I am back and hopefully I can be a little more regular with my posts. Today I am going to try and tackle Hal Jordan & The Green Lantern Corps, Vol. 2: Bottled Light. This volume includes issues #8-13, if you need a refresher on what happened in volume 1, you can check out my recaps (part 1) and (part 2). I will say they are long and very extensive. I hope to keep this recap much more brief. I will say that we ended volume 1 with the apparent death of Sinestro (Hal might also be dead) and with Guy arriving at the Green Lantern headquarters with many of the Sinestro Corps. Let's jump in where we left off.
Bottled Light Part 1, Duty Calls: There is a ring searching for Hal Jordan, who is dead...but the ring keeps giving an error message and looking for some more. Elsewhere, on the sentient plant Mogo, Soranik (daughter of Sinestro and now leader of the Sinestro Corps) and Guy are trying to get all the Green Lanterns to chill for a sec and listen. She recounts all the things that happened back in volume one, including that she thinks both her father and Hal are dead. Later in the command center they get a call for help, so all the Green Lanterns jet off leaving the Yellows to be watched by Mogo.
The GLC (Green Lantern Corp) get to the planet Xudar, only to find it is being terrorized by none other than Starro! It is rough going because Starro is crazy big and shoots little spore babies all over the place. Lucky for the GLC the Sinestro Corps arrives to help. John is not happy they didn't listen to them but is kind of glad when Starro retreats. They go to try and follow Starro, but they are now trapped. Not just trapped but collected by Brainiac version 2.0, who is working for someone called the Grand Collector.
This issue ends with two figures on Nok (the hidden planet of the Indigo Tribe). A green streak, which turns out to be the poor confused ring from the beginning, finds the two figures. They are Guardians and they take the ring to mean their time of exile has ended.
Bottled Light Part 2, Brainiac: John and a few other Green Lanterns are trying to figure a way past the forcefield keeping them in (it doesn't go well). Down on the ground Soranik is trying to treat wounded, the Greens come back down to help, but are quickly confronted by an army of Xudar citizens being controlled by Starro and its spore babies.
On the planet Nok, the two Guardians (Sayd and Ganthet) are impressed by the ring that Hal made himself. Next we see Hal in a barren looking land that is all green. Someone is talking to him and asking him what he remembers before getting to the green place. The mysterious stranger is none other than Abin Sur, the Green Lantern who gave Hal his ring.
Back on Xudar all the Lanterns are having a rough time fighting the mind controlled people and the ever spawning Starro spores. John comes up with an idea to block Starro's signal using a Green Lantern named Rot Lop Fan, who seems to be sound based (he kind of looks like a snake). Anyway, it plays a loud F-sharp and that is enough to kill every spore and free all the people. Rot always figured out that the barrier is not energy but is more like glass. This little clue is enough for John and Soranik to figure out that Brainiac has shrunk them and put them in a jar (like he does).
The issue ends with Hal learning he is in Emerald Space, aka, Green Lantern heaven, but Abin Sur tells him he doesn't belong there. The Guardians have a plan to bring Hal back and that plan's name is Kyle Rayner, the White Lantern!
Bottled Light Part 3, By Lantern's Light: In the giant skull shaped ship that Brainiac lives in, he is scanning and cataloging his new haul. John and Soranik are bickering and Brainiac gives the jar a little shake and that distracts everyone while they try to keep the buildings standing.
On the planet Nok, the Guardians are trying to get Kyle to understand that the ring they found still contains the life force of Hal Jordan. They seem hopeful that Kyle can save Hal. Meanwhile in the Emerald Space, Abin is sort of giving Hal a tour. Hal even gets to meet many Green Lanterns who have given their lives in the service of the Green Lantern Corps. (Quick Note: I don't really know anything about Kyle Rayner, he is the White Lantern because he has mastered all seven lights of the emotional spectrum.) Kyle can feel Hal through his ring but isn't sure how or if he should bring him back. In the Emerald Space, Hal is reconnecting with Green Lanterns that I am sure mean a lot to people who have been reading Green Lantern for a long time. There is a lot of back and forth, Abin tells Hal to help people find hope again, and Kyle finally pulls Hal back.
On the last couple of pages we find out who Brainiac 2.0 is working for, kind of. It is a really creepy looking orange lantern.
