Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #11 Review and **SPOILERS**

New In Box

Writer: Robert Vendetti

Penciller: Rafa Sandoval

Inker: Jordi Tarragona

Colorist: Tomeu Morey

Letterer: Dave Sharpe

Cover: Sandoval, Tarragona, Morey

Cover Price: $2.99

On Sale Date: December 28, 2016

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Last time we left this title…well, pretty much the same thing that happened the issue before happened again. Except that Hal Jordan is back, and Kyle Rayner is in the mix. So let’s stop hemming and hawing, and see who else might be crawling back from the pre-Rebirth Green Lantern universe! Read on!

Explain It!

There was one more big reveal last issue, that made the entire thing worth it: the Collector, the one for whom Brainiac is shrinking cities and stuffing them into jars, is Larfleeze. How did Larfleeze arrange all this? And just where has that smelly sumbitch been since we left him at the end of Keith Giffen’s maxi-series several years ago? Well to tell that story, we’ll have to, uh, use a familiar comic book device and add a caption to explain that we’re looking at a flashback. Sometimes you can change the color or the art style, but as long as you have that caption, we good. So we start out in a flashback, on the planet Okarra, where Larfleeze has lived for a while, forcing his orange constructs to go out and get him more stuff. The nature of the stuff doesn’t matter provided that it is pure stuff. One day, one of the constructs brings back Brainiac’s head, which intrigues Larfleeze, and not just because it happens to be stuff. He wiggles some wires, zapping the Brainiac head back to operation, and for some reason the head immediately explains that it is a collector and preservationist for life forms around the universe. This piques Larfleeze interest because, you know, stuff.

In the present day, Larfleeze and Brainiac have returned to Okarra with their recent plunder, one piece of which includes the stolen city of Xudar that also contains nearly the entire Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps. These are, of course, Larfleeze’s most prized possessions because there are so many variants to collect. He likes the city of Xudar so much, he won’t even file it away—instead he hugs it to his chest the way I used to hold my Care Bears as tightly as possible. In doing so, he presses his Agent Orange symbol against the containment jar, tipping his identity to his captives. This gives John Stewart a great idea, which is actually a stupid and very obvious idea, but luckily it’s going to be drawn by Rafa Sandoval so it will look awesome. First, let’s go check out the folks on Planet Nok: Sayd, Ganthet, Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner and chatting about how crazy it is that they all met up at a place like this. Hal tells them about his time in the Emerald Zone or whatever, where he saw all the dead Green Lanterns and Abin Sur told him to wish upon a star or something like that. Kyle lets slip that the Green Lantern Corps are back from that other dimension that the broke free of—you know, like ten fucking issues ago—so Hal gets all fired up and zips on over to Mogo, still inhabiting the center of the universe that the Guardians’ planet Oa used to.

Back in the captured city of Xudar, the Green Lanterns and Sinestro Corps stage a fight that will force Larfleeze to open their containment jar so they don’t injure each other, which will severely reduce their value on eBay. I pretty much guessed this would be his trick the minute John Stewart sussed out that Larfleeze was their captor in the first place, but beyond that I think it’s a pretty stupid plan. I mean, he’s counting on Larfleeze dealing with the fighting by opening their jar, when he could also decide to pump sleeping gas into the container. Or just say screw it, even broken versions of collectibles are worth something as long as they’re one-of-a-kind. So Larfleeze eventually lets them out, which also restores all of the Corps members to full size…or maybe they are creating gigantic constructs? I dunno, but Hal Jordan and his posse are poised to meet them on Okarra, so there’s fixing to be a fight!

I enjoyed this issue, even though there was a lot of yakkety yak and I figured out the big trick on Larfleeze like eight pages before it happened. As expected, Rafa Sandoval drew it so it looked unbelievable. And, to be honest, it is a pretty cute shtick. Now that the Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps and free and Hal Jordan is on his way, I’m hopeful that this title will kick into high gear! With the rotating art team of Rafa Sandoval and Ed Benes, you can buy with confidence.

Bits and Pieces:

A little bit of forward motion in the story peppered with some goofy antics and incredible artwork makes for a pretty good comic book. This issue is definitely a good sign of things to come, but I should point out that I have never correctly picked the teams that will be in the World Series, even after the first round of playoffs.

7.5/10