Saviors.
The War with the Corps ends with both sides suffering heavy
loses, but Superman in his new avatar coming though in the end.
Some half-baked B-plot resolutions aside, this is a
satisfying end to the saga with the Green Lantern Corps decimated. Taylor is able to
activate some outrageous actions but with solid reasoning and depth.
The artwork as usual is exemplary.
SPOILERS FOLLOW………….
The biggest problem with leaving most ‘OMG’ things for the
climax is that the thing starts to feel rushed.
Whereas the first year was divided into more chapters and
gave more breathing room for every game-changing action to occur (with proper
depth established), here it’s like an afterthought sometimes.
For example, each death in the first year (Metropolis, Nightwing
and Green Arrow) was given multiple chapters for both background and emotional
impact. Here, four major ‘deaths’ occur in a few pages and sadly, only half of
them feel impactful.
Guy Gardner is the worst casualty of this, due to a half
baked rivalry with Hal that never got the room to get proper treatment.
All the battles Superman related have been well crafted,
while Hal Jordan’s
conflicts feels shafted to the side.
Both Black Canary and Gantlet (Mogo as proxy) are given well
defined conflict zones with Superman and so their fights have emotional
impacts. Black Canary blames Superman (quite rightly) for Oliver’s death while
Superman blames Gantlet and the Guardians of Oa for being passive spectators to
Krypton’s demise.
Because so much space is given to emphasizing these
plotlines, the three Green Lanterns Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner and John Stewart
are given little space to move around, resulting in most of them being plot
devices and not actual characters.
You know who is a character though? Sinestro.
The way in which he manipulates everyone is so great that
even if you aren’t rooting for him, you respect him. He manages to catch John
Stewart in an unguarded moment, deems him too conflicted to be of use alive and
so makes a martyr out of him. Then he goes to Hal and uses John as a device to
push him over the edge, as he kills Guy.
Before this though, Black Canary manages to broadcast
everything that happened with her to the world, and this results in a furious
Sinestro Corpsman Superman. Batman realizes too late that this has made
Superman stronger, since he feeds on fear now (and the Earth is providing it)
as the latter manages to kill Gantlet and Mogo by pushing them into the sun.
I loved how Tom explained how Superman can fight two beings
that have left him broken not so long ago. Gantlet and Mogo are both unprepared
to fight a Superman fueled by the fears of a billion people.
With almost all the Green Lantern Corps wiped out, this is a
resounding victory, but you have to wonder what will Superman and his army do
now that they have been revealed to be cold blooded murderers.
Tom seems to end the Year with a dreary sight (corpses
mounted in a pile), but in a welcome move, leaves us with a little joy at the
end.
Black Canary, on the verge of death, is transported by Dr
Fate (more Kent Nelson, the person under the helmet, than Nabu, the god who
powers it, though) to a parallel Earth where Green Arrow lives but Dinah is
dead. Together with Ollie and her son Connor, Canary gets her relatively happy
ending.
While the Year ends on a satisfying note, and the new status
quo is refreshing, I feel like it all became a little too rushed at the end.
With little room to maneuver, everyone excepting Superman and Sinestro became
no more than pawns for the plot to move forward. Still, the main plot remains
exciting and well developed.
SPOILERS END…………………
Despite a great ending to Year Two (and an unexpected but
welcome bright epilogue), most of the characters got some underserved
treatment, leaving the emotional impact in the locker when the time came to
resolve their arcs.
The artwork has been exceptional, despite the rushed
timeline and weekly schedule, and faults are rare even in this final
installment.
So, I give it 8.0 out of 10.
+Superman’s arc with the Corps gets resolved well
+An unexpected but welcome change of tone in the epilogue
+Sinestro is portrayed excellently
+Some great artwork
-The respective Green Lanterns become no more than plot
devices in the end
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