Wednesday, August 26, 2009

And the Family Tree Gets Weirder

I'm so pumped right now, I'm not sure how to expend all my energy. Green Lantern #45 was excellent from cover to cover, and leaves all the Corps in the middle of some really bad predicaments. I can't wait to see what happens next!

But of course, being the Sinestro fangirl that I have become (Geoff and Peter, start giving me more Guy scenes so I can rave about him again!), I'm mostly bouncing around because of the unexpected revelation of the identity of Sinestro's lost love.

I'll admit that I am a wee bit disappointed that it wasn't Abin Sur himself. There are so few gay/bi characters in the DCU, or in comics period, that it seems a sad waste to take a character like Sinestro, who has already been shown flirting with a confirmed gay man in canon, and make him out to be straight, after all. Granted, I accept Englehart's explanation that Sinestro would probably say anything to anyone if it meant furthering his goals (or, as he put it, "have sex with someone in Times Square" if it got him what he wanted), but it was the only clue we've ever gotten, and it's not fair to consider a hint like that as a fluke rather than an actual indicator of his true preferences. (After all, if a man flirts with a woman, and assuming there's no contradictory past behavior to go on, no one ever assumes that he's just pretending to be straight, right?)

And of course, he might be interested in both sexes (which would actually be even better, as bisexuals are extremely under-represented in comics), but the sad truth is that, now that we know he likes girls, most writers and fans won't even entertain the possibility that he might also be into men. Even though it seems fairly obvious to me.

Yet, I'm not posting to complain. I'm actually quite happy with this revelation, overall. I feel vindicated! See, I wasn't crazy, after all. There were indications of heartbreak and romantic sparks there, all along! Bu instead of loving Abin, apparently he loved a sister of Abin's that we never knew existed.

Now this is very cool. Arin Sur, as she is named, was apparently quite a pretty lady. So female Ungarans do have hair? I couldn't recall. We only get some brief flashes, but in those brief flashes, we see how they met, and what looks like a death scene in some sort of... place. It's interesting to note that Sinestro is still wearing his Green Lantern costume in that scene, though it's hard to make out any other details. I'm going to assume that we'll get the full story in Secret Origin II, which has only recently been announced. The only thing Geoff really said about it was that it would contain the fall of Sinestro, so I'm really hoping that means he'll be giving us more details about the lady Sinestro loved, even though I'm sure most of it will deal with Hal discovering Sinestro's corruption, etc. (Like something we've read before... Emerald Dawn II, anyone?)

And not only did he love her, apparently, but the loss must still be painful, because when he breaks out of that love crystal, boy is he pissed off. He's usually so calm and collected these days, and before that, his conversation with Carol was quite interesting and insightful even as they traded punches in a fairly evenly-matched manner, but afterwards? Afterwards, he's beating the hell out of her. You can tell that dredging up those memories hurts him, and it looks like it's something he must have been repressing deep inside for years now.

What this issue doesn't address, though, is whether or not Arin Sur is Soranik Natu's mother. She might not be, but considering the way this has all been set up, I would assume that she probably is. And that makes things especially interesting because, if it's true, it means that:

1) Soranik is half Ungaran.
2) Sinestro and Abin may have been not only friends, but possibly also brothers-in-law.
3) Abin Sur was Soranik's uncle.
4) Amon Sur is possibly Sinestro's nephew by marriage.
5) Soranik and Amon are cousins!

I'm also amused by the fact that Sinestro, who we now know has great love in his heart somewhere, and who was able to be encased in a violet crystal for a few seconds before breaking out, at least, could have become the first male Star Sapphire that we know of if only he had stayed in the crystal.

That's right, think about that image for a moment.

5 comments:

Sea-of-Green said...

Oh, but it's not over. Sinestro may become a male Star Sapphire yet! :-)

I agree, though, that this is all VERY cool. I didn't know female Ungarans had hair, either! I think that's an artistic retcon, though. Prior comics I know of that depicted female Ungarans (including a Spectre comic or two) always showed them as bald, just like the men.

SallyP said...

Well...! Isn't THAT interesting? Here I was so convinced that the unknown Star Sapphire would turn out to be Soranik's mother!

Now the question is, will Arin Sur come back as a Black Lantern to bedevil Sinestro?

It was fun to see him actually be emotional for a change. I have to admit though, he certainly has Hal pegged.

Duskdog said...

I was pretty sure female Ungarans had been depicted as bald, too -- as recently as one of Amon Sur's first appearances, I think, where he has a brief flashback of him and his mom or something? Oh well. I guess they decided that women important to the story have to have hair. Or at least more hair than Sinestro, who doesn't have much left, himself. :)

I was really hoping you were right about the Lost Sapphire, too, Sally. It looks like we get a death scene there, but I suppose it's possible that she survived somehow and is still the Lost Sapphire? If not, I hope she'll be back. Seeing him emotional really is a lot of fun. And I don't think I've ever seen him quite that angry -- or at least not in his modern-day appearances.

Good thing for Carol than Amon and friends showed up when they did.

SallyP said...

Oh Amon! You wouldn't hurt dear old uncle Sinestro now...would you?

Erin S. said...

I like little family tree twists myself. Having Soranik be his kid was neat but having it connect further into the legends of the corps is pretty cool.

I'm reading GLC but I can't say I feel that I know Sinestro enough to judge about his sexuality. But just because it's stated that he loved a woman doesn't mean that his interest is firmly in the heterosexual column. Funny how the kid reveal seems to be a hot topic with involving sexuality within the last few years. I remember how annoyed many Boostle fans were because it meant that Booster will have to be with a woman at some point.