Green Lantern Corps #6 finishes off the Corps’ first story arc of the new 52 by wrapping up some loose ends and posing some important questions of morality for the titles main characters.
When we last left off, John Stewart and two other Green Lanterns had been captured and are being tortured by the Keepers on their home world of Urak. The Keepers watched over the Green Lantern Corps’ power batteries when they were tucked away in their subspace pockets, but since the Guardians decreed that all Green Lanterns are directly responsible for the whereabouts of their power batteries the Keepers have lost their purpose and their planet has fallen into ruin without the power of the batteries. However, due to their prolonged exposure to the batteries the Keepers are all but immune to the Green Lantern’s power rings.
The Keepers are torturing John Stewart, as well as the other two lanterns, in an effort to obtain the code to Oa’s force field. Their goal is to replace Oa as the center of the galaxy with their own world. John Stewart takes some drastic measures in order to keep the code safe from the Keepers, and even though his actions are justified I have a feeling that the repercussions of his decisions are going to crop up in future issues.
While the Keepers are trying to glean information from the imprisoned Green Lanterns, Guy Gardner is leading his ragtag group of lanterns armed with Earth weapons and a Fear Bomb in order to save John Stewart and the others, while stopping the Keepers from executing their nefarious plan. Because their rings are practically useless against the Keepers they plan on invading the planet the ol’ fashioned way.
Overall, I thought that the issue was solid. The first story arc by Peter Tomasi is very nostalgic of older Green Lantern plots and doesn’t deviate from the tried and true method of introducing a new nemesis, losing the first battle, triumphantly returning as the underdog, and finishing with the Green Lanterns winning the day. The art by Fernando Pasarin is great and remains the series strong point. This issue sports some great splash pages that border on some of the larger spreads found in Blackest Night, Brightest Day, War of the Green Lanterns.
Comparatively, this is the best Green Lantern series of the bunch. The inclusion of a new artist in the core cannon is awful and I had a difficult time finishing last week’s Green Lantern issue, and the Red Lanterns and Green Lantern: New Guardians have potential but have been slow to start.
If you want a Green Lantern run in your subscription list but are having a hard time picking—Green Lantern Corps is the run for you.
Cheers,
read/RANT! 
it is nice (to me) to hear someone else commenting on terrible artwork. It seems as if a lot of readers are quite satisfied with terrible products as long as they can add another comic to their collection. over the years i’ve had collections disrupted because I couldn’t bring myself to part with hard-earned cash just to maintain.
If it’s a knock-’em dead storyline I might suck-it up and buy but I try to be strong most times. Just because I can’t draw doesn’t mean I should be satisfied with sub-par artwork; not if I’m buying.
I was aghast last week when the new Green Lantern released. I thought that the characters looked childish and at first I thought that the issue was beginning with a flashback of Hal and Carol. I don’t have a pension for drawing myself, but that does not mean that I’ll be purchasing bad art either.
I found this issue just a bit too chaotic. I think that was purposeful on the part of writer and artist, but I didn’t like it quite as much. I also didn’t quite understand the “fear bomb”. Otherwise, I agree it was a solid issue and that Corps is very close, if not, the best of the GL titles.
As for artwork, I think we have to accept that fill-in art is a necessary evil for books to stay on schedule (which I personally prefer). You have to assume that most of the “best” artists already have gigs. Sometimes this leads to some pretty shabby fill-in art. That said, what I find shabby, others might really like. It’s very subjective. My personal preference, though, is for fill-in artists who are at least similar in style to the regular artist. Swamp Thing has done very well in that regard. Rudy is a great fill-in for Paquette.
I wish Tomasi had gone a little more in depth with the ‘Fear Bomb’ concept either last issue, or this one. It is an interesting premise and if explained right could add some novelty to the GL-verse.
I had a conversation with a Spokane comic book shop owner who said in a perfect world he would love to see an industry-wide cutback of comics (around twenty-percent) and see all of the best artists and writers put together on their flagship franchises. That way the ‘fill-in artist’ predicament in order to reach deadlines would all but be mute, and then the price of comics could be lowered across the board to $1.99. Sales would then be made up by selling in volume.
An interesting idea that they’ll never do, but a pannapictagraphist can hope…
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