Exposition, Exposition...
I've been liking this series thus far, and Geoff Johns knows better than anyone else how to create an enjoyable Green Lantern tale. Unfortunately, here we see perhaps the biggest, most consistent flaw in John's writing: His tendency to build up situations that just feel pretty underwhelming.
Look at the past two issues of the secret of the indigo tribe. Here, we had a legitimately creepy set up, a sinister, mysterious group that we knew barely anything about, and legitimate danger for Sinestro that helped give us some of the strongest insights into who he really is. And that all builds up to... an Info dump. Literally, just a few pages of exposition about who the tribe are and why they were started. Not only that, the exposition is told to us by a guy who not only didn't realize that the Blackest Night occurred, but was also unaware that Abin Sur had died. Also, the secrets revealed aren't anything special to begin with. We already knew most of what was told to us: Abin Sur had a hand in creating the corps, the members are all made up of criminals, and the only "new" information we truly get is that the Guardians of the Universe are now villains... which we've known since the beginning of the relaunch.
So all that build up really amounted to nothing. The following issue, thanks to the cliffhanger at the end, promises some excitement, but in order to get to that point, it feels like they had to rush
Sinestro being freed of the Indigo ring, which could have been used for a couple of issues to really create a fascinating story.
It's not all bad though. Again, we get some great development for Sinestro, seeing his relationship with Abin Sur as well as the motivations and actions he made during his time as ruler of Korugar. The art is also fantastic, and while I complain about the story itself it's still for the most part competently executed. It's just a shame that we got all this build up for very little payoff. Hopefully future issues, including the upcoming conflict with the Guardians, will pay off more than this arc seems to have.
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