Comic Book Review: Green Lantern Corps #48

Book Information

Written by Tony Bedard

Penciled by Ardian Syaf

Colored by Randy Mayor, Gabe Eltaeb, Carrie Strachan

Inked by Vicente Cifuentes

Lettered by Steve Wands

Cover by Rodolfo Migliari

My Awe-Inspiring Opinion

With an entirely new creative team behind the Corps, opinions have been running amuck all throughout the internet and other social networking sites if the Tomasi and Gleeson replacements will live up to the standard set by the said writer and artist team.  I fell into this category numerous times as I constantly found myself worried if Bedard and Syaf could actually pull off an equally good continuation of the Corps post Blackest Night.  And without a shadow of a doubt, they do.

This book follows a typical pattern any comic book does when recovering from a major event.  However it works quite well with the Corps since this title, month after month, focuses on three to four plotlines that don’t always correlate with one another.  Bedard uses this unique aspect of the Green Lantern Corps as a way of easily transitioning into Brightest Day, except this time each plot seems to connect to the darker, more mysterious plot. 

While Kyle Rayner and John Stewart, along with the assistance of a few newbie Lanterns, attempt to rebuild the Oan City, (in a more traditional look) The Alpha Lanterns are seemingly taking many Lanterns one by one and turning them into Alpha Lanterns.  With this going on, I find it highly suspicious that Alpha Lantern Boodikka requests John Stewart’s assistance with some unknown event.  Also in the background, right at the beginning in fact, is the strange alliance that Guy Gardner and Ganthet seem to have with Atrocitus.  It was just enough of a teaser to keep us intrigued about the future, but did not linger and dull over the main plot.  Bedard is building his story up a tad slow, but it keeps the momentum going and never lags.

Artistically, I have very little complaints.  I did, however, find it a bit odd in the beginning when Atrocitus’ jaw seemed disconnected from his head due to the vast amounts of blood splattering from his mouth.  Other than that, Syaf delivers the quality work that I’m sure we’ve all come to expect from him. 

My Profoundly Climactic Conclusion

Overall, this issue is fun and satisfying.  I’m not sure it’s AS good as the literary precedent Tomasi has set, but Bedard is definitely showing potential.

Ratings

Writing: 10

Themes: 9

Art: 8

Overall: 9 out of 10