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michaelchurch's review against another edition
2.0
Oh man I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. The thing is, the last volume really put the title in a really solid position for a new start. Unfortunately, that opportunity is squandered on a nonsensical storyline that flies in the face of trying to establish any actual universal laws of physics for the sake of introducing a new villain who is, quite frankly, one of the most bland and boring characters I've read lately.
Rather than taking an opportunity to really dive into these characters and how they must be reeling from recent events, Venditti jumps into a new story with the universe coming to an end. That's not hyperbole. He literally has the corps fighting against the end of the universe. No one has any likable moments really except for Kilowog. There are traitors and jerks and fascists and you really don't want to root for anyone in this book. What's worse is that the outcome just damages the mythos. It's Green effing Lantern. Who wants a book about the lanterns where they won't use constructs? That's what makes the book fun and visually interesting.
That's another thing. Billy Tan has an interesting style, but I'm not totally sold on it. There's a realness, but it's also somewhat inconsistent and it makes the characters seem short and pudgy. It just was rather underwhelming. I forgot how much I liked the look of the last few volumes.
I'm still on board and there is some good action that keeps the story moving, but it's really only superficial. Venditti needs to really step it up if he wants the book to still be worth reading.
Rather than taking an opportunity to really dive into these characters and how they must be reeling from recent events, Venditti jumps into a new story with the universe coming to an end. That's not hyperbole. He literally has the corps fighting against the end of the universe. No one has any likable moments really except for Kilowog. There are traitors and jerks and fascists and you really don't want to root for anyone in this book. What's worse is that the outcome just damages the mythos. It's Green effing Lantern. Who wants a book about the lanterns where they won't use constructs? That's what makes the book fun and visually interesting.
That's another thing. Billy Tan has an interesting style, but I'm not totally sold on it. There's a realness, but it's also somewhat inconsistent and it makes the characters seem short and pudgy. It just was rather underwhelming. I forgot how much I liked the look of the last few volumes.
I'm still on board and there is some good action that keeps the story moving, but it's really only superficial. Venditti needs to really step it up if he wants the book to still be worth reading.
bioniclib's review against another edition
4.0
A quick hit review:
The cyclical existence draining of the Emotional Spectrum by what was called "light weavers" speaks to my beliefs in Karma. I really liked Relic and the different take on the ring bearers.
I hadn't been keeping up with the series and was looking for stories on Blue Lanterns, which brought me to this volume. That also meant I had no idea that Guy joined the Red Lanterns. I liked that twist though.
Two things I didn't like were Kyle's White Lantern Costume and how much of a jerk Hal is in this story.
The cyclical existence draining of the Emotional Spectrum by what was called "light weavers" speaks to my beliefs in Karma. I really liked Relic and the different take on the ring bearers.
Spoiler
I also liked how some Green Lanterns vowed to stop using their rings when they found out using the rings drains The Emotional Spectrum's Reservoir and thus brings about the end of the universe.I hadn't been keeping up with the series and was looking for stories on Blue Lanterns, which brought me to this volume. That also meant I had no idea that Guy joined the Red Lanterns. I liked that twist though.
Two things I didn't like were Kyle's White Lantern Costume and how much of a jerk Hal is in this story.
duskvstweak's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like after Geoff Johns' run, Venditti might have been better off doing something smaller for Green Lantern. The concept for this big, title-spanning story is interesting, but it's very, very close to Johns' last tale. Plus, when you look at Johns' run, he started out with smaller, single issue tales to reintroduce Hal Jordan and build towards bigger problems. He didn't start with the Sinestro Corps War, but when he got there, we were ready. Venditti didn't get us ready and that hurts this whole volume. After everything the Lantern Corps and Hal have been through, some downtime might be appriciated.
birdmanseven's review against another edition
4.0
This includes some Lights Out issues that don't really make sense without the full story, so make sure you read that whole trade too. The collection is handy because it grabs the smaller stories around that arc. I like the Green Lantern story is going and it's interesting to see Hal take on the elder position.
milo_afc's review against another edition
3.0
The Review: http://thefoundingfields.com/2014/04/green-lantern-vol-4-dark-days-by-robert-venditti-graphic-novel-review-bane-of-kings/.
