Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #34 Review and **SPOILERS**

Caught ‘Napping

Writer: Robert Vendetti

Breakdowns: Tom Derenick

Penciller & Inker: Jack Herbert

Colorist: Jason Wright

Letterer: Dave Sharpe

Cover: Francis Manapul 

Cover Price: $2.99

On Sale Date: December 13, 2017

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM** 

There’s pretty much only one fair direction to go with this, now that we know the Controllers are the ones that have kidnapped the Guardians: explain who the Controllers are. I think this should have been done last issue, and said as much on the podcast, given that their culpability was advertised on the cover. But that didn’t happen, and if it doesn’t happen in this issue then it’s a mean trick to have dragged them out of mothballs. Find out what happens in my review of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #34, right here!

Explain It! 

There are all kinds of studies of twin babies, separated at birth, who are then reunited as adults and turn out to have the power to turn into any animal and any water-based thing by putting their rings together. But no one ever does studies of siblings that live in the same house, yet are so different from each other that it’s difficult to believe that they came from the same species. I can think of so many contentious brothers, fellows who share similar facial features but who have made a concerted effort their entire lives to distances themselves from the other as much as possible. Which isn’t to say they don’t love each other, but more to illustrate how a difference of opinion can sometimes exist due to a lack of better options.

So it seems billions and skillions of years ago, Maltusians disagreed on how to run the galaxy: the ones that would become the blue-skinned Guardians believed in a law-based police force, while those that would evolve into tall, red-skinned Controllers believed in…well, control, I suppose. I mean, both factions believed in controlling the cosmos in their own way, which may be their ultimate hubris, but the Controllers were more your run-of-the-mill despots, while the Guardians were at least high-minded, if bumbling protectors. So anyway, the Controllers have captured all of the Guardians left anywhere, so it’s time for the Green Lantern Corps to get some answers!

John Stewart sends Kyle, Hal and Guy into space to gather intel, each in their own way, and this sequence is pretty great. It’s actually made spectacular by the very impressive visuals by the art team. I was going to save the gushing until the end, but I’m too excited. There’s a scene where Kyle is eavesdropping on a conversation to get the skinny, and it’s done in a subtle, cinematic way that was was quite effective. Our Private Green Dicks find out where the Controllers have the Guardians, and John suggests that just the four of them go without alerting the rest of the Corps, lest they tip their hand. But while they stand around chattering about that shit, one of the Guardians gets ground up into goop and reconstituted as…a new Controller! Because they can’t reproduce either, you see. I might have mentioned that sooner.

So yeah—the art in this issue is fantastic! Right from the Francis Manapul cover to the well-plotted and supremely-rendered interiors, it really made me enthusiastic to read it. It was also a pleasure to read the middle chunk with the core Green Lantern Corps (the core Corps, that is) working in concert, and a refresher on the origin of the Controllers (which we should have seen last issue, frankly) was much appreciated for narrative purposes. But that art! This title never ceases to impress where the looking is concerned, such great teams being rotated in and out of the schedule.

Bits and Pieces:

Some late backstory and upfront Green Lantern hijinks make for an entertaining issue. The stellar art takes this book into another level. No stunted cover reveals this time, the interior pages really are a treat to see.

8.5/10