd assume is the entire Corps, looking for Sinestro's hideout so that they can get themselves a little payback for what I also assume is the death of Rankorr........ which irritates me as well because like Bleez, there is no way that Rankorr would be working for Atrocitus.  

That's it for this issue of Sinestro and even with the stuff about the Red Lanterns that I don't agree with, this issue is still really enjoyable.  Even with how low key it is concerning our Fear Lanterns, I just enjoy seeing how Soranik goes about taking on her new responsibilities and how it's eating her up that's she's actually doing it.  Yeah, I wish we could have seen these other stories about what the Sinestro Corps is doing in the Universe, but I at least appreciate that Cullen Bunn gave a shout out for his other ideas concerning this book if it would have continued and if it wasn't impeded by Rebirth coming to town.  So yeah, I enjoyed this book enough and really loved all the artwork the entire team did on this issue.  The characters looked great and the colors were vibrant as hell. 

Bits and Pieces:

We continue to see Soranik leading the Sinestro Corps in this issue and how it's affecting her.  It's enjoyable as hell and I could seriously get behind a entire series about this concept.  Yeah, that will never happen so I'm happy for what we got here, especially since the art in this issue was fantastic all the way through.  I only wish the villains of this story were handled differently.

7/10