Retro-Action Dolls! Uh, I Mean Action Figures!

At last! The DC Retro-Action Superheroes are on store shelves!

For those of you who don't know, the DC Retro-Action Superheroes (...I just typoed that as "Superherpes") are new toys made to look and feel and... well, pretty much BE the old toy/dolls put out by the MEGO company back in the 70's. In fact, if I recall correctly, they were actually designed by some of the people who designed the original MEGOs. These new ones are manufactured by Mattel, and the first wave -- Superman, Lex Luthor, Green Lantern Hal, and Sinestro, are available right now at Toys-R-Us. There's also a Green Arrow, but he's only available as an exclusive through Mattycollector.com (and is currently sold out). I also saw some on the pegs at several of my local comic book stores this weekend, so if your Toys-R-Us fails as badly as mine usually does, you can check there instead.

Of course, I bought Hal and Sinestro -- Sinestro a couple of weeks ago, and Hal just today. Now that I have both, I thought I'd give a little review!

These guys are roughly 8-9" tall -- or about a head taller than the Blackest Night figures, which are supposed to be 7". This puts them out of scale with pretty much every single other thing on my shelves, but I find that I don't mind too much. They're something special! I haven't broken either of mine, but I wouldn't rate them very highly if I was rating for durability. The packaging says they're suitable for ages 6 and up, but a 6-year-old would absolutely DESTROY these things in less than a minute. They're constructed exactly like the MEGOS, which means that their bodies seem to be hard plastic, their heads are kind of rubbery, and their joints really shouldn't be forced much if they stick, because they'd probably break. Pose carefully!

Like the original MEGOs, their weak point is in their torso. I'm not entirely certain, but I'm pretty sure that the articulation there is supplied by a rubber band inside the torso. Their poseability is good, and they stand up just fine on their own, but trying to get them to stop slouching is frustrating. The rubber band almost always forces them to either slouch or bend a little backwards, and it takes quite a bit of fooling around to get them to find a happy, normal medium. They have good articulation considering that they're retro toys -- the head turns, shoulders, wrists, and legs have full (if occasionally a little sticky) range of motion, elbows and knees bend, torso tilts and swivels -- but honestly, I don't care what the fanboys say, these things are more like dolls than they are action figures. And, while I was definitely not a girly-girl as a child and hardly ever played with Barbies, I had friends who did, and you know what the first thing a child does when they get a Barbie doll is? That's right -- they undress it. I undressed Sinestro post-haste, and I was impressed by what I saw. ("That's what Arin said!") They didn't just stick a purple head and hands on a generic body. He's actually purple all over. And the musculature on these things is way beyond what you would expect from a toy that, at first glance, seems cheaply-made. Their muscles are accurate, and heroically-proportioned without looking like they've been shot up with steroids (yes, I'm looking at YOU, JLA Classified line!). In fact, the Sinestro is almost perfect in that he's fit but skinny... sort of what I'd expect him to look like in real life. Unfortunately, as Hal's body is exactly the same size, Hal looks a little bit too slender to fit my mental image of Hal, but it works very well for Sinestro.

But the best part is the COSTUMES! They're real cloth - sort of like bathing suits, actually -- and I am very impressed with both their details and construction. One of the Hals I saw at the store had a few loose threads, but neither of mine do, and I have played with them a LOT. Both of them have what feels like vinyl bracers, and Sinestro's neck ruffle and belt are of the same material. They fit the figures perfectly, showing off that nice musculature without looking ridiculous. Both costumes fasten in the back -- Hal's has two snaps, and Sinestro's has three. I try to be careful with the snaps, because its easy to imagine them tearing loose from the cloth. The boots are rubbery, and are by far the hardest costume piece to get off, and even harder to get back on. I don't recommend taking them off. I'm serious.

I did notice one interesting thing about the boots, though...
Yes, Hal appears to be wearing green cowboy boots. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but while Sinestro's boots are perfectly modelled after his Silver Age costume, and have flat heels, Hal's have a curious little... well, I don't know the word for it, but they definitely look like cowboy boots. And they have a rather thick heel on them. Maybe he borrowed them from Guy's closet and painted them green?

