COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #45 (Rebuilding Burnt Bridges)

The Darkstars have begun to spread their reign of terror through the galaxy, not only are criminals in their crosshairs but anyone who stands between them and lethal justice is an enemy as well, including the Green Lantern Corps!

Title: Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #45 (Darkstars Rising pt 2)
Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Ethan Van Sciver
Colors: Jason Wright
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Publisher: DC Comics

What You Need to Know:

The Darkstars have unleashed a murderous variety of justice across the universe, greatly outnumbered and outgunned the Green Lantern Corps has been forced to seek out allies in high and low places, if they’re gonna win this war they’ll need help anywhere they can get!

What You’ll Find Out:

We open on Space Sector 3518, a low ranking Lantern is transferring a prisoner through subspace back to Mogo for sentencing. Suddenly he is surrounded by Darkstars, who demand his prisoner. The Lantern refuses and the Darkstars give him no further warning before killing him and his prisoner, his corpse floats next to his prisoners as his ring returns to Mogo to be sent out to find a new recruit.

We cut to Hal Jordan in Metropolis grabbing Hector Hammond from Stryker’s Island. Hal is being attacked by the Atomic Skull, a supervillain turned warden of the prison. The Skull won’t let the supervillain go without a fight, but before he gets a chance he begins to sputter out, Hammond is choking him with his mind powers, Hal implores him to let Skull go if he really wants to be a hero, after some pushing Hammond does so, and he and Hal head out to meet up with the others.

John Stewart has a decent scene in this book I’ll leave you to discover for yourself, it’s interesting! Also, the finale is insaaaane!

What Just Happened? (spoilers)

I loved this issue, the ending with Guy and Arkillo was phenomenal and I did not see that coming, I figured if anyone was becoming a Darkstar it was Stewart since he was one before. I do have one nitpick, this is the second issue Kyle and Orion talking has been teased but didn’t show up in the actual book.

The fight between Hal and the Atomic Skull, although brief, was visually pretty awesome and I liked Hammond shutting it all down, really fun, although all the Skull scenes were very, very purple, due to the color of his flames. (see above) The talk Stewart has with Zod was cool but I have a distinct feeling he’ll only help for as long as it serves his purposes.
The opening with the Lantern was pretty brutal and it’s cool to see the Darkstars following through with their threat to kill any Green Lanterns that stand in their way.

Rating: 9/10
Final Thought: Incredible final arc for Robert Venditti, I’m loving it, a great finale from a master, can’t wait for Hawkman. As with the last couple issues this arc isn’t super recommended for new readers, as several of the meetings involve grudges and alliances from as far back as 30 issues ago.

If anyone ever wants to contact me, look me up in my groups for the love of comic books andNew Fans, Old Comics, I also have several comic pages dedicated to my various true loves, Batman, Superman, Indie Comics, Spider-man, Marvel, Oldie Goldies, and Hats! (Long story on that last one haha) or on Twitter @johnbatusijack