One of the big things to come out of the Sinestro Corps War
storyline was the fact that, now, Green Lanterns were able to use deadly force,
whereas before their rings would not allow such extreme measures. In fact, this was revealed as the
ultimate goal of Sinestro throughout this attack by his new yellow lantern
corps – echoes of the motivation behind the archnemesis of the Flash, the other
major book for which Geoff Johns was/is known. Though I am certain there are many GL fans, and DC
executives, who would disagree, this is yet another misstep on the part of the
creators that only diminishes the Green Lantern mythos, in my mind.
Following in the modern tradition of attempts to make
contemporary superheroes edgier and more relevant by making them more violent,
it, surprisingly, makes them more juvenile, now able to act upon their baser
instincts and kill rather than seeking a better way. Sure, Geoff Johns, through John Stewart’s character, tries
to legitimize it at the end when Stewart says, “It’s no different from any of
the cops who protect our streets.”
That is true, but this assumes a restraint in the bearer of such a
deadly weapon, a restraint that can be argued is missing in the storytelling of
“mainstream” creators and editors.
That’s a broad-brush statement, and it could just be my
cynicism rearing its ugly head, but I stand by it, regardless.
Mainly, I stand by it because of what was evident in this
storyline. Once the Green Lanterns
were afforded the ability to use deadly force, they were all too happy to
utilize it. Yes, they were meeting
“an eye for an eye,” but this reduction to the least common denominator is lazy
storytelling and saps the Lanterns of their heroic ideal (certainly, one can be
a hero and kill, but it is a fine line to tread, demanding nuance and restraint
that was lost on this narrative, compounded by the decades of history that
follows comic book heroes of this type).
It takes far more effort to have the hero overcome a sadistic “bad guy”
such as Sinestro was portrayed in this without being able to just kill, but the
result would have been far more satisfying than the slugfest that carried over
these many issues.
Lastly (and I apologize for the rather messy post, but I’m
writing “off the cuff,” and trying to follow the many jumps my mind is making
while these thoughts fester and boil up there), there was one other point where
Johns tried to show that this new ability to use deadly force wasn’t merely a carte
blanche edict that would allow for rampant deaths of the Lanterns’ enemies –
though, of course, we all know that death in comic books means nothing. Kilowog, while battling Arkillo (I
believe), states that this new kill order is only to be used as a last measure
(let’s disregard that the kill order came with no training/counsel/rules). The big problem here: Johns is telling and not showing. This response comes after readers have
witnessed pages and pages and pages of dead bodies accompanied by the colored
edicts that “Sinestro #__” or “Green Lantern #__” have died and a replacement
must be found. The trail of bodies
is vast, and yet, Kilowog would have us believe that the kill order is merely a
last resort. The imagery puts a
lie to that statement. This is
compounded when Kilowog and Arkillo have their final battle. Arkillo lay lifeless on the page (to be
fair, the static imagery of the comic page does not allow for the subtlety of
film where we would be able to see that a body is not dead more easily than in
a comic) and Kilowog is asked of he is dead. Kilowog says he is not but that his rings won’t harm any
more Lanterns. Now, yes, Kilowog
tells readers Arkillo isn’t dead.
But the pile of bodies the audience has witnessed over the previous issues’
worth of story, coupled with the fact that a dead body and unconscious body
look the same on the printed page, causes a tension in our brains that makes it
difficult to take what Kilowog is saying, at face value. If we’d seen some restraint, some attempt
at overcoming the threat without taking the easy way out, maybe it would be
easy to accept Arkillo’s apparent survival. But, as it is, Geoff Johns & co. have set up a status quo that makes it far easier
to believe he is dead, like so many other Yellow Lanterns, than to take that
statement as “fact.”
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