Green Lantern Vol. 8- Reflections

Quick Summary

Pros: The look into Hal Jordan is interesting and fits with this comic’s overall narrative. Some of the stories have some exciting thrills. The artwork is mostly positive.

Cons: Many of the stories go by too quickly to make an impact and some have disappointing conclusions.

Overall: This volume is alright but does not stand out as a critical piece of Green Lantern reading material. The volume spends most of its time examining Hal Jordan, only taking a detour from this to create moments of excitement here and there. Unfortunately, this focus and the pacing of most stories cause the majority of the volume to be rather forgettable. Fans of Hal as a hero may like this book but those just looking for great Green Lantern stories might want to look elsewhere.

Story

Green Lantern Vol. 8: Reflections, by Robert Venditti, continues some intriguing elements from its predecessor but does not do so with quite the same level of quality. This volume takes time to examine Hal Jordan as a character, using his unique present situation to view him in a few different lights. This also involves a few moderately entertaining battles along the way. However, most of the stories here are over and done with far too quickly and end up being pretty forgettable. Outside the look into Hal and a neat tease at future stories, nothing about this volume stands out as anything particularly noteworthy.

(spoilers start here)

The most interesting part of Reflections is its approach to Hal Jordan. Over the course of this volume, Hal reconnects with his family, is forced to confront a past version of himself, and takes down villains in different ways. Each of these encounters gives readers a look into Hal, letting them see him as a family man, as someone still dealing with past sins, and as someone who is always able to deal with the problem in front of him. The examination doesn’t dig too deep but is still pleasant to see nonetheless.

When it comes to the actual story, Reflections is more mixed. Hal’s fight against a terrorist group, against Parallax, and against the Gray Agents both show off his ability to tackle complex situations in a way that minimizes damage to others. They also have moments of tense excitement where the villain is on the verge of killing someone and Hal is able to stop them just in time.

However, these encounters feel far too intermediary to take too seriously. Each one begins and ends over the course of a few pages, leaving little lasting impact. In the case of the Gray Agents, this is particularly disappointing since they were teased rather significantly in the previous volume but ended up not living up to their own hype. In general, it feels like these stories were just designed to be passable tales as the Green Lantern series transitions from the New 52 to the Rebirth eras.

Luckily, Reflections closes by inspiring some hope for the future. Hal’s struggles with Krona’s Gauntlet and the disappearance of the Green Lantern Corps are problems that are still very present in the DC universe. This and the quality of the teaser chapter indicate that the series may be in for some solid storytelling in the next volume.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The visuals across Reflections are mostly positive and lead to a decent reading experience. Billy Tan’s work looks as detailed and creative as it has for the past several volumes. This makes the comic’s actions look great and the page layouts help in telling the story. This is particularly true in this volume’s last Green Lantern chapter, which is probably the visual highlight of the collection. However, there are places where work from other artists weakens the appeal of the visuals in certain chapters. These chapters never look downright bad but are definitely a bit less appealing than they would have been otherwise. Overall though, the positives still heavily outweigh the negatives and this collection ends up looking nice.

Continuity

Green Lantern Vol. 8: Reflections continues the story from Green Lantern Vol. 7: Renegade (Review).

The story here continues in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1: Sinestro’s Law.

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• Parallax exists in the normal DC universe due to the events of Convergence (Review) (Reading Order).
• A new Batman took over in Gotham due to the events of Batman #40, part of Batman: Endgame (Review) (Reading Order). This new Batman officially stepped into the role over the course of Batman Vol. 8: Superheavy (Review).
• Hal’s encounter with Parallax brings up a few elements from Hal’s past. These include:
  • His rage at the destruction of Coast City and the resulting war against the Green Lantern Corps. This happened during the Emerald Twilight story arc, specifically in Green Lantern Vol. 3 #48-50.
  • The destruction of Coast City from the Reign of the Supermen story arc, specifically Superman Vol. 2 #80, collected in Superman: Reign of the Supermen.
  • Hal’s separation from the Parallax entity in Green Lantern: Rebirth, part of Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Book One.