Sunday, December 7, 2014

Green Lantern #37 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Robert Venditti
Art By: Francis Portela, Scott McDaniel, Brad Anderson
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: December 3, 2014



Death To The New Gods!


Welcome to GODHEAD Act 3 Part 1 and man am I happy to be reading this book.  I was a little underwhelmed by the conclusion to Act 2 but I have high hopes here.  So our Lanterns are in a mess after the last Act, Highfather has extracted the Life Equation from Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardner and Simon Baz went to New Genesis as a two man wrecking crew but wound up getting captured almost immediately and in the last part we saw John Stewart, Sinestro and a bunch of different Lanterns getting double crossed by Indigo-1 when she was supposed to teleport the group as a sneak attack against the New Gods, but ended up sending them to a pit surrounded by Orion and his guard.  So yeah, everyone is pretty much screwed right now and it looks like it's up to Hal and his plan to recruit Black hand and his Black Lanterns into the fight because as of right now, they're our only hope.  That's weird to say.  So let's check out this issue of Green Lantern and see how Hal fairs.

Explain It!:

Our story begins with Hal Jordan back on Earth confronting Black Hand, who seems to be bored out of his mind since Hal Jordan left the planet.  As we saw last issue of Green Lantern, Black Hand has created a whole circus of Black Lanterns to give him a little show and I'm happy as hell that Dick Grayson is off somewhere doing his secret agent thing because Black Hand went a little too far and brought his parents back for his big top finale.  Speaking of going too far, Black Hand even has the balls to bring back Hal's father and you never want to see your father being zombied around by a creep like Black Hand or you know, see your father all decomposing.  Now I have a question to pose to all of you out there in interwebs land.  When Black Hand first presents Hal's father to him, he says that Hal's father is a good man, he gave him a helping right hand when he needed it.  Am I just an awful awful sick fuck here or is Black Hand suggesting what I think he's suggesting?  It could really go either way for me because we all know that Black Hand is a sick fuck that hates Hal Jordan, so if he is suggesting what I think he's suggesting, it does kind of seem like something he'd do as a "fuck you" to his enemies and no one's more of an enemy to Black Hand than Hal.

After working through his pain by yelling into the air like Keanu Reeves in Point Break, Hal tells Black Hand about what's been going on with the New Gods, the Life Equation and the war that's begun between the Lantern Corps' and forces from New Genesis.  It all boils down to Black Hand thinking the Life Equation sounds bad and war creates casualties, so that sounds good.  Black Hand agrees to help Hal and the two fly off to meet Sinestro and the Corps at the Source Wall, but before they get too far, Hal lets Black Hand know that after this is all over he's going to make him hurt for what he did to his father.


So the two get to the Source Wall and Hal is trying to figure out where his allies are and why they aren't following the plan they all laid out.  If you remember the Lantern team that got captured by the New Gods in Sinestro #7, were supposed to wait for Hal to get back with Black Hand, but it's Sinestro so I don't really know what Hal was expecting.  So the back up isn't coming and Hal is left at the Source Wall with Black Hand who doesn't seem to understand what The Source Wall is and tells Hal that he'd like to compliment the builder of the wall and even after Orion shows up with a bunch of his guard, Black Hand is just asking questions about if the "Space War" that Hal promised him was behind the wall.  I'm starting to think that Black Hand died one too many times and his brain stopped regenerating back all the way, but then I started thinking that maybe his A.D.D. is more about him sensing the death that the Source Wall pretty much is and for some reason as I stared up at the ceiling stroking my beard, giving me that sophisticated pondering look, the fight I'd been waiting for between the New Gods and the Lanterns went down without me.


In the end Hal gets Black Hand's attention as the fight with Orion begins and Black Hand unleashes a bunch of former Green Lanterns, which just really infuriates Hal, but what are you going to do when you decide to team up with Black Hand?  So none of the emotional spectrums that we've seen have really been able to put a dent into any of the New Gods so far, but for some reason the guard seem really freaked out about these zombies coming at them and I was shocked to see that these Black Lanterns can actually really hurt the New Gods.  But it all goes to hell when Black Hand sees one of the guard get a little too close to the Source Wall and witnesses him turn to stone.  The Black Lanterns that were holding Orion back from kicking Hal's ass go "poof" as Black Hand realizes that the Source Wall is a mass grave.


That's it for GODHEAD Act 3, Part 1 and this month's issue of Green Lantern.  This was a really enjoyable issue but I have a slight problem with Black Hand.  Now it's been awhile since I've seen William Hand in action, but I don't quite remember him being a parody of The Crypt Keeper from the old HBO Tales From The Crypt show.  I mean Black Hand is pulling out death puns and just seems to have become a all around zanier character than I remember him being.  Now you might remember all his zany antics from before, but what I recall is a pretty calm, dark and scary figure.  But like I said, it was still an enjoyable issue and if Black Hand has gone a little loopy from only hanging around dead folks, then so be it.  Francis Portela is on art this issue and while I normally like what he brings to the table, I find myself just looking at this book and wishing Brad Walker was on it instead.  It seemed overly cartoony, almost to accentuate Black Hand's over the top-ness.  Really it just wasn't for me.  Make sure you're back here next week as we continue the story in Green Lantern Corps #37, where hopefully John Stewart belts Sinestro in the mouth for all the shit he was talking in Sinesto's title and hopefully we'll see our heroes escape the clutches of the New Gods and give Hal a little backup.  See you then.

Bits and Pieces:

I love getting Black Hand and the Black Lanterns back into the Green Lantern stories, but I found myself a little weirded out this issue by Black Hand's personality.  He just seemed to come off a little more cartoony than I remember him being before, but it was still a great issue and I loved seeing these two enemies team up to kick a little New God ass.  Make sure you check out this issue and begin Act 3 Part 1 of GODHEAD.  You won't want to miss out on this.

7.5/10

6 comments:

  1. Haha! I think you are a sick fuck. When black hand says Hal's dad gave him a helping right hand. He's refering to Green Lanter 23.3 of villains month. This issue shows black hand coming back to life. He's comfused as to why he's back, he wonders into a graveyard and Hal's dad is the first he revives. He talks to Hal's dad telling him why he hates Hal. He tells him that it was Hal who once burned his hand off and rips his own hand off and tosses it while he explains. In return Hal's dad rips his own hand off and hands it to Black hand. Black hand then attaches Hal's dad's hand to his arm.

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    1. XD I didnt know that, but thats actually interesting.

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    2. Everywhere else we get those editor's notes about what issue they are referencing and here they decide not to put one? I wasn't reviewing Green Lantern at that point and missed out on the Black Hand villains month issue, so you could be right, or Black Hand could of gotten a happy ending as well. You know what? We're both right.

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    3. I just agree that Eric is a sick fuck! It's so true.

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  2. I dont know why the new gods with orion arent adding 2 and 2 right now about how F#$%ED they are now. The source wall is a mass grave....and they just saw what black lanterns do to the dead....and its a mass grave...with giant alien creatures of the past....AND ITS A MASS GRAVE

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  3. It's possible that he can't affect them because they are a part of the Source Wall and even if Orion knew he could, he's a New God and arrogant as hell. Only reason I'm thinking they might not let Black Hand pull those corpses is because of the Green Lantern Futures End. Hal and Relic fought the Black Lantern Krona there and he never went after Source Wall people.

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