Talk about some major epic space opera! This issue opens on Sinestro, still under the power of the Indigo Tribe. Sinestro briefly flashes back to an early memory of himself and Hal battling the Manhunters. Then Sinestro’s willpower kicks in and he awakens.
It seems as if Hal has convinced the Indigo Tribe to release Sinestro into his custody. To aid that end, the Tribe have managed to break the bond between Sinestro’s ring and the faux one that he created for Hal. That means that Hal is no longer under the stipulation that his ring can’t be used against Sinestro if the need should arise.
As Sinestro comes around, he tells Hal that he’s been stupid. Hal was so worried about Sinestro that he overlooked someone else… the Black Hand is gone!
Warning: Here come some SPOILERS!
When we last saw Black Hand, he had leapt off of a cliff and walked away. Hal and Sinestro find the spot where Hand fell and assume him injured. But the black liquid around the impact spot isn’t blood… it’s the black goo that made up the Black Lanterns. Black Hand has died and returned again. So where is he?
We find this out in a very creepy scene where Hand resurrects his family, not as Black Lanterns but as zombies. The zombie family don’t talk, at least not in any way that we can see but still Hand talks to them as though they were communicating with him. If they are, it’s telepathically. Of course it’s very possible that Hand is just completely off his rocker. Hand informs his family that he’s planning on killing a lot of people and reviving them to kill more. He’s definitely not very sane, at least from that standpoint.
Meanwhile, Hal and Sinestro go to Sinestro’s “Batcave” to retrieve the Book of the Black to see if they can stop the Guardians from summoning the Third Army that is prophesied to replace the Green Lanterns. They also need to know if this Third Army has anything to do with Black Hand. But, as they pry into the book to learn the truth, they are teleported across space to a meeting with an old enemy.
Geoff Johns has a way with the Lantern mythology that I wouldn’t have thought possible in a comic book. Usually world-building on this scale requires prose and possibly even appendixes to keep track of but Johns does it with seeming ease. He continues to move the story of the Green Lanterns forward all while reveling in their massive past… or at least whatever past has survived into the New 52, and that seems like most of it.
Verdict: Buy
GREEN LANTERN #11
Written by Geoff Johns
Art and Cover by Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy
