Never Trust a Durlan
I’ve been saying recently that Uprising has been a little too easy on the Green Lanterns so far with a victory coming in every part, but with this week’s Green Lantern Corps #32 Van Jensen turns the tables on John Stewart and his squad when they reach Daxam to lend protection to a xenophobic race who has prepared for their own defense since we last saw them.
You’d think that going against a race of shapeshifters that the Green Lanterns would be suspicious of any behavior which seemed even the slightest bit outside the norm, but had John, Sodam Yat or any of the rest of the team suspected what had actually happened then this issue would not have been quite as entertaining as watching it all slowly unwind in front of us. While I can’t say that I was taken by surprise Van Jensen does a great job of being as subtle as possible in letting it dawn on the reader that not everything is as it seems.
Von Daggle resurfaces this issue and plays a pivotal role in the fourth part of this story. His brief scene was played very well, keeping the reader in suspense as to which side the Durlan was really on. While no one really knows (besides Jensen) Daggle’s true agenda for now it appears he’s wearing a green hat and riding with the Corps, putting himself in harms way to be able to allow the rest of the Green Lanterns to be able to detect the Durlans. While this surely gives the Corps a distinct advantage it won’t matter a whole lot in the end if the Durlans succeed in making it to Zezzen before they can be stopped.
There were a couple of things that did leave me scratching my head a little bit and they both revolve around Sodam Yat. We know that Geoff John’s Green Lantern continuity was largely left intact in the New 52 universe and the last time we saw Yat he needed to keep a Green Lantern ring on his finger to help stave off the effects of lead that was absorbed into his body. That ring was missing here for some reason. I also felt that Sodam Yat was a little too willing to stay behind with the Daxamite children instead of joining the Green Lanterns on their trip to Zezzen and getting a chance to avenge the murder of his father, Diro Yat. I gave a thought to whether or not Sodam might be yet another Durlan in disguise but I would think that the advantage that Von Daggle gave the Green Lanterns would have outed him right away. Time will tell.
Artistically the issue is a little hit or miss with Bernard Chang’s artwork being superior to Moritat’s and their styles are different enough to make the transition between them a bit jarring. Chang’s visuals really add to the tension in Jensen’s script and add a kinetic feel to the action scenes.Green Lantern Corps #32 finally puts the Green Lanterns back on their heels a little bit in this confrontation with the Durlans. While I don’t think that Uprising feels like an event where one part flows naturally from one part to the next, it does succeed in conveying a singular story spanning across two titles. I personally like the more unified approach myself but the arc has been enjoyable nonetheless. Jensen’s use of John’s past mistakes and showing his ability to move on is in sharp contrast to the Durlan perspective is a good use of continuity to convey character and the issue creates a lot of anticipation for the final two parts. Eight out of ten lanterns.
