The Third Army Rises
By: Andrew Hines
The last year has had several twists and turns that nobody saw coming, primarily the return of Sinestro into the Green Lantern Corps. Even more surprising was that he was sponsored by the Guardians and replaced Hal Jordan. Yes, you read that correctly. Okay, so now that's out of the way. In the past year, they've teamed up, fought the Sinestro Corps, fought the Indigo Tribe and gone after Balck Hand, which gets us to where we are now. During this ginormous issue, Hal and Sinestro wake up six feet under. It's a hell of a way to start an issue. From Here on out I really can't say much more without giving away a HUGE piece spoiler.
So, how 'bout that Geoff Johns guy, huh? He's gone on a few ridiculous streaks with a full year of writing Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Justice League (reviewed earlier this week). This is a great issue in many respects, most notably Johns' introduction of the Third Army, which is not what I expected. It's a giant "WTF?!" moment when you finish the issue. That, in my mind, is fantastic. It's a game changer for the Green Lanterns, an event that will play across all 4 Lantern titles for the next 4 regular issues in the "Rise of the Third Army" story arc. The dialogue, transitions, pacing and inclusion of canon make this as close as we've gotten to Johns' masterpiece in his 6 years of writing the Green Lantern characters.
Ethan Van Sciver does a great job on his first issue of Green Lantern following Doug Mahnke' departure from the title after issue 12. He ups the ante just in time for some real changes in the title. The pencils he's laid down are a step or two up from Mahnke's work on the title for the last few issues. He's aided by Cam Smith's inks and Brian Miller's colors, which round out a beautiful issue. The detail and colors are amazing on this one.
I give this an "A". The beauty of the images fits the silver tongue keyboard of Mr. Johns. This really is the best comic I've seen in the last few months. If you only pick up one Annual this week, make it Green Lantern Annual #1.
