Retro Review: Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special
Apr 21, 2008 by     Comments Off on Retro Review: Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special    Posted In: Reviews

Sinestro Corps Special Cover ASinestro Corps Special Cover B

Sinestro Corps Special Cover CSinestro Corps Special Cover D

DC Comics – August, 2007 – $4.99 – Color
Writer: Geoff Johns – Artist: Ethan Van Sciver – Cover: Moose Baumann

This issue begins with Sinestro, naked, hunched over his yellow power ring sporting the scars that Kyle gave him during the Rebirth story arc. He recaps his story about his homeworld and Hal Jordan. How Hal Jordan believed him to be a fascist with how he ruled Korguar and eventually he was expelled from the Green Lantern Corps and labeled a traitor. He stands up with the yellow ring on, and charges it in a yellow lantern reciting an oath, eerily familiar to the traditional Green Lantern oath.

After a short interlude showcasing a fight between the JLA and Zoom, which recaps that Batman was selected to join the Sinestro Corps, you are taken back into space. Two Green Lanterns are tracking a Sinestro ring that has cut through a ship. The Sinestro ring attacks the two Lanterns, but they are rescued by Kyle Rayner or Ion. Kyle corrals the Sinestro ring, but hints that there are many more such rings searching for hosts.

The Guardians are then shown to have been questioning Hank Henshaw, better known as Cyborg-Superman. They explain that the “52” means that there are 51 other Earths and universes resting on our Earth. If our Earth is destroyed, it will start a chain reaction that will destroy every other Earth and universe, leaving only the Antimatter universe in existence. Ganthet and Sayd bring up the “Blackest Night” prophecy, but the other Guardians quickly refuse to acknowledge that prophecy and it is mentioned no further.

Kyle Rayner is back on OA with the Sinestro ring he captured and a temporary lapse in concentration allows the ring to break free and teleport him to the Antimatter universe. A battle back on OA ensues between the Green Lantern Corps and the Sinestro Corps, while a battle between Kyle and the Sinestro Corps breaks out on Qward. The Lanterns guarding Superboy Prime in the Sciencells are all killed by the Sinestro Corps and it is shown that they have broken Prime and Henshaw free. Kyle is stripped of his Ion power, showing that it is an entity like Parallax. It is revealed by Sinestro that a living virus killed Kyle’s mother. This realization leaves Kyle vuleneable to the Sinestro entity which overtakes him. Parallax and Sinestro walk into a chamber and bow before Superboy Prime, Henshaw and the Anti-Monitor.


This is a fantastic prelude to the Sinestro Corps War and sets everything up nicely.  Kyle has always been my favorite Green Lantern and I didn’t much like seeing him possessed by Parallax.  But, this one-shot forshadows great things to come from the main story arc.

Writing: 9 – Story: 8.5 – Art: 9 – Cover: 8
Overall: 8.625
(Note: this issue has gone to 4th printings, so all covers vary.)

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