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GREEN LANTERN #57

BRIGHTEST DAY continues as what readers have been asking for finally arrives: a male Star Sapphire in the form of the Predator. But how is this entity unlike the others? And what does it want with Carol Ferris? Meanwhile, the White Lantern is defended by an unlikely hero…

Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by DOUG MAHNKE and CHRISTIAN ALAMY
White Lantern Variant cover by RYAN SOOK, FERNANDO PASARIN and JOEL GOMEZ

Price: $2.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 15.6%

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TheNextChampion09/09/10NoRead Review
JumpingJupiter09/08/10NoRead Review
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Comments

  1. Avatar photo JimBilly4 says:
    September 7, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    Ah, scantily clad female space bondage. This is comics getting back to its roots.

  2. Avatar photo JumpingJupiter says:
    September 7, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    I’m looking forward on Johns’ take on the violet monster. Something tells me it’ll be more about the obsessiveness of lust than it will be about cuddling.

  3. Avatar photo WheelHands says:
    September 7, 2010 at 4:07 pm

    "But how is this entity unlike the others? And what does it want with Carol Ferris?"

    Something tells me it’s not dinner and a movie.  Maybe fashion tips? 

    This one should be fun. Johns excels at the creepy stuff. I do hope they elaborate on the Ophidian/Hammond thread a little bit before heading straight to the Predator stuff. Lookin forward to it. 

  4. Avatar photo TheNextChampion says:
    September 7, 2010 at 5:44 pm

    This seemed to be delayed a bit as well. But it’ll be worth it for the amazing Mahnke art. That and we see more of that fucking, creepy Hammond/Orange Lantern monster.

  5. Avatar photo DenverDave says:
    September 7, 2010 at 6:50 pm

    @JimBilly4 — that’s funny man. And true, so true. 

  6. edward says:
    September 7, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    man, i just feel bad for carol every time i see her in that costume.

  7. Avatar photo Minion says:
    September 7, 2010 at 7:14 pm

    The only thing that has bugged me about Green Lantern are the Star Saphire costumes. Seems to indicate that lust=love.

  8. Avatar photo ABirdseysView says:
    September 7, 2010 at 7:34 pm

    yes! the love predator returns!

  9. Avatar photo JumpingJupiter says:
    September 7, 2010 at 8:22 pm

    @minion: I felt that way for a while but I’m starting to think it was deliberate to begin with and we are about to find out why. I’m thinking Geoff has something smart to say here. We’ll see.

  10. Avatar photo robbydzwonar says:
    September 7, 2010 at 9:05 pm

    I’m so glad I’m all caught up on GL now.  I’ve been loving every issue, and they’re always on time!!  I was about to read the whole run all over again from No Fear, but caught up with some other stacks of comics I still need to read…

  11. Avatar photo Aalbatr0ss says:
    September 8, 2010 at 6:20 am

    Readers have been asking for more Star Sapphires?  Really?  I want their names…

  12. Avatar photo PraxJarvin says:
    September 8, 2010 at 7:12 am

    This should be interesting. I’m curious how Johns is going to deal with the continuity nightmare that is the Predator. He’s a classic villain that was turned into a nemesis for Carol. However, sometime in the 90s someone had the brilliant idea to say that the Predator isn’t a real person… it’s a manifestation of Carol’s sub-conscience. From what I can tell, Johns seems to be splitting the difference between the two.

  13. Avatar photo PozrDu says:
    September 8, 2010 at 8:19 am

    @Aalbatr0ss: The readers have wondered why there are only women.

  14. Avatar photo TheNextChampion says:
    September 8, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    @PraxJarvin: That and the thing was fighting Danny Glover for a time so….

  15. Avatar photo JumpingJupiter says:
    September 8, 2010 at 3:01 pm

    Pretty cool issue.

  16. Avatar photo supertrackmonkey says:
    September 8, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    @TNC: don’t forget The Governator

  17. Avatar photo supertrackmonkey says:
    September 8, 2010 at 3:53 pm

    I want to know who the Predator entity took as a host. Or did this guy just take the name?

