Green Lantern: Tales of the Sinestro Corps

Green Lantern: Tales of the Sinestro Corps
Author: Geoff Johns and Ron Marz
Publisher: DC Comics
Publishing Date: 2008
Pgs: 200 pages
Dewey: YA 741.5973 GRE v2
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Parallax! Anti-Monitor! Cyborg Superman! These are some of the most feared members of the brutal Sinestro Corps, an army assembled with one goal: to spread fear across the galaxy! In this hardcover volume, the layers of these complex villains are stripped away as readers learn why they joined the Sinestro Corps and what drives them to eradicate the Green Lantern Corps
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Genre:
Graphic Novel
Trade show more Paperback
Superhero
Science Fiction

Why this book:
Always loved Sinestro. He’s a favorite villain.
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Favorite Character:
Sinestro was always a favorite villain. I prefer him as a standalone rather than having a Corps all his own. He was always badass enough that he didn't need a Corps of his own. Force of will, charisma, he was able to stand off, standdown the whole GLC all on his own. And give the Guardians a run for their money too, in certain instances.

Least Favorite Character:
Superboy/man-Prime is my least favorite character in comics...like ever.

Favorite Quote:
“You better hope our dog is okay, or we're going to hurt you." -Supergirl to Superboy-Prime when he attacks Krypto.

Favorite Concept:
Despotellis is a sentient virus, a plague, with a yellow Sinestro Corps ring. That's a frigging awesome concept. And horrible.

The Three Musketeers pastiche with Hal, John, Guy, and Kyle is pretty cool. I like a mellowed Guy who is still who he is but is still a good friend. John as an elder statesman of Earth's superhero community. Hal remains a cipher. Kyle after the years where he was the only torchbearer is a Swiss Army knife. And unfortunately, he falls into the Hal slot where they don't know what to do with him. And heck today, they've added Simon, Jess, Teen Lantern, and the LSH Gold Lantern. The Lantern Corps branch on Earth is crowded.

The Yellow Lantern Slushh is basically a humanoid Gelatinous Cube. Excellent.

Hmm Moments:
Power Girl threatening to turn Superboy-Prime into Supergirl-Prime if he doesn't chill out. Greatness.

Meh / PFFT Moments:
The stories are disconnected. I believe they even come from different "events" in the DCU.

Parallax and the battery entities of the Emotional Spectrum are always meh to me. I prefer the batteries to be harvesting the "Force" like powers of the psyche of the universe/multiverse rather than there be a dragon at the heart of each power source. I’d be cool with someone coming back and retconning the battery entities into being some kind of multiversal parasites that are eating the battery power instead of being the source of that power.

Missed Opportunity:
A missed opportunity that the focus of the Hank Henshaw story was on his being the Cyborg Superman instead of being on The Four. The Four was a great Fantastic Four pastiche. And would have made an awesome villain team to pit against Superman and others for many years to come. The over-focus on Cyborg Superman as the only survivor robs comics, fans, and creators from the could've been. The Incorporeal Woman, The Human Plasma, The Wreckage, Mr. Excalibur, I know, the names fit with their obvious homage origin and power sets. Have Terri Henshaw, the Incorporeal Woman, return from whatever dimension she fell into, Bgtzl, maybe, and go on a rampage against Superman and his friends sorta like what Hank did...over and over. Like I said missed opportunity.

Missed opportunity that Arisia was never made Ion. She'd have been a better choice than Kyle or Sodam Yat. More interesting anyway. As Sodam was basically a cipher and Kyle as Ion was just adding Mary Sue on top of Mary Sue. Not that I think Kyle is a Mary Sue, but his role as Torchbearer during a time when the Corps didn't exist is discounted too much and disrespected in story way too much. Not story in particular, but story in general.

Course I always thought it was a missed opportunity that Arisia didn't show back up at some point with a litter of half-human children who all call Hal daddy. And she apologizes cause she thought at the 2000-year-old part of her life cycle that she couldn't get pregnant anymore. And if her people had like 16 kids in a litter. Like I said missed opportunities...especially having a close-up of Guy's faces when they find out...and realize that they are going to spend the rest of their lives busting Hal's balls about being super-daddy, and Kyle and John's face when they realize that they are going to have to listen to Guy bust Hal's balls for the rest of their lives.
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Conclusions I’ve Drawn:
There wasn't an "oh wow" moment in the entire book. The Sinestro Corps is interesting, but not the whole book of backstories and no real knockdown, drag-out fights interesting, but still be interesting good.
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Not bad, but certainly not on par with the other two volumes of the Sinestro Corps War. Worth having for the Secret Files and Origins portion of the book, which is great, but the stories are pretty average for the most part.

An okay read of short stories but nothing spectacular (akin to Alan Moore's long-ago GL shorts).

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