Green Lantern #164 - A Review

Written by: Judd Winick
Penciled by: Charlie Adlard
Inked by: Charlie Adlard
Colored by: Titjana Wood
Lettered by: Jack Morelli
Editor: Bob Schreck
Publisher: DC Comics

Another week of GL/GA badness? Not quite.

First things first, I do need to apologize for an accusation made last week. Last week, in my review of GA #25, I noted that the final page of said issue would have all scholars of Green Lantern ring lore screaming. That is to say, Amon Sur takes Kyle’s ring and slips it onto his hand and it is still glowing. As has been well established, Kyle Rayner’s personal GL ring only works for him. I blamed this on bad writing, but upon review of this issue I think the blame for that falls upon the shoulders of Charlie Adlard and his pour visual storytelling.

That said, the opening of this issue proves that there must have been very little coordination between Winnick and Raab on this story. And what makes me say that? The fact that last issue ended with Amon Sur laughing over the unconscious forms of our heroes and that this issue starts, with no apparent passage of time, with the two heroes standing up and totally awake with no ill effects as Amon Sur laughs at them. This shows one of the biggest problems this crossover has had and I really think this would have been better had the books featured one writer throughout as it had one artist. It may not have helped the story but it could only have helped the continuity.

I did enjoy this issue, though. Much more than any section of this crossover and I think that is due to the loss of the highly forced conflict between Kyle and Ollie. Oh the two still argue, but it is the arguing of two smart alecks bouncing off each other: not the forced generation gap/name-calling that has taken up far too much of the past five issues. And here’s to finally showing Kyle with some of the maturity and head for strategy that he developed during the Winick run on the book as well as the old sense of humor. I laughed unashamedly out-loud at the line “Stop complaining. Lotsa people would pay good money to be beaten to a pulp by eight amazon women.” I can only hope that it all doesn’t disappear completely when Rabb takes over completely next month. And despite a rough and rather obvious start, Amon Sur is shaping up to be a rather interesting villain for Kyle and the new Corps to fight against.

All in all, this mini-series has been the low point of the Winick GL run and the Second Volume of Green Arrow. Still, it did end on a good note and I don’t think I’ll be taking either book off my reading list for a while… yet.