![]() ![]() It’s interesting that Johns doesn’t anchor this story of Hal’s first days with the ring in the present (through flashback or reflection), but the constant flashbacks that various characters have had to events detailed in this volume since the start of the run indicate that the collection is very much anchored here. Normally after a big event like Sinestro Corps War, we are given a breather and in many ways that is what Secret Origins represents. I wouldn’t mind seeing this iteration of foes continue long into the future, but I guess we’ll all have to wait and see what Johns has in mind. I will concede that the Red Lanterns aren’t portrayed as interestingly as their gimmick would have you believe (they vomit blood – how can that not look interesting?) and that Philip Tan isn’t able to bring quite the kinetic energy to Agent: Orange that the story deserves, but we very clearly aren’t dealing with a bunch of Green Lantern clones. It helps that Johns (and his team of artists) have managed to give these groups unique characters and visual identities. Not bad for a hero who used to face hyper-evolved sharks or badguys with names like Sonar or Major Disaster. It also gives the a more unifying theme to the universe – it gives the Green Lanterns an almost logical rogues gallery. Comic books (as a visual medium) thrive on colour and contrast, and it also allows Johns’ high concept to summed up in a singular sentence. I know it has been said before by many people more articulate than myself, but the invention of the colour-themed emotional spectrum was a stroke of genius. We saw quite a bit of that in the galactic nature of the threat that Sinestro posed, but here Johns gives us a whole manner of galactic powers ready to carve up the universe. It is quite like Star Wars (and even noticeably borrows some of the beats, such as the revelation of Sinestro’s daughter), or perhaps Lord of the Rings with the sense of an epic confrontation looming just over the horizon. Given the Earth-bound focus of much of Johns’ early work on the title, it’s interesting that things should reach so epic a scale. It seems that the curtains are finally being drawn back on what exactly Johns has been planning for the book. We come to it at last, the great battle of our time. Going forward, if DC put out Green Lantern Corps in hardcover trades, I should be able to look at them separately. ![]() So I’ve bundled my thoughts on Emerald Eclipse in here. I would review his work on Green Lantern Corps separately, but it seems that this is the first collection of his work put out in hardcover (for shame). Note: I am aware that Emerald Eclipse is the work of Peter Tomasi – who also worked on some of the alternating chapters of Sinestro Corps War. It's like a rainbow of interstellar warriors. ![]()
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