CONSEQUENCES! I realize that wasn’t a full sentence, but if that one line got your attention then I did my job for today. In all seriousness, one of the many aspects of why I still continue to read comics on a weekly basis (besides this site paying me a huge amount of cash, in fact I’m writing this from my yacht), but it’s the notion of dropping a hint of something and revisiting that concept at a later time. While it seems easy to pull off, I think it takes a good amount of skill to recall hints. Warning they’re will be spoilers going forward, you’ve been warned.
Given that this book has a large cast of characters, I understand that Venditti hasn’t fully explained why or Hal was able to become sentient willpower, but I do appreciate that Hal creating his own ring has created some form of consequence. Even if that consequence is from a potential future. Honestly in the spectrum of comic book fans I’m pretty forgiving if a writer forgets about or never mentions a plot for whatever reason. So when it happens my inner mind lights up with electricity (or whatever that weird meme is). One nitpick that I had with this issue is that Venditti wants to reunite the relationship between Kyle and Natu.
While I was personally wasn’t reading The Green Lantern Corps when both Kyle and Natu dated originally but it feels like backwards to even have Kyle flirt with Natu. With such a large cast of characters, finding them something to do is a difficult challenge, but we already have Arkillo and Guy acting like partners so is Venditti hinting at revisiting a romance would be a disservice to both characters, as previously they played important roles now to the cliched romance of this book. I’m not against romance, I love romance but not at the expense of potentially reducing character development for said characters.
The issue as a whole leaned towards action, which means Rafa Sandoval gets to flex his artistic muscles with epic battle sequences, and villains with epic poses. One thing that I admire about Sandoval’s art in this issue (and it’s something that I haven’t really written about before) is the amount of detail he actually puts into the constructs from both Green and Sinestro Corps members. Despite the bright yellow and green aspects they look realistic. I know that the detail of the construct depended on the skill of the wielder, but I never cared for that aspect so bring on the epic detail. Sandoval’s storytelling continues to be amazing and I love that Venditti let him showcase more of his talent with this issue.
Not a huge amount of plot progression for this issue but Sandoval’s art helps make this issue enjoyable. I’m not surprised that Venditti is keeping the Sarko’s origin a secret but I do love the subtle hints of his true identity or rather what his lineage is. Overall another fun issue of The Hal Jordan & The Green Lantern Corps. Also I’m not bitter about the lack of conclusion to Kyle and Carol’s relationship…nope not at all.
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #20 earns a 4/6