Green Lantern, Vol. 2: The Revenge Of Black Hand (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
Alright, this probably isn't five stars. Go ahead & acknowledge my bias right away, but I still loved it a lot & had a great deal of fun reading it. It's a lot of the same Hal/Sinestro banter that I loved so much in volume 1, but a lot more action this time around.This starts with Sinestro being abducted by the Indigo Tribe in a "secret" lair on their planet Nok where they do "secret" things. Well I'm not sure about the secret part hence the quotes. I mean, they reveal it pretty quickly and it was a little obvious. The arc was interesting as it connects to the Third Army story line which this is sort of a prelude to. So Hal has to save Sinestro, and they hug it out (just kidding. Sinestro doesn't do the whole "thank you" thing) and then have to save the Indigo Tribe which they are a little bit responsible for destroying.All this triggers the release of Black Hand, also a captive on Nok. And since I've not fully read Blackest Night yet it was fun to see his villain-ness. Then the whole "Army of the Undead" thing and burying Hal & Sinestro alive. All good, horrific fun!This of course ties into the Guardians creation of the Third Army, with the Manhunters being the first and the Green Lanterns being the second. There's a plot to quietly destroy the Corps by manipulating their strongest members, which also ties into giving Sinestro his ring back. There's also hints of their other storyline about the first lantern, which the Guardians release...sort of.Honestly, there's a lot going on here. For people very familiar with the GL world they'll love it. Like I did. But to read it out of nowhere? Well It's probably more of a 2-3 star book. Still action packed, but without context it wouldn't be nearly as interesting. This volume is a significant improvement over the previous, getting back to what Johns does well, world building. The Indigo Tribe has always been a favorite of mine, and half of this book is dedicated to exploring them and their origins. The other half is a less interesting retread of Blackest Night, all gearing us up for Johns' last hurrah, and it's effective. Similar to the last volume, some of the solutions feel a bit ex machina'd, but Johns built the world, so what he says goes I suppose. The characters are still not really capitalized on here. Sinestro's redemption story continues along, but Hal remains unchanged and uninteresting as he's ever been. There's a big reveal about the Guardians at the end that fails to resonate with me due to how little time is spent with it, but there's always room to tie up such loose threads in Johns' final days on the book. Mahnke's art is growing on me, and his designs for the Indigo Tribe were all really neat and fun to look at. I want to see more of this guy's aliens.
What do You think about Green Lantern, Vol. 2: The Revenge Of Black Hand (2012)?
I continue to like the Sinestro/Jordan bromance, and the buildup to the Third Army stuff.
—gets2410
