The Blackstars have been defeated, but a Green Lantern is never finished with their mission. Hal Jordan is now tasked with guiding a new generation of Guardians home to Oa. Spoilers for The Green Lantern – Season 2 #1 follow.
In a rare move for comics, Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp’s run on The Green Lantern is being split up into “seasons” rather than simply continuing the same titling and numbering structure. Honestly, this feels like something that would be commonplace in comics by now, but it’s not and The Green Lantern is doing something different. Does this experiment pay off though? Well, if you were a fan of Morrison and Sharp’s first twelve issues, as well as the Blackstars mini, you will be a fan of this issue. In fact, this issue is a good jumping on point for those who have been interested, but haven’t caught up yet. This is a great start to this new season.
First off, Liam Sharp has been knocking it out the park with every issue of The Green Lantern, but there’s something extra special about his art in this issue. Every single panel is rife with detail and passion that it’s impossible not to fall in love with it. From simple shots like Hal getting handed a new power battery to intense, crazy action scenes, everything looks gorgeous. Combine that with Steve Oliff’s excellent colors and it’s a recipe for near perfection.
Sharp does such an excellent job with this issue in bringing out of bit of emotion that needs to happen as well. Whether it’s Hal’s frustration and genuine happiness or a seemingly emotionless sentient salt man, there’s such great depth to the art here. How he manages to make emotionless salt work on an emotional level is well and truly beyond me.
As for Morrison’s writing, this issue definitely feels like tamed in Morrison more than anything. Sure, it’s a bit confusing at times, but this is acknowledged within the issue itself and makes for a nice bit of humor. Morrison’s writing does nothing absolutely crazy like he is known for here, which is a good thing. First issues shouldn’t be completely revelatory or mind-blowing, they should be establishing a story. This is exactly what happens in this issue too. Some new powers are introduced, but overall Morrison is really at his least crazy in this issue. If Morrison normally off-puts you due to his wacky antics, you might want to give this a try.
Even though Morrison is relatively tame in this issue though, there are themes and story threads that will undoubtedly be picked up again in the future. Themes about god, about will, about creation are all present here, but only so much that they’re hinted, which helps set-up some potential future thematic elements. They aren’t fully explored, which is a good thing as it allows the series to build upon the foundation presented here.
[…] CHECK OUT: The Green Lantern – Season 2 #1 Review: The Space Cop and The Sentient Salt […]
[…] CHECK OUT: The Green Lantern – Season 2 #1 Review: The Space Cop and The Sentient Salt […]