Flashpoint: Abin Sur #3

As Flashpoint comes to a close so do all the tie-in miniseries.  This week reveals the fate of Abin Sur in the altered DC Universe where he didn't die and pass the ring on to Hal Jordan and the war between Amazonians and the Antlanteans bring Earth to the brink of Armageddon.

The Story -

When we last saw Abin Sur, Sinestro had just cut off his ring hand after revealing that Atrocitus shared the prophecy of Flashpoint with him.  Obsessed with using the Flash to restore the timeline to what it was before minus the deaths of Abin and Arin Sur, Sinestro has no problem killing Abin if he stands in the way knowing Sinestro can fix it in the end.  Taking a page from Hal Jordan's own fall Sinestro will stop at nothing to "fix" things and the third installment picks up with Sinestro continuing to pound on his former mentor.

However, in this altered reality Sinestro is NOT the greatest Green Lantern and Abin Sur shows why he holds that title, creating a new hand out of sheer willpower while vowing to protect Barry Allen from coming to harm. The Green Lantern of Sector 2814 defeats Sinestro and leaves him bound by emerald chains, leaving to continue his mission.  The Guardians are unmoved by Abin's pronouncement that Sinestro has gone rogue, still obsessed with Abin's greater mission to return the White Entity to Oa for protection as Earth creeps ever closer to destruction.  Only the mention of the Flashpoint prophecy gets a reaction from the Guardians, who summon Sur to Oa.

Abin Sur and Sinestro's friendship comes to an unsatisfying conclusion

Abin Sur and the Guardians debate the need to save the Earth as images from the struggles that face the planet play out in front them, with Abin Sur pointing to Cyborg as a man without fear, perhaps to illustrate that there are things worth saving on Earth or to foreshadow a successor should Abin Sur not survive his mission on our planet.  Abin Sur is expelled from the Green Lantern Corps, sent to Earth with only the energy in his ring to aid him in his final mission.  Once the ring drains a new Green Lantern will be chosen for Sector 2814, so Abin uses what is left to find Cyborg and fight by his side to the end.

The bomb armed to sink the rest of world under the surface of the ocean is set to got off and Cyborg tells Abin that it's up to him to save the Earth.  With only two percent of his ring's energy left Abin Sur plunges into the void opening up around them and we see only Abin's ring emerge as it begins to serach for a new Green Lantern for Sector 2814.

Abin's fate in the Flashpoint universe is very fitting

We see Abin Sur with Arin as she tells him that his quest to protect life has so consumed him that he hasn't taken the time to cherish the life he has.  The White Entity appears and it bonds with Abin Sur and he soarsout of the growing fissure, ending the miniseries with the White Lantern hovering in space above the wounded Earth in a last ditch effort to save the dying planet.

The Writing -

Adam Schlagman continues to weave events from the familiar timeline with new elements from the altered Flashpoint universe to tell a story that keeps us entertained and wanting to know about this new reality.  This issue in particular left me wanting more and I am not really satisfied with the ending, which isn't really an ending at all.  I do hope that Abin Sur's story continues somewhere before the end of this event because it really needs some sort of closure.

There are a couple of elements that don't work so well, either.  Somehow Abin Sur is able to indirectly break Sinestro's ring which I found a little hard to swallow, and I guess I don't understand why the Guardians don't send more forces to Earth to retrieve the White Entity if its protection is so important.  Likewise I think that this being the final issue left Schlagman without enough room to play out the story between Sinestro and Abin Sur that really deserved more page time and the last scene between them seems so unsatisfying for a friendship that has had such an impact on the Green Lantern mythology.  Those things aside, though, I really like how Abin Sur's life comes full circle and how Schlagman used Atrocitus and other elements of the Green Lantern universe in different ways.  

The Art -

I know I've already commented on Felipe Massafera's use of the movie designs in this series, but I'm going to say again that I really liked seeing them used this way and showing how they could be applied to a monthly book without replacing the designs we've come to expect in the "real" DC Universe.  The water color style coloring keeps the book in that feel that this is our world, but not quite the way we know it.  I did particularly like how the art team used the white borders in the panels where Abin and Arin Sur are talking near the end of the book

What Do I Think?

Reading in Flashpoint #4 that Hal Jordan was reported dead and knowing that there is one more issue left to Hal's mini leaves me wondering if the third issue of that mini will pick up this story with Abin's ring finding Hal just before he crashes and once again making him the Green Lantern of Sector 2814.  I hope that we do get to see more of what happens to Abin before the new DC Universe is formed because I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of the being who was once the greatest of his kind.  Three out of five lanterns.

Related articles

• Flashpoint: Abin Sur #2 Review (blogofoa.com)
• Green Lantern Film and Comics Universe's Collide With Abin Sur #1 (blogofoa.com)

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Flashpoint: Abin Sur #2 Review

The exploration of an altered universe and how those changes affect the Green Lantern corner of the DCU continue in the second issue of the Flashpoint: Abin Sur mini series.  Writer Adam Schlagman continues to combine elements from Geoff Johns run and the movie universe together in interesting ways that seem both new and familiar at the same time.  While I'm not sure that Flashpoint has been the event that DC had hoped it would be, I'm finding the story and the supporting minis of characters that interest me a lot of fun, almost as if The Watcher had invaded the DCU and we get to see a universal "What If?" played out in front of us.

The Story -

We start the issue with a flashback of sorts to see something completely new - Abin Sur's training of Sinestro.  This is something that serves both as a treat for long time readers as well as a great choice to strengthen the notion that Abin Sur was far more than just the guy who died and gave Hal Jordan the ring.  As the training concludes we see Sinestro's introduction to Sur's sister, Arin Sur, who is fated to be an important character who's death serves to drive a wedge between the two Green Lanterns.

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Green Lantern Film and Comics Universe's Collide With Abin Sur #1

Abin Sur's appearances have been buy and large limited to dying on the page or on film but we've always known that there is much more to the man beyond that, and on occasion we've seen more of the man behind the corpse.  With DC's Flashpoint event altering the events of our universe we discover that Abin Sur never gave the ring to Hal Jordan, and in doing so we get an adventure that brings the stylings of the movie universe to the printed page with the first issue of the three part Abin Sur The Green Lantern story.

The Story -

Abin Sur has great love for his sister Arin and as a young Ungaran she teaches him that all life is important, even that which seems the most insignificant.  The death of his sister drives this lesson home with Abin and he has in the time since her passing made that the core of his being and that passion to protect all life has made him one of the greatest members of the Green Lantern Corps.  

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