Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #47 Review and **SPOILERS**

Hal of Me

Writer: Robert Vendetti 

Penciller: Fernando Pasarin 

Inkers: Oclair Albert and Eber Ferreira 

Colorist: Jason Wright 

Letterer: Dave Sharpe 

Cover: Barry Kitson and Hi-Fi 

Variant Cover: Tyler Kirkham and Arif Prianto 

Assistant Editor: Andrew Marino 

Editor: Brian Cunningham 

Cover Price: $2.99 

On Sale Date: June 27, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Someone’s really got to come up with a theme song for the Darkstars. Something peppy but still with that hard edge, like the theme from Orgazmo. “You wanna be a Darkstarrrrrr…but you ain’t no Darkstarrrrr…” I’m only good for lyrics, someone more capable will have to work on the music. While you do that, the rest of us can read my review for Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #47, which is below!

Explain It!

There are three stories happening here, each of them well-partitioned but none of them entirely satisfactory. The first, picking up from last issue’s cliffhanger, involves Arkillo beating up Guy so he won’t murder his abusive but reformed father, which would be a point of no return for some reason? Guy has punctured spleens for smaller transgressions. Arkillo beats Guy’s Darkstar costume right off of him, and then we’re right back to where we left them at that interstellar bar, pledging allegiance to one another and agree that it will be tough to get other members of the Sinestro Corps on their side. This is literally the same conversation they had two issues ago, before the Darkstars armor snagged Guy and sent him on a selfish crusade to kill daddy. So that whole dalliance was pointless, story-wise.

Over on…some white planet with Hal Jordan and Hector Hammond, Hammond has removed Hal’s memories so he won’t be plagued by heroism…or something. This is something he plans to do to all the bad folk around the universe, but he’s stripped Hal of his mind for some benevolent reason that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Hal’s ring tries to get through to him, but Hector suppresses it—until it’s discovered that the planet they’re on is the very same one where Hal created his own power ring from pure willpower! Thusly, the planet is suffused with his will, and he uses it to shrug off Hammond’s mind-wipe. Good news, though, this was Hammond’s plan all along, so Hal could prove to himself that he’s as cool as he thinks he is. That being dealt with, Hal and Hector take off once again to confront the Darkstars, exactly as they had been at the beginning of the last issue. So again, Hal early onset and temporary Alzheimer’s was a waste.

And over on New Genesis, Kyle and Space Cabby are still captive, until Orion shows up to free them and offer his help to Kyle. Once Highfather gets wind that his son has helped Kyle and Cabby escape, they hotfoot it out of there, in Cabby’s Motherbox-infused taxi, and…oh I suppose they’ll be going wherever the rest of the gang is headed. This is all in accord with some plan of John Stewart’s that is alluded to but not defined—we only get these three stories in this issue, and have no idea what’s exactly happening with John and General Zod. But we do wrap things up with a shot of Mogo, surrounded by a ring of Darkstars, so I guess there’s gonna be a big conflict next issue. Fina-freaking-ly.

This issue resolved a lot of the hang-ups developed over the last two issues, proving them needless and suggesting that they exist to pad out the story. The Guy Gardner/Arkillo thing was the most glaring, because one might think that Arkillo or someone would be more suspicious of Guy, even outside of his Darkstars costume—at least ask the guy a few questions, for crying out loud! What was the suit like? Did it smell in there? This whole story line feels like it’s been happening for years and I am pretty bored by it. We haven’t even seen the Darkstars themselves doing anything for a couple of issues. The final caption says “NEXT: THE END BEGINS…” but I’m hoping it ends, as well. This cast of this book is clearly too burdensome for the current creative teams to handle.

Bits and Pieces:

Threads dangled over the last couple of issues are resolved, leaving the story precisely where it should have been in the first place. Perhaps someday, we'll actually see conflict between the Green Lantern Corps and the Darkstars. Not in this issue, though.

5.5/10