Bottled Light Part 4, The Great Escape: We start this issue with a flashback that gives us the name of our villain. Larfleeze is the leader of Agent Orange, aka, the avatar of avarice (greed). Larfleeze is chilling on his hoard of stuff when he finds a broken Brainiac and learns about the art of collecting people. In the present we learn that Brainiac doesn't like working for Larfleeze but it is being controlled. Inside the bottle John, now knowing who his enemy is, forms a plan.
On the planet Nok, Hal is getting his bearings. He tells Kyle and the Guardians about the Emerald Space, but for some reason they don't believe him. They do tell Hal about how all the Green Lanterns are alive, so he jets off to find his friends.
Meanwhile John's plan seems to be, start a fight with the Sinestro Corps and spike the fear of all the people in the city? Hal gets to Mogo, only to find that no one is there. In the bottle the battle is heating up and Larfreeze is not happy at the thought of losing any of his Greenies. Mogo tells Hal where the GL's last were. Brainiac is manipulating Larfreeze by pointing out that some specimens in the jar are irreplaceable. It becomes clear the fight was staged to trick Larfreeze into opening the jar. Once free the two corps gear up to fight and Mogo can tell Hal where the Lanterns are.
Bottled Light Conclusion, Orange Crush: We start this issue learning that if one is to die in Larfreeze's territory you become his prisoner forever. Also, Tomar-Tu is trying to keep the mini city from his planet small and safe until they can return it home. An epic battle ensues, green and yellow vs orange. Hal, Kyle and the Guardians are racing to join the fight. The fight is looking rough, but John thinks to start freeing all of Larfreeze's collection. This causes Larfreeze to feel a lot of fear, thus charging the Sinestro corps rings. Guy is about to release someone from a jar, but Hal shows up and stops him (guess that one was a bad guy). Now the whole OG team is back together and ready to kick some butt.
Larfreeze realizes what Brainiac did and kills him, but remember that if you die you belong to Larfreeze forever. With all his collection lost, Larfreeze runs. They decide now is not the time to fight him, when he is crazed and has nothing left to lose. Tomar-Tu is able to restore the city on his home planet, but his mom is still disappointed in him for becoming a Green Lantern. Hal is able to tell Tomar-Tu that his father (whose ring Tomar-Tu inherited after his death) is very proud of his son. The issue ends with John and Soranik agreeing to have green and yellow work as one team.
Heroes: Issue #13 rounds out this volume starting on the planet Xudar in the future (the same planet that Starro attacked before). We have a cute family with some grandkids getting ready for bed and grandma is going to tell them a story. The story she is telling is of when she was a little girl and Starro attacked. She was taken over by a Starro spore but when she came to, she looked to the sky and saw heroes. She recounts seeing the heroes John, Kilowog, and Tomar-Tu saving people. Then she tells them about the arrival of Hal and Kyle and how they defeated Larfreeze and returned her city to its planet. She describes many other villains that the Green Lanterns will fight and other battles. (I am guessing this is foreshadowing of coming issues, the art is awesome.)
Back in the children's bedroom we see one of them is a little worried about Starro returning, but the grandma gives a very long speech about overcoming fear and the power of will. She says goodnight and returns to chat with her husband, who we learn is a Green Lantern. In a romantic moment they go for a little flight!
Thoughts: This was an interesting volume. I like that yellow and green teamed up and I look forward to seeing how that goes. I am also glad Hal isn't dead, but considering the title of this series is Hal Jordan & The Green Lantern Corps, it seems safe to assume that he was going to come back. I like the big cast, but sometimes there are too many people to really care what all of them are up to or going through. That could be more of an issue though.
I think this post is getting a little long but I do quickly want to talk about the writer since I did not talk about him in my coverage of the last volume. Robert Venditti appears to be the writer for this entire series. He has been writing comics for almost 30 years and I have no doubt he will continue to do the Green Lanterns justice. There were a couple of different artists who worked on Vol. 1 and 2, including Ethan Van Sciver and Rafa Sandoval. With one guest appearance by Ed Benes. If you want to check out what these guys are working on click their names.
Best Cover: My favorite cover is the Heroes cover done by Mikel Janin. I think I just like having all the OG Green Lanterns looking cool on one cover.
Best Line: This honor goes to Kyle Rayner for calling Hal out.
Thanks as always for the read. See you either later this week or next week.
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