Green Lantern Corps #14: For Want of a Recap

Green Lantern Corps #14 is not an easy issue to get into. It tells two stories in parallel, one featuring Guy Gardner and one featuring John Stewart. Guy’s story opens the issue, and it immediately references events in DC K.O. Unfortunately Guy’s circumstances here rely heavily on the aftermath of DC K.O. and while Hampton does drop in the backstory, it’s not especially user friendly. Additionally, the heart of the storyline–Guy’s ability to see the reborn emotional entities–relies heavily on backstory from the Starbreaker Supremacy event.

Setting aside the difficulty in approaching Guy’s story in Green Lantern Corps #14, it presents a novel look at its main character. Setting Guy Gardner up as a religious prophet type character is an unexpected direction to take. And contrary to potential expectations, Hampton writes Guy more with a kind of resignation over the situation rather than any kind of self-satisfaction. Indeed, there is a bit of dry humor in how that resignation is set against the eager reverence some of the lanterns give to Guy.

John Stewart’s Green Lantern Corps #14 storyline is more character oriented. Hampton finally digs deep into this John’s life in the wake of his return at the end of Starbreaker Supremacy. Unfortunately Hampton offers very little context for the relationship between John and Katma Tui. But Hampton does still find emotional truth in the storyline. Katma can’t be entirely what John wants her to be, and in response John looks for a way to build a relationship with who Katma is now.

The series’ recent art by committee problem is resolved, at least momentarily, in Green Lantern Corps #14. The collaboration between Pasarín and Oclair allows for a seamless visual experience–something that has been missing in this series.

Pasarín isn’t always delivering the most engaging characters, though. Frequently they have neutral expressions with very limited detail establishing facial features and expressions. Even characters’ eyes often seem dead. Exceptions are mostly limited to moments of extreme emotion. This actually works for Guy whose frequent unexpressiveness plays into his situation. It’s not as effective for John Stewart who never seems deeply invested in what is going on. Karma actually runs counter to this note, though. Unfortunately her expressiveness only serves to highlight how bland John is much of the time.

Wider views with crowded backgrounds are more energetic. Pasarín’s art shines here as he creates a richer wider world for the main characters to exist in.

Prianto’s coloring livens the art up considerably. The palette has a subdued brightness. Prianto uses rich colors, but they are soft overall, never competing in extreme contrasts or a kind of too vivid collage where everything is competing for attention.

The latter half of John’s storyline takes place on a street in Korugar at a street fighting competition. Sharpe livens it up with a lot of emphasized dialogue, especially names. Whether just through larger black font that stretches the dialogue bubbles around it or colored font that matches the characters, it’s an effective visual addition.