  18. Avatar photo supertrackmonkey says:
    September 8, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    @abirdseyeview:
    “love predator” seems like the nickname Chris Hansen gives his pedophile hostages on To Catch A Predator.

  19. Avatar photo vadamowens says:
    September 8, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    @JJ How did you get your comics so early young man?

  20. Avatar photo JumpingJupiter says:
    September 8, 2010 at 5:08 pm

    @Vada: I live in Canada and shipping was not affected by the holiday here.

  21. Avatar photo ABirdseysView says:
    September 8, 2010 at 9:24 pm

    i just thoroughly enjoy that that thing embodies love.  yes, that thing with the claws, and the talons, and spindly legs, and maw of teeth.

  22. Avatar photo JumpingJupiter says:
    September 8, 2010 at 9:43 pm

    Well, you know what they say about love…

  23. Avatar photo nicholassmith says:
    September 9, 2010 at 8:23 am

    The spirit of love is at it’s truest with creepy stalkers apparently

  24. Avatar photo JumpingJupiter says:
    September 9, 2010 at 10:30 am

    @Nicholas: You might be joking, if so, lol. If not, I think you may have misunderstood. The stalker actually corrupted the predator. It’s a commentary on how lust corrupts love. I was hoping that that theme would be explored more deeply…

  25. Avatar photo petrorabbit says:
    September 9, 2010 at 12:00 pm

    Found it to be a little silly to be honest, maybe less Larfleeze would be better

  26. Avatar photo WheelHands says:
    September 9, 2010 at 1:36 pm

    Great issue. I wanted Johns to dwell on Ophidian/Hammond a bit more but his brief appearance was awesome. This one was action packed. Some of the mythology is getting stretched a little thin (Queen Ag’apo keeping the lantern lit with just her "immortal beauty"?), but all in all Johns is balancing the recently expanded mythos with serious skill.

    Doug Mahnke gets better with every issue. As far as I’m concerned, he can stay on this title til his drawing hand is warped by arthritis. All those crystals in this issue? The look on Hal’s face when Carol kissed Predator? The panel where Carol finally dons her costume? All fantastic. 

    @petrorabbit: To each his own, but less Larfleeze would make me sad. His line on the last page about wanting to be queen of the Star Sapphires was solid gold. Maybe it wil get old eventually, but I think it’s got a ways to go.

  27. Avatar photo TheNextChampion says:
    September 10, 2010 at 12:25 am

    It seemed like Johns had to jump from the Hector Hammond thing to Vegas really quickly. That just got completely dropped after a couple of pages. I know we can’t solve this right away, but the guy said he wanted Carol……So why didn’t he go to Carol in Vegas? It seemed like the Orange construct should’ve met with the Predator in this issue but it didn’t happen. Instead we got a oddly placed story about some dude stalking a girl then turning into a embodiment of love. The resolution wasn’t all the great either and it felt rushed.

    I don’t know, other then Mahnke’s beautiful artwork I just couldn’t find myself enjoying this. Maybe it doesn’t help I am not a fan of Carol Ferris to begin with…..Either way it just felt like Johns had to rewrite the hell out of this issue and it showed.

    3/5 

  28. Avatar photo petrorabbit says:
    September 10, 2010 at 10:04 am

    Please don’t get me wrong. I really like Larfleeze but its like the funniest character in a comedy is usually the one that only has a few lines per episode. When the character gets more and more lines it tends to become less funny. I think thats what is happening here,i felt the final line in this issue took away from the important moment that happened with Carol.

  29. Avatar photo Minion says:
    September 10, 2010 at 2:44 pm

    When I think about it this book should be called Lantern Corps rather than Green Lantern. It is focusing on everyone but Hal and the Greens at the moment.

  30. Avatar photo TheNextChampion says:
    September 10, 2010 at 2:54 pm

    Is it just me? Or is Johns just focusing less and less on Hal and making him as appealing as cardboard?

  31. Avatar photo RoiVampire says:
    September 10, 2010 at 8:46 pm

    Johns is writing Hal like it’s the early 90s all over again. I think he just needs to get in Hal’s head more

  32. Avatar photo JumpingJupiter says:
    September 10, 2010 at 8:55 pm

    Ok, I’ve made some observation about the orange and violet entities and I would like to muse philosophically about them.

