It’s been a few days since I got to read any comic books and I’d been on a roll reading the big titles! As I was deciding which novel to read next, I saw the news about casting for the HBO Max Green Lantern Show which is due to start filming soon! The casting in question was for Sinestro, the leader of the Sinestro Corps, arch-nemesis of the Green Lanterns. The more I got excited about this show, the more I wanted to return to the New 52 Run of Sinestro’ solo series!
‘Rising’ continues the story started in ‘Sacrifice’ whereby Sinestro, leader of the Sinestro Corps has managed to take over Warworld, the planters ship classically ruled by Mongul. Sinestro has become cockier than usual and this infuriates his daughter Soranik who believes that he would put his ego ahead of the Korugarian people that he’s protecting. However, when Sinestro removes the green ring from Soranik’s finger and replaces it with a yellow one, to protect her, Soranik finds herself as a member of the Corps that she never wanted to join. When the Green Lanterns mysteriously disappear, Sinestro sees an opportunity to create order in the universe through fear. That leads on to the second half of the novel which sees our titular character attempt to employ none other than Lobo to destroy members of the other Corps so that no one can challenge the Sinestro Corps in their mission to be the brutal police force of the Universe. Lobo has no issues dispatching some of the Indigo Tribe and even manages to take on the Red Lanterns. However, his last mission is to bring in the leader of the Blue Lanterns, Saint Walker, alive. Just why has Sinestro asked for this particular Lantern to be bought in alive? And how will Sinestro’s recruitment drive affect his relationship with his current generals?
So this series has been improving consistently from the beginning. This novel in particular really expanded the idea that Sinestro is not only highly powerful but also intelligent and cunning. It’s not really a surprise that this guy is best friends with Black Adam, they have a personality set. Although I thought that the novel was good in the sense that the story was a step-up and we see more of Sinestro’s personality, it also lacked a lot of the action that I felt the plot could have used. Perhaps the writers are saving that for the next novel in the series, but at times it felt that the Yellow Lanterns were almost in the background of what was happening. This was especially prominent in the second half of the novel, almost all of which was narrated by Lobo. I thought he had his own solo series, so not sure why he needed to internally monologue several issues in this novel.
The artwork was not bad, but it also wasn’t anything that stuck out to me as overwhelmingly amazing. The covers on the other hand were good and overall I think this novel restored my faith in the series. If the Sinestro series continues like this, it may redeem previous novels!
Favourite Panel:
People need to see Sinestro the way they see Black Adam. He’s way too underestimated!
Favourite Character:
I mean there are few characters to choose from, and though I tend to go for heroes normally, Sinestro stands out in this novel big time.
Rating:
Story Arc: ★★★
Character Development: ★★★★
Artwork: ★★★
Enjoyability: ★★★
Re-readability: ★★½
Level: Advanced