“A book that sadly is full of wasted potential despite Robert Venditti’s strengths as a writer in his other work - Dark Days is a collection to stay clear of unless you’re up to date with everything Green Lantern and even then it struggles as a successor to Johns’ work." ~Bane of Kings, The Founding Fields
By Robert Venditti & Billy Tan
In this first collection from the new GREEN LANTERN team of writer Robert Venditti and artist Billy Tan from issues #21-26, GREEN LANTERN #23.1: RELIC, and GREEN LANTERN ANNUAL #2, Hal Jordan becomes the leader of the most feared and hated group in the universe: The Green Lantern Corps! And while Hal struggles with his new role as leader of the Green Lantern Corps, he must solve the mystery of why the universe is atrophying! All this leads into “LIGHTS OUT,” as Relic arrives on Oa to douse the central Power Battery forever!
With the departure of Geoff Johns, Robert Venditti has had some pretty big shoes to fill on this book, the flagship of the Green Lantern line, focusing on Hal Jordan and company. It’s been a while since I actually read this trade but I can say right now that I was somewhat disappointed with this Volume, not enjoying it anywhere near as much as previous issues. Don’t get me wrong though, Venditti isn’t a bad writer –the first issue in his Flash series has started well and looks set to only get better, and his XO Manowar book has been fantastic – I just didn’t really dig this Volume of Green Lantern, which is a shame because given the fact that it is the flagship book of the series, you’d expect it to be stronger than say Red Lanterns or even the newly launched Sinestro. But it’s not.
Green-Lantern-Vol-04Sure, after Johns’ run wrapped up in a spectacular way, I was kind of at fault for expecting something of similar quality. However, Venditti doesn’t quite fit the bill, and that’s mainly due to the Light’s Out crossover, which is the main focus of the majority of the book. That would be great if the Volume included all of the issues, but you have to be up to date on Green Lantern Corps and all the other titles involved to understand what’s going down here and read their respective trades, so as a result this book suffers because it’s not a complete event, which once again a shame because with the inclusion of new villain Relic it was an idea that had so much potential, and maybe the potential pays off with the knowledge of what goes down in other books, but reading this incompletely it’s easy to see why am I no longer following this book monthly and the end result is not as good as it could have been, especially if Venditti had chosen to keep the series separate for at least six issues or so before plunging them back into another crossover, especially so soon after the last epic event. It seems like the Green Lantern writers are trying to imitate the success that the Batman writers have had with the Night of Owls and Death of the Family – only it doesn’t pay off as well as those books.
The book opens with Hal Jordan becoming head of a severely depleted Green Lantern Corps. In order to bulk of the Corps, he releases several rings into the Galaxy in search of new recruits to train, but before things can even start, the Orange Lanterns attack – let by Larfreeze, plunging the Greens in a desperate fight for their homeworld of Oa. And that’s even before we get involved in the Light’s Out plot, so if you’re looking for action packed moments then Dark Days is probably going to be right up your street – it’s packed full of content from start to finish, with very dense action and on the surface, entertaining stuff.
Relic is probably the strongest part of Dark Days’ characters, and as far as I’m aware he’s a new addition to the Green Lantern mythos. A scientist from a dead universe, he has one goal in mind that will put him at war with the Lantern Corps – their destruction, believing it is necessary in order to save the Universe. This doesn’t go down too well with Hal and company as you can expect, and needless to say things go from bad to worse (again).
