Green Lantern #42

I'm really looking forward to the beginning of Blackest Night.

Oh yeah, me too!  This is gonna be one pricey/great summer!

Did you bring enough for the rest of the class?

So hal has been a green, a red, a blue and now looks to be an orange. Now he just needs 4 more and he will have been apart of every lantern.

You forgot yellow; he has already used the yellow too.

@ecthelion-Yeah, that is certainly where it has been heading since the Rage of the Red Lanterns.

I hope this ends strongly.  I want me some Mahnke art!!

It's at a point where I just want this to end.

This has been a very medicore to bad arc by Johns.

i agree...  i still haven't picked up the last issue...  i can't decide whether to finish this arc or just try again when Mahnke starts drawing...

Thank you, TNC, he's like a whistle blower in the smoking industry. finally telling it like it is!

I'm still looking forward to this title.

NO. i take it back. it's pretty good

I'm not sure as to why people are down on this book right now. The past 2 arcs have been great, and Larfleeze is just creepy.

heres hal in his many colors. at least i think thats hal

Looking forward to this. Has this been Johns best arc? Probably not. Has been a pretty decent arc though? Yeah. I'm excited for this. And at this point, Blackest Night is literally around the corner. Good time to be a Hal fan.

"penultimate isuue"  wont hear that for a while thank god

I really dont see where this arc has been weak. I've been loving EVERY issues i've read of GL. Can't wait for Blackest night, but i gotta decide what to drop so i don't over-due my pulling =S

@drake when has hal been yellow? I cannot recall, I'm totally drawing a blank here.

So I wonder if Hal will, at some point by the end of Blackest Night, wear all of the rings? All he has left to wear is Indigo, Orange (will most likely wear in this issue), Black, and Violet. 

@ecthelion: I'm pretty sure Hal wore a bunch of yellow rings during the Sinestro Corps Wars. Then he was also Parallax.  

Also....I think it's very lazy that this cover and the one with Larfleeze is the basically the same.

@TNC Wow... That's the point.

@supertrackmonkey good call on the parallax, thats right.

@prax: no. it's lazy. cut and paste. or something

@Prax: I know that's the point; but they could've done something better then this.

Not just copy Hal into the same pose and use different background colors.

I wouldn't say this arc has been "bad" but the last few issues have kinda dragged & I am more than ready for a conclusion ...

PS - If Hal has been pretty every colour lantern up to this point, is it possible for Hal to become the Rainbow Lantern? With the powers of all the colours, & the power to be fabulous?

@wade: That's where Bruno comes in...

I've loved all of Agent Orange, so I feel no need to rush the story. Everything will come when it comes.

I don't think it is particularly greedy of someone to want their hand back, but I guess that's just me.

no problems with agent orange. i like it when johns gives it to me nice and slow.

@TehDave    THATS WHAT SHE SAID!!!!!!!!!!!

Hal getting another color under his belt? I'm calling it now, by the end of blackest night he will have gotten all the colors and because of this he will become Captain Planet!

Man, where have some of you people been! Captain Planet, Rainbow Lantern.... these jokes are at least 6 months old at this point. ;-) New material, fellas!

@TNC, edward It's actually a slightly different posture and viewpoint for Hal than the Larfleaze cover, but alas. I don't really care how lazy either of you feel about it. it's not as if this is the first time this type of gimmick has been done.  

@prax, sorry for the old joke. I haven't been reading this book. I'm waiting till backest night to jump in. I'll try and come up with some new gags. Have there been any homosexual captain planet jokes? If not I call dibs.

I just think it's funny that if we asked everyone a year ago: Would anyone be saying GLC was much better then GL proper at this point? Probably not.

Currently, I would say a good half of the readers would say GLC is the better title.

Since Hal was dead for years, does that make him an honorary Black Lantern? It would make sense if Johns wants him associated with every color corps in some way or another.

@prax. i was being scacastic. that's obviously the point

@charlieblix Kidding of course. But it's amazing, without fail I see a "new" joke about Hal wearing all the rings/colors everyday that's some variation on Power Rangers, Captain Planet, Rainbow Lantern, Light Brite etc. everyday.

@TNC That's probably accurate, but there are also quite a number of us who think both titles are equally as solid .

@andrioidmoser Curious that you bring that up. My friend asked Johns a similar question about Hal and Ollie at a singing and he refused to answer because it may be spoiler. Interesting no?

@edward I figured as much. I just think it's funny that TNC called it lazy, as Tan obviously had to draw Hal in that pose. It's not like a copy/paste/color filter thing. It's not like Tan pulled a Greg Land.

This arc hasn't been the greatest, but when I say that a Geoff Johns arc hasn't been the greatest it means solid 4s across the board, ha.

Love the cover.

Very excited to see what happens.

Also, I believe Geoff has said that Hal won't wear every color of ring.

@kwisdump - I think your right, I believe Johns responded to "Hal and every color ring" idea in the ifanboy interview with Josh.

