‘Loving you is easy cause your beautiful’-Minnie Ripperton

As we trudge along to get into ‘Blackest Night’, Peter Tomasi has made a B list book into almost an A+ main title. It’s amazing how a writer, who no one could probably say who he is (let alone spell is last name correctly), is now praised as one of the best writers in DC in over a couple of years. He deserves all the praise he can get, especially dealing with literally thousands of character no one would dare try to deal with.

The story, like in today’s GLC, has a couple of plotlines going. One deals with the debut of the Star Sapphires (or Pink Lanterns), another deals with a yellow lantern name Kryb stealing Green Corp newborns, finally another (minor) story deals with a new lantern name Saarek; who is dealt with a very important mission by the Guardians. All plotlines are dealt with almost evenly and the main players get their chance to shine at whatever happens. It’s not as smooth as Tomasi is doing now with ‘Emerald Eclipse’ but the story never lets up. Some of the stuff for me can be a bit boring then others; like the Star Sapphire’s in general or Guy Gardner dealing with his girlfriend Ice. But the better of the plots going is the Yellow Lantern Kryb. Kryb might be the best new villain to be introduced this year; if not one of the creepiest creatures to ever be thought of. Overall the plot(s) isnt bad, but once again it just feels like were sorta coasting into Blackest Night more then anything else.

What hurts this comic at certain points is penciller Patrick Gleason. Certain points Gleason’s pencils are some of the best in any DC book. His designs for all things creatures can be beautiful, disgusting, humorous, or down right disturbing. If anything I would love to see a book done by all the designs Gleason has done for this title. They are that good looking. However, his pencils can be very uneven at times. Characters will go off model within pages (even sometimes panels). Sodam Yat is the best example as his eyes and mouth will suddenly change shapes as he’s talking. Sometimes action scenes will look great, other times it’ll look pretty medicore. Unlike right now, Gleason’s pencils would just be fine for one issue, but then just be terrible the next. For the recent arc his pencils have been great for two straight issues. It’s not that his pencils are terrible overall at points; it’s just inconsistent.

Again it’s weird to think that Peter Tomasi could be a better writer then Geoff Johns. At times, he does seem to accomplish more with characters then Johns could do with Hal Jordan in an arc. Tomasi just brings in the right blend of action, drama, and comedy to make this one of the best DC titles out today. The art can be inconsistent sometimes with Gleason; but as of today his style has certainly gotten better. If you still are undecided on picking up Green Lantern Corps let me reassure all of you. This can beat out any Marvel cosmic comic any day of the week without even trying. If you like Nova or Guardians of the Galaxy; you’ll love GLC even more.