ACW #607 – Green Lantern
Action Comics Weekly #607 (Green Lantern)
“Guilty!”
Writer – James Owsley
Art – Tod Smith
Letters – Albert DeGuzman
Colors – Anthony Tollin
Editor – Denny O’Neil
Welcome to Week Seven of the Action Comics Daily project… and it’s a pretty important installment for ol’ Gee-Ell. We’re officially starting our second story-arc.
Remember of all the features in Action Comics Weekly, only Superman and Green Lantern were to be “permanent”. This affords them both the ability to run shorter (or oddly-numbered) arcs because there aren’t other features dependent on their “slot”. Though, with those two-page Superman strips… I wish there were!
This is also the final chapter written by Owsley/Priest for the time being. No worries though, he’ll eventually be back… and, he’ll introduce us to The Man, the Myth, the Legend known only as… Malvolio!
—
It’s morning in Coast City, and Hal Jordan has had one rotten night’s sleep. The fact that Arisia insists on leaving the blinds open isn’t helping. Well, the fact that she’s also chuckling along with the TV probably isn’t helping either! She’s watching… The Oprah Winfrey Show. Hey, I promised Oprah, we’re about to get Oprah… well, next week. Today’s subject: Born-Again House Invaders. Sounds more up Jerry Springer’s alley, but whattayagonnado?
Anyhoo, Arisia suggests Hal be a guest on Oprah’s show… for reasons? Hal gets out of bed, and questions whether or not he even really loves Arisia… which, at this point, I’m not sure I can blame him. He decides to clear his head with a flight around the world. After “Lanterning up”, and recounting the events of the past six chapters, Hal winds up first in Egypt, then in an unidentified war-torn “Middle Eastern Country”.
Amid the fighting forces, Hal spies a young woman attempting to carry her baby through the warring factions. At this point, he decides to intervene (he was content just letting it all play out). With constructs a’plenty, Hal saves the young lady…
… and gets slapped in the face for his troubles! Ya see, news of the “murderous” Green Lantern has spread, even into unidentified Middle Eastern Countries!
It’s at this point that Hal realizes that if he wants to repair his reputation, he’s got some damage control to do. Who betta to help out with that then… Oprah Winfrey?!
—
An interesting start to our second story arc. I tell ya what… the first time I’d read this (probably the late-90’s/turn of the century), I didn’t think for a moment that they’d actually go through with Hal appearing on Oprah. Heck, I was kind of taken aback by her even being mentioned here. Gotta figure, if this were to happen nowadays, there’d be skatey-eight hundred Oprah variant covers.
Weird that Arisia was watching the show in the morning… I always remember Oprah being on after school? Maybe I’m misremembering… not that it really matters. Ehh, we’ll talk more about all things Oprah next week.
Hal’s trip to the Middle East was pretty interesting. I’m not really keyed in to faction warfare… but, I’ll uneducatedly assume that the battle was some sort of an allusion to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Not that it really matters… it really was just a backdrop for Hal rescuing that young mother and baby.
It’s interesting that this is what it takes for him to realize he needs to fix his reputation though! I mean, just last week, he cleared a city block just by showing his face… you’d think he’d want to do some damage control right away! Oh well.
Tod Smith feels much more “at home” this time out… he’s no longer doing his “best” Gil Kane impression, and the art is much better for that. Though, I will say, his Arisia is a little weird looking. In fairness, Arisia herself is a little weird looking, and very few artists have been able to make her look anything less than a little weird looking (you just wait for the next guy!).
Overall… pretty strong opening chapter for our next arc!
Tomorrow: Deadman and D.B. … escape from Hell?!
