Customer Reviews

Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1: To Be a Lantern

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Picking up where Green Lantern Corps: Recharge left off, To Be a Lantern focuses on Lanterns Guy Gardner, Kilowog, and the rookie Lanterns introduced in the aforementioned book as the guardians of the universe are dispatched across the universe. There's nothing really substanscial about To Be a Lantern, and it's not really as compelling as Recharge was (mostly thanks to writer Dave Gibbons, mainly known as the artist of the legendary Watchmen, not having Geoff Johns as a co-plotter here), but the overall story has it's share of charm, and Green Lantern fans new and old alike will enjoy this story regardless. Patrick Gleason's artwork is enjoyable as well, with an assist from veteran Green Lantern inker Prentis Rollins that only improves upon Gleason's foundations. All in all, To Be a Lantern doesn't really do much to expand the Green Lantern mythos, but it doesn't try to either, and in that regard alone, this book is a fun and enjoyable ride nevertheless.

The idea of the Green Lantern Corps is one of the genuine genius concepts in comics. Superficially similar in nature to the Jedi Knights of Star Wars, the Green Lantern Corps are essentially space police, and their tales chronicle the exploits of sentient representatives from various solar systems around the galaxy, given immensely powerful rings that are powered by will. Lanterns know no fear, or are at least able to overcome it.

This volume collects the first six issues of the relaunched Green Lantern Corps (GLC) series and represents a collection of strong, fast paced storytelling with excellent characterization, built around a fantastic concept and a likeable cast. Dave Gibbons manages to make each of his cast members distinct, and the stories all literally revolve around the idea of what it costs to be a Green Lantern. The first three issues in particular are extremely strong, and focused around the wonderful new addition of Lantern Dr. Soranik Natu. There's some intrigue and a murder mystery, which despite being slightly predictable is nonetheless enjoyable and entertaining. The last three issues generally focus on Guy Gardner and are somewhat less enjoyable, though still fairly entertaining. As a whole, the collection gives you a very good idea about the potential of a series built around a large rotating cast of uniformed space police with a powerful, sentient weapon on their hands.

Artistically, we have duties here by both Patrick Gleason and Dave Gibbons. Gibbons draws the final three issues and is simply one of the most talented, gifted, and consistently strong pencillers to grace a comic page. His work here is up to his usual level, and evidences the strong clarity of storytelling Gibbons is known for. Although some of the inkers on his issues make his work a little more "scratchy" than I'd like, his style is so distinct that their fiddling doesn't detract from it too much.

The main penciller for the series though is Patrick Gleason, who is a talened penciller with some glaring weaknesses. On the plus side, he's no slouch on his backgrounds, and his work is highly detailed and convincing. His figure work is strong, and his characters are distinct and expressive. Unfortunately, Gleason routinely sacrifices clarity of storytelling for flashy images that take up lots of space. The result is that on some pages, he is forced to use very small panels to deal with key events, and your abilty to follow along as a reader is sometimes hampered. Generally though, the work is strong.

To Be a Lantern is a volume every GLC fan should own, and is a satisfying collection of solid, science fiction tales focused on a genuis concept of cops in space. Anyone interested in space, aliens, is intrigued by the Green Lantern concept, or is just a fan of science fiction generally should definitely check it out.

This new volume picks up where "Recharge" leaves off. The new Lanterns are off and running on new adventures with Guy, Kilowog, and Salakk the only veterans really focused on. This is probably the volume's greatest weakness. There is too much focus on the rookies and not enough on the veterans. When you compare this to Geoff Johns' "Revenge of the Green Lanterns" the weakness glares even sharper. The brief appearance/return of Arisia, Boodikka, Ke'haan and other veterans in "Revenge" shows how visually and conceptually unique Lanterns can be. These new recruits simply fail to measure up. On its own, without comparison to "Revenge" this is a decent volume. The rookies' adventures, while not epic, are mildly entertaining. I do not regret the purchase.

This is one of my Favorites series going on right now right up there with Fables. It brings into focus so many different characters it is next impossible to not find at least one that you like. And by pairing up Green Lanterns into groups of two you get a lot of ying-yang relationships such as Guy and Kyle while the former is an arrogant, hot head the latter is humble guy who keeps control of himself. This really is more of a filler between major story arcs but still a solid story.

Since Rebirth this is the weekest on the road for Sinestro Corps War so far.

65% of the book involves a mistery tale were at the end prooves to be worthy only to meet the neewest rookie on the GL's formation.

The last story only worth to meet the equivalent of Mogo for the bad guys. Or at least that's what I think so.

Anyway, the book is not that good. You could skeep it and you'd be ok.

When I read this I only knew of two Lanterns outside of the Earth heros, Kilowog and Mogo. After reading this rebuilding story of the Corp I was a dedicated GLC fan! I have now read every volume since. I really enjoyed all the great characters and their stories in this collection. They all feel very individual and not just canon fodder for the conflicts ahead. I highly recommend it to any long time fan or newcomer like me.

Great jumping on point for any new readers who have been wondering "What the hell is Green Lantern all about, and who are the corps?" This will answer all those questions in a very non dull way, all the while introducing some new story elements and characters that you can immediately get behind.

If your a fan of Dave Gibbons clean ,clear art, he illustrates part of this trade. The really Interesting part of this trade was the mysterious "Green Lantern Corpse", What could this be you ask? Buy the trade and find out.

"To Be a Lantern" picks up the Green Lantern Corps story after Guy Gardner has completed his one year of "no shore leave" from Oa. The story, by Dave Gibbons, is entertaining and reads like "NYPD Blue" meets "Star Trek: TNG". The artwork is somewhat inconsistent in the first three issues collected here, but improves once Dave Gibbons takes over pencilling chores himself. While not in the same league as Green Lantern Corps: Recharge, "To Be a Lantern" is still a fun series.

In Green Lantern Corps you get the opportunity to follow the stories of some of the lesser known GLs. I would always see them in the Green Lantern books, flying around, not saying anything and basically taking up space and making Hal Jordan look good. In this series the main characters are Kilowog and (Love him or hate him)Guy Gardner as they train and lead a new generation of Green Lanterns. I think Green Lantern Corps is THE Green Lantern book to read. Ion and Hal Jordon have fallen from grace for me and I find real solace and enjoyment from reading the Corps. Many interesting topics arise in Corps such as brotherhood, Racism, faith and the scales of justice. Corps is definitely worth a read is you're into Green Lantern. The stores are good, the characters are dynamic and it could very be the future of the Green lantern legacy. Even though it can get a little flaky at times it's still a very entertaining read.