Another thing that I can praise about this book is Billy Tan’s artwork. It looks good. It’s strong, powerful and engaging. There are several great depictions of Green Lanterns in battle and manages to make every alien look distinctive and unique and not just like men dressed up in suits. On top of this, he pulls off the action incredibly well, so if you love some good artwork then you may get some mileage out of this book. If the writing had been as good as Tan’s panels then we would be looking at a different story, but sadly the book for the most part is cluttered and not very interesting making it arguably Venditti’s weakest work so far.
That doesn’t mean Venditti is bad writer though. As previously stated, he’s really impressed in XO Manowar & Flash – even though it is early days for the latter. If you’re looking for better examples of his work, go to those books, but sadly – despite the good artwork and the strong villain, Dark Days is something that I cannot recommend. Will I check out the next Volume though? Absolutely, because Venditti has written better and sometimes it takes a writer a while to find their stride on a series.
VERDICT: 5/10
“A book that sadly is full of wasted potential despite Robert Venditti’s strengths as a writer in his other work - Dark Days is a collection to stay clear of unless you’re up to date with everything Green Lantern and even then it struggles as a successor to Johns’ work." ~Bane of Kings, The Founding Fields
By Robert Venditti & Billy Tan
In this first collection from the new GREEN LANTERN team of writer Robert Venditti and artist Billy Tan from issues #21-26, GREEN LANTERN #23.1: RELIC, and GREEN LANTERN ANNUAL #2, Hal Jordan becomes the leader of the most feared and hated group in the universe: The Green Lantern Corps! And while Hal struggles with his new role as leader of the Green Lantern Corps, he must solve the mystery of why the universe is atrophying! All this leads into “LIGHTS OUT,” as Relic arrives on Oa to douse the central Power Battery forever!
With the departure of Geoff Johns, Robert Venditti has had some pretty big shoes to fill on this book, the flagship of the Green Lantern line, focusing on Hal Jordan and company. It’s been a while since I actually read this trade but I can say right now that I was somewhat disappointed with this Volume, not enjoying it anywhere near as much as previous issues. Don’t get me wrong though, Venditti isn’t a bad writer –the first issue in his Flash series has started well and looks set to only get better, and his XO Manowar book has been fantastic – I just didn’t really dig this Volume of Green Lantern, which is a shame because given the fact that it is the flagship book of the series, you’d expect it to be stronger than say Red Lanterns or even the newly launched Sinestro. But it’s not.
Green-Lantern-Vol-04Sure, after Johns’ run wrapped up in a spectacular way, I was kind of at fault for expecting something of similar quality. However, Venditti doesn’t quite fit the bill, and that’s mainly due to the Light’s Out crossover, which is the main focus of the majority of the book. That would be great if the Volume included all of the issues, but you have to be up to date on Green Lantern Corps and all the other titles involved to understand what’s going down here and read their respective trades, so as a result this book suffers because it’s not a complete event, which once again a shame because with the inclusion of new villain Relic it was an idea that had so much potential, and maybe the potential pays off with the knowledge of what goes down in other books, but reading this incompletely it’s easy to see why am I no longer following this book monthly and the end result is not as good as it could have been, especially if Venditti had chosen to keep the series separate for at least six issues or so before plunging them back into another crossover, especially so soon after the last epic event. It seems like the Green Lantern writers are trying to imitate the success that the Batman writers have had with the Night of Owls and Death of the Family – only it doesn’t pay off as well as those books.
The book opens with Hal Jordan becoming head of a severely depleted Green Lantern Corps. In order to bulk of the Corps, he releases several rings into the Galaxy in search of new recruits to train, but before things can even start, the Orange Lanterns attack – let by Larfreeze, plunging the Greens in a desperate fight for their homeworld of Oa. And that’s even before we get involved in the Light’s Out plot, so if you’re looking for action packed moments then Dark Days is probably going to be right up your street – it’s packed full of content from start to finish, with very dense action and on the surface, entertaining stuff.
