Green Lantern Corps #17 Review

The second part of Wrath of the First Lantern immediately starts with Volthoom enacting his plan -- the one he detailed quite heavily in Green Lantern #17 -- on Guy Gardner. It starts strongly by exploring some high intensity moments in Guy’s past, only to flounder in the latter half due to an overabundance of unnecessary violence, which has been a hallmark of this title since its New 52 relaunch. So this issue does have an interesting character beat for Guy, but you have to sit through several Lanterns having their heads decimated to get it.

Artist Fernando Pasarin shines once again in the non-Green Lantern scenes depicting Guy on a frozen lake and in a desperate airport chase. When he’s given the room to let his pencils breathe, Pasarin turns in some well-rounded visuals that hit all of the emotional beats with ease. The title splash page featuring Volthoom’s powers is not unlike a broken computer with wires spilling out, so you’ll have to squint and search between the energy tendrils to find anything of meaning. It’s lucky that the best part of that page is easily viewable -- a wink to Guy’s pre-Rebirth form.

It feels strange for Geoff Johns to introduce the first ever Muslim Green Lantern in Simon Baz, only for Peter J. Tomasi to reveal here that Guy Gardner’s career shattering altercation was with a suicide bomber who could very well be Middle Eastern. One step forward, two steps back? But that scene is nothing compared to the one that follows, as it oversteps the boundary of good taste into gratuitous violence territory. It’s tough to judge everything shown here without knowing the entire Wrath of the First Lantern story, so even though everything here seems a bit much, it’ll take time to merit its true weight.

Joshua writes for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl or on IGN, where he’ll tell you more than you ever wanted to know about Green Lantern, Darth Maul, and Pokemon.

Source : ign[dot]com