Tag Archives: Salaak

Aug 11 2017

Mythological and Emotional Mystery in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps 26

by Patrick Ehlers

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan are interesting characters. They’re all men with tremendous baggage, and perhaps the decades of dragging around said baggage have trained them to just blurt out their feelings with the blunt force of a green-light mallet. All of them are reeling from Soranik Natu Sinestro’s heel turn, and the defection of the Yellow Corps, and maybe they’re all a touch too eager to yell about their feelings. That emotional transparency is at odds with the opaque plotting of issue 26. The inherent mystery in “what is Orion doing here again?” makes the reader double back on those seemingly clear emotional statements. Continue reading →

Jan 20 2016

Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion 1

green lantern corps 1

Today, Mark and Patrick are discussing Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion 1, originally released January 13, 2016.

Mark: I have to admit, Green Lantern proper and the continuing adventures of Hal Jordan in the New 52/DC YOU, has not captivated me for a few years now. I was, then, incredibly excited when Green Lantern: Lost Army launched in the aftermath of Convergence. Cullen Bunn and Jesús Saíz’s series started as one of the strongest Green Lantern stories in years, and I was very excited to see where it went. Unfortunately my initial enthusiasm was not universal, and the story kind of lost the thread as it went on. So despite DC’s editorial promise to let all of their new books run for at least 12 issues, Lost Army was a victim of DC’s panic in the face of flagging sales. Cancelled after 6 issues, DC promised to wrap up the story started by Bunn in Lost Army with a 6 issue mini-series: Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion, with the departure of Bunn and Saíz, replaced by writer Tom Taylor and artist Ethan Van Sciver.

Edge of Skyrim

Well, “wrap up.” Because, while it may have been explained away as a continuation of Lost Army, Edge of Oblivion is a new #1, for all intents and purposes it begins a whole new story completely divorced from Bunn’s work before. For better or for worse, Taylor has taken the base core of Lost Army (Green Lantern Corps lost in space/time), and gone from there. No more pyramids, no more Mogo being a source for the entire ring spectrum, no more flashbacks to John Stewart’s life on Earth. Continue reading →

Oct 28 2015

Green Lantern: The Lost Army 5

green lantern lost army 5

Today, Michael and Patrick are discussing Green Lantern: The Lost Army 5, originally released October 21, 2015.

Michael: How do you value one life over another? Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? Green Lantern: Lost Army 5 shows us the burdens of being the person in charge who has to make this tough decisions. It also does something that is equally difficult: making John Stewart interesting. Continue reading →

Jan 21 2014

Green Lantern Corps 27

green lantern corps 27

Today, Patrick and Spencer are discussing Green Lantern Corps 27, originally released January 15th, 2014.

Patrick: Fans of the Geoff Johns era of Green Lantern might consider Johns to be the architect of all conflict in the GL universe. It’s a regularly recurring conflict: basically, the past comes back to haunt the corps. This means a lot of fighting among the various corps (Blackest Night), fighting within the GLs themselves (Green Lantern War) or reckoning with some force responsible for their power in the first place (Volthoom, Relic). But all of this stuff stems from a prophecy that Alan Moore wrote decades ago – promises the eventual fall of Sodam Yatt, the destruction of Mogo, and Oa’s occupation by “demons.” We’ve spend tens of years reading those predictions into fruition, and it’s only now, as the Lanterns appear to have their own shit in order that they realize how utterly dissatisfied they’ve left the universe they swore to protect. For the first time since I can remember, that puts the corps up against a threat  that’s ideological, nuanced, and –most importantly — not magical. There’s no single domino they can topple to quash a universe in revolt against them. Continue reading →

Nov 6 2013

Green Lantern: Lights Out

Lights Out

Today, Mikyzptlk and Spencer are discussing Green Lantern 24, Green Lantern Corps 24, Green Lantern: New Guardians 24, Red Lanterns 24, and Green Lantern Annual 2 , originally released October 2nd, October 9th, October 16th, October 23rd, and October 30th, 2013, respectively. 

Mikyzptlk: Here at Retcon Punch, we try our damnedest to cover all the cool stuff that’s going on in comics. The only problem is there are only so many of us and a shitload of great comics. That being the case, things tend to fall between the cracks every now and then, as was the case for the Green Lantern-centered crossover event, Lights Out. With that said, it’s up to Spencer and I to give this event the Retcon Punch treatment it deserves. Lights Out serves as a the first big event in the GL books since the new creative teams took command. Ultimately, Robert Venditti, Van Jensen, Justin Jordan, and Charles Soule deliver a story that seemingly picks up right where Geoff Johns and company left off, while shaking up the status quo enough to send our characters off in some new and interesting directions. Continue reading →

Oct 3 2013

Green Lantern 24

green lantern 24

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Green Lantern 24, originally released October 2nd, 2013.

