Broken Frontier

War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath #2 finally ties up the previous series’ loose ends, but ultimately fails to stand on its own.

War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath #2 finally ties up the previous series’ loose ends, and firmly sets up the new Green Lantern status quo.  At the same time, however, in light of DC’s relaunch next month, Aftermath reads more like a book treading water rather than a series that stands on its own.

Concerns aside, there is some great character work within the pages of Aftermath #2.  Tony Bedard, who has been writing Kyle Rayner since the end of Blackest Night, continues to develop Rayner as a much more assertive and headstrong Lantern.  Over the course of the 20 pages, for example, Rayner not only takes on a rebellious faction of Green Lanterns, including his former love Soranik Natu, but confronts the Guardians for their poor actions following the Lantern civil-war.  The results of the War continue to weigh heavily on the Corps as a whole, creating some outstanding tension throughout the fractured and disorganized police force.  Lastly, Sinestro’s small appearance again proves that he is the most interesting, conflicted, and fun character in the whole Lantern universe.

The art, on the other hand, remains only competent.  Pencilers Ransom Getty & Andy Smith share the pages, but to different results.  The opening page featuring Natu, for example, is honestly quite ugly in comparison to other versions of the character.  In fact, Aftermath #2 contains some of the most poorly drawn faces and expressions seen in quite a while.  The artists, moreover, fail to create a unified style or to complement each other well enough to keep the differences in art from becoming distracting throughout the issue.

Lantern constructs, on the other hand, are fresh and exciting throughout the issue, especially Rayner’s use of basketball players to shoot rubble into Kilowog’s massive trash dumpster.  Even better still is the battle within the Halls of Oa between Natu and Rayner, who each charge up to their full potential and unleash their fury in the form of mechanized war-suits and green dragons.

For what the series is worth, War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath has been a fairly fun and interesting ride between the massive crossover’s conclusion and the September launch of Green Lantern #1.  Many of the moments were worth the read, but Aftermath is little more than filler.  Bedard did a solid job of keeping the intensity up and the universe alive for two months while fans wait for the new series to begin.