Green Lantern #33 review

Secret Origin Part 5

Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hector Hammond is mentally raping Hal Jordan when Sinestro comes along and saves his bacon by, uh, gently suffocating Hector Hammond until he's unconscious. Just prior to this, we see a young fellow named William Hand, who works at his parents mortuary, get a hard-on over some dead body. After the Hammond incident, we see that the big giant bastard monster that Abin Sur was transporting has broken into a gun store, killed everyone inside, and his crafted some sort of device to track down...William Hand! He's constructing a device and babbling something about the "power of the black" and it seems William Hand is in possession of it. Cut back to Hal and Sinestro who are flying across the desert chatting away when a message Abin Sur left in his ring is activated. The message reveals the purpose of his mission. Abin Sur discovered many secrets, particularly the time when the Guardians on OA created the Manhunters who went insane and killed the inhabitants of an entire space sector. That is, all but five. Those five's goal is now the destruction of the Guardians and discovered a power that Sur describes as "A black devoid of life." The prisoner he was transporting was one of these "Five Inversions" (as they called themselves) called Atrocitus, who survives the crash (obviously). So now Hal and Sinestro are on a mission to stop Atrocitus who has finally tracked down William Hand, trying to feel up another corpse. They engage Atrocitus in a graveyard but the device he built drains them of the power in their rings leaving them powerless at issue's end.

Alright! I really see where Johns is going with this story. Here I thought it was gonna be just a run of the mill origin story, used just to keep Hal out of present DC continuity while Final Crisis runs its course, but it looks like Johns is using this to set up next year's Blackest Night storyline. I dig it. This makes me even more excited for that story, cause Johns has been doing huge things with Hal Jordan and made him probably DC's best all around character.

But also, I love what he does with Sinestro. Until I started reading the Sinestro Corps War (I haven't yet picked up the earlier parts of this series) I never really bought Sinestro as a major villain and the notion that he was Hal Jordan's mentor was just stupid. Not anymore! Is it too much to ask for maybe a Sinestro miniseries datailing his days as a good guy? Well, not really good so much as a well meaning fascist. A story with him and Abin Sur would be pretty friggin sweet. When Sinestro sees the message from Abin Sur, and at least the way Reis draws it, it's clear from Sinestro's reaction that there's a long and deepo history between the two that is worth delving in to. Maybe the moment when Sinestro became a Green Lantern. Unless this story has already been told...well, even if it has, retell it! Put Johns on the job, he can do it! And knock it out of the ballpark as well.

This continues to be the best title anywhere, do pick it up.