Shelby:  What does it mean to lose the will to fight? To be willful is generally not a compliment; usually it means someone who does what they want, when they want without any consideration of the consequences, but on it’s own will is drive and motivation. That’s why I’ve always been so pleased with the way Blue Lanterns (Rest in Peace) need a Green Lantern to mount an offense: hope is fine and all, but hope without the will to do something about it is merely inaction. Robert Venditti kicks off the Green Lantern Lights Out event with a bang, both literally and figuratively, as Relic descends upon Oa and we contemplate the consequences of truly losing the will to do anything.
Continue reading →

Aug 19 2013

Green Lantern Corps 23

Alternating Currents: Green Lantern Corps 23, Drew and Spencer

Today, Drew and Spencer are discussing Green Lantern Corps 23, originally released August 14th, 2013.

Drew: When Scott (my younger brother) was in college, he inherited hosting duties for an event called “Wine Wednesdays,” where friends would get together to drink wine on (you guessed it) Wednesday evenings. Due to scheduling conflicts, the event had to move its regular meeting time to Tuesdays, and in the interests of alliteration, became known as “Taco Tuesdays” in spite of really just featuring the wine. That same year, he was living in an apartment his friends all called “Bear Snake.” Anyway, in a message to his friends informing him that this week’s Taco Tuesday would be held at Bear Snake, Scott thought it would be funny to replace all of the vowels with the letter “a,” such that the message read, simply: TACA BAAR SNAKA. The fact that that message could possibly convey that his friends should come to his apartment for wine on Tuesday amuses me to this day, but it’s actually quite common for shared knowledge and jargon to pile up in similar ways. Green Lantern Corps 23 achieves something approaching “TACA BAAR SNAKA” impenetrability, digging DEEP into recent Green Lantern history, delivering an issue that may be difficult for all but the most hardcore fans to follow. Continue reading →

Jul 17 2013

Green Lantern Corps 22

green lantern corps 22

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Green Lantern Corps 22, originally released July 10th, 2013.

Patrick: My little sister studied in Ecuador for a semester in college. She spent a couple weeks tromping around the rain forest and camping on a beach on the Galapogos and dropping her new camera into a river – y’know: normal stuff when you’re studying the biodiversity of one of the coolest places on the planet. Naturally, she came back with new perspectives on birds and insects and had a few anecdotes about hilariously adorable seal pups on the beach. But the part of the experience that she ends up talking about — and I trust the part of the experience that stayed with her the most — is just about the friends that she made while hiking the Forest in the Clouds. When I asked her about that, she shrugged and said “It turns out human beings are the most fascinating mega-fauna on Earth.” She was being flippant (as flippant as one can be while still using words like “mega-fauna”), but it’s an oddly profound statement: for all the wonders of the world, people are going to be the most interesting thing you encounter. DC’s galaxies are vast, and jam-packed with strange and wonderful things. Issue 22 of Green Lantern Corps features a lot of these wonders, but all without losing sight of the of the most interesting mega-fauna at the heart of it: John Stewart and Fatality.
Continue reading →

Jun 18 2013

Green Lantern Corps 21

green lantern corps 21

Today, Patrick and Mikyzptlk are discussing Green Lantern Corps 21, originally released June 11th, 2013.

Patrick: Any comic series you’re going to read from the Big Two publishers is going to be something of a Frankenstein monster. In an editor-driven system, even the most auteur creators have to construct their stories by committee. And that’s great: there’s no way a single mind would have the time or patience to construct all these stories on their own. Plus, collaboration yields kick-ass art, and the one-man comic creation is the incredibly rare exception. The latest incarnation of Green Lantern Corps has a tall family tree, with prestigious branches like Peter Tomasi and Alan Moore, but it also has a confusing mishmash of fathers — after Josh Fialkov walked off the series, Green Lantern writer Robert Venditti (he’s credited as “co-pilot”) constructed a story  for which Van Jensen wrote the script. It’s no wonder that first issue for the new creative team is a jumble of interesting ideas and characters, impossibly focused on both embracing and escaping the past. It’s a mess, but sort of a charming one. Continue reading →

Jun 6 2013

Green Lantern 21

Alternating Currents: Green Lantern 21, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Green Lantern 21, originally released June 5th, 2013.

Drew: When M*A*S*H ended its 11-season run in 1983, it was one of the most beloved series on television. Its series finale, “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen,” a movie-length victory lap, was more widely watched than that year’s Super Bowl — or any Super Bowl before or for twenty-seven years afterwards. Like I said, beloved. We don’t yet have sales numbers on Green Lantern 20, and while I doubt it will post Super Bowl-beating numbers (even by comic book standards), the similarities are striking: it was an extra-large conclusion to a beloved, nearly decade-long run. Point is, it was going to be a tough act to follow, yet Robert Venditti (who readers might recognize from his work on Valiant’s X-O Manowar) handles the transition with surprising grace, staying true to the spirit of Green Lantern while adding something unexpected to the mix: the spirit of the New 52. Continue reading →