This week in comics : What's New

GREEN LANTERN  #5

Writer: Goeff Johns

Artist: Doug Mahnke

I would go ahead and call this the strongest issue of the current volume if this hadn’t involved a cliffhanger

 everyone knew the conclusion to last issue. So yes, rings made by Sinestro can’t attack him, which is why the new GL recruits in the form of the residents of Korugar can’t attack Sinestro. The issue follows the path you would have expected it to follow last issue, with Sinestro inducing moustache-twirling awesomeness to free his home planet with the help of Hal Jordan, only to subsequently have him sent off the planet nevertheless.

 The difference made is in the amazing work on character with both Sinestro and Hal, as well as some kick-ass artwork by the dependable Doug Mahnke (though I would still have preferred Ivan Reis on this title). The issue ends as you would expect any Geoff Johns GL story to end : with the Guardians hatching up a sinister plan.

Score : 8.2/10

What You Should be Reading : Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man hits the Big Time!

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I’m usually not one for clichés, but Spider-Man and Wolverine are right up there in my list of all-time favourite comic book characters. The story goes that I came back to reading comic books three and a half years ago, a time when both characters were beginning with their respective iconic runs, with the rotating team of Web-Heads (Joe Kelly, Dan Slott, Fred Van Lente, Mark Waid etc.) on the Amazing Spider-Man and Jason Aaron (of Scalped fame) on Wolverine : Weapon X and later the new volume of Wolverine (and now Schism and Wolverine and the X-Men). For today though, let’s just save the talk on Aaron’s Wolverine for another day and concentrate on what Spidey’s been up to of late.

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The Run-Up

See, the story leading up to Slott’s solo run really starts with the Spider-Man crossover event One More Day , co-penned by the then ASM writer Joe Michael Straczynski, a.k.a. JMS (grudgingly) and the then Marvel Editor-in-Chief (and now Chief Creative officer) (Seriously, someone cast this guy as Perry White already, he loves being called chief) Joe Quesada. It involved Peter Parker making a deal with Mephisto (essentially The Devil) to save his (once again!) dying aunt in exchange for his marriage with Mary Jane Watson being erased from history. It was basically Marvel’s attempt to de-age Spidey and bring him back to his “more relatable roots”. Fans were obviously angry and plenty threatened to boycott the series. The initial year or so of Brand New Day, which was essentially what followed One More Day, was a critical disaster, as the writers were too concerned with establishing the new status quo and new villains, who felt a lot like rip-offs of classic members of Spidey’s Rouges gallery. However, once the dirty work was done,