Green Lantern Corps #22

COVER ART: 4/5 This is a beautifully done cover. For Green Lantern or Green Lantern Corps covers, this is one of the best so far this year. I love the detail of Star Sapphire in John's right arm-band. Even the the cover concept is simple enough, the execution via ink and color are majestic.

STORY ARC: 2/5 VAN JENSEN has a challenging job of creating a compelling story within the boundaries of these characters and not repeat any of the great stories written before him. That being said, here is a quick review of this story.

We saw in last episode that the Green Lanterns rings have been acting a bit screwy. Now we see that there is something wrong with the Star Sapphires power rings as well. John Stewart flies into OA just in time to give the new recruits a powerful, and quick, lesson on how to use their power rings while saving a few recruits from peril as they try to use their power rings to help clean-up OA from the recent attack of Larfleeze. I will say that I am enjoying very much the new Lantern Natu, I hope she finds herself more face time in future stories.

John finds out that Hal Jordan is now in charge of the Green Lantern Corps and that Guy Gardner has left the Corps. Kilowog sends John on a "fix it" mission outside of John's normal sector and John reluctantly accepts the mission and takes the new recruits on what seems to be a simple damn fix job. While on the mission all the Green Lanterns power rings completely fail while on a planet that has become hostile to the Green Lanterns. This group called the Khund have vowed to protect the people of Nellewel and begin a battle with the GL scout mission. JRUK proves to be the most exciting Lantern in this issue. He is a new recruit and has yet to give up his trusty ax, which comes in quite handy for him and both John Stewart in the battle against the Khund. I do love the fact that Jensen refrences the Marine Corps motto of "no man left behind" when John, a former Marine, goes back and carries a fallen Lantern on his back, stating "no lantern left behind". The GL team, without their power rings, are not quite a match for the large and more mobile group of Khund warriors and are quickly captured, and Johns Power Ring is taken by the Leader of the Khund.

Elsewhere, a Star Sapphire finds a gnarly group of shape shifters from the Durlan Empire planning their run for galactic power during this transition of power with the Guardians now gone. The Star Sapphire kills one of the shape-shifters posing as John Stewart with a Sapphire Spear through the back, hence the cover image, but is also captured by her enemies the Durlan when her power ring fails as well.

In the end we see a purple monstrous creature THE PREDATOR (who supplies the Star Sapphire's lanterns battery power) and ENTITY (a white old frail looking figure) dying and on the search for the White Lantern.

STORY ART: BERNARD CHANG does one good page in this book and that is about it. This image of John flying into OA is VERY well done. The detail is great.

I think that Bernard Chang must have spend his entire time allotment for drawing this book on this one page. As I will show in other images, B. Chang really phones it in with the rest of this book and the detail, especially on John Stewart. What I don't like is how he draws John's hair. In the image I provide, African American hair is just not the way B. Chang draws it, as it is painted onto John's head. Please see the image that I

have provided from this issue. John's hair is drawn this way throughout the whole book, as it appears to be painted on his head with a Sharpie. The color is very remnant of other GL books and that is not the problem. It is these important details and too many simple lines that make this art subpar.

I have provided this image of an African American with the same hairstyle as John Stewart has, and you can clearly see there is a big difference. This is called a high fade and this is how Change should have drawn John's hair closer to this image.

FINAL VERDICT: 2/5

Although this isn't the greatest of stories, it does provide a lot of drama, some good action from JRUK the new GL recruit and a good premise to go on for a few more issues. I would recommend this issue for very hard core GL fans, but if you are low on cash, you might want to wait a few issues to pick up this series. The art in this book is okay but not great as well which drops my rating from a 3/5 to a 2/5.