Green Lantern #19 Review

With his run winding down, writer Geoff Johns finally gives the First Lantern a firmer foundation than he's had thus far in Green Lantern #19 as Sinestro's complicated backstory is put to good use. There are solid character moments throughout, with both Sinestro and Hal Jordan seeing their willpower tested in vastly different ways.

Pitting Sinestro against Volthoom, the First Lantern, is a well-considered move as the Big Bad needed something to ground him to the Green Lantern mythos. Johns briefly flirts with having the First Lantern pull a "women in refrigerators" move on Sinestro, but thankfully opts instead to go with the theme of loss as a motivational tool on a much wider scale. While Sinestro is having his life-changing moment, Hal finds himself in a position fans don't often see him have to contend with -- helplessness. The juxtaposition of the First Lantern's rise to power with Hal's fall from it is another smart move on Johns' part and for the first time, the stakes in this crossover event are starting to feel as high as they should.

Ardian Syaf and Szymon Kudranski again pull double duty on art, with the former handling the Dead Zone sequences and the latter tackling the scenes on Korugar and Oa. The monochromatic beauty of the Dead Zone -- particularly Hal's haunting final page -- makes the more richly colored scenes appear almost utilitarian in comparison though there are some lovely moments throughout. With the issue's final two pages bringing the parallels between Sinestro and Hal into sharp focus in a moment of perfect synchronicity with Johns' narrative, one gets the sense that Green Lantern #19 is exactly what the Wrath of the First Lantern story arc needed.

Melissa Grey is a lover of all things cats, comics, and outer space. She can be found on MyIGN at MelissaGrey or lurking on Twitter @meligrey.

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