GREEN LANTERN #30 (REVIEW)

Green Lantern #30

Writer: Robert Venditti

Artist: Martin Coccolo

Cover: Billy Tan
          Alex Sinclair





The Rundown:
Hal Jordan is admiring the peaceful view upon Mogo, when he is summoned to the gathering at the new Green Lantern Corps crypt. There Hal holds a ceremony to honor the memory of the Lanterns who have fallen, most notably Kyle Rayner, who gave his life so that they could all carry on. Afterwards, he holds court with his little council of advisers (Kilowog, Salaak, and Two-Six) before they head of to Sector 0571 to talk with the Emissary's of Port Oasis Bay. Hal takes them there to talk about the war between Lanterns and the rest of the universe, at the forefront of that group is the Khund. Who are also present for this meeting. Emissary Preegus decides that Hal Jordan and Captain Khu will fight each other. If Hal wins, he gets control of the Khund Warship, Drokkun. If he loses, then the Khunds will be given control the Green Lantern Corps. And the only weapon allowed is the Khund Throat Knife.
Before the battle, Hal and company take seat in a bar having some drinks. He invites Captain Khu and his men to join them, for which he gains a touch of Khu's respect. While sharing some Khund Ale they exchange their point of views on their pending war between each other that will follow after this battle. Flash ahead to the fight, and Khu is mainly getting the upper hand on Hal Jordan. Pummeling him, and nearly skewing him with his blade. With both skill and some luck, Hal is able to defeat Khu with his own weapon. Bleeding out on the ground, Hal tries to get Khu to the infirmary for help when he is stopped by the other Khund warriors, who finish the job and strip their former captain of his belongings. They then tell Hal and others that they can dispose of the body as they wish. Striking a nerve with Hal who see's this as disrespectful, the other Khund tell him that it is he who has disrespected them by looking at their ways, and their traditions as he does. They also tell Hal to take their ship, but that they will be coming to take it back soon enough.
Back on Mogo, the shape shifting traitor amongst the Corps is weak and losing both power and shape. He is confronted by Green Lantern Mukmuk (giant fish), who fries the traitor with a blast from his ring. Mukmuk also lies to another Lantern when explaining what happened. Ending the story with a devious look.


The Review:
It was an okay story, felt more like a filler story despite their being a casualty. Although it is hard to really say what is a filler, when the titles New 52 history has been almost none stop grand events. There were some nice points that were brought to attention, with how some species/people have different traditions and ways of life, that may appear as illegal or wrong to the Green Lanterns, it isn't viewed that way by others. Something Hal and his crew will have to take into consideration trying to police the universe without those all-knowing Guardians who may or may not have taken certain things into consideration.
The art wasn't too bad, story was told well, and didn't require anything over the top as the story didn't really call for any. Would have been nice to see some constructs in the battle to the death, but again, story didn't call for it, but the art gave us the idea of how Hal pulled it off nicely. The landscape upon Mogo was done very well also, the crypt even looked like a calm, peaceful place as opposed to the traditional dark, creepy type crypts. White tombstones upon green foliage was factor in that I think.
Overall, it was an okay issue. Again, it felt more like a filler story, but filled with some key content as mentioned with Hal needing to learn how the rest of the universe works before he and his fellow Lanterns can truly be the authority. I also found myself curious as to where Saint Walker is during the issue, as his journey has been quite intriguing so far being the fading blue light amongst the sea of green. Looking forward to seeing where this "traitor amongst them" storyline goes. Now that the initial traitor is dead, who is this new one? Possessed Lantern maybe? Always been a spy? If so, how long has this been going on? Again, looking forward to seeing how all this plays out in the upcoming issues.

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