Wednesday, May 1, 2019

The Green Lantern #7 Review and **SPOILERS**


Jim and Eric Will Hate This Issue

Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist and Colorist: Liam Sharp
Letters: Tom Orzechowski
Cover: Liam Sharp & Steve Oliff
Variant Cover: Emanuela Lupacchino & Rex Lokus
Associate Editor: Jessica Chen
Editor: Brian Cunningham
Cover Price: $3.99
On Sale Date: May 1, 2019

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Wow! I would love to write some pithy preamble to this, but Jim and Eric are going to hate The Green Lantern #7 so much, I can barely contain myself. So on to the review!


Explain It!

So Hal Jordan is trapped in his ring, inside of which a wizard named Myrwhidden has created a world of constructs which adore him in a setting that is familiar. One of these constructs, however, takes a special liking to Hal Jordan—this is Pengowirr, the embodiment of his power ring. The Guardians having siphoned off most of the energy from the ring last issue, when he defused that U-Bomb, the ring played its Hail Mary and shoved Hal within it into Myrwhidden’s universe, which is now dying as the power ring loses the rest of its energy. Hal gets Myrwhidden, which gives Hal enough power to shoot the ring to the nearest Lantern, and there he pops out of the ring, says the oath, and all is well.
And it’s a kind of touching story about a man and his ring. But all I can think about is how much Jim and Eric are going to despite this comic book. Eric, for one, will be so annoyed at the complete break in continuity; Hal created his current ring using raw willpower from his, uh, willpower organs, so there should be no wizards stuffed in there by the Guardians. That was a past continuity. Also, he shouldn’t need to find the nearest Lantern, his own Lantern should be in a pocket universe—if he even needs to charge up there at all. In recent issues, we’ve seen Hal sort of exist on his own volition.
Jim will hate the sheer mass of text in this issue, and it is an incredible amount of text—so much, that it just exists, in white lettering, over the meticulously-rendered art and interesting layouts. Jim is going to be furious that so much of this story is told and not shown, and that scenes which could very easily be comic book pages being reduced to something you might see in a toddler’s book of bedtime stories. Which is sort of the point, design-wise. But lord, you gotta wonder if we could have saved a lot of time and effort and left the pictures out of this entirely.
For me, I think it was a decent story, and it definitely showed Hal’s connection to his ring, but the way it flaunted continuity did bug me a little. I liked the way the story was told, though, and I thought the type design was highly readable. The layouts are the real hero of this issue, Liam Sharp had the room to get creative, and he took it. This issue is not for those looking for a quick, breezy read, but fans of fantasy and folklore should give it a look.

Bits and Pieces:

This issue’s story is told in a unique, copy-heavy style that should be familiar to fans of illustrated fantasy tales. Folks looking for a Green Lantern story respective of recent continuity, however, get hosed.

7/10

2 comments:

  1. Wasn't this that episode of Dr Who Gaiman wrote? Just cross out "TARDIS" and write in "ring."

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  2. Gorgeous book, great story. I was totally drawn in. One of the best books of the week IMHO.

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