Yea, just checked and Johns said that Hal would not be trying on every ring. He said it 32min. and 38sec. into the interivew with Josh.

@Prax-I figured you would have learned by now to ignore everything TNC says

I'd like to know what Jonathan Glapion does for the covers. I've seen his name for this arc but I dont know what he adds to the Tan pencils.

Ok, so I do think Hal will wear every single ring at some point, but he won't be a rainbow lantern.  This is light we're talking about, and when you add ROYGBIV together, you get WHITE LIGHT.  Hal will be the White Latern needed to combat the Black Lanter, which is the absence of color.

@Fractal514 - Johns said, unequivocally, that Hal would not be trying on every ring.

@gnanniv - Maybe not, but is there any way that Blackest Night doesn't end with the combined colors of the lanterns becoming White Light?

@Fractal514 :  A friend of mine hypothesized that the White Lantern may wind up being Alan Scott seeing as how his lantern was just smashed by Solomon Grundy.

@PraxJarvin Interesting, yes!

@gnanniv Part of me wonders if Johns might be lying. Dodging a question like "will Hal wear every color ring" with an "I can't say" is likely to cause more speculation than a flat out denial would. Or maybe the black ring is the one ring that he ALMOST wears (the whole dead for years thing), but ultimately doesn't, validating Johns' response. Either way, it'll be a lot of fun to find out! 

Hal in a star sapphire outfit anyone??????

anyways, just read the issue, and I won't spoil it, but I will say that the Guardians are dicks

What was with the change in art style from panel to panel on some pages?  Some of the time it looked good, but other times it seemed as if it was just to cover for something being hastily sketched. 

Ok, did I not see see Hals' hand chopped off at the end of last issue? Yet, it looked pretty intact to me today. That's not exactly a minor detail dontcha think?

@crazychrist - Hal said that his arm being cut off and Larfleeze geting the blue ring was a mirage, that is what Larfleeze hoping for so that is what the blue ring showed him.

@Kwertee - In response to the idea of a white lantern, Johns said, "possibly."

@gnanniv, oh! I got ya. Thanks for the clarification.

This was a very boring issue and had some really bad art in it. For the first time ever, Geoff Johns wrote a bad comic book.

Just give me Blackest Night now please.

The Guardians are f'ing DICKHEADS!!!!!!

@TNC I'm unclear on how this was a bad issue, but whatever. I for one enjoyed it. a 5/5 for me. It was fun, action packed. Sure the art wasn't great, but quite frankly I'd rather have the issue out on time than late. 

@Prax: I expressed it in my review. But there were a list of problems for me:

The whole fight with Larfleeze was just plain boring. Nothing was really solved or accomplished in this issue. *SPOILER* The guardians just told Larfleeze to attack the Blue lanterns and that was it. Sure that is pretty badass for them to do that, but it means nothing for a conclusion to this arc. Also, the other ending (the epilogue) was no where near as 'holy shit!' big as the GLC ending was. Then you got the artwork which was wildly inconsistant around the board. That chick, Fatality I think her name is, changed ethnicity at least 3 times in two pages.

If you read this arc overall it was very medicore as a whole. It started off strong and then Johns just decided to 'coast' for the rest of it. If it wasnt for GLC, I would probably think about skipping Blackest Night because of this arc.

I'm with Prax. Really enjoyed this issue and what Johns has done with the Guardians is very cool.

If I can say, there were two things that I liked about this issue. Very minor but it made me smile.

A) The Gonzo reference. You mention the muppets and I'll laugh.

B) There was (most likely) an unintentional Dragonball Z reference. Where Larfleeze has his ring go up into the thousands percentage wise. Then you got this 'aura' around him and it felt exactley like an episode of DBZ.

Ever sence the end of Sinestro Corps, I think Johns has been methodically introducing the pieces necessary for BN. I would remind everyone that all important characters were already established for Sinestro Corps War. Johns could have easily justified taking 7 to 12 issues for each corps, but decided to make the stories more compact. I would count the revelation that the Guardians are cut-throat bastards, willing to cut a deal, as a damn big accomplishment. I can understand having issues with the art, but I think the story was solid. And the fight with Larfleeze was "boring" because Hal could not fight with the blue ring on and the Guardians obviously had no intention of fighting him.

On the DBZ moment, I was just waiting for Hal to shout "He's over 7,000!!!!!!!!" God I love that show.

@gnanniv: He's gone 'Super Sayian' on us!!! Where's Majin Buu or Cell when you need them!?

@TNC - Hal and Sinestro should do the fusion dance and then take on the Black Lanterns. I hope they brought the senzu beans.

@gnanniv: Senzu beans isnt going to be enough. They are going to have to learn the 'Spirit Bomb' technique with King Kai as their teacher.

It makes sense that this was a drawn out arc btw. Cause DBZ is the master of stretching a plot.