And because the butt is the most important part of a Green Lantern (their brain is #3), I had to be strict in my butt review: neither of them has a very good one. This might be forgiven on Sinestro, who has not had his hiney ogled in many years and has perhaps given up on his daily glute workouts, but it definitely detracts points from Hal's score.

Shake 'em, boys!

Hal is one with the least amount of detail. As pretty as he normally is, he's still a rather generic-looking guy, so it's hard to capture his proper likeness in cheap plastic/rubber. He does have his trademark hair wave, but it's pretty flat. We can't see his eyes because of his creepy mask, and his expression is ALMOST, but not quite, a smile. It's like a Mona Lisa smile. Yet somehow, it fits. I guess because it looks like a smirk when you look at it in a certain light. The paint is applied pretty cleanly -- not perfectly, but you won't see the flaws unless you look really, really hard. His ears stick out juuust a little. I actually think he sort of looks like a young Sean Connery as James Bond, in a weird sort of way.Sinestro is a much more distinctive-looking character, so his details are easier to appreciate. Receding hairline? Check. Slicked-back hair? Check. Truly dapper moustache? Check. Evil-looking thin brows that he CLEARLY tweezes and waxes to make perfect? Check. He even has little wrinkles in his forehead that the pictures don't quite capture. He's not quite frowning in the same way that Hal is not quite smiling. His ring is properly placed on his left hand (details count!) and it's not just a molded copy of Hal's GL ring -- it's his classic yellow ring that looks sort of like a dome. His ears are pointy, his skin is not red, but PURPLE, and his eyes are quite a lovely blue (and they're painted very nicely, which the pictures don't really capture properly). In short, this is Silver Age Sinestro, just as he used to be portrayed back when he had silly Silver Age schemes like trapping Hal and Ollie inside a gemstone, going back to medieval times and wreaking havoc, and pretending to be his own dad. His old look works perfectly on a retro toy like this -- he looks like something a kid could have happily bought back in say, 1972, and then exploded with firecrackers. Contrast that with his modern look -- red skin, scary wrinkles, black eyes with yellow pupils, NO pointy ears, and half-shaved head.

My final verdict? I LOVE these toys. There's something about them that just screams "Play with me!" (and not in the Chuckie way, either). My other figures feel less like toys and more like little statues. These feel like something I want to play with until they absolutely wear out., though I'm trying hard not to do that. They just feel... fun when you hold them in your hand. My other toys are on my shelves, but these two sit on my computer desk, and I put them in all sorts of poses, and smile when I look at them.

And I make them hold my cookies while I surf the net.

The Brightest Day

(Minor spoilers for Green Lantern books beginning in April. Nothing beyond what the solicits say, but if you don't like reading solicits, then go no further.)

I'm not here to talk Blackest Night. No, that's being talked about everywhere now that #7 is out, and some people have already provided some excellent analysis of the happenings in there.

I haven't been sure what exactly to expect from Brightest Day, because so much depends on how Blackest Night ends, and we don't know what's going to happen there just yet. Obviously certain people are coming back to life, certain people aren't, and some of the people I feared might die are going to come through hale and hearty!

Guy is getting his own book, so that means he'll make it through in some form or another. Ice will be featured in Generation Lost, so she'll make it through somehow. I would still be worried for Sinestro, given his current state (I predicted ages ago that Johns would have him die a hero at the end of this somehow), but the solicits for Green Lantern in the coming months have revealed that he'll make it through alive, too -- we just don't know what he'll be wearing.

But I've decided that, from what little the solicits have revealed, the storyline in Green Lantern after Blackest Night is over has the potential to fulfill one of my geekiest dreams: apparently the "New Guardians" are going to be forced to make Earth their new home, for reasons that will apparently be revealed in the May issue of Green Lantern (assuming the solicit doesn't lie, which they often do).

In addition to Hal and Carol, that's Atrocitus, Larfleeze, Saint Walker, Indigo-1, and Sinestro living on Earth.

