by andersonh1 » Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:42 am
Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns trade paperback
This collection of Green Lantern issues begins in the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps War. Sinestro is locked up on Oa, the Corps is dealing with massive losses and the various characters try to get back to their lives and what passes for normality. But obviously, that’s not going to happen.
The book is divided into two halves. The first three chapters deal with the creation of the Alpha Lanterns and the expulsion of Green Lantern Laira from the Corps. The second half details the creation of the Red Lanterns and the first encounters with them, as well as introducing the Blue Lanterns. I have to admit that I think Geoff Johns has overdone it with the various different Corps and taken the concept too far, but at least up to this point the Red and Blue make sense on a certain level because they come into existence due to actions taken by the Green Lanterns and the Guardians.
The Alpha Lantern storyline concerns the Guardians’ precautions taken to keep the Corps in order after authorizing lethal force against the Sinestro Corps. The Alpha Lanterns are internal affairs, and are a hybrid of Green Lanterns and Manhunters who operate without emotion and have the ability to drain energy from the power rings. Laira kills a surrendering member of the Sinestro Corps and is tried for murder. She is stripped of her membership in the Corps and sent back to her home planet. While out in space, she is located by a red power ring and is forcibly inducted into the Red Lantern Corps.
So what do the Red Lanterns base their power on? Anger, of course (as if the title of the book isn’t a dead giveaway!). Their leader Atrocitus has it in for the Guardians for building the Manhunters who slaughtered almost everyone in his home space sector. He also wants Sinestro dead for imprisoning him. The Red Lanterns win the initial confrontation with the Green Lanterns quite easily, but then the first Blue Lantern turns up to help. The Blue Lantern Corps is in the process of being founded by Ganthet and Sayd after the rest of the Guardians exiled them, and its purpose is to assist the Green Lanterns by greatly increasing the power of their rings, among other things.
It’s amusing to see Hal Jordan briefly become a member of every corps in existence. He’s worn both green and yellow power rings, and in this storyline he becomes a Red Lantern after he’s overcome with rage when Sinestro murders Laira. To free him from the red ring, St. Walker puts a blue ring on his finger. I know he has a black ring forced on him temporarily in GL #50, and the cover of Agent Orange shows him with the orange ring (though covers can’t always be trusted of course). I wonder if he’ll get to wear the indigo and Star Sapphire power rings before it’s all over. I can’t really see Hal in pink.
Overall: From this point on, it’s clear that all the storylines are building up to “Blackest Night”. Side plots, like Hal’s Air Force career and standard hero versus super villain storylines are put on hold as the various corps are introduced. I think the concept of the Lantern Corps is stretched very thin, but on the other hand it’s a new idea, and Johns certainly can’t be accused of retreading the same old Green Lantern storylines.
You know Hal Jordan is going to be the title character of this movie as the first member of the Green Lantern Corps from Earth in the comics. The cartoons as I recall actually merged Hal and Kyle's stories together with one of the Superman episodes and Kyle was later shown as being on Oa duty in a JL episode to explain why he wasn't around.
