Things just get worse and worse.
Creative Staff:
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Javier Pina
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
What They Say:
Things are looking grim for the lost Corps members! With tensions running high, the brewing distrust between Kilowog and Guy Gardner comes to a head!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Though some of the central reasons for why everything is happening are still elusive, Green Lantern: Lost Army has its moments that keep me interested. I continue to like the idea of a decent sized number of the Lanterns being thrown back to this prior universe where Relic exists and things are falling apart as it presents us with some difficult choices for the characters to contend with. What I dislike is that there hasn’t been any real dialogue or exploration of how they ended up back here, or even a mention of what was going on prior to it. Having not been reading the main Green Lantern book, perhaps it’s been answered there, but it made getting into this series a bit difficult and at four issues it’s leaving me fairly frustrated.
With the team having learned a little bit more due to the arrival of Relic, who now has Krona on board, the team has been facing off against the Light Pirates that are out there sucking up all the precious energy. We got the cliffhanger the last time around of Arisia nearly being killed, but you know that will go only so far so it’s a matter of the fallout from it as John protects her. That plays into the flashback angle this time as we see him and his squad being chased through the poppy fields while protecting an injured comrade. It’s an obviously parallel to be sure but it’s a combined element of something that is utterly and completely uninteresting and it’s far, far too blunt and blatant to be effective. It just feels cheap and pandering overall rather than an effective way of showing some of what John has been through before and why he acts as he does.
The group is pretty much thrust from situation to situation and just has to cope with it and this installment does this once again as the Light Pirates suck ‘em dry. That has them taken prisoner aboard one of the ships so they can have every ounce ripped out of them, turning them into nothingness. A nice threat to be sure and a motivator as well, but it’s just a quick jump from dead in space to having their clothes changed and locked up in various groups. There are some cute moments as the various members realize they can’t communicate easily without their rings, but the appearance of Salaak and other Lanterns that were thrust into this past helps to ease that a bit. It’s far, far, too easy a thing to do though and just feels lazy. It may make sense in the bigger picture when it happens but not when it plays out here. That kind of appearance timed with seeing Guy and Kilowog fighting and going on about John and his bad choices in Guy’s point of view is just a lot of angst and pointlessness that feels hugely out of place here – and that’s from me knowing Guy in the books for far too many years.
In Summary:
Green Lantern: Lost Army comes across well here with Javier Pina stepping in for the artwork as he carries the style well and works the various scenes in space and on the ship in a good way, albeit with minimal detail since there really isn’t a need for a lot. The variety of creatures he gets to illustrate definitely works well and his style certainly fits the book, making it a seamless transition for me. Unfortunately, the story itself really feels like it’s clunking along more and more as it progresses. Or doesn’t progress as the case may be, as we get the group thrust into another situation, now without their rings, where they’re going to succeed because they’re all also really good without them compared to the light bearers of this universe. I’m continuing to be hopeful that there’s a real story and resolution to be had here, a point to all of it, but four issues in and I’m starting to lose that faith.
Grade: C
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 16th, 2015
MSRP: $2.99
