So here we are again folks. Sinestro is mischievous. Soranik is emotional and we’ve got a new number on the top left corner of our issue. Sinestro #13 does more for the previous issue than it does for the next and below I’ll try to convince myself and you whether that is a good thing or not. Lets find out together, shall we?

Like I said, newly cemented Sinestro Corps member Soranik Natu is emotional. Last month, Sinestro (somehow) stripped her of her Green Lantern ring and replaced it with the yellow ring of fear. So, yeah, I get the emotional part of it. Hell, she even rages out at her father and finally attacks him. I think the character is basically the reader at this point. She wants the background characters (the Korugarians) to survive the pending threat of doom of yet another planet being destroyed, she wants Sinestro to stop being an a**hole and she wants to stay a Green Lantern. And she definitely wants to know what the hell happened to the other Green Lanterns! Much like me.

My issues with this issue aren’t as deep as last month. I was quite worried that Cullen Bunn would drag out this mystery of the sabotage of Korugar’s fail safe for months. Thankfully, it was revealed that Lyssa Drak was the culprit and that Sinestro’s arrogance will keep her around. Well, his arrogance and his lust for Lyssa will keep her around. The two share a passionate kiss that looks just beautiful thanks to Brad Walker.

I would have loved a scene like that when we were knee deep in the War of the Light stuff Johns was writing a few years back. These two characters have always had great chemistry but there were always bigger things going on.With Sinestro thwarting the destruction of his planet quite easily and the dispersing his Corps to patrol the universe in place of the missing Green Lantern Corps, he’s got oodles of time for Lyssa Drak romance plots! I love it. I’d prefer Bekka but the long overdue subplot with Drak’s obsession of him is just something I can’t argue against.

Anyway, Brad Walker and Drew Hennessy do a good job of keeping things interesting despite the lack of action in this issue. The two main plots we had were resolved quickly, and the art team was left to do nothing but progress the story through basic panel outlines and closeups. Now, closeups happen to be a specialty of Walker’s but here it just felt off. A lot more scratchy lines than usual. I don’t know if he was going for a more jagged or rather rugged feel because of Soranik’s new change but the once beautiful GL looks a bit marred. This was the case in every panel she appeared in. Its one thing for Kris Anka to intentionally not put faces on background characters (its still highly annoying to me) but its quite another thing for Walker to not have a mouth on Soranik’s face when she’s attacking Sinestro in the only real fight scene of the issue and it just happens to be the title page and the closest thing we got to a splash page! Very upsetting to see the art take a backseat to the story this month. Maybe Brad and company need a break? Maybe it was intentional and just not to my liking. I’ll likely never know, but I hope this changes next time.

As I mentioned, probably a few times now, Bunn ends both storylines going through this series. Plots are on the backburner now as Bekka, Soranik, and Lyssa all get some spotlight in this issue and while its done well (excluding Lyssa’s reveal of the being the planet destroyer and admitting that she’ll betray him again if its for his betterment), I don’t know what to expect next month. There was nothing here that screamed “You must come back next month!” There’s nothing here more than character interactions to get me back. I fear Cullen may not have enough tricks up his sleeve to keep the momentum going up. See what I did there? Fear? You got it.

 

Sinestro #13 earns a 3/5