All Will Not Be Well
You want to know my instant reaction upon setting this comic back down after reading it? "Well, that was completely unnecessary..."
It's not that the issue was entirely all that bad. It just was not good... at all.
Let's back up for a moment and consider what went wrong:
First off, the whole Parallax/Flash combination was mostly used to bring the hidden little terror in the rags to Earth in his first stroke against Green Lantern et al. Also, it seemed mostly as a publicity stunt to sell more toys. "We need a new version of the Flash" "Oh... I got it! Flash is yellow and red, right? Let's just add that one yellow thing from Green Lantern and have him take Flash over!" Really, the big reveal last issue of the combo and half of this issue seems mostly like treading water; filling in the gaps that do not need to be filled. This is the equivalent of showing Jack Bauer peeing during 24: there just isn't a need for it.
Second off, the whole reveal at the end wasn't that big of a deal. Sure, the comic had me hooked a little bit thinking, "man, I wonder who that thing is?" Then, the big reveal came and I was like "well, there goes the suspense." It truly is not as big as I thought it was going to be. Sure, it made sense, but it kind of fit back into comic creators rewriting history in a sort of ret-con way.
Thirdly, the explanation on the first page helped. But, as Ashly at my comic store has heard me complain, Green Lantern just does not know where to stop getting big. First it was the Sinestro Corps War which was cool. Then it was the lead up to Blackest Night (not to mention the great Secret Origins) which was cool. Then it was Blackest Night which rocked at first and then became just okay. And now, after everything has exploded and been so large (the dead came back from life, come on) it just keeps on getting larger with the Entities all involved. I frankly want to see some more planetary police work. But, you know, now we're going to have the whole War of the Green Lanterns thing. So, it just does not seem like this series is going to give us a breather. It will be from one giant thing to the next.
Fourthly, and this really did not play into my final decision, the "EXCLUSIVE MOVIE PREVIEW" on the front of the comic constitutes one forgettable image with an even more forgettable piece of text underneath it.
What did hold the issue together was the art, and there was one widescreen 2-page section that was really good. Nevertheless, the art just could not hold up against my other problems.
So, I lost hope on Green Lantern. A couple reviews ago I said that I was going to give Green Lantern a couple more chances, and I did. All in all, it failed to excite/please me to the same extent as it was. Quite frankly, I'm pleased to be spending my cash elsewhere rather than a mediocre comic that just does not know where to stop.
