Well, the mystery and glory of the first three issues is dead, but that doesn’t make this issue (5) a bad one. Sure it lacks the genius of its predecessors, but still it is fun. Comprised of a long fight betwixt the smart and over confident lingo of the reborn (and apparently, very cocky) Hal Jordan, the big-headed hubris of Sinestro, and the youthful angst ridden and underachiever-type meanderings of Kyle Rayner, this book is both action packed and uneventful.

Really, it seems that nothing happened, other than the defeat of Sinestro via a one-two punch by Rayner and Jordan. (It was actually kind of silly. I think that I like the rings just being powerful and firing in force, but I know that I hate it when they become arrows, hinges, clamps, or big baskets, and stuff.) But at long last, when you finally get to the last two pages, something delicious happens. Right now I am sitting here, wondering whether or not to tell you what it was………….

Nah.

Suffice to say, that Batman gets cooler than he has yet been in this series, as he leans on his own sense of paranoia. It is really a great couple of scenes.

All in all, I have to say that I do enjoy and look forward to these books. But, the third book was the best, in my opinion, and the series has rapidly plummeted from there.

The artwork, if anything, has gotten better. The characters look cleaner, and all but Sinestro, have seemed to shed a few of those million face-lines they previously sported. The motion is great, and the Green Lantering art (with the exception of the awkward looking arrows, hinges, clamps, and long steel rods) is really cool as well.

I made the mistake of hoping that somehow issue four would be as good as or better than issue three; and thereafter, made the same mistake with my hopes for this issue. HOWEVER, there is no doubt in my mind that issue six will outshine this issue like the sun outshines your mom (who, by the way, goes to college). Why? Because, unbeliever, Batman is throwing a monkey wrench of trouble into the whole mess. Why? Because Parallax is now possessing Ganthet, the Guardian, and the JLA and the Lantern Corps are actually going to have to do something in the next issue that doesn’t involve that pomposity called Sinestro.

So, next month should be a real doozy. If it isn’t, for any reason. Then I promise it will get roasted on the open fire that is the Inane Discussion. I will also find a way to put the Inane into audio for you, and I will pay that stupid fee to Yahoo! to get us in their directory, all the while making sure to pull all of those who are disappointed in that book here, to Near Mint Minus, where we will expose it for the fraud that it is!!!!! If I were half the man I was five years ago, I’d take a flame thrower to this place!

BUT, that is only if the next book reeks the sort of fowl unmelodious odor like that which emanates from Fumanchu’s room after a night of Enrique’s, Tacate, and love.

-Peblee