Current mood:

geeky

Green Lantern Corps 41 (some spoilers)
Well, that ol' Blackest Night just keeps getting blacker...but man, is it an excuse for my favorite Greenies to do some cooooool stuff! :)

GL Corps 41 focuses on, well, every one of the 8-9 main POV lanterns except Hal, John and Sodam Yat (Sodam is still off-camera...they need him back ASAP!). Everybody else is on Oa, fighting the outbreak of zombie Green Lanterns from the crypts. Guy is beating the crap out of dead Ke'haan and Bzzd; Kyle is getting the crap beat out of him by dead ex-girlfriend Jade; Vath, Isamot and Kilowog are simultaneously beating the crap out of dozens of Black Lanterns and getting the crap beat out of them; Arisia lays some serious crap-beating on her zombie family; and Soranik and Iolande take no crap whatsoever when rescuing patients in a hospital.

Holy crap, that's a lot of crap!

Great issue. Peter Tomasi has two gifts: 1) He has a real knack for conveying the maximum appeal of relatively minor characters with just a few words of dialogue or a frame or two of art. My absolute favorite part was when Soranik, evacuating the patients, sees Kyle about to be killed and hesitates, and Iolande shouts at her "GO. NOW!" I love me that Princess Iolande, that, her cape, and her habit of flying around on a comfy green energy sofa. She's awesome.
Oh, gift #2) Tomasi has a sick, sick, sick, twisted mind. However, he, like Geoff Johns, uses this power for good, to tell awesome stories. When you figure out where the Black Lantern Kiddies came from? EEEUUUUUUUUWWW!

OK, I must now sort my list of Goods and Bads. Let's start with the Bads:

...

Well...none. Moving on:

HEY EBEN! I SUGGEST YOU STOP READING HERE!!!! The rest of you may:



Goods:

1) The more I see the Indigo Tribe, the more they kick arse. Yikes! Don't mess with the Compassionate Ones Who Speak Incomprehensible Gibberish, But Only Half The Time!

2) Kilowog vs. his zombiefied drill instructor. Tomasi gives this scene horrible pathos and makes it hilariously funny at the same time (that's a neat trick!) "MY...NAME...IS...KILOWOG!!!" Lol.

3) This is the issue where we really see Soranik at her best, both fighting in the hospital and against Jade. Hmmm...she doesn't take competition well! And this from a reader who had his own crush on the pre-Zombified Jade during his teen years. But good for Soranik, nontheless.

4) Voz is still alive! This is good. He's too cool to kill after fighting Vice and six kajillion escaped Sinistro Corps officers on his own.

5) Ah, me. I am fond of them Green Lantern women. Did I mention Arisia is pretty darn awesome in this issue too? I'll mention it again. Arisia is pretty darn awesome. Hal was not wise to ditch her in favor of the Cowgirl pilot lady. Nothing against the Cowgirl, but she ain't Arisia.

6) Hey, we found out Arisia's mom was a Green Lantern too. Interesting.

As much as I'm pleased that Geoff Johns is doing some good stuff with Hal, Carol and Sinestro in "Green Lantern" I think I get more bang for my buck overall out of "Green Lantern Corps" just because of the sheer array of great characters in it. Dare I say it...I think Peter Tomasi is even a bit better than Geoff at juggling umpteen characters at once, though Geoff is still the king of Epic Story Arcs Containing Much Geek Knowledge.

P.S. Just a random spoiler...so far, it has been revealed there are three beings so far that the Black Lanterns can't reanimate/perceive properly: Don Hall (the original Dove); Dawn Granger (the current Dove) and Etrigan the Demon (!). Anybody want to speculate why?

Good Stuff! I am stuffed with Geeky Green Lantern Goodness.

My only concern with "Green Lantern" overall: Something has to be done with John Stewart. This moping over Xanshi's destruction-Fatality thing is going on waaaay waaay waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long without any development whatsoever. I get the feeling neither Tomasi nor Johns really wants to do anything with John Stewart; it's more like he always gets pushed into a corner in favor of the cool kids. But they really need to do SOMETHING with him.