Green Lantern Corps #5: A Missed Target

Green Lantern Corps #5 suffers from a serious identity crisis. This was not the case in the previous issue where the Guy Gardner storyline was played largely for comedy and the Simon/Keli storyline simultaneously had a light-hearted quality even in its serious moments. That balance falters considerably here as Hampton and Adams try to bring emotion to Simon and Keli’s experience in the mind maze. The mind maze storyline is intercut numerous times with Guy’s storyline in Necrocopia. What little emotional resonance the writers establish with Simon and Keli is quickly undermined by the lighthearted fluff elsewhere in the issue.

This leads into a larger problem with Green Lantern Corps #5’s mind maze storyline. Hampton and Adams get right up to the edge of presenting readers with rich, emotional truths about the characters. But nothing really sticks. Simon in particular is faced with a memory from his past–bad to begin with and twisted like a knife to be worse. But the writers give the character a mere three panels of reaction. It’s an intriguing scene that never rises to the level of emotionally compelling.

Serge Acuña’s art doesn’t alleviate this problem, unfortunately. Acuña’s style with characters is energetic, sometimes to the point of over exaggeration. This is often the case when it comes to characters emoting. Acuña leans almost exclusively on the shape and size of characters’ eyes and mouths. Under the right circumstances, this works very well. Indeed, the few panels of action in the mind maze work well because Acuña gives characters a bigger, rounded musculature which tends to imply power. The problem here is that an already troubled attempt to tell an emotional, character revealing story isn’t helped by the lack of nuance in Keli and Simon’s expressions.

Not surprisingly, the lighter action story featuring Guy Gardner in Green Lantern Corps #5 works quite well. There isn’t much depth beyond whether or not Narf can hack it as a Green Lantern rather than straight comic relief. The low stakes make for a fun action romp, especially once Space Cabbie gets involved.

V Ken Marion remains the artist on Guy’s story after Green Lantern Corps #4. Marion is also prone to exaggerated facial expressions, but here it’s not limited to one out of scale feature over and over again. Guy’s most extreme expressions, as an example, are the result of comprehensive work, matching his mouth, eyes, eyebrows, cheekbones, and so on. Marion adds further detail with minor shading.

The coloring by committee is surprisingly effective. There aren’t heavy contrasts in style at different points in Green Lantern Corps #5. The starkest difference is between the two storylines–Simon and Keli’s in the mind maze and Guy’s in Necrocopia. The former is more vivid by comparison. Contrasts are stark as a result, and transitions into shadow are less subtle. Colors on the latter storyline would be exceptionally bright in most cases, but here they have a comparatively tame look. Color contrast in a general sense is softer, but transitions into shadow still lack nuance. Ultimately, aside from the coloring differences that correspond to the art differences, the four credited colorists successfully mesh their work.

Sharpe’s lettering is consistent throughout. Dialogue bubbles are well organized and out of the way. His choice of font for sound effect and their typical placement is similar both in the mind maze and Guy Gardner storylines. Sharpe’s work isn’t particularly flashy here, and it certainly doesn’t steal the show. But it is a nice unifying element for the issue’s visuals.