Tony Black reviews Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps #4…
“Sinestro’s Law” part 4! Sinestro’s grip on the universe tightens with Hal Jordan captured, as the two former partners edge closer to a final confrontation for control of the cosmos!
After a few issues of treading water, Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps finally begins to gain some traction in the fourth part of ‘Sinestro’s Law’, a storyline which has had the unenviable task of trying to reintroduce the entire Green Lanterns as a functioning unit after the Rebirth event, and still tell a very cosmic story of Sinestro and his Fear Engine, which we take in here in all its glory. It’s been a tricky balance for writer Robert Venditti and it hasn’t always paid off, making Hal Jordan one of the weaker Rebirth issues; here, however, we start moving in the right direction, with a stronger balance of characters alongside forward momentum of plot.
Admittedly, we see less of Hal than we have since the beginning, but we can live with that given how well Venditti manages to paint Sinestro’s reaction to the appearance of captured Lantern, Guy Gardner, and the banter he gives the ruler of the universe; Guy is full of one-liners, rebukes, and scathing put downs, and it’s entertaining in contrast to the archness of Sinestro’s uber-villainy or the henchman coolness of Administer Lash; we also get to see the coldness of Sinestro’s determination to continue enforcing order, in the way he kills his own Yellow Lantern, Strafe, in front of his young and confused child – in an affecting moment, the child is spirited away as Sinestro recites his doctrine, and it’s a nice beat from Venditti to show the humanity in even his own seemingly evil acolytes.
Beyond that, as Hal undergoes his own trial and John Stewart–the defacto Lantern leader–debates whether or not he needs to throw Guy-like caution to the wind, there is plenty starting to go on in Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps to make this stop start first run of the comic engage more of the latter than the former. Let’s hope we can now build to a strong finish.
Rating: 7/10
Tony Black
Originally published October 4, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
