The Good

The Guardians order Hal to take some long deserved leave after dealing with Relic, the First Lantern, the New Gods, and a multitude of of other things. Hal heads back to Earth to get a drink and Guy Gardner and Barry Allen meet up with him.

GREEN LANTERN has been tied to events and giant, long-form storytelling pretty much since the New 52 started. It's pretty obvious that Hal Jordan deserves a break from craziness happening up in space, and frankly, the reader deserves a little break from the epic storytelling as well. Writer Robert Venditti crafts an enjoyable issue which is more about camaraderie between friends rather than their lives as heroes.

The dialogue between the characters is solid and it's just nice to see these characters as humans and not heroes for one. However, when Guy Gardner is involved, not everything goes exactly as planned. Of course there's going to be a bar fight. What's important about this simple and silly fight is that is breaks up the whole issue being dialogue heavy and transitions Hal into the next scene. Plus, bar fights are a bit of fun to watch. 

Working on issue #38 on the art side of things is Admira Wijaya brings a new flavor to this book, with the fantastic color work from Andrew Dalhouse. Wijaya is great with nailing establishing shots and hitting these little beats that Venditti writes into his scripts. He shows movement extremely well in these scenes as well. As always, Dalhouse's colors are distinctive and bridge the gap between realistic shading and the normal comic book coloring fans are used to. 

The Bad

The cover is a tad misleading, like many covers. The issue is a lot ore focused around Hal and his pals, rather than Carol leaving Hal, which this cover alludes heavily to.

It is a solid issue, and a great read but not anything mind blowing. That's not really what this issue is trying to be. It's more of a transitional one-off between Godhead and what happens next. There isn't a lot of meat here or something that makes you want to look forward to the next issue of the book as well.

Barry running at super-speed, into the bar, which has other people in it, didn't seems to bother anyone aside from Guy and Hal. It seemed a bit weird.

The Verdict

This issue of GREEN LANTERN isn't life or world changing. It's just a solid issue showing the reader that Hal doesn't always have to be saving the universe. Sometimes, he just needs to grab a drink with his friends. Venditti does a swell job at giving the reader a solid issue which humanizes Jordan as a character, while reconnecting him with friends and ex-lovers. It doesn't give the reader much to get excited for though and while the overall issue is done extremely well, some readers many find this issue to be filler or something to skip out on. Regardless, this was a good issue and worth the read.

I haven't read it yet, but the fact that Hal and Barry meet up has already sold me.

Hal gonna be pissed when he finds power ring replaced him in the justice league :D

Green arrow was awesome too this week with hal as a guest star

SOMEONE REVIEW ACTION COMICS! IT"S REALLY GOOD AND CREEPY!

@saint_wildcard: If that's what you want, then why not review it yourself?

I will, but if they review it then it will automatically link to my review.

I've been wanting to read JUST the Green Lantern title, cause Hal is my favorite, but if you read one GL title, you have to read them all, and I don't want to do that. So, to my surprise and happiness, DC decided to cancel all GL titles except the main one (and Sinestro) so, I think I'll add this to my pull now! New arc, new adventure, new reading for me!

I hate that Power Ring replaced Hal. Why make a new character when you have a perfectly good, underused one already? Simon Baz. He should have joined the League.

@the_stegman: He did, and then like every other lantern he got caught up in the craziness of the Corps. Jessica can't get caught up in any of the other Lantern's struggles because she's technically not a Lantern (at least I hope she won't).

To be fair though, I don't even think Baz should be a GL, he'd be better as a member of the Sinestro Corps. who decided to work with the Greens.

Preach brother

@captainmarvel4ever:

No way, Baez is great as a greeny. He would never fit in with the sinestro corps. his ideals and ways of operating would go agaisnt everything sinestro stands for. he is way too strong for sinestro to bully around.

@starbrand1: Simon baz and guy gardener team up book will be awesum

Yeah, he got caught up in Lantern craziness, but didn't he go back to Earth afterwards? Unlike the other human Lanterns who are off in space, I believe he's still stationed on Earth, he could be in the League.

@starbrand1: That's why I said he wouldn't work for Sinestro, did you even bother reading my full post?

@the_stegman: He was on earth to deal with the Red Lantern Corps. Besides, the JLU was kinda formed by accident, and he wasn't around when it happened. Not to mention that would get in the way of him being part of the big Lantern related events.

@saint_wildcard: That issue was amazing.

I don't care what people say, Guy Gardner is awesome.

@jonny_anonymous: Nowadays that's what everyone says, and rightfully so, Charles Soule and Guy's new awesome facial hair have done wonders for him as a character.

@the_stegman: Hal was gone a long time before Jessica joined and to be honest I already like Jessica more than the five earth lanterns put together. I can relate to her paranoia and her not being related to all the space corps stuff is a very big plus for me and hopefully she stays out of that mess. Plus shes Power Ring not yet another Green Lantern!