@TNC - I'm betting that is how Black Hand got all the Black Lanterns; with a wish from the Dragon. He's misusing the DragonBalls, the bastard.

@gnanniv: Well we all know who will save the day---

Hercule aka Mr. Satan

Was it just me or was there a misplaced word balloon at the beginning? Either that or half of the dialogue belonged in Larfleez's word balloon and was in Hal's.

That, the inconsistent (also just plain bad) art, and the fact that Hal losing his hand last issue was apparently BS lead me to look unfavorabley on this issue. I'm hesitant to give it a 2, since there was nothing wrong w/ the story and doing so to Johns would feel ever so harsh, but this issue wasn't all too good.

Did anyone else fine the art story telling weak on this issue?

@emacor I would call it weak but it was different.  I think the coloring was different?  Haven't cared much for Tan's work on this arc.  His art is good he's just not a good fit for GL.

@emacor72: no offence but did you actually read the thread?

@captbastrd: Definitely in the beginning I noticed some word balloon problems. Jordan seem to accidentally get like half of what Larfleeze was saying.

I also thought the line: 'Dont touch it! It's in mint condition!!' (or something to that effect) was really stupid. It's nitpicking, but he's an alien that has stated in the Vega system for billions of years....how does he know what mint condition means? lol

I was waiting for Larfleeze to say: 'Dont touch! It's rated a 9.8 on the CGC scale!!'

this issue was awful. Nova rule.

I loved this issue. Was a great wrap up of the storyline and I can't wait for Blackest Night.

Well I'm happy with the conclusion, but as I expressed overall I found the Agent Orange arc pretty much boring (save for this issue). I wonder if it will handle better in trade or retrospectively once Blackest Night concludes.

When I started to read this, I thought "Man, this may be the first 2 star GREEN LANTERN issue ever." but as it started to build it quickly became a 3 and 4 star book. The point where it finally tipped over to 5 stars for me was the point where Hal tells of how he saw Sinestro in his vision, and the end in which the Guardians become total dicks.

Negatively I will say that I don't think it's the greatest end to an arc, but it's a nice set up for BLACKEST NIGHT. 5/5.

Re: White Lantern -- I could see it happening, but I dunno, it might be a little too obvious as the gamebreaker. I think, as someone else said, having Jay Garrick wind up being the White Lantern would be a fantastic idea. Maybe even Kyle?

Off topic - I just bought the three Sinestro War Hard Covers. Which order should I read them in? By that I mean, do I read Tales of the Sinestro Corps before or after Sinestro War?

Anyone else notice how Hals rings switched hands as he fell back in the confrontation with Larfleez? Bad colouring work there.

I didn't quite understand the part about Hal's arm not being chopped off. The blue ring created a mirage complete with blue ring that turned Larfleez blue and asked him what he hoped for? But it actually didn't because it was a mirage?

Also, is the Blue Lantern planet in the once off-limits vega system? Why would the guardians let larfleez off-world into another system? Ok, so they may want the Blue rings to go away, but what do they think is going to happen once Larfleez gets hold of them? Larfleez get the blue rings and increases his power, making him more of a threat to the guardians? Blue ring makes takes away Larfleez's hunger (like it did in the mirage -WTF) and he becomes goody and hopeful and the Orange lantern passes to someone else who has no idea of the guardians agreement and doesn't care, therefore, becoming a greater threat and letting the orange light shine in the universe?

My brain hurts.

As an arc, Agent Orange has been a content thin encounter spread over too many issues. Inconsistant and un-refined artwork brings it down further. For me , personally, this is the worst of Johns' Green Lantern work.

Bring on Blackest Nigh already!

Apart from the huge cop out start (it was a mirage! Pfft) I thought this issue was awesome. The last two or three issues have felt like the wheels were spinning but this one was great. I don't get why people didn't like it ??
Ps- when comparing GLC to GL, from issue 1 to now (for both books) overall GLC has been better/more consistant.

Well, it was fun while it lasted.  Dropped.

@Prax: Christ....I didnt think that event covered a lot of issues.

At least Blackest Night wont be as ridiculous....*Holds ear* What's that? Oh it's even more tie-in's and main issues then Sinestro Corps? Really?...

So, is The Black Lantern the actual lantern, or is it a character named The Black Lantern?

Disappointing issue, the art was so terribly inconsistent that it was tough to read.

@wadewilson: both

I thought this was a very dissapointing issue and  the 2nd-worst arc on GL that Johns has done.  It seemed far too drawn out and the art was... abysmal.  thank goodness GL Corps is going into Blackest Night strong! 

Johns has said that everything since Rebirth is leading up to Blackest Night and it looks to be some sort of game changing event shedding a more negative light on the Guardians and such. So then has anyone speculated as to what the GL status quo might be AFTER the event?

 Also, there's decompressed and there's decomplressed...and then there's everything that's come after Hal Jordan Secret Origin.