Klaatu Barada Nicto: Green Lantern #11 Review
On one hand, Green Lantern #11 is an encouraging sign that the book might be returning to its glory days of the spectacular Blackest Night crossover from a couple years ago… almost literally. We’ve got the return of that crossover’s villain Black Hand, he’s got his Black Lantern ring back and he’s bringing the dead back, getting ready to take over the world again. It’s exciting, even though it’s a story that maybe we’ve seen before.
On the other hand, Green Lantern is a sign that the book might be returning to another story from the past. That story is Army of Darkness.
This issue is very much a transition story, wrapping up the recent origin of the Indigo Tribe while laying the groundwork for the upcoming Third Army event, of which it appears that the returning Black Hand will be a big part of. Sinestro has been released from the thrall of the Indigo Lanterns, which is a shame, since on an infinite timeline we’d have see a lettering mistake having Indigo Sinestro muttering, “Nok. Kok. Nok kok. Kok nok. Kok.” Yes, I am emotionally twelve years old, why do you ask?
In that story, the Indigos removed the throttle from Hal’s Sinestro-provided ring that prevented Hal from taking direct action against Sinestro. Meaning that after eleven issues of the rebooted Green Lantern, we might finally see Green Lantern in a position to actually, you know, fight his fucking arch nemesis. While I get that writer Geoff Johns has been going for some kind of a buddy cop movie vibe by forcing Hal to work with Sinestro, after eleven months of it, I’m ready to see the arrogant douchebag eventually take a green fist to the plums like in the old days. To be clear, by “arrogant douchebag,” I mean Sinestro. When it comes to Hal Jordan, it’s sometimes best to be clear about these things.
However, that eventual satisfying dickpunch will need to wait, because Black Hand has also escaped the Indigos’ influence, has recovered his Black Lantern ring, and returned to Earth, resurrecting his long-dead family for a little domestic argument because apparently his Black Lantern power comes at the cost of not being able to understand that the big bonus of your family being dead is that you can finally stop bickering with them over your career choices. Black Hand makes his villain plan speech, while Hal and Sinestro go on the hunt for him, and things start to get interesting… just as the issue ends.
On one hand, this issue is a good jumping-on point for new readers, bridging into a new storyline as it does. On the other hand, it’s not a particularly great issue because as a bridge, not a whole hell of a lot happens, It’s all resolution from the Indigo Tribe story and setup for the Black Hand / Third Army stories. It’s a lot of talking, and setting up plot points – if Sinestro’s whole, “Once the ring selects you, you are forever a Green Lantern. Until the day you die,” thing doesn’t wind up being key to what happens with Black Hand, I’ll shit my pants – and seeing the Sinestro Cave, which shows that either crime really does pay, or that Hal needs to fire his financial adviser.
But the main thing that stuck out to me about this issue was that there were elements of the story that were extremely reminiscent of a classic story: Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness. The main thing being the Book of The Black, which, once Sinestro opens it, sucks both Hal and Sinestro into it against their wills. Which seems kinda familiar…
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