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With the Black Lanterns on Oa dealt with by Mogo, and the GLC due to make the leap to Earth in time for Blackest Night #7, its no surprise that the focus of this issue is dealing with Guy’s red ring infection.

And again, its ultimately Mogo that comes to the rescue, as he forces Guy to face his demons, before finally purging Guy of the red ring, albeit not completely.  In the meantime Kyle and the others try their best to help out, but there’s not really a lot they can do.  There’s a nice nod to the Green Lantern arc, where Munk tells Kyle the only real way to get rid of a red ring, is with a Blue Lantern, but Munk’s low on power and unable to teleport one to them, and the red energy makes holding Guy down long enough to take him to a Blue lantern nearly impossible.

There’s been some criticism of padding in the GL titles over the last month or two, undoubtedly caused by the January skip month introduced in the main Blackest Night miniseries.  Certainly the Spectre/Parallax storyline felt a bit out of place in the main Green Lantern title, and here, while the story does flow well, its noticeable that very little actually happens, beyond Guy’s red ring infection being dealt with.  The use of Mogo for the second time in two issues to fix things jumps out as well, and you can’t help but wonder if initially this would’ve all happened in one issue, with Mogo absorbing the Black Lanterns and Guy at the same time, only to then spit out the cured Guy.

Mogo does make the point though that he’s unable to completely purge the red lantern energy from Guy’s system.  What this actually means is unclear (let’s be honest, Guy’s not known for his calm temperament at the best of times), but with Peter Tomasi taking Guy over to the new Emerald Warriors title, I imagine we’re seeing something being dropped in that’ll be picked up there as presumably it’ll become a problem that needs Guy to seek out a Blue Lantern for help purging the red energy completely.

The end of the issue ties in neatly to the main events in Blackest Night, with some new Indigo Lanterns turning up to teleport everyone to Earth (just in time to save John Stewart).

Overall a good issue, but with Peter Tomasi dedicating a whole issue to Kyle’s resurrection only a few issues ago, this felt a little like a repeat of that same trick, only focused on Guy.  Its slightly less satisfying too, as there the combined efforts of the various Lanterns paid off with them able to resurrect Kyle.  Here’s the Lanterns are actually powerless to do anything, until Mogo steps in.

There is some nice character work, with Kyle’s desperation to save Guy echoing Guy’s when Kyle was about to be claimed by the Black Rings, although with the two characters getting split into different books in two issues, I don’t think it really added much to their relationship at this stage.  As I say, you have to wonder if this was all originally planned to happen in one issue, rather than the two we ended up with.  It was still an enjoyable read as I’d expect from Peter Tomasi, and jarred me less than the Parallax stuff, but  there was a definite feeling of repetition to the events here.

Its been a while since I was motivated to throw up a quick post just talking about an issue preview.  Largely its due to making writing the post once the full issue is out a bit trickier.  However I loved IGN’s preview for GLC #43 so much I just had to say something.

Guy turning to a Red Lantern’s been known for a while now, and Kyle’s death last issue was obviously the event that was going to push him over the edge.  What surprised me was how quickly it happens, within the first few pages presented in this preview.  But what a preview.

I really love how Soranik and Guy’s grief is played against their individual struggles to save Kyle, between Soranik trying to resuscitate Kyle himself while Guy is struggling to prevent Kyle’s ring leaving for Mogo.  And then when Guy’s grief gives way to rage as the Black Lanterns reform around them, he gets nabbed by Vice’s red ring, giving us a superb splash page of Red Lantern Guy.

I really love the design and artwork of Guy as a Red Lantern.  The armoured look is suitably menacing given what’s happening, and the colouring reminds me very much of Gleason’s take on the Alpha Lanterns.  Guy bathed in red light is a striking image with the light coming off of him really adding to the feeling of his rage that comes off the page.

Of course, he’s still got his Green Lantern ring on his right hand as well, and its similarly lit up.  Given Hal maintained an element of control while possessed by the red ring (and was able to form red constructs), I wonder if Guy’ll be the same.  Its a marked difference to the other Green Lantern-turned-red we’ve seen, Laira, who had been stripped of her green ring prior to the red one coming along.

And with Guy’s rage focused on the Black Lanterns, its a safe bet that the combination of his green and red rings will allow him to thin out their numbers while Soranik tries to save Kyle.

Really looking forward to getting this issue on Thursday.