Relic is probably the strongest part of Dark Days’ characters, and as far as I’m aware he’s a new addition to the Green Lantern mythos. A scientist from a dead universe, he has one goal in mind that will put him at war with the Lantern Corps – their destruction, believing it is necessary in order to save the Universe. This doesn’t go down too well with Hal and company as you can expect, and needless to say things go from bad to worse (again).
Another thing that I can praise about this book is Billy Tan’s artwork. It looks good. It’s strong, powerful and engaging. There are several great depictions of Green Lanterns in battle and manages to make every alien look distinctive and unique and not just like men dressed up in suits. On top of this, he pulls off the action incredibly well, so if you love some good artwork then you may get some mileage out of this book. If the writing had been as good as Tan’s panels then we would be looking at a different story, but sadly the book for the most part is cluttered and not very interesting making it arguably Venditti’s weakest work so far.
That doesn’t mean Venditti is bad writer though. As previously stated, he’s really impressed in XO Manowar & Flash – even though it is early days for the latter. If you’re looking for better examples of his work, go to those books, but sadly – despite the good artwork and the strong villain, Dark Days is something that I cannot recommend. Will I check out the next Volume though? Absolutely, because Venditti has written better and sometimes it takes a writer a while to find their stride on a series.
VERDICT: 5/10
sean_from_ohio's review against another edition
2.0
A new creative team takes over and its underwhelming to say the least. The idea of Hal leading the Corps is totally fine but almost everything else was rough. Hal and Carol's turmoil came out of nowhere, another ultra-powerful big bad based on the color spectrum is way too soon, Hal's reactions throughout were bizarre, and more. Billy Tan's art was very good though. This book doesn't collect the entirety of the Lights Out story, which is also a problem. Overall, not the direction the title needed to take.
cbrunner11's review against another edition
4.0
Reviewed first at Brunner's Bookshelf
For years I have been a huge fan of Green Lantern and the Corps. These series have had some of the best story lines, and battles I have seen in a comic book. When Geoff Johns took over the writing on the Green Lantern series I was thrilled. He quickly became one of my favorite Comic book authors and I read every book I could get my hands on no matter who was the hero. I have followed his amazing story lines with Green Lantern until his term ended. Now the reins have been passed and Robert Venditti took over the future of Hal Jordan. I was nervous at first because I have never read his stuff and I knew I would constantly compare him to the genius of Geoff Johns. On top of that, the previous story lines for GL have been so strong I was afraid this was going to derail the whole thing.
I was pleasantly surprised. I liked this story and there was a lot of hard decisions that Hal Jordan had to make. There was more emotional depth to Hal's character in this book and I enjoyed that. Hal has been made the Leader of the Green Lantern Corps while the new Guardians are off tending to some secret mission of their own. For anyone who has ever read these books knows that Hal is not a leader or a team player. He does his own thing and doesn’t care who he runs over in the process. It was interesting to see Hal grow as a character and fit into that roll of leader throughout the story. This starts off with a glimpse into the future and the central power battery has been put out. A being known as Relic has found his way to our universe and his goal is to find the source of the emotional spectrum and refill it since his universe was lost when the source dried up.
The creation story told by Relic states that, at least in his universe, The different colors of the emotional spectrum were harnessed by a single being for each color. These were called Lightsmiths and they controlled emotions similar to those held by the different corps of our universe. They wielded their energy through a weapon they held instead of a ring. This story tells us that the energy that the rings wield is not as limitless as we thought. There is an end to the amount of energy and it seems that that end is dangerously near.
