Wow, I completely suck for not posting in so long, hopefully this long-ish post will make up for it. This one's for you Farooq.
I recently reread the entire Sinestro Corps War saga in the three hardcovers that DC has put out (Vol. 1, 2 and Tales of the Sinestro Corps) and dammit all if this isn't one of the best comic book stories of all time. Geoff Johns helmed this epic with the help of fellow GL writers Dave Gibbons, Pete Tomasi and Ron Marz while artists like Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason and others drew the heck out of it.
GREEN LANTERN: THE SINESTRO CORPS WAR VOL. ONE
Johns and Gibbons both seeded elements of this tale in both Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, but this is where all that craziness goes on, starting with one of my favorite one shots of all time the Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War one-shot which shows the Sinestro Corps waging war on the Green Lantern home world of Oa. There's even a super patient Yellow Lantern who hid in an asteroid field just so that he could bust out and snipe the crap out of some GLs. There's a real sense of "how the heck are the going to get out of this?" But before all that, the GL that will always have a soft place in my heart, Kyle Rayner, gets sucked the Qward where he gets infected with Parallax, the embodiment of fear (oh yeah, whereas the GLs represent willpower, the YLs represent fear on the emotional spectrum).
But the craziness doesn't stop there (and neither does the issue). As the Sinestros slaughter the GLs (who can't kill anyone with their rings) we find out that Superboy Prime (yeah, I called him SuperBOY Prime and I'm not gonna stop) and Cyborg Superman are on Sinestro's side. And, as readers of GL will remember, Cyborg's actually in charge of the Manhunters, the Guardians' first crack at a police force (though robotic instead of "human"). But that's not the biggest kicker. That boot belongs to the fact that their guardian is actually the Anti-Monitor. Now, they don't really get into an explanation as to how the heck AM is still alive after Crisis on Infinite Earths, but they do mention something like "When the universe redid itself, we found him." Hey, it's good enough for me.
Okay, that's the end of the first issue. Personally, I think the set up for all of this, which was inspired by Alan Moore's BRILLIANT "Darkest Night" story which you can find in one of my favorite trades of all time: DC Universe:The Stories of Alan Moore. Bringing back Cyborg as leader of the Manhunters and incorporating Superboy Prime (who was involved with Countdown, but seriously, who was reading that?) just made so much sense. I love when creators actually do something with older characters that have been forgotten that were important at one time (like Prime was prior to Infinite Crisis).
And Ethan Van Sciver's can't be ignored. Like with Green Lantern: Rebirth, Ethan just kills it. He also continues one of my favorite elements of Geoff and Ethan's reboot: the different ways the the GLs use their rings. Kilowog and Guy are like forces of nature, Kyle's very artistic and John Stewart, the engineer that he is, designs all of his constructs from all their parts. Additionally, you've got nine splash pages and spreads that blow my mind, especially the spread of the Yellow Lanterns on Qward. Just sick.
Okay, so it's not all one issue. After fending off the SC's first attack, the Guardians decide to destroy the Blackest Night chapter of the Book of Oa which carries the prophecy of how the Corps will fall, causing a rift between Ganthet and Sayd and the other Guardians. Ganthet and Sayd appear to Hal Jordan via his ring and tell him he needs to be the leader of the Corps again, Hal doesn't know how the others will take that, but he doesn't really have time to think about it as the Parallax being (who was reinserted into the main battery) grabs Hal, Guy (my second favorite GL) and John Stewart to Qward where Hal rumbles with the Parallax-possessed Kyle.
There's also a quick aside in the GLC book where Sinestro visits his homeworld of Korugar, the planet that he ruled with an iron fist when he was a GL (which is exactly what he got banished for) to meet Soranik Natu, the current GL from Korugar. Though it seems like kind of a throwaway issue, it's not because we get more insight into Sinestro's motives. He's actually challenging the GLs with his Corps in order to make the GLs more effective. The big storypoint in this issue is that GL partners-but-not-really Stel (a robot) and Green Man realize that the Sinestro Corps is leading an attack against Mogo, the living planet GL. Holy crap!