I really thought this issue was going to be tough to review.   Fortunately, having been spoiled to the big event yesterday, I had a day to process it in advance, which let me digest the issue without giving into fanboy rage.

So to get right to the main talking point of the issue.  Kyle dies.

As a Kyle fan, this isn’t something I was pleased to hear about.  With Kyle spending most of the Sinestro Corps War possessed by Parallax, and now getting killed off in Blackest Night, it was hard not to feel a little hard done by, as Hal races around the universe getting ready to save the day through his sheer silver aged awesomeness.

However, having time to digest it, and then read the issue with a clearer head, I’ve got to say, its a brilliant issue, and if this is indeed Kyle’s curtain call, then its not a bad one.

Kyle really gets to look the hero throughout the issue.  He takes charge of the Black Lantern assault on the central battery by coming up with the idea to release Vice and use the Red Lantern as a blunt instrument against the zombie hordes.    Then when Alpha Lantern Chaselon mucks everything up and is about to go nuclear, Kyle gets to play the hero, grabbing the Alpha battery and using it and sacrificing himself in order to take out all the Black Lanterns in the resulting explosion.

(Of course, presumably said Black Lanterns are just going to rise again, but it made for a good scene nonetheless).

Once again the Alpha Lanterns prove to be more trouble than they’re worth with Chaselon mucking up Kyle’s plan to use Vice (which was working and saving the central battery), and then refusing Salaak’s orders to withdraw, resulting in his own death and endangering others (finally killing Kyle) with his ruptured Alpha Battery.  I’m at the point where I just really, really want to see the Alpha Lanterns get their comeuppance.

Things are now nicely in place for Guy to fall as a Red Lantern next issue, with Kyle’s death presumably pushing him over the edge, and Vice’s ring on hand (pun unintended) to grab him, and from a larger plot point of view, we know that after Salaak, Guy and Kyle were the only things standing between the Alpha Lanterns and control of the GLC.  With Guy and Kyle gone, Salaak’s going to have to watch his back.

Special mention must go to the art in this issue.  Patrick Gleason really brought some of the best art he’s done to this issue.  The splash page of the Black Lanterns attacking the Central Battery was a great image, and Kyle’s final stand is beautifully drawn.  He also continues to excel at some of the freaky visuals, such as the Black Lantern construct that attempts to tear down the battery, and mention must go to both Gleason and Tomasi for the creepy image of the Green Lantern orphans, finally reunited with their parents as Black Lanterns.

With regards to Kyle’s death though, while its a good scene, I’m not counting him out yet.  This whole story is about the dead coming back, and I’ve speculated before that we’ll see some sort of mass resurrection at the end to bring back big names like the Hawks, Aquaman and J’onn.  No reason we can’t add Kyle to the list.

There’s also the cover to GLC #44, which shows Red Lantern Guy and features Kyle.  Now this could be symbolic for Kyle’s death having pushed Guy over the edge, or maybe a running change will swap Green Lantern Kyle for Black Lantern Kyle, but it still leaves things open.

I guess after 52 I’ve tried to learn to not let deaths of characters I love knock me as much.   Back during 52, fandom went into outrage overload over Booster Gold’s death (later revealed to be an elaborate hoax he’d setup to allow him to operate freely as Supernova) and then later Animal Man’s death (resurrected by aliens the very next issue).  So with that in mind, I’m not ready to drop Green Lantern yet or anything.  We’re in the middle of a story here, and where exactly Geoff and Peter have planned for it to go remains to be seen.   I’m fairly optimistic that Kyle’s going to be back in short order, with this death serving to move various subplots on, and provide a nice big halfway-mark shock to the readers.  If he’s not brought back, then I might be a bit unhappy, but for now, I’ll see what comes next month.

Continuing on from the events of last month, the Blackest Night has erupted across Oa, with the Lanterns in the Crypts being raised as Black Lanterns, and Black Lantern Jade having arrived to target Kyle.

This was a brilliant issue.  Possibly my favourite Blackest Night issue so far.   Unlike a lot of the other issues though, it probably feels more like a superhero comic with less of the outright horror elements that the others have had.  But, this really reminded me of some of the best action-packed moments of the Sinestro Corps War.