    First: I find it fascinating that the greed entity is a snake (look up Ophidian in a dictionary), it’s first appearance being in a panel of a garden. So Ophdian is a stand in for Satan who in the Bible became jealous of Yahweh and began wanting to be God. Wanting to be God is the apex of greed. Now in this issue we learn that Larfleeze has imprisoned Ophidian within the lantern. If you think about that for a minute. Larfleeze’s greed knows no bounds. He wants to control the very being who greedily wants to be God. Larfleeze wants Satan for himself.

    That’s pretty intense.

    Now for the Predator. We see in this issue that contrary to Parallax, the predator does not corrupt indiviudals but rather that lustful individuals corrupt it. So our lust can actually deform the power of love. This might explain the appearnace and the name of the love entity. It is menacing looking but a very soothing color. The Predator lives in a constant struggle between lust and love. The Star Sapphires being powered by this entity might explain their garb. The paths connecting sexual lust and love and repression is not an easy one to navigate. Carol being the queen of the Star Sapphires is very approriate considering that she knew exactly what to do to free both the predator and the lustful individual poisoning it. She knew to inject a sexual nature to her loving "treatment" in order to reach both the lustful individual and the Love entity trapped within him.

    So, yeah…

    Thoughts?

  33. Ramulux says:
    September 11, 2010 at 12:07 am

    This was a great issue. I like that Johns is taking his time and sort of telling weird random stories rather than rushing to get to whatever the next big thing is.

  34. Avatar photo WadeWilson says:
    September 11, 2010 at 4:22 am

    I still don’t understand how a book by Johns & Mahnke has gotten so bad (IMO).

    I guess it’s two things for me – 1) I’m way over all the multi-coloured Lantern stuff. I’m ready for something new. 2) I just can’t read about the "entities" without rolling my eyes. I like my sci-fi to be more science based than "emotion monster" based.

  35. Avatar photo mrmister says:
    September 11, 2010 at 4:41 pm

    individual issues of this have been solid; better than ok but not great. just feel like something is missing. i guess the book is still finding its identity post blackest night.

  36. Avatar photo JaqueNargg says:
    September 12, 2010 at 11:36 am

    3 stars. The scenes on Zamaron were lame and the ending seemed so rushed. There were some potentially interesting things here, but poor execution by Johns. First bad GL issue in a while though. Can’t win em al…

  37. Avatar photo Franktiger says:
    September 12, 2010 at 7:38 pm

    Mahnke is the shit, loved his stuff on Justice League Elite especially, def one of my fave artists of all.

    Some pretty interesting concepts you touch upon there Jumping Jupiter, but I’m not buying how to me what amounted to a spontaneous and compulsive show of lust by Ferris to that guy would negate the possession of the Predator entity, because it was essentially the same perversity the Predator and it’s host was struggling with.  How could a baseless act of lust counteract a baseless infatuation, unless the power of the violet ring is based on the wearers own idea of what love is, which was something Hal and Carol were touching upon between each other in the book.  Carol’s idea of ‘love’ counteracted the hosts idea of ‘lust,’ and therefore repelled the Predator entity, otherwise, Carol’s act was in principle a lustful one, which was pretty much the same emotion the host was having toward that waitress girl, does all that make sense?

  38. Avatar photo JumpingJupiter says:
    September 13, 2010 at 8:46 am

    @Frank: Yeah, those are good points. The way I read it was that the individual corrupting the predator needed to feel loved. His lust would not allow him to recognize true love. So the sensual act of the kiss and embrace was sort of a midway point between his love and the true affection he needed to feel.

    It wasn’t made clear, which is unfortunate. That’s why I gave the issue a three and not a four.

  39. Avatar photo JumpingJupiter says:
    September 13, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    BTW: The scene with the predator (in human guise) leaping across the rooftops is a flasback I believe. I think someone was asking about that. It’s not clear it’s a flashback though but I think that’s what it is…

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