Where In The World Is Black Hand?
By: Andrew Hines
Anyone who is familiar with Green Lantern should know that the GLs weren’t the Guardians’ first attempt at amassing an army. Before the first rings were handed out, they had the Manhunters, an intergalactic android police force that eventually went all HAL 9000 on all sentient life. They figured the GLs would be better since they could actually distinguish between, right wrong and that pesky grey area that lawyers live in. Then Hal Jordan had to become Parallax, kill half of the Corps and bring us around that whole Blackest Night fiasco. Now the Guardians want to bring about a mysterious Third Army. Apparently, Hal's old sparring partner Black Hand may have something to do with it. He seems to also be a Black Lantern still. Just sayin'...
As far as issue 11 goes, the “Revenge of Black Hand” (there’s a clue somewhere in that title), it starts off with Hal turning the tables on Sinestro, which made me smile. They’re starting to figure some things out and thankfully just said that Blackest Night definitely happened. There’s some great dialogue and Hal makes a rookie mistake or two. All in all Geoff Johns has done a pretty good job of pacing and storytelling. I’d go into more detail, but you should pick up the issue to read it for yourself.
The art really only ranks at a B. Doug Mahnke is a decent artist, but this really isn’t the title for him, especially since it started with Ivan Reis. The last half dozen or so, haven’t been as great as his potential has shown in the past. Likewise for Christian Alamy’s inks. It just seems excessive in places where some extra color could make a big difference. The same goes for Tony Avina and Alex Sinclair’s colors. Sinestro’s more pinkish than purple, but you’d never know it by the deep colors here.
As a whole, it earns a B+ from the art team and Johns’ writing. I recommend the title, but this issue isn’t their best.
Update: Comments and critiques are welcome and encouraged. As usual, please be constructive with them rather than negative. Thanks.