A highlight had to really be the scene with Salaak and the Alpha Lanterns.  Again, Gleason’s interpreation of the Alphas is spooky as heck, and much like saw with Boodikka over in this month’s GL title, the Alpha Lanterns are getting out of control.  Only this time, rather than a programming glitch, they just straight out try and take control of Oa and the Green Lanterns.  This leads into Salaak revealing a message from the Guardians actually stating that he is in charge in their absence, followed by Kyle and Guy.  Its a great scene, with Salaak laying down the law, and also the nice nod as to how important in the heirarchy of the Corps Kyle and Guy actually are.  Still though, you can’t help but get the feeling that the Alpha Lanterns haven’t been completely dissuaded from taking over.   There’s going to be big problems with them in the near future.

Talking of Guy and Kyle, they both get their moments to shine as well.  The Kyle/Jade confrontation I found to be pretty effective, with Kyle quickly seeing through Black Lantern Jade and blowing her apart.  Of course she reforms, taunting Kyle with images of all the women he’s lost.   Its a keystone to Kyle’s character that he’s pretty much cursed when it comes to women, and its been brought up quite a few times lately, so it’ll be interesting to see how Peter Tomasi approaches it.  He seems to be keen to move Kyle on as a character so I suspect “Jade” isn’t going to get the reaction she’s expecting from him.

It was also nice to see the execution from a couple of months back revisited so quickly as again, one of the Guardians’ poor decisions comes back on them as the executed prisoners all rise as Black Lanterns.

While this book was filled with great moments, there was also a very intriguing moment, as we revisit Kryb who escaped from Zamarron in the latest issue of Green Lantern.  Here we find her arrive at her planet, closely pursued by Star Sapphire Miri, only to find the children missing.  Its an intriguing scene as we see Miri willing to play off of Kryb’s (twisted) love for the children and agree to help her find them.  Obviously here we’re seeing a more dubious side to the Sapphires as Miri seems to view Kryb’s love for the children above all other factors.

This was just a great issue.   I can’t wait to see what happens next month, but its safe to say things look pretty bleak on Oa.  The Guardians appear to be dead (or at least missing after their imprisonment by Scar), and with the sheer number of Black Lanterns they’re facing, its hard to see how things are going to get better for the Green Lanterns.

Ahead of the return of Blackest Night next week comes the return of actual comics discussion on this blog ( )with the previews for Green Lantern Corps #39 and Blackest Night: Batman #1 from IGN.

As usual, it looks like the GLC title is firing on all cylanders.  Peter Tomasi, in a similar way to Geoff Johns in GL #44, takes the opportunity to pick up an event from Blackest Night #1 and expand on it (in the case of GL, Hal and Barry at Bruce’s grave, whereas here its Kyle and Guy heading back to Oa).

Its the perfect moment to open the title with.  The fact that Guy and Kyle had run into the rings while on their way to Oa was a little rushed in Blackest Night #1, so this expands on it nicely, while providing a perfect opportunity for some nice character moments between Guy and Kyle.  Its nice to see Kyle’s relationship with Jade crop up in such a big way as it was a big part of the later end of Kyle’s run, and with Jade’s impending return as a Black Lantern.

Its also nice to see the Daxam hasn’t been shoved to the side as was feared by the events of last issue.  There’s big trouble brewing in having the Daxamites with those powers.

Also written by Peter Tomasi, Blackest Night: Batman follows on from events after GL #44 with Dick and Damien turning up at the cemetary to survey the damage to the Waynes’ graves.

However we also get Deadman included in this book, and it provides a potential tidbit on the Black Lanterns, as Boston  finds his own body being reanimated by a black ring.  Unable to possess and regain control over the body he heads off to seek help (presumably from Batman, but maybe its Bruce he’s looking for?).

With J’onn and Ralph both displaying their personalities as Black Lanterns, there had been the question of whether or not their souls were  bound to the bodies or if the Black Lanterns were merely acting like their previous selves.  This book would confirm the later.  Its not actually J’onn attacking Hal and Barry, its just his body reanimated and acting like J’onn.  A significant difference.

I wonder if this means we could get an appearance from Ralph and Sue: Ghost Detectives to see their reactions to their bodies killing the Hawks?

The combination of characters in this book is definitely fun.  Peter Tomasi wrote probably the best Nightwing stories in years, and while Dick and Boston may seem like an odd pairing, there’s a lot of shared history there, with Boston working in the same circus as the Graysons had years ago, and even styling his costume on theirs.  The shared circus background is almost certainly something Peter Tomasi’s going to play with.

This issue brings to a close Emerald Eclipse, and leads us straight into the events of Blackest Night (again, I’m left wonder when exactly Final Crisis happened in the current GL timeline).

