Broken Frontier

Once again forces of darkness gather to extinguish the light of the Green Lantern Corps and this time those enemies are well prepared.

Writer Geoff Johns has gained quite a reputation for rejuvenating old characters – both heroes and villains. With the Sinestro Corps Special he sets out to reinvent some old, familiar DC baddies and introduce several new ones as well.

The Justice League of America has been trying to help Green Lantern Hal Jordan track down Sinestro and the meaning behind these strange, yellow rings. After another failure, however, Jordan decides there is only one place left to get answers – Oa, home of the Guardians of the Universe and the Green Lantern Corps. There, the four Earth based Green Lanterns find themselves together for the first time in nearly a year. Hal, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rayner have each been dealing with duties and life problems but it is Hal and Kyle who may have the biggest burdens to shoulder. The Guardians, though, have their own set of issues to deal with. A dire prophecy has been made about the future of the Corps… perhaps even about the future of the Multiverse… but only two of the Guardians are willing to believe it. How they act upon that belief may change the Guardians, Oa, and the Corps forever. In the meantime, Sinestro’s forces are finally ready and for their first strike they have targeted OA! The wounds they inflict on the Corps are serious and certain to have lasting repercussions and this is only the start. 7200 members make up the Green Lantern Corps… and not even those numbers may be enough.

Johns pulls out all the stops in this issue as he recasts perpetual Green Lantern villain Sinestro. After having been mostly out of the picture for the past year Johns unveils the remodeled villain as someone crafty, insidious, strong willed, and an able leader. After years of Sinestro as rather a solo act it is an interesting change to see him as the competent leader of a horde of alien beings "capable of instilling great fear."

Of course, along with the remodeled villain Johns also, once again, retcons old bits of Green Lantern mythos and stories and adds some startling new revelations. This too is something of a hallmark for Johns and some longtime fans may frown upon it here. He does, however, manage to keep newer readers from getting too lost in old continuity. Almost all the information a reader needs is supplied by the text. There is a definite feeling of manipulation here. The story crafted reads as really too technically designed to maneuver characters into the proper places and manipulate readers’ feelings in preparation for the much larger story ahead. In short, there is just something about the tale that feels inorganic rather than organic. There is an interesting and delightful backup tale on the history of Sinestro, however, that has a wonderful, Twilight Zone feel that almost makes up for the earlier manipulation.

The one area where fault cannot be found is in the incredible, detailed work of penciler Ethan Van Sciver. As much as Johns pulls out all the stops so too does Van Sciver treating fans to incredible pages filled with alien beings and alien landscapes as well as intense battles that do turn a bit bloody. Still, Van Sciver’s work manages to have the same quality as that of George Perez – the ability to fill up a page with action and yet never leave it cluttered or confusing. There is also his unique use of unrelieved black in the Green Lanterns’ uniforms that, while a small touch, adds so much character and actually visual interest to the figures. In addition to Van Sciver’s work, fans are also treated to Dave Gibbons’ pencils on one last tale of the Sinestro Corps. Gibbons’ style beautifully remains his own while echoing the work of the late, great Gil Kane.

While the Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special has its flaws it still manages to be an action packed, dramatic story that ably sets the stage for what is hopefully some interesting stories to come. As the old saying goes "the villain is the hero of his own story"… meet Sinestro.