I don’t know if I can say Ethan Van Scriver is a great artist (certainly good) but there’s something special happening when he is drawing Green Lantern. Ivan Reiss has made the Green Lantern title his own but the last couple of issues by Daniel Arcuna were sloppy and rather uninteresting. Green Lantern needs an artist who is a strong super-hero artist but can pull off science fiction, aliens and strange worlds all at the same time. In Green Lantern: Rebirth, Van Scriver proved that he could draw a lot of super-heroes going at each while evil aliens waiting in the wings to pick off the survivors. His work since Rebirth has lacked some of the fluidity and grace he demonstrated there. Even his fill-ins on the regular Green Lantern title were clunky and stiff. It only makes sense that Van Scriver would pull out some of the best work of his career for the Sinestro Corp Special, a sequel and opposite in many ways to Rebirth.
Sinestro has never really been that scary of a villain. The elongated headed, thin mustached purple villain in the blue jumpsuit never instilled fear in his foes or in many readers. His appearance and actions in Rebirth were those of an arch villain who had manipulated the events of his arch enemies’ (in this case Hal Jordan’s) downfall only to be foiled when victory was so close. He was constantly an alien loser. In the first few pages of this one shot, Geoff Johns and Van Scriver transform Sinestro into a frightening figure but giving him a bit of credibility. “I brought order and vowed to do the same for the rest of sector 1417… and then, with the Corps’ support, the rest of the universe…” While far reaching, that’s a noble goal that Sinestro had. Remember, he was the best Green Lantern around until Hal Jordan showed up. With a lantern shaped scar on his back, Sinestro wears the shame of his past defeats even as he realizes his new mission. In the past, he’s just been one man, one lone fighter. The strength of the Green Lanterns is that they’re many. The was once the greatest member of the GLC. Now he’ll be the founder of his own corps, the Sinestro Corps.
On the Green Lantern side of this book, Johns surprisingly spends more time looking at Kyle Rayner than Hal Jordan. Rayner, now the powerful yet ringless Green Lantern called Ion, is a legend in the new corps even while he’s still the screwed up kid he’s always been. Unlike Hal Jordan, Rayner has never totally conquered his fear but the has learned to overcome it to be a hero. Sinestro has always been the boogey man for the GLC. He’s the one that can corrupt and turn even the greatest members of the Corps.
The last page (don’t worry, no major spoilers here) is a surprising page, making the scope of the upcoming story much, much larger than had been previously hinted at. It also looks like this may be tying into a lot of other DC stories, particularly Countdown.
Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special
“Second Rebirth”
Written by: Geoff Johns
Drawn by: Ethan Van Scriver & Dave Gibbons
Colored by: Moose Baumann
Lettered by: Rob Leigh
[tags]Green Lantern, Sinestro Corps, Geoff Johns, Ethan VanScriver[/tags]