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I thought it was better than what Grant Morrison was doing, and actually seemed more like Green Lantern to me than anything I read from...well, anyone in a very long while. I guess my idea of "more like Green Lantern" is something from the 80s and early 90s series.
The art from Soy is good, the art from the other artist is just "whatever" to me. Some generic, if serviceable guy. I think this title deserves heaps of criticism for having an artist switch on the very first issue. Is that really the point things have gotten to? Not tolerable to me. And yes, I thought it was jarring. That is ALWAYS jarring unless there is a very, very good narrative reason for it, and there usually isn't. So, you're going to lose an entire grade and a half from me just for that.
For a #1 issue, the cover is very bad.
The dialogue was terrible. There is a lot I could say about it, but I'll just say it was terrible. Well, in short there were speeches that were too long and his take on "ethnic" slants fell completely on its face, and the writer would do well to just cut that out completely.
The writer's choice of characters is questionable. John is fine. Baz is not. Teen Lantern...oh my god. Far worse than Scrappy Doo. Cringe inducing for numerous reasons any time she is on panel. As for the faux JL/U Hawkgirl...Um...I actually don't have a problem with that. No (reasonable) person should complain about John Stewart being with Hawkgirl and you get to have a similar dynamic for people who watched the cartoons. I also think it's a good idea for John Stewart to have more characters that are definitively tied to him, because he basically has none that have lasted sans Fatality, who could be argued is actually more of a Kyle Rayner character.
Um...the story...I honestly can't say anything too good about it, other than it was generic and the plot mostly inoffensive, though the writer had better have a very good reason why that arrow was able to kill a Guardian.
The villain was bad. I don't know if it was a good idea to start things out with some mindless calamity as the main threat. It just kind of detaches me from the story. Also, I think the thing changed from green (at the very beginning) to orange. Uh...confusing. Take your comics more seriously, DC. I mean, you ARE in the business of comics, after all.
All in all, the comic wasn't that great to me, and the best things I could say about it is that it was largely inoffensive outside of everything to do with Teen Lantern, and it actually seemed more reminiscent of what I like about Green Lantern than anything I can recall reading in a long time, which is actually a really good thing! That said, these days, if you're going to get me to sit down and spend my time reading a comic (unlike watching videos or listening to audiobooks, I can't do anything else while doing that), it had better be really, really good. And this wasn't that good to me.
It also doesn't seem to have anything new or interesting to say, or any interesting angle or goal, other than "Let's flesh out these black/brown Green Lantern characters." Besides that, it just seems like "Do Green Lanterns have a place in the universe," and some half baked riff on Star Wars' Galactic Republic (despite the United Planets being around longer, the trappings here were all Star Wars). And we've seen that stuff before, both in Green Lantern and other places...like Star Wars.
The art from Soy is good, the art from the other artist is just "whatever" to me. Some generic, if serviceable guy. I think this title deserves heaps of criticism for having an artist switch on the very first issue. Is that really the point things have gotten to? Not tolerable to me. And yes, I thought it was jarring. That is ALWAYS jarring unless there is a very, very good narrative reason for it, and there usually isn't. So, you're going to lose an entire grade and a half from me just for that.
For a #1 issue, the cover is very bad.
The dialogue was terrible. There is a lot I could say about it, but I'll just say it was terrible. Well, in short there were speeches that were too long and his take on "ethnic" slants fell completely on its face, and the writer would do well to just cut that out completely.
The writer's choice of characters is questionable. John is fine. Baz is not. Teen Lantern...oh my god. Far worse than Scrappy Doo. Cringe inducing for numerous reasons any time she is on panel. As for the faux JL/U Hawkgirl...Um...I actually don't have a problem with that. No (reasonable) person should complain about John Stewart being with Hawkgirl and you get to have a similar dynamic for people who watched the cartoons. I also think it's a good idea for John Stewart to have more characters that are definitively tied to him, because he basically has none that have lasted sans Fatality, who could be argued is actually more of a Kyle Rayner character.
Um...the story...I honestly can't say anything too good about it, other than it was generic and the plot mostly inoffensive, though the writer had better have a very good reason why that arrow was able to kill a Guardian.
The villain was bad. I don't know if it was a good idea to start things out with some mindless calamity as the main threat. It just kind of detaches me from the story. Also, I think the thing changed from green (at the very beginning) to orange. Uh...confusing. Take your comics more seriously, DC. I mean, you ARE in the business of comics, after all.
All in all, the comic wasn't that great to me, and the best things I could say about it is that it was largely inoffensive outside of everything to do with Teen Lantern, and it actually seemed more reminiscent of what I like about Green Lantern than anything I can recall reading in a long time, which is actually a really good thing! That said, these days, if you're going to get me to sit down and spend my time reading a comic (unlike watching videos or listening to audiobooks, I can't do anything else while doing that), it had better be really, really good. And this wasn't that good to me.
It also doesn't seem to have anything new or interesting to say, or any interesting angle or goal, other than "Let's flesh out these black/brown Green Lantern characters." Besides that, it just seems like "Do Green Lanterns have a place in the universe," and some half baked riff on Star Wars' Galactic Republic (despite the United Planets being around longer, the trappings here were all Star Wars). And we've seen that stuff before, both in Green Lantern and other places...like Star Wars.
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