8/20/2011
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.
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| Abin Sur and Sinestro's friendship comes to an unsatisfying conclusion |
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.
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| Abin's fate in the Flashpoint universe is very fitting |
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.
