Writer: Robert Vendetti
Penciller: Patrick Zircher
Colorist: Jason Wright
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Cover: Ethan Van Sciver
and Wright
Cover Price: $2.99
On Sale Date: October 11,
2017
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE
AT THE BOTTOM**
Hey, looks like Hal
Jordan’s gonna tussle with Sinestro Corps Superman! Or something like that.
Frankly, I think the idea of Superman with the yellow ring is silly. Sure, he’s
all-powerful, but he’s hardly scary—no matter how pointy you make his teeth or
wildly you let his hair blow. He still looks like a big ol’ Boy Scout to me.
Still, I sure do like Patrick Zircher’s art! So let’s stop fiddle-faddling and
hop right into my review of Hal Jordan and
the Green Lantern Corps #30! Right now!
Explain It!
I think the simplest
version of Hell would be for us to interact with our past selves. Imagine
having to share a space with yourself as a high-minded young adult, or worse an
embittered, rebellious teenager. And it gets worse the further back you go: I
barely want to spend time with any grade-schooler, much less one as anxious and
dorky as myself. And handing a baby of any stripe to me would be to relegate it
to an extended period of neglect and being caked in feces. More recent
iterations of the Self are more cringe-worthy, however, and sometimes a source
of guilt and regret.
Now that the “imminent
death of the New Gods” stuff is done and dusted, it’s time to get back to Green
Lantern Corps business. John Stewart dispatches Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner
into normal patrol, and sends Hal Jordan back to Earth to have a chat with
Superman about his recent tussle with Sinestro. Sinestro, you say? Yes,
Sinestro, with whom Clark was fighting and fussing in recent issues of Superman
and Action Comics. Superman has a yellow ring, and says he’s trapped Parallax
within, but Hal cannot detect it with his, uh, Parallax sense. Just then,
Superman turns into a sort of Parallaxed version of himself, and it’s time to throw
down!
There’s some good
property-destroying, but eventually Superman hands Hal a love tap and that
knocks him back to his senses—Clark isn’t imbued with Parallax at all, it was
all some kind of crazy mental projection. A crazy mental projection from giant-headed
telekinetic weirdo Hector Hammon, currently being restrained and picked at by
little yellow imps like some kind of modern day Gulliver! In the city of
Lilliput!
A lot of this issue was
given over to Hal and Clark punching, but the character interactions between
the Green Lanterns and later between Hal and Clark (before he goes all
Parallax) are pretty good. I particularly appreciated Hal showing genuine
interest in Superman’s world, which is a lot more than the usual gung-ho flyboy
we usually get. I was most thrilled to see Patrick Zircher on pencils, after a
little hiatus he better than ever, and that was already pretty spectacular. I
do love Hector Hammond, because he’s so goofy, and I’m definitely in for
another issue of Zircher’s artwork, but there’s not a whole lot to grab on to
here. I’m really bumping the score a little out of appreciation for the
illustrations and storytelling.
Bits and Pieces:
A visually-thrilling issue whose best qualities are contained in the character work, especially between Hal Jordan and Superman. Ah well. Talking heads can still be visually-thrilling.
7/10
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