I'll admit, this sort of thing is one of those cheesy, ridiculous storylines that often plays out in my head, but I've never actually written it because it's very hard to write something like that to its full potential while keeping it from turning into... well, a cheesy, ridiculous storyline. Maybe it's because Earth and its customs are what's familiar to us, but putting characters like this into a context where they can be forced to deal with things that, to us, are mundane, is something that's just fun to imagine. And

It reminds me of the old GLC of Earth days, when they had their pretty headquarters that Guy got banned from after he spiked the water and made Salaak see pink elephants. Maybe they'll bring that old place back, and rebuild it nicely, as I think the last time we saw it, Guy and Kilowog had destroyed it in a fistfight, and it collapsed on Arisia's head. Wouldn't it be awesome to see that place again?

Please, please, please tell me that they will all live together in this same house, like a Rainbow-Colored Brady Bunch -- and that Dex-Starr will be their cat and claw the curtains and spray all over their furniture, resulting in fights between Atrocitus and Sinestro because Atrocitus won't neuter his kitty and Sinestro is VERY meticulous about his housekeeping! And Larfleeze will take up residence in the basement, because no one else can stand his stench or his fleas, and he watches them through the floor vents and covets their possessions.

Honestly, picture it:

Atrocitus: "WHO USED ALL MY SHAMPOO?"
Sinestro: "Don't any of you people know how to fold laundry? My pants have to be re-dried and creased all over again! And... WHY IS THAT CAT IN MY ROSE BUSHES AGAIN?"
Pizza Delivery Girl: "Uh, yeah, who ordered the seventy-five fully loaded pizzas?"
Larfleeze: "MINE!"
Pizza Delivery Girl: "Whoa, dude, come back! You have to pay for those!"
Indigo: "I'm sorry, I can't help you. My deus ex machina power is depleted."
Pizza Delivery Girl: "..."
Hal: "Oh hey there. Want to see my cockpit?"
Pizza Delivery Girl: "..."
Hal: "You've never flown with me before."
Carol: *sigh* "Here, Pizza Girl, this should cover it. And for God's sake, don't step on the begonias on your way out. Sinestro will have a stroke."
Sinestro: "Silence, you walking venereal disease. Your very presence in this house gives me a burning sensation where one ought not burn."
Atrocitus: "SERIOUSLY -- MY SHAMPOO! IT WAS IN A WHITE BOTTLE. IT SMELLED REALLY NICE. WHO USED IT?"
Saint Walker: "All will be well!"
Carol: *facepalm*

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.

The Redemption of Sinestro?

Originally posted by me on the Green Lantern Corps Message Board in response to a topic about whether or not we might see Sinestro "redeemed" in the aftermath of Blackest Night (the idea was that maybe we would find out that he was possessed by an entity all along):

I realize I'm in the minority here, but I wouldn't mind seeing Sinestro redeemed in some way. The problem is that no matter how it was done, it would just feel too contrived. As someone said, he was created to be a bad guy, and I'm not sure anyone could ever accept an alternate explanation for his behavior. And it would only be a matter of time before another writer came along and decided the whole thing was stupid and retconned the retcon so that he was really evil all along, after all.

So yeah, I don't think it would work. :(

I desperately want to see some stories about Sinestro when he was a rookie GL. It's not really fair that we only know him as the maniac he is now because we have no way to compare (and no, just saying "Oh, he was the greatest Green Lantern at one time" doesn't really give us a clear picture of the man he used to be). Was he ever young and hopeful and gung-ho to make a difference in the universe... sort of like a rookie cop who later becomes jaded and cynical? Only instead of giving up and becoming numb, he decided he could do it better his way? Or was he always just a power-hungry jerk with phenomenal will?

One of the few things I like about Emerald Twilight is Sinestro's narration before he appears to fight Hal. If I recall correctly, there's a part where he's talking about all the things you do as a GL, and then one day you start to ask yourself "What has this ring done for me?". That's a very natural response to living a dangerous life serving others, I think. Power alone is enough to corrupt, but the temptation must be even worse when you're not just powerful -- you're putting your neck on the line every single day. And people being what they are, the public probably comes across as a bunch of ungrateful wretches most of the time.

