Trade Waiting: Sinestro Corps War Volume 1

Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War Volume 1

Writer:  Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons

Artist: Ethan Van Sciver

I know next to nothing about DC.  I know vaguely each of the major players, but beyond the Superman and Batman movies, I’m ignorant.  I was told by several people to read the Sinestro Corps storyline in Green Lantern.  There were a lot subtleties that I probably didn’t pick up on, but I have to say that I enjoyed the book more than I thought I would.  It was clearly built on a solid history, and there were points that I had no idea what the characters were talking about, but the current story was strong enough to hold my interest, and got me wanting to read more about Green Lantern.

The bad guy Sinestro has found a Yellow Power Ring and is amassing an army of followers, giving them all rings.  This army stands in opposition to the Green Lantern Corps, and they are called, ironically enough, the Sinestro Corps.  Their goal is to spread fear throughout the universe, to bring all worlds under Sinestro’s rule, and impose order on a chaotic universe.  They kill a lot of Green Lanterns, the Lanterns fight back.  That’s basically the story.

I didn’t feel my lack of knowledge on the back-story hindered my reading of this book, but I also realize that I have no idea how it fits into the rest of the Green Lantern storyline.  I don’t know what’s gone before or what this is leading to.  Sometimes a story without strings is nice.  It’s just a story for story’s sake.

The art is incredible.  The detail in some of the spreads is just amazing.  There is almost a “Where’s Waldo” aspect to it in that every time you look at a spread, you find something new.  There is a wide array of alien races depicted in both the Lantern Corps and the Sinestro Corps, and each one has a unique look.  The battle scenes are sprawling and epic.  It’s a space opera in comic form, but it’s just as engaging as a film.

As I’ve discussed before, I’ve got a special place in my heart for the bad guys.  I tend to root for the villains over the heroes.  Sinestro’s plan of spreading fear throughout the universe is timely.  Fear is being used as a weapon everywhere in contemporary life.  His core band of followers include Cyborg Superman, Superman-Prime, Parallax, and the Anti-Monitor.  Each villain has a long and varied history.  None of these is given much screen time, which is kind of sad.  I read Infinite Crisis after I read this, and loved Superboy-Prime.  His insanity at being denied the opportunity to live life and become Superman was fascinating.  I am now sort of disappointed looking back that he was not used as much in the Sinestro Corps as he could have been.  Granted, there is another trade coming out that will wrap up the storyline and these followers of Sinestro could get the chance to shine there.

Not having a great knowledge of the backstory, I have little to complain about.  The book had amazing art, a great space epic storyline, and some pretty cool villains.  Not to shabby.  Until next time folks.