Hal Jordan and The Green Lantern Corps #5 Review

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps have quite the battle on their hands after Sinestro turned the Yellow Lanterns into the universe’s primo police force. Unfortunately for the universe the Yellow Lanterns operate using fear. This series has had an event level story with art that matches, but how is issue #5? Is it good?

Hal Jordan and The Green Lantern Corps (2016-) #5 (DC Comics)

So what’s it about? The DC summary reads:

“Sinestro’s Law” part 5! Sinestro’s Fear Engine powers up as the Green Lantern Corps streaks across the universe to find Guy Gardner, but instead come face to face with a battle-ready armada standing in their way.

Why does this book matter?

Robert Venditti and Ethan Van Sciver blew me away with the last issue by revealing a fear engine, kicking the Green Lantern Corps into action, and a displaying gruesome surgery for Hal. A lot is happening, different storyline elements are starting to converge and there’s a nice amount of humor too. All together this is a series not to be missed.

Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?

That looks like it hurts.

While Hal was limited in the last issue he gets primo page time in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #5 as his relationship with Sinestro’s daughter is developed. Venditti adequately sets up their understanding of each other, and the mutual fight they’re fighting, while also revealing Hal’s new found connection to the Green Lantern power. You can see he’s building their relationship towards something that will most likely change how the fallout of the war brewing will play out.

Sinestro gets his own scenes this issue too and it develops on a romantic relationship of sorts for him. Venditti is clearly developing a level of relationship complexity for both Hal and Sinestro that will play into the choices they must make later.

The major action of this issue is a bit of a false start, but gives the Green Lantern Corps something to do at least. They’re on the hunt for Guy Gardner, but what they find is a surprise to them all. Clearly Venditti is reminding us the Green Lantern Corps are needed now more than ever, which raises the stakes for them to win when they finally come to blows with the Yellow Lanterns.

Ethan Van Sciver continues to do solid work with this issue, particularly when it comes to the Green Lantern Corps and what they find. There’s plenty of pages with many Lanterns on the page at once, or many spaceships, and the detail is striking. One full page splash for instance, must have hundreds of space ships on the page at once many of which are inventive and quite unique and interesting to look at.

I’m continuing to love Jason Wright’s colors as he’s inventively used various yellows to give the Yellow Lantern lair scenes an almost hellish look and feel. A giant orb of the universe for instance, interestingly detailed by Sciver, has various dark oranges and light yellows increasing the complexity of the orb.

It can’t be perfect can it?

The Green Lantern Corps grace the cover and certainly have something to do in this issue, but it’s more of a false start than an actual battle. They strike out at a perceived enemy that ultimately gives them info, but there’s a lot of bluster to ramp up action that’s a dead end. Aside from that, the rest of the issue is table setting for our next installment, so all in all this is a bit underwhelming in the action department.

Is It Good?

Hell yeah; it’s big and epic in so many ways, but also feels important. If you’re interested in Green Lantern you can’t miss what Sciver and Venditti are cooking up.