Review: Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1- Sinestro’s Law

Quick Summary

Pros: The comic starts in a way that works for both new and old readers. The main narrative is intense, exciting, and genuinely fun. The characters are all well-written and bring a great variety of emotions to the read. The artwork looks great the whole way through.

Cons: Nothing significant.

Overall: This is an amazing start to a new era of Green Lantern comics. This volume has a captivating and approachable storyline, great characters with great emotions, and some gorgeous artwork to back it all up. It hooks you in early and keeps you hooked the whole way through. Overall, if this volume is an indication of where this series is heading, it could easily become one of the “must read” Rebirth era comics. 

Story

The Green Lantern series went through some significant ups and significant downs over the course of its New 52 era publication. It started strong, quickly fell from grace, improved as it went through a stranger time, and ended on a somewhat mediocre note. With all this in mind, I was completely unsure what to expect from the series as it entered the Rebirth era.

I’m happy to say that Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1: Sinestro’s Law, by Robert Venditti, blew me away. This is a tremendously positive start to this era that gets the series going with a killer opening volume. The collection starts in a way that works for both new and old readers. Then, it goes on to depict fantastic scenes of action and gripping scenes of suspense, creating a narrative that is fun all the way through. While all of this is going on, characters like Hal Jordan, Sinestro, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Soranik have moments to show what makes them great. The entire volume feels like a celebration of the concepts powering Green Lantern and is highly enjoyable for these reasons.

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The first thing Sinestro’s Law gets right is the way it transitions the comic and its characters from the New 52 era to the Rebirth era. Instead of dropping everything and starting with a fresh slate, this comic picks up already intriguing plot threads and presents them well for new readers. Sinestro’s amassing of power, the loss of the Green Lanterns, and Hal Jordan’s struggle with his own abilities are all interesting plot points that are continued here. However, none of them are thrown into the story in a way that will make them inaccessible to newer readers.

The second thing Sinestro’s Law gets right is action, plain and simple. This comic has a thrilling narrative that is wonderfully captivating from start to finish. It immediately presents readers with a great premise: Sinestro is nearly in control of the universe and is ready to fill it with fear, while the Green Lanterns are at one of their lowest points. Over the course of this volume, the Green Lanterns are able to overcome nearly overwhelming odds due to sheer willpower and the knowledge that what they are doing is right. This leads to an epic moment of victory from Hal as the collection concludes.

Finally, Sinestro’s Law gets all of the characters right. John Stewart works as an analytical leader, Soranik’s struggle against her father is interesting, and Guy Gardner gives the book some comedy while constantly showing his dedication to the Corps. Sinestro also works as the collection’s main villain, with his twisted mix of genuine care for the universe and authoritarian rule making him a deeply complicated character. And, to cap it all off, Hal Jordan manages to prove, once again, why many regard him as the “Greatest Green Lantern”. Almost everyone in this book gets a few moments to shine, which is sure to be enough to make most fans happy.

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Art

The artwork in Sinestro’s Law is solid all the way through. The volume starts out with a gorgeous chapter from Ethan Van Sciver. This chapter is a highly detailed and wonderfully creative approach to the Green Lantern universe. It makes the characters look real and allows their emotions to come off as even more powerful, punctuating the intensity of Hal and Sinestro’s situations. These same positives are echoed in Sciver’s later chapters, which look just as good.

Many of these positives are also found in work from Rafa Sandoval, who provides art for the rest of the volume. Sandoval’s visuals are not quite as serious and intricately detailed but do come across as more bold and, somewhat, more dynamic. This allows the action to play out well and particularly does a nice job in highlighting the various constructs emitted from the character’s Rings. These positives are elaborated upon by Tomeu Morey’s colors, which allow everything to pop even further.

Continuity

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1: Sinestro’s Law continues the story from Green Lantern Vol. 8: Reflections (Review), Sinestro Vol. 4: The Fall of Sinestro (Review), and Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion (Review).

The story here continues in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 2: Bottled Light (Review).

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• Hal started pretending to be a criminal in Green Lantern Vol. 5 #40, collected in Green Lantern Vol. 6: The Life Equation (Review).
• The Green Lantern Corps went missing sometime around Green Lantern Vol. 5 #41, collected in Green Lantern Vol. 7: Renegade (Review). Their actions while missing are detailed across Green Lantern: Lost Army (Review) and Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion (Review).