I liked this quite a bit but there are a few things that I am not particularly happy with how they do the collected Graphic novels. The biggest problem I have is the fact that there are so many Green lantern titles that you miss big portions of the story. If all you read if this volume you will be missing out on a lot of, what I feel is important information. There are big holes and this book was the worst offender. I won’t get into details but at one point there is a shocking reveal and I had to re-read to make sure I missed something. The story goes along fine and then there is whole events missing that we are just supposed to know about. I will read the other titles as well but with the giant gaps in this plot because it switches from one series to the next and then back again I was a little lost. To add to that since it switches back and forth I now have spoiled this event when it happens in the other series because I already know what happens next. Years ago DC had said that they wanted to stray away from the big crossover events and Infinite crisis was going to be the last that encompassed all of the DC heroes. It seems they have held true to not making big stories with all the DC Universe but they still do big stories in each individual character line. Batman has story lines that are pieced together through all of the BatFamily books and Green Lantern has a bunch of series that piece together a greater story. If I was still buying monthly comics of all of them this wouldn’t be an issue but now I am sticking with Graphic novels so I tend to miss out on things.
Now that I have ranted about what irked me about this I must say again that I liked this book. I do need and want to fill those gaps this book creates in the story. I plan to as soon as I can, I will be on the waitlist at the library soon. The art work was really good as well and I enjoyed every bit of it. I will give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars, rounded to 4
For years I have been a huge fan of Green Lantern and the Corps. These series have had some of the best story lines, and battles I have seen in a comic book. When Geoff Johns took over the writing on the Green Lantern series I was thrilled. He quickly became one of my favorite Comic book authors and I read every book I could get my hands on no matter who was the hero. I have followed his amazing story lines with Green Lantern until his term ended. Now the reins have been passed and Robert Venditti took over the future of Hal Jordan. I was nervous at first because I have never read his stuff and I knew I would constantly compare him to the genius of Geoff Johns. On top of that, the previous story lines for GL have been so strong I was afraid this was going to derail the whole thing.
I was pleasantly surprised. I liked this story and there was a lot of hard decisions that Hal Jordan had to make. There was more emotional depth to Hal's character in this book and I enjoyed that. Hal has been made the Leader of the Green Lantern Corps while the new Guardians are off tending to some secret mission of their own. For anyone who has ever read these books knows that Hal is not a leader or a team player. He does his own thing and doesn’t care who he runs over in the process. It was interesting to see Hal grow as a character and fit into that roll of leader throughout the story. This starts off with a glimpse into the future and the central power battery has been put out. A being known as Relic has found his way to our universe and his goal is to find the source of the emotional spectrum and refill it since his universe was lost when the source dried up.
The creation story told by Relic states that, at least in his universe, The different colors of the emotional spectrum were harnessed by a single being for each color. These were called Lightsmiths and they controlled emotions similar to those held by the different corps of our universe. They wielded their energy through a weapon they held instead of a ring. This story tells us that the energy that the rings wield is not as limitless as we thought. There is an end to the amount of energy and it seems that that end is dangerously near.
I liked this quite a bit but there are a few things that I am not particularly happy with how they do the collected Graphic novels. The biggest problem I have is the fact that there are so many Green lantern titles that you miss big portions of the story. If all you read if this volume you will be missing out on a lot of, what I feel is important information. There are big holes and this book was the worst offender. I won’t get into details but at one point there is a shocking reveal and I had to re-read to make sure I missed something. The story goes along fine and then there is whole events missing that we are just supposed to know about. I will read the other titles as well but with the giant gaps in this plot because it switches from one series to the next and then back again I was a little lost. To add to that since it switches back and forth I now have spoiled this event when it happens in the other series because I already know what happens next. Years ago DC had said that they wanted to stray away from the big crossover events and Infinite crisis was going to be the last that encompassed all of the DC heroes. It seems they have held true to not making big stories with all the DC Universe but they still do big stories in each individual character line. Batman has story lines that are pieced together through all of the BatFamily books and Green Lantern has a bunch of series that piece together a greater story. If I was still buying monthly comics of all of them this wouldn’t be an issue but now I am sticking with Graphic novels so I tend to miss out on things.
