Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #23 Review and **SPOILERS**

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Face/Off

Writer: Robert Vendetti 

Artist: Ethan Van Sciver 

Colorist: Jason Wright 

Letterer: Dave Sharpe 

Cover: Van Sciver & Wright 

Cover Price: $2.99 

On Sale Date: June 28, 2017

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Durlans, Durlans 

What you gonna do? 

What you gonna do 

When Lanterns come for you

It don’t matter if they’re green or they’re yellow 

Lanterns are united to fight 

Any form of cheat or injustice 

Beware their power, Lantern’s Light

Khundans, Khundans 

What you gonna do? 

What you gonna do 

When Lanterns come for you

Explain It!

Since Bolphunga dropped the bombshell about having proof of a Green Lantern killing a member of the Sinestro Corps, everyone’s been…well, they’ve been downright restrained. John Stewart takes it as something potentially serious, but everyone is talking about Bolphunga while making the jerk-off motion with their hands behind his back because no one gives a shit about what he has to say. John dispatches Guy Gardner and Arkillo to Bolphunga’s totally hidden stronghold to see if they can dig up this so-called evidence, but before checking in on something awesome, let’s peer in on Kyle and Soranik, who are talking again after Kyle slut-shamed her and told her how to dress. He’s still being a dick about it, though, so Soranik storms away but seems to understand somehow that Sarko, the fella from the future that they killed last issue, is their son-to-be. So she goes to check it out.

Soranik asks the morgue attendant Voz to pull Sarko out of ice and then runs a DNA scan on the body to learn that he’s half human and half…unknown, because the body disappears due to a temporal anomaly. But Soranik’s ring is able to say that the other half of Sarko’s DNA belongs either to Sinestro or herself, and since Sinestro is dead…and not fucking Kyle…well…why are we pussy-footing around this thing anyway? The reader knows it to be true, and frankly I think Soranik knew six pages back when she walked away from Kyle. I guess it’s a tough thing to accept, that she would have a kid with a cartoonist. Better she should have children with a terrorist!

The best part of this issue is when Guy Gardner and Arkillo descend upon Bolphunga’s impregnable base and, uh, impregnate it. The way these two interact is so great, though it’s really more about Guy constantly wanting to high five and bump fists with Arkillo. He even calls him “Ark,” how adorable is that? They’re able to retrieve Bolphunga’s proof of a Green Lantern’s murder, and they take it back to John Stewart for viewing—and it depicts Tomar Tu killing Tomar Re and assuming his identity! Or maybe it’s the other way around, these guys all look alike to me. Point is, the current beak-faced Green Lantern is faking the funk, which is also something we readers knew. So at least we’re all on the same page.

Ethan Van Sciver sure makes everything look at proper-like in this issue. The story is a little fractured, but has enough good moments to make it worthwhile. And those good moments, incidentally, are nearly all contained in the Guy Gardner/Arkillo team-up. Who’da thunk this would be one of the most refreshing, enjoyable things about the Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps pairing? Probably Robert Vendetti, since he’s writing it. The only thing about this story is that the big dire secret, that a Green Lantern killed a member of the Sinestro Corps, doesn’t seem like a huge deal. Like, it is a big deal, the two are supposed to have a truce. But it doesn’t necessarily seem like a truce-breaking problem. I dunno, I guess I’ll have to see what the fallout it in the next issue, but whatever happens I hope Gardner and Arkillo stay buds.

Bits and Pieces:

When John Stewart finds out about the secret Bolphunga's threatening to reveal...well, he looks a little miffed. Certainly not stunned to his core. This issue also contains some friendship action between Guy Gardner and Arkillo, and it is terrific. With Ethan Van Sciver drawing, you'll say, "Yep. Looks like a Green Lantern comic for sure."

8/10