Review: GREEN LANTERN: WRATH OF THE FIRST LANTERN HC

GREEN LANTERN: WRATH OF THE FIRST LANTERN HC
Written by Geoff Johns, various
Art by Doug Mahnke, various
Published by DC Comics
Price: $29.99

STK626735The Wrath of the First Lantern wraps up the Johns/Tomasi era of Green Lantern with an epic crossover sucking in all the Green Lantern titles. This collection contains the entire event and epilogue, including many looks back at the origins of characters that were crucial during the past years of the Lantern series.

This story faces many challenges, considering it’s scope and task of closing out Johns’ run. Volthoom, the First Lantern, is introduced as a nearly unstoppable foe, feeding on the strengths of the Lanterns or any spectrum. His power is seemingly endless, yet he lacks any defining characteristics to make him remotely interesting. He reads as a generic omnipotent villian with a rather generic goal and no traits that allow readers to connect to him or his cause on any level. The strength of any story like this is, at many times, defined by the strength of the villain, and Volthoom is a very weak character. Readers looking for a Sinestro Corps War explosive ending to the run will not find it here, as this villian lacks all the complexities that the strongest villains of Johns’ run have had. Volthoom’s powers lead to a series of flashback issues focusing on every pain and torment the primary Green Lantern Universe characters have faced in the New 52 and back in the old DC continuity and while none of these issues are poorly written, reading the exact same style of flashback so many times in a single collection grows tiresome. The collection as a whole builds no momentum due to the style of story being told, and feels like a several hundred page retrospective rather than a crossover story. The format of the finale, Green Lantern #20, very obviously does not fall in line with the rest of the event and reads like a solo issue stuck in the middle of an event that has been ongoing for a couple hundred pages. The final issue of such an epic run was always going to be an event unto itself, but from the perspective of the Wrath of the First Lantern crossover, it does little to pull the issues together as a cohesive story. The issue is an all-star tribute pyrotechnic retrospective blowout and it continues the tone of Volthoom existing to provide a sendoff, not a story.

On the art front, the styles are all over the place in this collection. There are jaw dropping, fantastic pieces of art, confusing and muddled panels, and absolutely everything in between. There are 34 artists contributing to this collection, and, quite remarkably, there is more exceptional art than there is poor. Typically when there are this many hands involved things feel like a mess, and while there isn’t a great amount of visual cohesiveness in the collection, the styles are consistent enough that it isn’t difficult to read. The ‘house style’ is advantageous in this setting and while styles are very similar throughout much of the collection there are definitely some standout moments from Doug Mahnke, Ethan Van Sciver & Aaron Kuder. There are some top flight artists working in this collection and they give Johns & Tomasi quite a sendoff.

At the end of the day The Wrath of the Green Lantern is crafted to be a sendoff to all that Johns and Tomasi have done these many years, but as a story in and of itself it is wanting. The pace is very slow, a single story concept is written too many times to keep interesting, and readers who have not been following Green Lantern for years will not feel the desired payoff from Green Lantern #20. This collection concludes a legendary run by top creators, but when read as a story without all the history it falls short of the mark.

The Verdict: 5.0/10

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