As seen in the preview, the issue is largely interested in the fallout from the riot on Oa.  This probably leads to the main disappointment of the issue, which is the events on Daxam.  Whereas previous issues in this story arc had played out those events as a major part of the story, here they’re effective resolved with a single two-page spread of the Daxamites attacking the Sinestro Corps and Mongul saying “Stuff this, we’re off”.  Its a disappointing ending to what had been a very powerful arc.  Interestingly, Sodam Yat is left as “dead” here, which leads me to believe his return could be a big part of Blackest Night.  Surely Arisia will twig with all the Black Lanterns around that Sodam’s not among them, and he can turn up to save the day at somepoint?

I don’t have the issue in front of me, but in Legion of Three Worlds, I’m sure Sodam mentions failing the Corps during the Blackest Night.  Perhaps this could be a reference to the fact that he was not able to help out, due to recuperating in Daxam’s sun?   It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

The main thrust of the issue is the events on Oa.  After turning up to quell the riot last issue, the Alpha Lanterns waste no time ferrying the prisoners away, leaving the Corps to handle the rebuilding.   We also get a great “WTF???” moment from the Guardians when they return from Vega to find Oa’s armour smashed to bits (I could just imagine one of them saying: “Honestly, we leave you alone for five minutes…” ).

Things then go from bad to worse on Oa.  Kyle and Guy discuss their mutual distrust of the Alpha Lanterns, but are still horrified when they discover them executing the prisoners who rioted on Oa.  Arguing that killing defenseless prisoners is against the spirit of the Corps, they intervene, but are overruled by the Guardians who teleport them back to Earth (putting all four Musketeers back on Earth together for the start of Blackest Night).

Its a great scene.  You really feel its going to turn very nasty with Guy and Kyle getting between the Alphas and the prisoners, only to then discover its all condoned by the Guardians and showing their disgust.  Here Kyle and Guy really become the mouthpieces for the fans who’ve been watching everything the Guardians have done since the Sinestro Corps War.  Its a powerful, great scene that’s been brewing for a while, and doesn’t disappoint.

Many people are starting to argue that out of the two Green Lantern monthlies, this book is actually better than its parent title, and while I’d probably still rate them both equally (Geoff has the advantage of getting first shot at the new Lanterns), its easy to see from the events on Oa in this book why people are thinking that way.

Annoyingly my ISP decided to not like my domain this weekend.  Makes blogging a bit tricky…

Picking up from where the preview left off, we get another page of Saarek and Ash discussing their situation in the Anti-Monitor’s empty boot.  There was something about that visual of them hiding out in it that made me chuckle.  Its a great image  They seem to accept that since both have been sent on their mission to find the Anti-Monitor by the Scarred Guardian that she was obviously hedging her bets by sending two Lanterns on the same investigation.

Given Scar’s link to the Blackest Night I find it interesting that this seems to indicate that she doesn’t know where the Anti-Monitor (and thus the black power battery) is.  While she’s been setting the scene for the Blackest Night, by causing the Sciencell riot and manipulating events, this makes me wonder if she’s as in touch with the forces behind the Blackest Night as we might believe.   Alternatively she could be leading both Saarek and Ash into a trap.   Given Saarek’s ability to talk to the dead, his role in the Blackest Night could be an interesting one, unless Scar manages to kill him.

Meanwhile on Oa, the Sciencell riot is spiralling out of control.   The Green Lanterns are desperately trying to keep it contained, but its chaos.  And then the rookies decide they’re through sitting on the sidelines, and break out of their containment to help, only to run into a load of Sinestro Corps members.   However, at the last minute, they’re saved by the intervention of the Alpha Lanterns.

This scene was brilliant.  Exactly how easy the Sinestro Corps would’ve been able to take down the Rookies would remain to be seen.  They were brave enough to want to join in the fight, so that could’ve meant that they would have overcome the yellow weakness and been able to hold their own.  However, the intervention of the Alpha Lanterns was brilliantly done.   They were rendered very differently here to their previous appearances, which just showed them as Lantern/Manhunter hybrids.  Here Patrick Gleason shows them mostly in shadow, save for their glowing power batteries.   It makes them a really ominious prescence and helps show off just how powerful and inhuman they really are.  While it wouldn’t work for all their appearances, here its chillingly effective.

With the Alpha Lanterns help, the riot seems to be quickly quelled, however just as the Lanterns think they can catch a breather, Scar decides to push things forward in preparation for the Blackest Night, and blows open Oa’s armour, exposing the planet and leaving it vulnerable.