I'm actually surprised that more GLs haven't gone bad. Maybe none have been as delusional, or had the will to be as powerful, as Sinestro, but I suspect that more than one GL out there uses his power for personal gain in small ways.

It has also occurred to me that we don't know anything about how Korugar was run before Sinestro took control of it. It's all relative. I mean, think about it this way (and I realize this is a super over-simplification of the Civil War, but bear with me in my metaphor here): if the south had won the American Civil War, what do you suppose the history books would say about Abraham Lincoln? If you try to make sweeping changes to a society too quickly, or before it's ready to accept them, you're reviled.

So what if the status quo on Korugar was something like America two hundred years ago, and Sinestro's "despotism" was in taking control of the government and freeing the slaves, giving women the vote, and making it illegal to put orphans to work for twelve-hour days in factories? Sure, he's still a dictator and it was still wrong (and definitely against GL rules) to use/abuse his power to take control, but it does change the perspective a little.

I'm not saying any of that is true or even an option or anything -- I just like to look at things from every possible angle. And either way, he's still a mass murderer and terrorist, so none of that would wipe it all clean.

Sorry, Sin. I love you, but you're still dirty.

Why Hal and Sinestro Should Not Play With Pointy Objects

I am an Ebay fanatic. And I also have a love for knick-knacks and quirky things, and a certain few searches that I do every day. So yeah, I'm one of those strange people who, if I see that someone is selling, say, a Green Lantern shotglass, I will buy it in a heartbeat. (Yes, I have a Green Lantern shotglass. Two different ones, actually.) I like art, too. I go to conventions mostly for the character sketches, and I don't mind if they're done by artists that no one has heard of because I like seeing different interpretations of characters. So when I'm searching for my favorite characters on Ebay and come across art of them that I've never seen before, I usually decide that I have to have it.

I really liked the look of this particular print, so I bid on it and won it a few weeks ago. It's signed by the artist, who is someone I've never heard of, and I was not disappointed by it when I actually got it in the mail. It's beautiful in real life -- the photo doesn't do it justice at all. The colors are gorgeous, the details are much more vivid, and the stars in the background seem to sparkle. I love it and would have gladly paid far more than the mere few dollars that I did.

But you know what I like best about it?

The unintentional homoeroticism.

Observe (and forgive me for using the pic from Ebay -- my scanner isn't working and I don't have a digital camera):

Okay, okay. When you actually see the real print, you realize that they're crossing swords down there, and that Hal's is a simple longsword like something a fantasy knight would use, while Sinestro's is more like a rapier with a complex hilt whose details you can't see in this small picture. I really appreciate those picky details, because those are appropriate sword choices considering the way the two of them think. This whole picture is full of interesting symbolism like that -- from the really obvious choice of bird and snake to the way Hal is bracing himself with his other hand and has taken a defensive posture while Sinestro is having no difficulty attacking while using just one.

But still... every time I look at this, the gutter-minded twelve-year-old deep inside me can't help but giggle.

The Adventures of Abin Sur and Sinestro

So I'm looking forward to a Sinestro/Abin Sur reunion of some sort, even if Abin has to be a rotting zombie when it happens.

I can't help it. I love it when villains are given some depth, and giving them dead friends is a good way to do it. I like the dynamic Johns has gone for -- Sinestro as Hal's mentor is something, and Abin as Sinestro's mentor is something more to build on. Honestly, can you imagine Sinestro actually respecting someone the way he seems to respect Abin? Or being friendly with someone? He considers (or once did) Hal as his friend, but even when they were getting along Sinestro was barely civil to him. Was it different with Abin? I mean, did they... I dunno, go out and drink beers together, or whatever Korugarians and Ungarans do with their best buds? I guess the "no hanging out in other GLs sectors" thing probably put a damper on that, but they obviously had contact with each other, even if only through their rings.

