Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Green Lanterns #16 Review and *SPOILERS*



Fear The Batman


Written By: Sam Humphries
Art By: Neil Edwards, Jay Leisten, Keith Champagne, Blond, Travis Lanham
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: February 1, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Since we had that one-shot last issue dealing with Jessica's anxiety and now that we're moving into Gotham City so that our heroes can have themselves an old fashioned superhero team-up, it doesn't look like we're going to be dealing with Volthoom taking over Rami's body anytime soon.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all about having a team-up with Batman, I just find it kind of odd that we left the Phantom Lantern arc with this gigantic reveal and have yet to do anything with it.  Maybe, Sam Humphries is letting it marinate by leaving that plot just sitting there so when we finally get it, it will be so damn delicious we won't be able to help but just eat it up.......... I don't know what I'm talking about anymore....... I think I'm hungry.  Anyway, let's move on to Gotham, where Batman has an urgent situation that only our Green Lantern heroes can handle.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with our heroes flying into Gotham, while Batman takes on a guy with a bat, who seems pretty damn determined to kill the Dark Knight and if not our hero, his partner and himself so that Batman can't get them.  Yeah, this dude is pretty off his rocker, but he's not nearly as crazy as Batman and Simon Baz when our heroes finally show up and subdue our initial foe.  Yeah, Batman has an idea that whatever is infecting people with fear throughout the city is the Sinestro Corps and Simon goes straight where any logical Batman reader would go and assumes it's the Scarecrow, but the crazy part begins when Commissioner Gordon asks about Simon's gun and Batman goes all bat shit about Simon not having it while he's in Gotham and then Simon biting back about how he'll use whatever the hell he wants to.


After Simon and Batman stop arguing, Jessica figures out from the attacker's computer that the yellow spectrum is being used somehow through some anti-Batman propaganda videos off a blog, which leads our heroes to check into it at the Batcave.  After Simon and Jessica's initial wonder of it all, they get down to business and start checking out what's going on with that blog and how it could possibly be using the yellow spectrum through it........... I don't know what they expect to find though because even Simon and Jessica's rings can't determine how it's being used.  Maybe checking this out wasn't the best idea though because when Batman brings it up on the Bat computer, it affects Alfred, who beats the hell out of Simon, steals his gun and threatens to blow his brains out if he even so much as makes the ring glow........... Turns out Batman was right.


In the end, we move away from the Batcave, where a bunch of people are at terminals watching the anti-Batman videos and being affected by the fear it induces and as our issues closes it seems that both our heroes were right about their assumptions because it looks like the Scarecrow misses his time with the yellow ring from Blackest Night and from when The Paling attacked Earth because he's painted a Sinestro Corps symbol on his chest and is somehow harnessing the light and sending it through the internet.  


That's it for this issue of Green Lanterns and while this story really picked up by the end and got me really interested in what was going on, I found myself really disliking the first half because of how over the top both Simon and Batman were about Simon's gun.  Yeah, we all know that Batman has issues with guns, but for him to go all off the handle the way he did in front of Gordon, it just didn't feel right, especially since Simon is a teammate of his in the Justice League and this is something that's been a part of Simon since he first became a Lantern.  I really hope that this is explained away through the manipulation of the fear by the Scarecrow, but as it is right now, it just felt really off to me.  Besides that though, I had a great time with this quick read and I thought the art looked great the whole way through.  

Bits and Pieces:

While I thought that this issue started off odd, it did eventually pick back up and get me really interested to see what this arc is all about.  I love seeing our Lantern heroes having an old fashioned team-up and it didn't hurt that the entire book looked incredible either.

7.5/10

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