Its a dramatic ending, and does hammer home the fact that the Blackest Night is about to begin.  Its a pity we haven’t seen more of Oa’s armour through the series though.  Its something that hasn’t really been used since it was introduced, although in fairness, there’s only so many times you can really have Oa being attacked.

So overall, another great issue.  When you think about the big storylines Peter Tomasi’s juggling in this arc (Sinestro Corps invasion of Daxam, Sciencell Riot on Oa and the general manipulations of Scar), its amazing that he’s covering them all so well.  One of the big strengths he’s displayed since taking over this series has been to juggle lots of things (be it plots or characters) in a satisfying way.  No mean feat for a writer.

As a side note, I’m still wondering as to the timeline in the DCU at the moment.  Rage of the Red Lanterns happens between Final Crisis 1 & 2, and Agent Orange happens right after that, presumably still during the Final Crisis 1/2 gap.  since this story is running alongside Agent Orange, and has the Blackest Night lead in with Oa’s armour being blown open, I have to assume that Blackest Night is going to be happening right after Emerald Eclipse.

But what about the rest of Final Crisis?  I’m going to have to assume that Final Crisis, Flash Rebirth (since the Blackest Night preview shows a more familiar Barry than we’re seeing in Rebirth at the moment) and Blackest Night all happen within a *really* short space of time in the DCU.   That’s something I’d like to see addressed, the fact that the Earth falling to Darkseid, Barry as the Black Flash and now Blackest Night are all happening within a very short period of time.  It might be fun to see the heroes a bit more beaten down, struggling to cope with all they’ve been through without any real down time.

I don’t actually think it’ll happen though.  I suspect the issue of Final Crisis will just be ignored.  It’ll be a pity if tha’s the case.  I remember the Judge Dredd comics doing something similar back in the day, when they actually referenced the fact that all their big storylines had left Mega City 1 badly beaten, and vulnerable with shattered defenses.   It really helped build the fact that it was a consistent universe.

While overshadowed slightly by this week’s cracking issue of Captain Britain, its none the less another cracking part of Emerald Eclipse in Green Lantern Corps this month.

Picking up with last month’s revelation, we get the backstory to Sinestro and Soranik’s relationship, as Sinestro reveals how Soranik’s mother had been forced to hide her away from him when he had started to dominate Korugar and they’d started receiving death threats (and you have to wonder how much of it was to protect Soranik from Sinestro himself). There’s something very creepy about watching Sinestro stalk Soranik throughout her life, from giving her her distinctive facial tattoo(revealed to contain a tracker so he’d always be able to find her), to taking the photograph of her and her adoptive parents on her graduation day. Despite the creepiness, there’s an obvious amount of love for Soranik from Sinestro. We see them flying together, and him allowing her to play with his GL ring when she was young, and he comments on how he hopes the upcoming Blackest Night will allow them to fight side by side, before taking off for Daxam to deal with Mongul.

We cut from there to the riot on Oa, which is in full swing. Patrick Gleason really captures the chaos going on, with the Green Lanterns struggling to keep everything contained. We get loads of cameos from the villains who were contained in the Sciencells as well, including Alex Nero. I wonder if he can still tap the Ion power or not…

The big events though are taking place on Daxam. Struggling to get the Daxamites motivated, Sodam has decided on a bold strategy. He’ll use his element of surprise to try and take down Mongul hoping that with their leader gone, the Sinestro Corps will be in disarray enough to give the Daxamites the edge and drive them from their world. While he’s lost his natural powers under Daxam’s red sun, Sodam is confident that with the Ion power, he can pull it off.

However, he’s not counted on Scar, who blocks his access to the Ion power. Its a really odd scene to be honest. Unlike Kyle, Sodam is deliberately restricted from accessing the power of Ion, and must request authorisation from his ring before he’s allowed to use it. Meaning that contrary to what we’ve thought, up until this issue, Sodam has actually just had normal GL powers (combined with his Kryptonian ones). It seems odd to me that his powers have been cut off in this way. Its perhaps not completely shocking, given how much the Guardians love being control freaks, but its strangely at odds with how Kyle was in the role. Of course, since Kyle was the torchbearer and responsible for resurrecting the Guardians, I guess they just trust him more than Sodam. I also wonder if its a safety mechanism to prevent someone else tapping the power like Nero did during the Ion series.

