DC Comics reviews for 2/15/17 – Justice League, Batwoman, Super Sons

Green Lanterns #17

This issue wraps up a quick two-part team-up pitting Batman and the Lanterns against Scarecrow.

Writer Sam Humphries uses the team-up as more of a means to an end. Scarecrow finding a way to tap back in to the Sinestro Corps Fear-powered Lanterns was an intriguing development. Despite having Scarecrow narrate a portion of the issue, just how he was able to gain access to the SC power isn’t satisfactorily explained. It doesn’t help that the title characters get utterly upstaged by their guest star.

Humphries doesn’t fully have Batman’s voice down and exaggerates most of The Dark Knight’s worse personality traits. Despite calling Baz and Cruz in for assistance, Batman doesn’t seem to truly need or want them around. In a Batman book the treatment of the two Lanterns would make sense, but it’s weird that Humphries shortchanged his characters to make Batman look good.

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And with Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps covering the Sinestro Corps, Humphries missed out on a terrific opportunity to just have Scarecrow use fear to torment Baz and Cruz without Batman.

Batman’s biggest contribution seemed to be to help Baz move forward without his crutch. In keeping with the Lanterns code, it probably wasn’t necessary, but it did help distinguish Baz from the others.

For whatever narrative challenges the issue had, Eduardo Pansica’s art was pretty solid. Occasionally, Pansica draws the characters’ expressions a little over the top, but otherwise, this was a good looking comic.

This was a team-up that was fresh and had some potential, but undercutting Baz and Cruz just made this issue of Green Lanterns read like a lackluster Batman issue.

Rating: 6 out of 10