Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #3 Review and **SPOILERS**

Second Verse, Same As the First

Written By: Robert Vendetti

Art by: Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, Tomeu Morey

Lettered By: Dave Sharpe

Cover Price: $2.99

On Sale Date: August 24, 2016

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

No one in the history of cinema has ever said the word “fear” better than Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone said it in Batman Begins. You know what I’m talking about. I mean this scene:

“Now that’s poweh y’can’t buy. That’s th’ poweh of feah.” God, it’s so good. “Thisiz a worl’ yell neveh unnderstan’. And y’always feah what y’don’ unnderstan’.” I could listen to him talk about feah all day. It’s between this scene and, of course, the one where Michael Caine as Alfred asks Bruce, “Why do we fall, suh?” I’m not even going to use a clip. If you don’t know this scene, then you haven’t absorbed Batman Begins correctly. “S’we c’n loin t’pick oursewves oop.” Brilliance! Okay now read my review of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #3.

Explain It!

Remember how, last issue, we opened with the Green Lantern Corps in uncharted space, hanging on and around Mogo wondering what to do with themselves? Well it was so effective that we open this issue the same way. Except now, John Stewart is looking for Hal and trying to get a communication through to Guy, which they can’t do because their rings are lame for some reason. Probably best not to bother Guy at the moment, he’s in some unknown pit with bloodied fists, fighting some unseen assailants. I’m sure we’ll find out who he’s fighting right on the next pa…oh. We’re back on planet Chall ‘Enn, where the Sinestro Corps is abducting people as part of their edict to spread great fear. Hal attempts to reason with these thoroughly ugly bastards, and by “attempts to reason with” I mean “stalls for time so he can upend” which he does by blasting his ring power into the ground and then…I’m not sure what happens here. It’s like he makes the ground ripple, like he yanked the rug out from under the Yellow Lanterns or something. Whatever he did, it makes them drop the beings they kidnapped, so that’s a type of a win.

Over to Warworld where…sigh…Sinestro is belching his blustery brouhaha at a member of the Sacrament, which is an organization of space sorcerers banished by the Guardians eons ago. It seems the Sacrament will be used to distill fear into fuel, or something of this manner, but the point of this scene is that his daughter Soranik peeps the scene and is alarmed that her pops is in cahoots with these religious freaks. The Sacramento asks Sinestro if he’s a religious guy, and of course he replies in a pompous, flowery way that probably makes the Sacramentalien sorry he asked. And now: back to Hal fighting Sinestro Corps members!

Hal kicks everyone’s asses six ways to Sunday while they keep taunting him, which is basically the same as begging Hal Jordan to go apeshit on you. It turns out, however, that the Sinestro Corps rings actually get their power from fear. So while the rest of the crew is cruising around the galaxy, making everyone anxious and fearful so they can power engines or whatever, the guys Jordan is fighting get tougher–as evidenced by their rings’ repeated announcements about power levels showing a steady increase, all the way to two-hundred percent! This squelches Jordan’s second attempt to free the Sinestro Corps’ hostages, but he fails and plummets to Earth, seemingly defeated.

This book is going nowhere slowly, and I’m getting pretty bored with it. If not for the terrific art and colors, I’d say to pass it up completely. Drawing out the inevitable return to the universe of the Green Lantern Corps seems so forced and meaningless at this point. I mean, the only thing that’s happened since the Rebirth issue is Hal landing on this planet and fighting two, then twelve members of the Sinestro Corps. So three, maybe four hours has passed in three issues? For fuck’s sake. And don’t even get me started on Sinestro, I hate how he is characterized and his dialogue is so over-the-top that I’m embarrassed to read it. Luckily for me, I read comics on the couch next to my wife, and she already knows I’m a moron.

Bits and Pieces:

Summer is almost over, but we're still in re-runs where this comic book is concerned. If you liked the last issue, this one follows its formula almost exactly. There's a development with the Sinestro Corps rings, and a revelation concerning Sinestro that largely falls flat, but it's still basically the same issue. The awesome artwork by Sandoval and team may be all that saves this comic book from being birdcage liner.

6.5/10