Green Lantern #23.3 Black Hand

The dead should sometimes stay buried.


As most of those who've read Johns run on Green Lantern and the books before, the name Black Hand must be familiar. Johns took a nobody from the earlier days of Hal Jordan and made him a serious threat in Blackest Night.

But there is a problem. Unlike Nekron, the Black Lantern Entity, William Hand has always felt like a one-trick pony. And that trick got played out in Blackest Night. There is literally nowhere you can take this character now.

And that was the problem with this issue. From his revival like Nekron's in Blackest Night (it was the staff there, here it's the ring) to his bringing up the dead gimmick, it all felt painfully deja-vu. The zombie thing isn't working anymore.

There is a cool montage of his encounters with Hal Jordan as he regains his memory. See below.

Thought the main highlight of the issue was when he finally resurrected Martin Jordan, Hal's father. This had been teased in the Green Lantern New 52 Annual #1 but it played out in pretty grotesque terms - the corpse broke his own hand and gave it to Black Hand.

But it brings up a litter of questions. Unless Hand lost a hand in the pages of New 52, this recalls Rebirth. So, was Hal the Spectre in this version? And then, where is the Spectre now?

Anyway, Black Hand has been played out and seems to offer nothing new. My personal thought is that they should have made a new person the black Earth Lantern.

Still, hope that I'm proved wrong down the road and he gives us good stories in Green Lantern.

So, I give this 5.5 out of 10.