Fortunately Sodam’s ring suggests that a direct energy impact might be enough to override the block, and allow him temporary access to Ion. Chancing it, Sodam drops his shields, and allows Mongul to hit him with all he’s got. It works, and Ion is unleashed, and with the power dropping quickly, we get the surprising (and brilliant) move of Sodam flying straight into Daxam’s sun and re-energising it, turning it yellow.

I loved that ending. I never saw it coming, and its a stroke of genius. Its nice to see Sodam being smart and the promise of next issue having the Sinestro Corps facing a planet of people with Superman’s powers is brilliant. Its also nice to see the Ion power being used for a big feat. While we now know why Sodam hasn’t seemed particularly powerful, its always fun to see the Ion power do something impressive, be it re-energising Daxam’s sun, or Kyle’s containment of Nero back in Ion #6.

This story arc, more than anything else has really helped build Sodam’s place in the GLC. I’d said at the time that his introduction and ascension to the Ion power during the Sinestro Corps War felt too rushed, especially with the way Kyle was being booted from the role. However this arc has really allowed Peter Tomasi the chance to focus in on the character, and he’s all the much better for it. Still not convinced about the Sodam/Arisia relationship though, it’ll be interesting to see exactly where Tomasi plans on taking that.

Yup, its yet another cracking issue of Green Lantern Corps by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. Are people getting bored reading me constantly gushing over this title?

Picking up on events from last issue, Red Lantern Vice is tearing through the Sciencells, much to the delight of the Sinestro Corps as Green Lantern Voz gets in his way. However, their delight soon changes when he turns on them.

Scar meanwhile releases the captured Sinestro Corps rings which fly back to their owners, as the rest of the Lanterns on Oa are alerted to the emergency and are led into the middle of the riot by Kyle, Guy and Kilowog.

Arisia and Sodam Yat arrive at Daxam, and quickly meet up with the refugees from Mongul’s takeover, led by Sodam’s father.  As we’d expect from his exchange with his mother last issue, Sodam’s not thrilled to be there, and wastes no time laying into his father and trying to kick the Daxamites into action.

There’s a heck of a lot to love in this issue.  The opening jailbreak sequence is action packed, and the art helps give it a real sense of urgency, with the red lantern running amok through the Sciencells as the rest of the GL’s rush in to try and contain things before they get out of hand.   We also learn that these events are taking place during the Agent Orange arc, as its noted that the Guardians are off-planet in the Vega System.

Which makes Scar’s appearance interesting.  Since she wasn’t with the other Guardians, does she get found out during the course of Agent Orange and end up in hiding from the other Guardians?  Potentially interesting developments afoot there I think.

Sodam Yat’s story also continues to be good.  I have to take my hat off to Peter Tomasi, as he’s really making me like the character now, whereas before I felt his introduction and promotion to Ion was far too rushed.   We’re still not seeing much impressive about his power however, despite him being Ion, and perhaps there’s some dialogue needed to address this?  Its easily explained that he’s not as experienced with the ring as Kyle is, or somesuch.  As it stands though, he’s really coming across as a standard GL.

However it was nice to see that panel of him swooping down on Daxam, with the green energy wings, and his heat vision burning through the various Sinestro Corps members.  Sodam Yat should be very powerful and scary, and I feel this panel actually acknowledged that.

There’s also an interesting spin being put on the Arisia/Sodam relationship.   Previous issues really felt (to me) like they were being pitched as a couple, however in this storyline Arisia’s being confronted with a much harsher side to Sodam, and one she obviously doesn’t like.  From his hardline dealings with the Daxamites (which I can’t really blame him for in fairness), to his admission that he’d have blown Zamarron apart just because a Guardian asked him to, Arisia seems to me to be a bit more afraid of Sodam in this issue.

The Sinestro Corps really shine here as well.  With Arkillo still smarting from his beatdown last issue, and eventually killing another Corps member just for mentioning Mongul’s name.  And the giant Sinestro Corps serpent encircling Daxam.  All great moments and imagery.   Tomasi’s obviously having a lot of fun expanding on the Sinestro Corps.

The final revelation in the book, is one a lot of people guessed, which kind of robs it of its power.  Soranik being Sinestro’s daughter was widely speculated after Rage of the Red Lanterns, however it does put Sinestro’s actions towards her during Sinestro Corps War into a new light, which I like.  It’ll be interesting to see where they go with this.   Soranik finding out Korugar’s greatest villain is her father is going to cause some issues.