Green Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse

Title: Green Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse
Author: Peter Tomasi
Publisher: DC
My take: A hero book I liked for the heroics

Spoiler-free synopsis: This book falls into a space between Sinestro Corps war and Blackest Night, which means the Corps is in a state of flux and uncertainty - and the book uses that as a counterpoint to some great moments of heroism by some of its major characters.




Spoilery talk: First off, Kyle and Guy are total BFFs. I was a little wary of getting into this because it seemed to be starting in the middle of something and I'm just not aware enough of the GLC to always get what's going on. I've got the second book of the series still waiting for me to find book 1 (on a side note NUMBER YOUR DAMN TRADES DC!!!). But in the end, I decided to dive in.

I love a lot of the down time in this book. There are battles - there's in particular two huge fights - but the book starts out with Guy and Kyle painting primer across a huge ceiling, where Kyle plans to paint the history of the Corps. It's a great scene because it shows the camaraderie between most of the lanterns, the way something important to one is important to his friends as well. And the not-so-subtle references to Blackest Night were nonetheless nice. The relationships between the lanterns are what makes for tenseness when they get into a firefight, and it’s just really nice to see.

The mural is also a nice callback to the Sinestro Corps. War. It feels like a lot of the time, in all sorts of mediums, terrible events will happen and either are quickly forgotten as the story moves on or are just brooded about endlessly. To see it making a positive impact sometimes just feels less common. And yet it usually feels more real.

In general, it’s not the heroics that draw me into a comic book, it’s the characters. But this book, perhaps because it spent so much time on them as characters, made some really stellar moments of heroism. Sodam Yat flying into the sun and using his power to change the color, allowing a homeworld he hated to throw off its oppressors – a world which then failed to live up to the ideal he embodied. It was sort of amazing.

Or after a huge battle at Oa. A couple of the prisoners in the sciencells helped the green lanterns in return for consideration. Later, once the fight has calmed down and they’re into trying to save the injured and clean up, they get notice that there are some ring discharges in the area where the prisoners have been taken. Suspecting something’s up, Kyle and Guy go there to find the prisoners being executed one at a time by order of the Guardians. To see the two of them standing directly in the line of fire in front of the prisoners they made promises to (conveniently next to one another  ) and setting forth about the Green Lanterns as an ideal, and how executions of this sort are a betrayal of that… then for the whole thing to be pulled public in the faces of the Lanterns working on repairing the damage that had been done physically… it was, for me at least, powerful.

Oh yeah, and Soranik being Sinestro’s kid. That really didn’t do it for me. I get what they’re doing, but… I dunno, it was just a little too “Ta-da!” for me. And I thought it was interesting enough with her trying to repair the damage he’d done to their shared homeworld. But I already know a lot of people disagree with me.

I liked this book. I was curious enough about GLC to pick up two separate books, but having read only this one, I find myself really REALLY wanting to read the rest.