Something Sinestro This Way Comes

I’ve never been much impressed with Sinestro. Maybe it’s the mustache…that long, pencil thin mustache thing he’s into doesn’t really do much to make him seem as terrifying and imposing as they tell us he’s supposed to be.

Or maybe it’s the name. “Sinestro” seems a bit on the nose (as smart as the self-appointed Guardians of the Universe are supposed to be you would think that somebody named “Sinestro” was going to turn out to be a bad guy but they took him on as one their Green Lanterns just the same.) Of course the name comes from the great, cheesy Silver Age tradition of on the nose super-villain names (Dr. Doom, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Evil Star, the Legion of Super-Villains, Evilbadguy…okay I made that last one up but you get the point :-) so I guess I should cut the guy some slack there (we suspend disbelief…see what I did there?...in regards to so many things in super-hero comics we can and do live with silly monikers on super-villains and disregard the fact that here in real life most “evil” people don’t really think of themselves as being evil and so don’t usually pick a name to brag about how sinister they are.)

But I digress (sorry about that, Peter, but I couldn’t help myself.) The Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special is the proper introduction to a concept that was, in hindsight, long overdue: a corps of yellow power ring wielding brigands being brought together to terrorize the universe and to do battle with the recently-revived Green Lantern Corps. As the title gives away this assemblage of evil is called the Sinestro Corps (on the nose once again but what else were they going to call themselves?) and their rings feed off fear.

Sinestro (who apparently has been watching Disney’s Aladdin a few times and has decided to invoke the spirit of that movie's villain, Jafar…he refers to Kyle Rayner as “alley rat” a couple of times during the course of the issue) is still a bit less than terrifying (though I do like the snazzy new uniform…certainly his best look ever) but the Corps he’s bringing together is as horrifying and deadly a bunch as could be imagined. The Sinestro Corps assault on Oa, the homeworld of the Guardians and the Green Lanterns, to retrieve a couple of recruits being held prisoner there is brutal (much Lantern blood is spilled in the process) and promises much mayhem to ensue.

Geoff Johns gives familiar good guys…Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, the new Justice League…interesting turns but the day belongs to the bad guys as the war (that will rage in the pages of Green Lantern…and maybe, given the revelation of Sinestro’s Guardian, in Countdown and elsewhere) is given a taut, suspenseful kickoff. (We will give a pass to the fact that an extremely powerful character is beaten and turned with surprising ease and that some of the supposedly noble Green Lanterns behave like petty school children.)

The art is top notch all the way through with Ethan Van Sciver delivering the goods on the main story and Dave Gibbons doing the same on the backup story that recaps Sinestro’s origin.

It’s a very promising beginning to what could a very cool storyline. We shall keep a good thought.

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