Book of Doom: Sinestro Corps #1


Normally, our Saturday roundtable review of a single comic devolves into something of a ridicule-fest. We’ve picked some clunkers in the past, that’s for sure. We’ve also had a few decent disagreements over books. Never before, though, have we all banded together and called a book one of the best of the year. Until now.

This can be best summarized by the following mathematical equation: Sinestro+Cyborg Superman+legions of villains+Parallax+Superboy Prime+evil Kyle Raynor+the Anti Monitor=HOLY FREAKING @#$%#^#!!!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketThis was an epic comic book, with wonderful setup and then a final half that just blew the doors off of expectations. Geoff Johns has officially shaken off the post-Infinite Crisis rust. For further praise- that- sounds- like- hyperbole- but- isn’t, here’s the rest of the Doomers:

Doom Deluise:

“Hot damn! I forgot what it felt like to actually get pumped up for a big crossover event. It seems we’ve been treading through a tepid pool of mediocrity for the past several months/year, and I’d say that it’s about time we got something compelling to read from one of the Big Two.

What better way to start DC’s biggest event of the summer than by consolidating the power of five of the biggest supervillain threats in the history of their company. My only complaint would be that maybe, just maybe, it’s too soon to break Superboy-Prime out of his captivity, but that’s hardly much of a complaint.

I don’t have a whole lot more to say about this. I’m f-ing pstyched for the rest of this business! Let’s see some ass-whipping!”

Jim Doom:

“Wow, what an awesome way to kick of this storyline. I can’t think of a single thing I didn’t like about this. I hate having nothing negative to say, but I don’t know if there were any logic holes or continuity gaps because the story didn’t give me the time or reasoning to stop to think about it.

Like the title to the last chapter in the Lightning Saga, the villain is the hero in his own story, and the righteousness of Sinestro is chillingly perfect. This issue should be a textbook on how to quickly empower heroes, establish the villains, and build up all kinds of anticipation for “How can the good guys possibly overcome THIS?”

If there is one weakness to this story, it’s that I sat there and thought exactly that. The Sinestro Corps has several members on its roster that have single-handedly threatened (or devoured) entire universes! The only way I can think of for this story to fail is for the heroes’ eventual victory to be believable. Because with this kind of power stacked up against them, it’s going to require one heck of a clever solution for the climax to not feel like a cop-out.”

Fin Fang Doom:

“Hol-ee-crap! That was frickin’ awesome!

Cyborg Superman! Parallax! Name-they-can’t-use-without-paying-Schuster-and-Siegel-Prime! THE FRICKIN’ ANTI-MONITOR! I don’t think there’ve been as many jaw-dropping moments in a single comic book since Infinite Crisis ended.

Geoff Johns wrote an amazing story here, and Ethan Van Sciver’s return to the GL Corps is a very welcome one indeed. It’s fitting that the creative team that produced the last great Green Lantern story (2004’s Green Lantern: Rebirth) would also kick off what promises to be the next great Green Lantern story. Sure, Geoff John’s obsession with DC continuity can get a little heavy-handed at times. But for some reason, whenever he gets to run wild with Green Lantern, it just works.

I really, really like the slow build that DC has done with this storyline. I found myself eagerly anticipating appearances by the Sinestro Corps members profiled in the back-up stories the last few months. I liked that a lot of the members of the Sinestro Corps are the same species as members of the Green Lantern Corps, because logically they would be. I really enjoyed the callbacks to passing moments like Batman getting selected as a Sinestro Corps member, Professor Zoom working with Sinestro during Infinite Crisis, Prime Duty and Hank Henshaw knowing about the 52 (which at the time, we readers still didn’t know about). Every thing just fit together so nicely, it seems like all this has been brewing for years now. And it probably has been.

Lately, there have been a lot of “big” storylines that ended up not living up to the hype: World War III, The Lightning Saga, Civil War, Back In Black. The Sinestro Corps is the first since Infinite Crisis ended that I can remember being really excited about comics, specifically those put out by DC. I’m eagerly anticipating the next installment.”