This was one of my favorite GL issues in a long time. I think getting rid of some of the lantern titles and focusing more on this main one will really do wonders for the book. If we stay down this path and avoid one event after another then I think venditti could easily make this one of the better runs of the new 52.

It's decent issue, nothing really happens in it.

The Flash I think was just showing off his powers and let's face it, I really don't think anyone noticed he's the Flash for a reason lol...now what did surprise me was Guy and Hal fighting the urge to not use their powers at all, guess they'd be seen unlike Barry. He should have just oneshotted them and grabbed hal and guy outside the bar lol. Those guys were dbags! But I guess they wanted to go with the "can't use our powers in public even against idiots"

The ending was interesting, felt bad for Hal.

I do disagree with Simon Baz being a better GL than Power Ring girl, why? Simple, lack of character development, utterly boring GL made for politically correct reasons nothing more, nothing less and seems to be "there" for sake of being "there" he serves no purpose and hasn't done anything really important a showing here, there then poof. Gone for like a year lol...At least with the new girl power ring chick, she has issues to battle, she's been afraid her entire life and for the first time for her she has a purpose...

That and having a green female power ring/lantern is rather intriguing since most of the lanterns or people with power rings are males so...I'm all for Power Ring chick over Simon boring! lol

@the_stegman: Same with me. I don't know if I'll be reading though I am excited that Green Lantern stories won't be crossing over in every Lantern book.

Screw that cover.... That is all.

Bar fight needs to be in best battles of the week.

I have a great idea that will kill 2 birds with one stone. Mr. Deathstroke is back, again, with a title that will most likely be cancelled, again. I personally feel Deathstroke is overrated. He's The Big Show of DC. He's only there to get others over without ever having a "woah" moment. We have way too many Lanterns so let's have Deathstroke kill one maybe 2.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Geoff Johns tried to be edgy by creating the first Arab superhero. It did make the newspapers here in NJ the week he debuted but what is the point? Kyle was useless until they made him the White Lantern and now we have a 5th (Simon) and possibly 6th in Jessica. Lobo and Deathstroke are a couple of tools living off of their reps, like the cast of Full House. Let's hook it up DC.

Also, it wouldn't have been a bar fight if they used their powers. Kinda defeats the purpose ya know? We've all been to a bar after 11 and the only thing not present is common sense after that time.

@harryvine: Like I said, make Baz a Yellow Lantern and he has a whole new level of purpose. The same with John, he should be part of the Indigo Tribe.

@captainmarvel4ever: I can dig it. He needs a legit non-racist reason tho or people will scream bloody murder.

John claimed to be the greatest assassin from his planet during the Godhead run. Enter Deathstroke or Lobo.

@harryvine: It's too late for that, DC chose to give him an origin that relates to his race so the whole drive for him getting a ring that works off fear is the fact that people illegitimately fear him.

Not quite sure what you mean with John.

@captainmarvel4ever: John taunted some new god general into throwing his super-mace at him. In his taunt, he claimed to be the greatest assassin from his universe. I also watch wrestling so what's the point of a boast if you aren't going to be able to back it up? This seems like a sweet battle: John Stewart vs. Deathstroke. I personally feel Deathstroke needs some new notches on his belt and since we have too many lanterns...

I like Simon as yellow. Maybe he inspires fear instead of respect from his core members because of his methods based on his upbringing! Someone dies as a result! Misunderstandings! The Guardians boof another decision and strip Simon! Uncle Sinestro is the shoulder to cry on! Soranik Natu is chilling at my place waiting for work to end! Got carried away there at the end but do you like where I'm going?

@harryvine: Deathstorke has no relation to the Lanterns so that wouldn't work. If anything he needs to get back to fighting the Titans. (I also know nothing about wrestling, so I don't quite get what you mean)

Yeah, what I think would be cool is if it looks like he's going to be evil, but at the last minute he reveals he never had any intent of working with Sinestro and betrays him. Afterwords, like Razor from GL TAS, he would work with the Greens even though he's got a completely different ring.

In the world of wrestling, if you claim yourself to be something or someone, you will be challenged. I'm talking pre-John Cena days.

That's exactly my point. Because Deathstroke has nothing to do with the GL's, it would be a great way to reopen people's eyes to him. Not that he'd have a chance in hell but it sure would be an impressive kill.

I'm officially interested in Sinestro Corps Baz now.

Yep lol and I'm a big John's fan in general, I just think that move was more of a gimmick to sell comics or buy into a new "Green Lantern" I mean it's not like there's a shortage of them lol or popular lantern characters in general. I personally loved Hal as the JL Lantern or hell even Kyle put in there. Simon just felt...forced. lol that's true about the bar thing I just figured you know, that showed great restraint from them because while they're heros with powers they're all still humans with emotions, but then they are all experienced too with that stuff so I think it made sense for sure just would have been funny if Flash did something sneaky but then that wouldn't be in character so I understood why they did it. I think if this situation was early on someone would have used their powers probably Guy lol.

This issue was wack.

I stopped reading this book because of how much i disagreed with the relationship so if they finally ended it i will try and catch up.