From here on out the story is split between Hal fighting Kyle, trying to free him from Parallax, the Lost Lanterns joining in and the other GLs fighting on Mogo. But we also find out why Cyborg's involved in all this: he wants to die and the Anti Monitor claims he can make it happen. We also get a creepy page of Superboy Prime sitting on the moon just waiting and watchign Earth. More on that later. The moments where Hal's trying to help Kyle are really great to me because I actually started reading GL when Hal went crazy and destroyed the Corps and Kyle was the one and only. There's something really cool about the two characters that a lot of fans never thought they'd see together (and definitely not on the same side) in reversed roles: Kyle's the bad guy and Hal's trying to help him. I also really like the Lost Lanterns because I really liked those guys and it makes me feel better about watching Hal's exploits when I know that he didn't really kill the only other GLs I knew about.
Of course, the Lost Lanterns don't really see it that way as most of them still hold a grudge against Hal who they're now forced to work with as they run for their lives on Qward as their batteries run out of juice and they try to find Guy and John.
Now we move on to the crazy fight on Mogo as the GLs defend him against an evil living city with a mad on for Guy (even though he's nowhere near Mogo) full of 100 Yellow Lanterns which starts off with just Stel and Green Man standing between Mogo and the Sinestro Corps. Of course, Kilowog and company join up with them and put up a heck of a fight. The living city is actually pretty hilarious as it continues to whine about Guy Gardner, demanding his presence and death. There's a whole lot of craziness going on, most of which I don't want to get into, but the Sinestro Corps is basically trying to kill Mogo because he figures out where the rings go to after a Lantern dies. He's also the soul of the GLC and, of course, the biggest member.
Another subplot I forgot to mention is that the Guardians tasked Arisia with keeping Sodom Yat safe. They're not sure why he's important, but anyone who read Alan Moore's story knows that Sodom will be the savior of the GLC. Awesome! There's also a big fight between Kilowog and his opposite member in the SC Arkillo, a weird toothy monster. They duke it out pretty bad, but they don't finish until later.
The last issue of the first hardcover ends with Guy and John free, Hal sucking energy out of yellow lanterns, Ganthet and Sayd getting banished from the Guardians, the Anti-Monitor killing Lost Lantern Ke'Haan (Jack Chance got killed in an earlier issue) and the kicker of the Guardians telling the GLC about the first of the new ten laws: they can kill memebrs of the Sinestro Corps. There's a lot I like about this issue. Of course, John and Guy getting back in the game is awesome. Also, Hal conquering the yellow lanterns is rad because it proves that he's over the fear that poisoned him. The deaths of these characters also really got me. I'm not sure if it's because of the older GL stories I've read or because Geoff had made them such interesting characters or if I just freaking love Green Lanterns so much that the death of any recognizable one gets me. I'm a softy that way. Finally, the first new rule makes a lot of sense. I mean, the Green Lanterns are cops, they should be able to ice the bad guys when necessary. Of course, there's more to it than that as we'll find out later on.
GREEN LANTERN: THE SINESTRO CORPS WAR VOL. TWO
So this book starts with the Green Lanterns saving Mogo in a cool way that, again, would take a while to explain and seeing as how this is already a pretty long post, I'll skip it, but add that it was really cool (living planets who are GLs are always cool). From there we find out that the Yellow Lanterns actual target is Earth, the base of them multiverse. I've probably used the word "craziness" more than I should, but this is when the sh!t really hits the fan (it's all kinds of craziness).
Oh man, I haven't mentioned the other artists. Ivan Reis and Patrick Gleason do amazing jobs with the big splash pages and smaller moments. My facorite Reis spread in the whole series is the one in GL #24 as Superboy Prime leads Sinestro, Cyborg and a legion of Yellow Lanterns over the moon with a huge yellow Warworld behind them. I get chills. You could do a whole poster book out of Sinestro Corps War and I would cover my walls with it.
Okay, so the war has hit Earth in full force which means the superheroes we (at least I) all know and love get involved in the war. But before he can get into it, Hal's got to save his brother's family from Kyle-Parallax who actually switches to a crazy yellow version of his costume (this story has great costumes). But you just can't keep my favorite lantern dawn as he finally fights his way out of Parallax's grasp and shirks the fear-thing.
Then, BAM, Ganthet and Sayd are there and trap Parallax in Kyle, Hal, John and Guy's lanterns. There's a great moment where all four Earth Lanterns light themselves up and they're ready to rumble. The GLs who were fighting on Mogo finally get to Earth as lead by Kilowog Salaak who has a great bit of business where he tells everyone to fix the damage done to their uniforms. "Use the time to regenerate your uniforms. We're CORPS. Be PROUD." After reading that I pumped my fist and shout "[EXPLETIVE] YEAH!"
