The
cover art could have been better.
On to the
story:
Sector 2261 - The Ranx/Mogo fight and Mogo appears to be
losing big time as Ranx relentlessly drills into Mogos
surface. Ranx appears to be driven by only one thought
killing Honor Guard Guy Gardner for humiliating him. Ranx is
convinced that Mogo is hiding Guy.
While the action is first rate I found some of the dialogue
a little on the cheesy side here, Ranx's obsession with
Gardner is almost junior highish and as far as we have seen
Ranx does not have the ability to instill great fear and
should not be in the Sinestro Corps -- he feels thrown in to
fit with the Prophecy.
Mogo - The issue appears to take place concurrently with
Part 6 of the War, as the the 1st of the new laws has not
yet been revealed. Kilowog and Arkillo are still going head
to head, Sodom Yat has been sent to Ranx to destroy its core
while Arisia instructed by Kilowog to stay on Mogo and
fight, makes the decision that orders from Salaak supersede
Kilowog in the field and goes after Yat in Ranx - Arkillo
offers Kilowog a warrior's death.
Here I enjoyed Arisia disregarding Kilowog's orders in favor
of Salaak's -- it was one of the few unexpected events. As a
reader I previously would have assumed Kilowog's orders at
least in the field outranks Sal's orders
Inside Ranx - Yat, Isamot, Green Man, Stel and Chthos
discover a torture camber inside Ranx. As Chthos informs the
rest of the reason Ranx hates Gardner.
This scene, while I suppose was meant to convey that Ranx
was torturing the prisoners and to fill in the Gardner hate,
reading it and reviewing the art, it appears Ranx is simply
the room that is being used while other Sinners do the
actual torturing. I would have liked to see Ranx do more
than whine like a baby.
Back on Mogo - The Children of the White lobe grow ever
closer to Mogo's core, but Green Man has a plan for Mogo to
condense all of his energy around His core and hibernate
until the danger has passed. Mogo goes into this mode and
the Rings who are seeking new bears go still with out him to
guide them. While Kilowog pushes Arkillo off a cliff, and
directs the capture of all the white lobe children.
Here is the real heart of the war and watching Kilowog
command his troops is as good as any great war movie. The
hibernation of Mogo, while a good plot thread, was too short
lived. As it was, it truly should have lasted at least into
the next issue.
Inside Ranx - Yat takes off ahead of the rest and receives a
message from Mogo stating that they are both essential to
the survival of the entire corps. Mogo delivers orders from
the Guardians to withdraw from combat, Yat does nothing of
the sort and openly attacks the Manhunters and Sinestro
Corps inside Ranx. Arisia finally catches up with him. There
is a gravity disruption and Chthos reveals Ranx is connected
via subspace to a Black Hole which if it blows will take out
everything with in 2 light years - Stel and Yat agree to
shut down the core of Ranx and separate the subspace link.
Here we see Yat take command disobeying direct orders and
showing that Daxamites are truly similar to humans. However
in a war soldiers need to follow orders and Yat appears so
far to be incapable of doing so. The Subspace link deal is
interesting, though here we have talk of gravity disruptions
and I keep thinking it Ranx is close enough to Mogo to drill
into him of course there would be some gravity problems,
that is cured by suspension of disbelief I suppose. It
seemed as though if the writer was to mention gravity at all
this should have come up, too.
Oa
Guardians Citadel - The Council agrees to enact the new laws
they have drafted for the Book of Oa but to keep the
Blackest Night Prophecy concealed.
Ranx Central Command - The Lanterns enter the command -
Enkafos kills Chthos, Isamot threatens to kill Enkafos and
is mocked as we know lethal force is not allowed in the GL
Corps - Stel interfaces with Ranx Central Command
The death of yet another Lantern - I really enjoyed form his
previous run with Guy and the encounter with Ranx. As
Enkafos mocks the Lanterns for the inability to kill, it is
a build up to the Lethal Force reveal here. Which was,
unfortunately, already done last issue therefore destroying
any anticipation the reader might have felt.
Mogo - Kilowog appears to have come to the conclusion that
with out the ability to kill this is an unwinnable war. Just
as the rings inform the Corps that "The Book of Oa has been
rewritten and "Lethal Force has been enabled" Kilowog orders
Mogo awake and to begin active recruiting again as two Sin
Corps members are killed.
I love that Kilowog resigns himself to death. A true leader
he understands there is no true victory to be had with their
current abilities and tells his troops "Don't Die Easy," one
of his best lines in awhile. Here, Mogo already comes back
to life with the Lethal Force objective, and the fact that
Kilowog is the commander even to Mogo... well, that says a
hell of a lot about Kilowog.
Kilowog goes looking for Arkillo to settle the score - as a
Child of the White Lobe nearly blows himself up but is
captured by a GL -- it's Salaak come to join the war,
incinerating the kid.
I truly never thought I would see Sal kill anyone, let alone
so coldly
Ranx - Vat kills Enkafos for Chthos, Arisia will not kill
anyone, as Stel informs them he is losing the battle with
Ranx central command. Yat tells the other Lanterns to take
off and Isamot pulls Arisia to safety. Yat kills Ranx and
appears to go up in the explosion as Arisia, Stel and Isamot
all come home to Mogo. but Yat did manage to survive and
"Reports for further duty" Kilowog reveals that Arkillo had
snuck away.
Enkafos the Sinners = to Salaak killed already? It does not
feel right and I doubt he is truly dead, and Arisia holding
on to her ideals is nice to see. I like that Isamot is shown
as a soldier he fought in wars before joining the Corps he
has killed before and they aren't afraid to show that side
of him. The big reveal that Yat has survived the destruction
of Ranx could have been handled better. As it is, the reader
was already aware of the Daxamite and what that means, as
well as having seen the yellow sun in the space around Mogo,
so all in all what could have been a genuine surprise was
100% expected. Of course Arkillo, however, got away...
though Kilowog has always needed his own nemesis.
As the
Mogo battle was won, The Corps is massing at Oa to fight the
Sin Corps. While Hal Jordan calls Salaak and informs him
that the next target is not Oa, but Earth.
Next: Battleground Earth.
I enjoyed this issue and it could be considered the action
packed climax of the story so far. Entirely combat based
there is not much interaction of characters. In reality the
issue is a platform for Sodom Yat as he approaches his title
of Ultimate Green Lantern.
The art is decent, although Kilowog's face in a few panels
really doesn't do it for me.
I would have liked a better reveal as it is we already knew
the Lethal Force directive was coming from Part 6 so it was
kind of a let down. Perhaps revealing the 2nd law would have
been nice. So basically there could have been big reveals
here but, due to the concurrent timeline with the last GL
issue and the facts already known about Yat, there was no
true surprise. For the most part it was a great action book
and that was about it.
