Green Lantern Corps #40 Review

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #40

Written by Peter J. Tomasi

Art by Patrick Gleason and Rebecca Buchman

I'm not sure how to feel about Green Lantern Corps #40 at this point in time. I want to like it, but the shiny new smell and initial awe over the whole Blackest Night event is quickly wearing thin as we're treated to the exact same story in every single issue - loved ones rise from the dead, hero is confronted by them, we get mixed emotions and, more likely than not, someone dies a gruesome, literal, heart-wrenching death.

If this was in one issue, it's shocking. Two, it's still a bit of a shock. But, with every single issue of the event and its myriad of tie-ins featuring the exact same story and "shocking" deaths, it's no longer interesting or shocking or even something to be emotionally engaged with as a reader. It's just senseless killing with the odd bit of actual story thrown in for good measure.

For example, the whole Kryb missing babies subplot was the only thing that really interested me with this issue for the simple fact it didn't revolve around zombies and loved ones and senseless gore. We've seen Kryb and her babies crying out to her several times since she was first shown captured by the Star Sapphires and, after she broke out, I'm interested in seeing where this is going. Did Black Lanterns steal them to evoke some kind of emotional response from Kryb? Was it the dead parents of all the babies reclaiming their children? To what end would that amount of effort against one Sinestro Corps member amount to? Is it someone else doing it? Indigo Tribe maybe?

There's so many questions revolving around such a small subplot that has me actually engaged whereas the mindless violence and gore of just about every other page of the book left me feeling hollow in comparison.

Sure, Bzzd back in action, even as a Black Lantern, was a great scene, particularly his words towards Guy Gardner, and Salaak finally growing a set and putting the Alpha Lanterns in their place was another great scene, but those were two moments in a 22 page comic full of the same thing I'd seen in five or six other comics already with the promise of dozens of more of the exact same thing set to roll out over the coming months. It leaves me a bit apprehensive moving forward, to say the least.

Verdict - Check It. I'm not completely disenfranchised with the Blackest Night yet and this issue wasn't nearly as bad as my more general commentary on the state of Blackest Night so far would have you believe, but I am holding out that things shift away from all this death and repeat dead-loved-ones-encounter stories that we've been getting non-stop in every tie-in and issue of the event so far.

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