And it wasn't the last time as Arkill and Kilowog face off AGAIN, this time it's even more brutal. Oh, this is a great time to mention this, even though the GLs can now kill the YLs, it doesn't mean that they all do. Some go crazy Rambo-style, which is all well and good, but others, like Kilowog, choose not to, using their rings in other ways to incapacitate their enemies.
Oh, remember that Sodom Yat guy I mentioned? Well, he became the new Ion, which is a Lantern that doesn't need to wear a ring. He's also extra powerful. Plus he's from the planet Daxam which means he's got Superman-level abilities. Well, he's the dude that throws down with Prime. We get some history about Yat while Superboy pummels him, but our hero doesn't give up, he keeps fighting until Prime almost kills him.
Which brings us to the last issue. Damn, it's another beauty. In the middle of this huge war, we get a look at the other colors of the emotional spectrum and what they represent, drawn by Ethan while Ivan handles the rest of the art chores.
As far as conclusions go, this is one of the best as it keeps the insanity going to the very end as the insanity ramps up continuously. You've got the Anti Monitor and Prime wreaking havoc on Earth's heroes and the GLs, Guy getting sick with Despotellis the living virus whose killed entire planets, the Guardians jumping in and fighting the Anti-Monitor, dozens and dozens of Yellow and Green Lantern deaths, Hal and Kyle throwing down with Sinestro, using Warworld to destroy Cyborg and Anti-Monitor, Anti-Monitor coming back only to get supposedly killed by Prime (he's still pissed about AM killing his home world, go figure), one Guardian giving his life to destroy Prime and finally Hal and Kyle defeating Sinestro in a fair, no-ring fist fight. Whew, it's crazy awesome and I'm tired just explaining it all.
But even THAT'S not the end as we got some more Van Sciver-drawn bits. We see Superboy waking up somewhere saying "Oh my gosh. It's really back." Sinestro in GL jail, proud of the changes he caused in the Corps. His goal was to get the GLs to actually instill fear and thus be all the more effective against the evils of the universe. THEN, we see Ganthet and Sayd become the Guardians or something for the Blue Lanterns which represent hope and they create the first blue ring. After that those damn Manhunters find Cyborg's dead body and reboot it, resulting in a heartbreaking tear trickling down his face. And FINALLY, we see the Anti Monitor's corpse landing somewhere and getting trapped inside the black lantern.
Jeez, I forgot there's a-whole-nother GLC issue that acts as a prologue. This is mostly a clean up issue that stars the featured players of the GLC book, which you should definitely check out. I'm especially partial to the scene where Rannian GL Vath takes a shot for each of his fallen comrades which number more than 432. It's a touching moment that shows how one warrior deals with the loss of so many of his friends and fellow soldiers.
As if that weren't all there's also an interview with the creators in the back accompanied by sketches from the artists. I haven't read it yet, but I'm always in support of beefing up trades with extra stuff you couldn't get in the single issues. Otherwise, what's the point?
Oh jeez, I completely forgot a few things. First of all, Natu used a sentient smallpox GL to defeat the evil virus Sinestro Corpsman inside of Guy. I was actually pretty nervous during this whole scene because it wouldn't have surprised me if Geoff killed off one of the big GLs (I'm really glad he didn't).
Now, like I said in the very beginning I love this story. Some people say that Geoff doesn't end stories well and I can't agree with that, especially when it comes to TSCW. The War definitely ends, for now at least, while still leaving the threat out there. It's like in Star Wars, just because Vader and Palpatine are dead, doesn't mean the Empire just crumbles. You also get to see Sinestro in prison again, which seems to be exactly where he wants to be. There's all kinds of other lead-ins to future stories as well. I know that Geoff has said the he considers Rebirth the first chapter of his GL epic, this is the middle and then there will be Blackest Night when that hits next year (I think). But that doesn't mean the regular series post-TSCW is boring. Geoff and Co. have gone into further development of the characters as well as the emotional spectrum and the new lanterns. Personally, I can't wait to see where the rest of the story goes and what happens with the Blackest Night.
Finally, I know there's also a Tales of the Sinestro Corps book, which I also read, but that with be another review because I'm tired.
Whew.
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