And Then I Read: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 17, GREEN LANTERN 17

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

Levitz and Giffen have a long history together on this title, with some very successful storylines in the early 1980s. I remember enjoying those. That said, Giffen’s art style is jarring on this title now, being quite different from the art styles seen lately. They’ve kept Scott Koblish as inker, which I think is a good idea. Giffen has several styles, and here he’s going very Jack Kirby. That’s good for the action scenes and the sense of wonder, but not so good for some of the character depictions. The women, in particular, don’t emerge from his pencil as well as readers are used to, in my opinion. Even the male characters look pretty different in most cases.

ADDED: blog reader Martin Miller has pointed out I’ve confused Scott Kolins, previous series artist, with Scott Koblish, the inker of this issue. My mistake, sorry.

So, how is the story? It begins in the middle of some new things, with Levitz catching us up a bit here and there in the dialogue. Some of the new things include a crash-landing that has a very bad result for the Legionnaires involved. There are impressive aliens and giants, and it looks like one of the previous plotlines is going to move front and center shortly. Not bad, but we’ll see where things go. Certainly there’s lots of action in this book.

As the Green Lantern books move without pause or resolution from one crossover to another, we revisit that ancient scene of Krona viewing the origins of life in the universe, with some new twists. Longtime readers might say, “Oh, that again,” while newer ones perhaps will wonder what the fuss is about. In the present, the First Lantern is loose and causing major trouble for the Guardians and the Corps. That’s not unexpected. More interesting is where new GL Simon Baz has ended up: facing Black Hand. And where are Hal Jordan and Sinestro? We’re about to find out.

The art by Doug Mahnke and several inkers on the main storyline is as good as always, and it’s nice to see Dan Jurgens and Phil Jimenez doing the prologue pages.

Both books are recommended, but mildly.