Writer: Alan Burnett
Artist: Patrick Blaine
Publisher: DC Comics
Part of me wishes I had read this book before I read Green Lantern Corps #16. Some of the events occur before the war for Mogo is completed in the aforementioned issue. I also wouldn’t have had to go through the emotional rollercoaster of hating Sinestro Corps War, enjoying parts of it, and then hating it again.
I will say this as polite as possible, and only once: This issue not only does nothing to advance the story of the SC War, but even Cyborg Superman doing something for the first time still gets him nowhere as a character.
More than half of the book gives newer readers the rehashed tale of how Hank Henshaw came to be. If you’ve been in comics since 1993, you know what he is about. A Fantastic Four like accident, a disintegrating body and a deal with the devil (Mongul) later, he’s an immortal half robot that is like Superman. It was dealt with before this issue, but he just wants to die. He’s seen everything he wants, done even more, and he’s ready to pay the piper. It’s not even about hooking up with his dead wife again; he just wants to be dead.
Cry me a river. This book isn’t breaking new ground in the regard for an immortal to get tired of living. And I’ll say this while I’m on the soapbox: Was anyone else weirded out that he tore his dead wife’s body in half? Sure is some way to honor the love of your life, bud.
The next bothersome part of the book was the fight that ensued with the Justice League while the sky rained yellow people. The satellite is overrun with Manhunters, and armed with his yellow rings, CS handles the JLA with quite a bit of ease. For me, even with all his grunts and growls as he pounds the team, the fight was fairly emotionless. A few members utter some, “oh craps,” then the fight is over with before it began. Even the final page with Hank flexing his yellow ring muscles next to an unconscious Clark; I felt a huge yawn escape my mouth in boredom. Fights barely lasting 22 pages are hard to pack enough emotion and power into it. Surely nine more pages were worth the match.
As far as the art goes, I was torn on whether to sub or flub it. I am not hugely familiar with Pat Blaine, but he does show a bit of versatility on the art chores. Some of the pencils seemed a bit Chaykin-esque, and for me that’s not necessarily a good thing. Even some of his older stuff I am not a big fan of, and there were some faces and panels that reminded me of his recent work on the Guy Gardner mini and Blade series. On the other hand, I really enjoyed parts of his Henshaw work. It would appear that CS’s powers seem to have adapted with his body upgrade after being released from the science-cell prison. I will be interested to see more of the artwork on Hank as this series progresses, mostly because I bet Ivan Reis mimics some of the work on this book.
Even then, there was not much to like about this issue. I couldn’t stand the work done on Kyllax in the previous one-shot, and I liked it a whole lot more than this issue. I realize that Hank’s origin hasn’t been touched in 17 years, but certainly more justice can be given to the character than this. Too little emotion in the action and bad use of 22 pages lead to a poor example of a tie in to a successfully selling series.
What did you think of this book?
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