Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 3: Quest for Hope (Rebirth)

by Robert Venditti

[Quirky Cat]

Three and a half stars.

I received a copy of Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps, Volume 3: Quest for Hope from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Quest for Hope continues (and mostly wraps up) the plots started during volumes one and two.
The artwork continues to be stunning; Ethan Van Sciver and Rafa Sandoval are so talented, I just love everything they produce. Robert Venditti is still onboard for writing (thankfully, I can’t stand sudden switches like that).



The Green Lantern Corps and the Sinestro Corps are still struggling to work alongside one another, and are starting to make progress in that direction. The complexity of the situation makes it an interesting read. Not only are we dealing with two teams that literally work within different spectrums (of light, that is), but we also have biases from both sides, as well as justified hurt, frustration, and even some vendettas. It goes without saying that John Stewart and Soranik have their work cut out for them.
What really sucked me into the whole Yellow vs. Green conflict was Guy. And yes, I am a bit surprised to hear myself saying that. Guy decided to do what he does best: do something stupid and reckless without telling anyone. I’ve always been impressed by the beatings that man can take and dish out, but this brought it to a whole new level for me. I was actually cringing for Guy at a few different moments. The flashbacks to his childhood piled onto the feels for that moment. It was just a perfect cocktail of “ouch.”
It took pretty much all of my willpower not to jump straight to commenting on my favorite part of the story: Saint Walker’s back! (In case you haven’t noticed, Saint Walker is one of my favorite characters). I’ll admit this probably wasn’t my favorite Saint Walker introduction (that title goes to the Green Lantern cartoon series), but it also wasn’t the worst. So I’ll take it. I’m just happy to have him back!
It seems like from here Venditti took some time to set things back to a more basic stage. We’ve seen it happen already; Hal has an actual physical body back (as opposed to being created out of Green Lantern energy). In the process of trying to bring back the rest of the fallen Blue Lanterns (a move urged by Ganthet, naturally. I wonder why he didn’t try this for some of the lost Green Lanterns? Was it dependent on the time and space of where they died?) Kyle Rainer loses control of all the rings save one, the green ring. This pretty much resets him back to a Green Lantern again. In short we now have a small Green Lantern Corps, an even smaller Sinestro Crops, one Blue Lantern, no White Lanterns, and the rest of the spectrum have yet to truly make an appearance.
A new plot was simultaneously introduced and concluded in this volume as well. Though while it may be wrapped up, I think it’s pretty clear we’re going to see the effects of it for a while yet (especially with Kyle Rainer). I’ll confess right off the bat that I’m a time travel snob, so unless it is done absolutely perfectly I tend not to love plots involving them. This is one of those times – it was a decent attempt by any standard, I just feel like it came off a little cheesy. The ending leaves me with a lot of questions about paradoxes and resolutions, but I’ll spare my review of those questions.
I am curious to see how Kyle moves on with the knowledge that he has. For example, will he persist in courting Soranik, or will he let it drop, knowing what will happen because of it? (And again, here raises more paradox questions). If I had to make a guess I’d say that this subject will explored more heavily in the Kyle Rainer series that’s coming out (have I mentioned how excited I am for that?).
Despite not loving this volume, I still maintain that the Green Lantern part of Rebirth is my favorite so far. I can’t wait for volume four or for Kyle Rainer volume one for that matter. In the meantime I’m planning on binging through the Green Lantern (main plot) series to help bridge the gap.


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