Green Lantern #170 (1990 Series)

October 25, 2003

Quick Rating: Poor
Title: Greetings From Sector 2814

Kyle Rayner sends a message home to the friends he left on Earth, forcing Jade to decide exactly what she wants to say back.

Writer: Benjamin Raab
Pencils: Chris McLoughlin
Inks: David Roach
Colors: Moose Baumann
Letters: Kurt Hathaway
Editor: Bob Schreck
Cover Art: Ariel Olivetti
Publisher: DC Comics

In one of my favorite novels, The Princess Bride, William Goldman writes with the conceit that he is abridging another writer’s work. At one point, he “abridges” an entire chapter because nothing happened in it. The chapter was summed up as, “What with one thing or another, five years passed.”

The best way to sum up Green Lantern #170 is to say, “What with one thing or another, two weeks passed.”

Absolutely nothing happens in this issue. Lianna, the Amazonian Guardian of the Universe, comes to Earth with a message from self-exiled Green Lantern Kyle Rayner. The first half of this issue is Kyle’s message, during which he recaps everything that has happened to him in the past dozen issues or so. In the second half of the book, Kyle’s friends record their messages to him, in which they recap everything that has happened to them in the past dozen issues or so. At the end of the issue, absolutely nothing has changed. The one effort at development in the last three pages just hits the readers over the head with a point that anyone who has read the last two issues knew already.

McLoughlin’s artwork is passable, but many of the characters look way too old, particularly Jade and the Flash, whose costume was also off-model. On the plus side, we do get a beautiful cover by Ariel Olivetti, which is the only new thing in the entire issue.

Perhaps this was an effort to provide a jump-on point for new readers. Every title needs that once in a while. The trick is to do that in such a way that doesn’t make regular readers feel like they’ve blown $2.25 on 22 pages of information they already knew.

Rating: 3/10