Sinestro’s back for another month of fear mongering and sinister smiles. That’s all we get in this issue so I guess you won’t have to click below for my opinion of this month’s work. Kidding. There are some new elements brought into this issue that really piqued my interest and hopefully yours. Lets get this review of Sinestro #14 under way, shall we?
I wasn’t lying. Sinestro definitely hits us with a bevy of those trademark (hopefully) smiles. Robson Rocha fills in for Brad Walker on the art and he does a serviceable enough of a job. He’s a little scratchy here and there and that’s not appealing but its not like he’s line crazy like Jim Lee. One minor gripe I had with Robson’s art in this issue was the space background. It just seemed as if he decided, I’d much rather have zillions of white dots masking as stars than to have a simple black background that would suppose to represent the emptiness of space. Its a minor gripe because I realize that its a freaking space book and that kind of thing is left up to the artist’s interpretation. Unfortunately here, it just comes off as space filling than scene setting.
Lets get into the plot. Sinestro recruits! Soranik Natu pretty much takes a backseat to Sinestro recruiting a new yellow lantern. Her (I assuming that she is female because she has an alien shape but seemingly has humanoid breasts) name is Nax and she’s the furthest thing from the typical fear inducing monster that we typically see from a Sinestro Corps member. Nax seems innocent and is proven to be extremely naive when it comes to the Sinestro Corps and the universe as a whole. I love this idea. What better way to bring in new readers than to put them in the issue as a character. New readers are Nax. Nax learns the basics of the Sinestro. Cullen Bunn simplifies the Corps over and over and over again throughout the issue. Being named as a “Peacekeeping Force” is my favorite moment because Nax fully calls Sinestro out on that contradiction and Sinestro takes it in stride.
Bunn really did a good job of explaining the Corps to this new recruit without dulling me as a returning reader. I would question why he would do so here, but then again as Soranik states on the final page, he’s building something. Sinestro is preparing for war and Nax presumably will play a big role. Or at least a key role. Like with Robson’s background detail, my gripe with this issue is a minor one. Once Nax seems to get the gist of what the yellow lanterns do, Sinestro pawns him off on Soranik. That’s disappointing. Highly disappointing. Bunn takes the time to say how privledged Nax is by being personally mentored and trained by Sinestro himself. Sinestro reminds us that his last protege was someone we all remember…How cool is this? Sinestro’s next protege! Except Bunn may have just blown it because he just has Sinestro throw Nax into a room with Soranik like its daycare on Ranx. Very disappointing. Have I said that enough? Hopefully, we’ll see a lot more of Nax because there’s a dire need for good new characters in the lantern books and DC Comics in general. So, Soranik and Nax shall be partners and Nax has a weird ability to psychologically view the layers of a being’s body which she states is “agonizing” if they’re not sedated. So, she’s a legit yellow lantern after all. That puts a smile on both mine and Sinestro’s twisted face.
Sinestro #14 earns a 3/5
