Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #33

Writer: Robert Venditti

Breakdowns: Tom Derenick

Artist: Jack Herbert

Colourist: Jason Wright

Letterer: Dave Sharpe

After all the craziness when this title crossed over into METAL, it's nice to have a simpler story where we can see the characters just be Green Lanterns and save people. Despite the fun I had with the issue, it was primarily concerned with setting up this new arc which is shaping up to be really interesting.

The best thing about this issue is the art. Jack Herbert did a brilliant job with this issue, and I wish I'd see his name attached to more projects. If I recall correctly, he drew an issue of ACTION COMICS during the Superman Revenge Squad story, and he did a good job transitioning from Patrick Zircher's previous issue that made the art seem more organic rather than making two issues look completely different. He does the same thing here in a way; facial expressions and shading is very reminiscent of Ethan Van Sciver's art, and it looked really good. I wish Herbert was given a whole arc so his style could come across more, but this is good enough. Pages took their time in progressing the story, which really lent itself well to the overall mood of the story Robert Venditti is telling, in that the Green Lanterns are pretty relaxed at the moment. Not for long, obviously.

Venditti impressed me with the story; I'm interesting to find out what's going to happen next, and the Guardians being involved provides a change of pace to the more Lantern-focused stories we've been getting so far. Venditti does a good job of setting up what they're going through, and I think they'll come out of this story as new people as a result.

This issue was somewhat light on story but the art was simply magnificent. The characters are all going through something right now and it's intriguing, so I have faith the pace will pick up.