Review: Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 5- Twilight of the Guardians
Quick Summary
Pros: The main narrative tells a tense story with plenty of fun action. The characterization is well done and makes the adventures even more fun to watch play out.
Cons: The volume starts out a little slow. The artwork is just alright in a few chapters.
Overall: Though not the best volume in this series, this is still a solid read. The majority of this collection focuses on an exciting adventure that has action, tension, and is packed with great characters. However, a slow start prevents it from having more universal appeal. Anyone who has already been enjoying this series should not stop here but newer readers might want to jump in elsewhere first.
Story
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 5: Twilight of the Guardians, by Robert Venditti, starts a little slow but becomes seriously engaging as it progresses. The volume details an intense battle between Earth’s Green Lanterns and a serious threat to the stability of the universe. This battle comes with fun bouts of action, personality-building character moments, and a sense of suspense that permeates the entire read. The only problem is that it takes a little while for all of these positives to set in, as the opening few chapters are just alright. Overall though, this is another solid Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps volume and another reason to keep reading this series.
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The opening chapters in Twilight of the Guardians are just alright. The first two have Hal Jordan team up with Superman in a fight against aliens infiltrating Earth. There are a few solid moments derived from this team-up, like the peek into how Hal feels about losing Carol. However, for the most part, the adventure feels pretty generic and doesn’t stand out as something that interesting.
Luckily, once the titular “Twilight of the Guardians” arc starts, things get more interesting. This arc has the four Green Lanterns from Earth face off against the Controllers in an attempt to rescue the Guardians. Their crusade against the Controllers is bold and filled with action. It has plenty of intense battles, cool constructs, and an over-the-top approach that just feels fun. Though some pieces of this narrative feel a little silly, like Guy’s comments in the heat of the battle, it all manages to play well and create an exciting adventure.
The action from the Lanterns is then paired with the Guardians’ tense situation. Early on in their imprisonment, the Controllers show that they mean business by killing one of the Guardians. This works in creating some immediate suspense, as the death of one Guardian makes it seem like the death of the rest could be within the realm of possibility. I was unsure how many of the Guardians would survive until the arc’s final few moments, which made for a tense read.
All of these stories are also helped along by great characterization. Venditti writes each of the four Earth-Lanterns in a way that allows their individual personalities to shine through. This is particularly noticeable in the interrogation scene, which uses each Lanterns’ approach to interrogation to showcase how they tend to handle most problems. In addition, Venditti writes the Guardians well and concludes the volume with an interesting twist to the dynamic they have maintained for a while now.
(spoilers end here)
Art
The visuals in Twilight of the Guardians are not quite on the same level as they have been for the past few volumes in this series. Patrick Zircher starts the volume with two chapters that take a bright and bold approach to superheroics, which works well in a story that involves Superman. Then, later in the volume, Tom Derenick takes over on breakdowns and Jack Herbert, primarily, takes over on art to produce chapters that look a little better. They take a realistic approach to the action the suits the serious nature of the storytelling. However, there are places, throughout the volume, where the shading feels off and where characters’ faces occasionally look strange. Overall, the artwork in this collection is alright but feels like it could have been better.
Continuity
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 5: Twilight of the Guardians continues the story from Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 4: Fracture (Review).
The story here continues in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 6: Zod’s Will (Review).
This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:
- Superman’s encounter with Sinestro happened in Superman Vol. 4 #29-30, collected in Superman Vol. 5: Hopes and Fears.
- The previous Guardians of the Universe died in Green Lantern Vol. 5 #20, collected in Green Lantern Vol. 3: The End (Review) or in Green Lantern: Wrath of the First Lantern (Review) (Reading Order).