Now that I have ranted about what irked me about this I must say again that I liked this book. I do need and want to fill those gaps this book creates in the story. I plan to as soon as I can, I will be on the waitlist at the library soon. The art work was really good as well and I enjoyed every bit of it. I will give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars, rounded to 4
foolish_shane's review against another edition
3.0
This was overlapping with the Lights Out event. It was okay, but Hal Jordan is really annoying. Still some exciting stuff going on and a new beginning.
tmwebb3's review against another edition
3.0
2.5*. Not terrible, but not sure about how Hal and Carol acted.
rhganci's review
2.0
(2.5 stars) It looks like the reboot has finally hit the Green Lantern corner of the New 52, and that reboot, 20 issues tardy, hits very, very hard. Somehow the stakes seem impossibly large and totally game-changing, while at the same time moving so fast--these eight issues are paced with such hurry that none of the huge elements that Venditti puts into play seem particularly well-developed.
Basically, we have a series of plot strands converging to create a new mission for the Green Lantern corps: an ancient villain, a visit to the Source Wall (a familiar element of Green Lantern lore that is always super cool), and a huge, game-changing revelation that will affect all of the lantern corps throughout the galaxy. While those elements all converge at the end of the volume with a solid tease that there is yet something even bigger going on, the story rushes through all of the details, dutifully dropped one after another, to get us to the new conflict. This pacing is really a detraction from the whole volume, because rather than getting a chance to experience and understand--and thereby to react--to these new stakes, we process them intellectually, adopt the concept and then move immediately on to the next piece of the puzzle. While I understood what was happening, I found myself struggling to care about it, and by the end of the volume I had the sense that whatever these changes will bring to the Green Lantern storyline would be kind of a bad idea.
The art is very goodlooking, if uneven at times, but Tan's pencils are detailed and sharp, and thanks to great colors the constructs--lots of machine guns, food platters, chainsaws, fists, axes, and trains--look excellent. The combat sequences are easy to follow and have a lot of interesting dimensions, and a lot of the space travel bits are done with a lot detail in the cosmos itself. The scenes at and around the Source Wall are, as they should be, the best of the volume.
I'll be interested to see where all of this goes, if there's a plan to backtrack for the sake of drama and lore, and what the big plan is for all of this. It's really the future of the whole Green Lantern universe at stake now, rather than a group of characters within a single circumstance, and for me that's where the suspense lies. There's a lot to process here, and as such reading this volume feels a bit more like work than comics should. Where the Green Lanterns go from here will ultimately decide how effective, or lasting, the changes represented here will be.
Basically, we have a series of plot strands converging to create a new mission for the Green Lantern corps: an ancient villain, a visit to the Source Wall (a familiar element of Green Lantern lore that is always super cool), and a huge, game-changing revelation that will affect all of the lantern corps throughout the galaxy. While those elements all converge at the end of the volume with a solid tease that there is yet something even bigger going on, the story rushes through all of the details, dutifully dropped one after another, to get us to the new conflict. This pacing is really a detraction from the whole volume, because rather than getting a chance to experience and understand--and thereby to react--to these new stakes, we process them intellectually, adopt the concept and then move immediately on to the next piece of the puzzle. While I understood what was happening, I found myself struggling to care about it, and by the end of the volume I had the sense that whatever these changes will bring to the Green Lantern storyline would be kind of a bad idea.
The art is very goodlooking, if uneven at times, but Tan's pencils are detailed and sharp, and thanks to great colors the constructs--lots of machine guns, food platters, chainsaws, fists, axes, and trains--look excellent. The combat sequences are easy to follow and have a lot of interesting dimensions, and a lot of the space travel bits are done with a lot detail in the cosmos itself. The scenes at and around the Source Wall are, as they should be, the best of the volume.
I'll be interested to see where all of this goes, if there's a plan to backtrack for the sake of drama and lore, and what the big plan is for all of this. It's really the future of the whole Green Lantern universe at stake now, rather than a group of characters within a single circumstance, and for me that's where the suspense lies. There's a lot to process here, and as such reading this volume feels a bit more like work than comics should. Where the Green Lanterns go from here will ultimately decide how effective, or lasting, the changes represented here will be.