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There are more than enough problems to go around in the conclusion of Emerald Eclipse, as things start wrapping up for the emergence of Blackest Night. Just as the Alpha Lanterns were able to provide the final push in quelling the riot in the sciencells, the Green Lanterns look up to their beloved Oan sky only to see that it is beginning to fall apart. Trouble is on the way!

Soranik Natu (still on Korugar) is having trouble dealing with her daddy-issues (what child of Sinestro’s wouldn’t?) while Arisia and the newly empowered Daxamites are able to finally kick the last of Mongul’s faction of the Sinestro off of Daxam. Most of the issue however is spent on Lanterns Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner standing up to the Guardians’ execution order of the attempted sciencell escapees.

Over the past few months, I have given Peter Tomasi and Pat Gleason a pretty hard time for their (in my opinion) shortcomings on the Emerald Eclipse story arc. I didn’t care for Tomasi’s seemingly short attention span, nor for Gleason’s stretched out character faces. The strengths of these two as a team seemed to be action. In this issue (and the past couple), I have noticed that I do like how well Gleason can draw a large scene like the outdoor execution and argument sequence.

All in all, Emerald Eclipse was an ambitious story with quite a bit going on and simply not enough space in each issue to address it all. I am still fairly new to this title, so that might just be how it has to go. Maybe someone could point out to me the reason I preferred Sins of the Star Sapphire over this arc.

(3/5)

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Last month, the Green Lantern Corps 35 cover was all about Sinestro (the cover shown below is a variant), and this month it’s all about the word “riot”. As far as I’m concerned, the covers should have been swapped, as we don’t get to see too much of the riot and we see a whole lot of Sinestro. Are you excited yet?

The past few issues of GLC have been all about buildup, which all boiled to a head last issue when the prisoners broke free from the sciencells and Sinestro uttered the word “daughter” to Soranik Natu on the final page. With issue 36 we are finally getting some considerable bits of action, information, and excitement. Luckily for me personally, the Guy Gardner aspect is toned down as he only appears on one page and speaks not a single line. Goody! Not so good for those of you who are fans of Gardner.

At the outset, Sinestro explains the claim he made on the final page of issue 35 to Soranik. It doesn’t quite equal the emotional impact of the similar moment in The Empire Strikes Back, but it certainly does pack a hearty punch. From there we get a flyby of the riot taking place on Oa. Not a whole lot of information or action to be gained here, but it does look pretty dope, especially seeing Kilawog stomping on baddies with no regard for the enemy latched to his back. Finally, we are placed on Daxam, where I guarantee you will see one of the coolest battles you have seen in comics lately. Amazing!

With this issue, I am really starting to get some hints at Peter Tomasi’s visionary style of story-telling. When I say visionary, I don’t mean prophetic but am referring more to fore-sight. The bore of the last few issues really came together in this one and blew my socks off. I won’t take back what I said about the previous issues though, because an issue should be able captivate its readers each month. All of the captivation is densely packed into this issue and probably will overflow into next month as well. Unfortunately the predecessors didn’t get their share.

Another aspect of this series that is coming to light for me is the placement of Pat Gleason as the artist. His work with emotions isn’t exactly his strong suit, but I’ll tell you what is. Action! The type of action sequences that the Green Lantern franchise demands are high-energy, fireworks type of scenes. Now that I have read this issue, Pat Gleason is going to have a special little place in my mind reserved for those who depicted the best battle sequences. A Green Lantern running shoulder-first into a herd of bright yellow rhinos is truly a sight to be seen!

All-in-all, I really appreciated this issue for what it finally brought to the table. Reading this story arc from issue to issue has really been a roller coaster, but with the inclusion of this issue and probably the next one, the TPB is sure to be a blockbuster.

(4/5)

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