Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #10 Review and **SPOILERS**

Welcome Back to That Same Old Place That You Laughed About

Writer: Robert Vendetti 

Penciller: Ed Benes 

Colorist: Jason Wright 

Letterer: Dave Sharpe 

Cover: Ethan Van Sciver and Wright 

Cover Price: $2.99 

On Sale Date: December 14, 2016

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM** 

Imagine you could distill your essence into a piece of jewelry. What would it be? A clunky fraternity ring like the Green Lantern Corps wears? Or do you think it would be more of a wispy anklet, strands of white gold with a delicate clasp? Or perhaps a thick gold rope a la Big Daddy Kane? I think mine would be a headband, but a cool metal headband like Wonder Woman wears. Not a doofy shirt sleeve pulled over my forehead like Eric Shea wears. Make sure to e-mail the site at weirdsciencedccomics@gmail.com with a lengthy examination of what kind of jewelry would best embody you, if you could cram yourself into one piece. And now, my review of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #10!

 

Explain It!

Ever spend a Sunday afternoon looking at your collection? I know you have at least one. Comics enthusiasts are voracious hoarders of pop culture. If you don’t have a comic book collection, you surely collect action figures, or Funko Pops, or some sort of ephemera that ties you to some missing part of your childhood. Well, Brainiac is enjoying his collection, except in the factual, robotic way that, uh, a robot would. Cataloging his shrunken cities and their unique inhabitants, including the folks still stuck in shrunken Xudar: the Green Lantern Corps and the renegade Sinestro Corps, who I guess are now the only Sinestro Corps. This series hasn’t been clear about where those other guys went. Just to show Brainiac what choice hostages he’s got, John Stewart and Guy Gardner zing around the city with their rings, which has got to pretty entertaining from Brainiac’s perspective. He says that the Grand Collector will be pleased…and I shudder because I hope it isn’t back to that goddamned story from Convergence.

On planet Nok, Ganthet and Sayd are hanging out with Hal Jordan’s super special Green Lantern ring that he made all by himself, and which now contains him somehow. Kyle Rayner is there—no real explanation of where he’s been, really, just somewhere “halfway across creation,” while Hal Jordan faced off against Sinestro because he had the universe in his thrall. Where in the fuck was Kyle?! Anyway, no big secret that only Rayner can bring Hal back from the Emerald Space, an ugly green place that all the good Green Lanterns go if they’ve made Santa’s list. Abin Sur is there with Hal, leading him around and introducing him to all his old buddies that died in action. Even though Hal might like hanging around a barren, ethereally verdant place, Ganthet and Kyle have other plans.

And then…it’s so many pages, y’all. Page after page of Kyle struggling with all his might to get Hal back from Emerald Space. From Kyle’s point of view. From Hal’s point of view. Back to Kyle’s point of view. No one in Emerald Space seems too fussed about Hal being dragged back to the third dimension, and while it seems to cause Kyle a big strain, Hal pops back into reality looking as fit as ever. Back to Brainiac, we learn the identity of the Grand Collector, for whom he shrinks all these cities and jams them into jars—it’s Larfleeze! Which was revealed in the solicit, but whatever at least it’s not Telos or Multiverse Brainiac or whatever the hell that nonsense was about.

This was a pretty fast read, and I’m not thrilled that the Green Lantern Corps are still trapped in Xudar, but I did enjoy this issue. Hal’s return was never in question, and this was as good a way as any to get Kyle Rayner involved. I’m also pleased as punch that the Grand Collector in this case is Larfleeze, because it makes sense, it’s funny, and it isn’t a throwback to that Convergence shit. This story is moving slower than I’d like, and smells a little bit too much like the last arc, but with Ed Benes on the visuals it isn’t exactly a chore to look at.

Bits and Pieces:

A lot of this book is taken up by a well-padded scene of Lantern struggle, but it's still a reasonably fun time. The art is fantastic, some classic characters make cameos, and a last page reveal that was given away in the solicit makes this what we in the industry call a good comic book. A buck more, I might think differently about it. But it isn't a buck more, it's three bucks, and I'd say you get a decent return on that investment.

7/10