Green Lantern #31

by Robert Venditti, Billy Tan and Robert Hunter

The Uprising storyline featured in both Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps begins this issue. It appears that a Green Lantern crossover has become a summer event and this summer brings Uprising. In the aftermath of their battle with Relic, the Lanterns have been trying a different approach to policing the galaxy and not everyone has agreed. The seeds of this epic event have been planted in previous issues of Green Lantern and finally start to grow into trouble for the green ring slingers.

The Outer Clanns are joining forces to end the age of the Green Lantern. The first half of the issue is a good recap of events that have brought on the Green Lantern backlash throughout the galaxy. Hal and the Lanterns prepare for the next in the series of minor attacks by the Outer Clanns, engineering new weapons and reverse engineering enemy technology which is a pretty good move on their part considering their self imposed limit on ring use to conserve the reserve in the emotional spectrum. The second half of the issue kicks in with an attack by the Outer Clanns and their surprise allies. The Durlans cause the Lanterns some grief and there is a good conclusion that sets up next week’s Green Lantern Corps.

The plotting and story elements that Robert Venditti employed in his issues after taking on as writer of the title have paid off well to kick off a crossover. Venditti pulls together story threads and the foreshadowing of previous issues to make this a nice epic crossover kick off. He rewards readers with a nice pay off this issue and gives this crossover a purpose and a reason to continue reading the next chapter. Venditti’s dialogue for this issue is impressive given that the story has a pace change in the second half. The casual conversation is natural for the first half of the issue and changes from casual to an erratic, real sense of urgency dialect during the last half of the book.

Space in the capable hands of Billy Tan is stunning on the page. The details on the spaceships, the planets and stars give the book an excellent off world feeling. The battles are nicely placed, and detailed. The human element has not been forsaken; the reactions and expressions on Hal and company’s faces give the story a touch of urgency and excitement.  Tan uses increasing panel size to build up to a wonderful crescendo that adds to the enjoyment. Robert Hunter’s colors give the constructs excellent hues of green and his color traces are subtle but effective.

The Green Lantern crossover may be an annual event for the foreseeable future. This may dilute the excitement to pick up these books and sometimes that lackluster feeling is well warranted. Hopefully Green Lantern Uprising continues to be as well plotted and illustrated as the kick off issue and won’t exhaust the emotion spectrum for future crossover events.