Catch-Up: Hal Jordan and the GL Corps - Bottled Light Arc (#10 + 11)

[zapbiffpow]

This arc's Big Bad gets a sweetass ride along with his sick-ass promotion...also, a plot hole that should've been a plot twist. 6 pages from #10, 4 from #11, wordsing by Robert Venditti and artsing by Ed Benes.

Plus, Green Lantern Heaven. Check it!

The Story:

The first arc had Hal Jordan die (again) after blowing himself up to destroy Sinestro's planet-sized fear battery thing. He finds himself in the afterlife (again), where he meets someone old-slash-new:



What's sad is that Sinestro would probably be really hurt, seeing Abin shit-talk him like that. From what I understand, Sinestro really loved his mentor, and Abin's discrediting by the Guardians was what started his whole Yellow Lantern thing.

Also, the Emerald afterlife must be boring for these ghosts, aesthetics-wise - I'd figured it'd be something more dramatic, like a world of color after having to serve green during their lifetime, but whatevsies.


Katma, Tomar-Re and Abin get boss lines in the limited pagetime they're given. It's a nice reversal on the old 'living want to talk to the dead' trope, especially for a lore which involves Black Lanterns.

Back to the main plot: John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Sinestro's daughter Soranik (who's leading a splinter Sinestro Corps) are lured by a Starro invasion in Tomar-Re's planet and are miniaturized and bottled.

But the man behind the machine, although expectedly not a man, isn't the machine they expected:







Turns out Larfleeze stole Brainiac's whole Collector gig! Not exactly captain of the Good Ship Lollipop.

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #11:

John and Hal simultaneously discover Larfleeze's new role. Their reactions?

"Heh. Lar-f*cking-fleeze."




"...We're going to need to work together."

Also, medical expert? Did that happen when Barry sexed the timeline, or was John like a field medic during his tour of duty?

Anyway, John's plan works as well as one would expect, and for once that phrase gets used in a positive light:





I'm pretty sure Brainiac there's working to overthrow Larfleeze. Anyway, Larfleeze, scared of his collection getting damaged, freaks out and breaks the bottle:







"Now comes the counterattack." Also, Lar is a dumbass for breaking the bottle. Excusably a dumbass, given the orange ring, but one all the same. Also, shouldn't they be tiny Lanterns right now? How does Brainiac's tinyizer tech work exactly?

Anyway, a lot of conventional plot points here (not to mention the plot hole above), but the ideas of Larfleeze as the new Brainiac and there being a benevolent Sinestro Corps work in this book's favor.

Next post is a Flash post, or maybe another GL story. Stay tuned!