Out of control!
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom Taylor
Art: Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran
Colors: Rex Lokus
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Hal Jordan and Sinestro are powerless and their prison compound is under siege by the Red Lanterns. A desperate gambit by Jordan may save the day, but also cost him his sanity.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While I never read the original run itself, the expansion on the Green Lantern Corps was something that really appealed to me. I enjoyed the hell out of it through various events and its us in the Green Lantern animated series, which was an absolute delight. So I’m thrilled to see Tom Taylor digging into a little bit of it in this arc with Hal working off his punishment on the world of Harring and having the Red Lanterns arrive. With this issue, Daniel Sampere returns on art duties and it’s definitely a solid installment for him with a good sense of power from numerous scenes and facial expressions as well as the fun in the weapons that are created through the rings, which Rex Lokus gets to have fun in playing with through the always excellent color design.
The arrival of Atrocitus in his search for Sinestro has made for quite the tense situation with him, Soranik, and Hal under Soranik’s ring shield while Atrocitus and his side make clear what they want. At the same time, Jinwick and the other Green Lanterns are watching off to the side while waiting for clearance about how to proceed from the Guardians. The Red Lanterns aren’t well-known at this point though they’ve been interacted with before so it’s good to see a proactive element to it here. That’s given a real push when Atrocitus works to break the barrier and get his hands on Sinestro as Jinwick’s able to step in before it gets too bad off and take out at least one of them with a sanctioned headshot kill. The melee doesn’t get a whole lot of time between the two sides but the splash page for it is fun as is the little bit more than that that we get.
The two main thrusts with this book that I really enjoyed was seeing Sinestro protecting Soranik against her own wishes which opens her up to more danger as Atrocitus just wanted Sinestro. Now that he knows who she is, she’s far more of a target to be manipulated or destroyed. But the big piece that I really loved, and I’ll admit I wasn’t thinking forward about this (because this book zoops when you think it might zag after a zig), but watching him and Sinestro get into a fight as Sinestro races for the fallen Red Ring is great as Hal ends up wearing int. We know of his legendary willpower but he’s also a character that has long had a whole lot of anger, most of it misplaced toward others. That anger toward himself manifests itself in a really powerful way here that even has Atrocitus taking pause, which has me hopeful that this arc can go really big when all is said and done.
In Summary:
As much as I’ve been enjoying Injustice 2 since it got itself squared away after the initial run, I’m enjoying it even more now. Taking a break from the earthly adventures and the focus on the cast that has dominated for so long is exactly what was needed. Taylor’s clearly enjoying playing with something a little different and with a new set of stakes involved and Daniel Sampere is definitely nailing it with the look and flow of it and just the fun of what’s involved with the action and impact from what happens to Hal here. Definitely a very solid installment that has me eager to see more of this arc and what twists and turns are ahead.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 24th, 2018
MSRP: $0.99