It begs a few questions. For one, did Abin Sur know how strictly Sinestro was keeping order in his home sector? Sinestro never believed that his way of ruling was wrong, so I can't imagine him keeping it secret when he's talking to someone he considers a friend. You know:

Abin: "Wow, you wouldn't believe the week I've had. Between riots on Flipflop 7 and the evacuation of that unstable planet in the Sparkly System, I've barely had time to take a nap, let alone file a report. So how are things out in 1417?"

Sinestro: "Oh, you know, more of the usual. Some idiot tossed a Jolly Rancher wrapper on my pristine sidewalk, and I had to bitchslap him through a building."

Abin: "..."

Sinestro: "Also, my wife left me. So I decided to outlaw divorce."

Abin: "..."

Sinestro: "She'll be eligible for parole in sixty years."

Abin: "...Did you stop taking your medication again?"

But seriously. I think it's touching that, when Abin is in his ship headed for Earth and is talking to Sinestro, Sinestro offers to come help him even though they both know perfectly well that Abin is doing something that will likely get him kicked out of the Corps if he gets caught at it. Freeing Atrocitus wasn't something the Guardians would look kindly on. And it makes me wonder if the Guardians even realized that Atrocitus was loose because of something Abin did. After all, Abin was dead, Hal was stupid, and Sinestro quite pointedly didn't mention anything about it when explaining what he was doing on Earth. He just said he was helping take Atrocitus back into custody, that's all. And I know the ring is supposed to record everything, but that doesn't always appear to be true (if it even was back then).

You'd think getting killed doing something against the rules, because of a prophecy that he wasn't supposed to talk about let alone act on, would have lost Abin his spot in the GL crypts or something. Sort of a posthumous dishonorable discharge? Or maybe, because he was dead anyway, they didn't think it was worth quibbling over.

And look at the expression on Sinestro's face when his ring makes contact with Hal/Abin's and Abin's image appears to give him his final message. D'aww! He looks like he's going to cry!

One thing I've wondered, though: at the end of Secret Origin, when the Guardians are dressing down Hal and Sinestro for fraternizing, one of them mentions that this is the second time that Sinestro has defied them with a Green Lantern from 2814. So Sinestro and Abin got in trouble together at some point in the past? We know that Sinestro got suspended as a rookie for questioning the Guardians, but he made no mention of Abin Sur being involved in that particular incident. (Maybe that's what got Abin assigned to be his mentor in the first place?) I suppose they could be referring to that, but it seems odd that, if they were, Sinestro didn't say "oh yes, Abin Sur and I got suspended..." when he was telling Hal about the incident.

So what did Abin and Sinestro actually do? What are these shenanigans that we don't know about? And why do I think that I could probably read an entire series of nothing but Abin and rookie Sinestro perpetuating these shenanigans?

How NOT to Convinct and Execute a Renegade Green Lantern

So SallyP over at Green Lantern Butts Forever brought up some interesting points about Korugar, the Zamarons, and the execution of Sinestro (the first time), and it got me thinking about some things -- enough that I got a craving to read those issues again, and I'm really glad I did.

Specifically, I'm talking about The Green Lantern Corps #222: "The Last Testament of Sinestro", which tells the story of the trial itself. I'm not going to do an in-depth review because I'm lazy today, but there are a whole lot of things that I find interesting about it.

The story is narrated by Sinestro himself, which is an interesting and effective decision on the part of Steve Englehart (whom I've always felt indifferent about as a writer up until now). It's not very often that we get to see things from the villain's point of view -- it's unusual enough that DC just made a whole big event out of something like that just last month, remember. It isn't so much that he's telling the story (other than a short flashback at the beginning to how he got his ring and how he later fell from grace), but rather that we're seeing his thoughts about what's happening around him as the panels and dialogue show us the Green Lanterns gathering to decide his fate.

But think about that for a minute. What we're reading, as we flip through these pages, are the thoughts and feelings of a soon-to-be-condemned man during his own trial and subsequent execution. That's deep. That's scary.

But what's most scary about it is Sinestro's tone throughout the whole thing. It exemplifies those character traits of his that Geoff Johns has latched onto in the past few years to make him into such an amazing villain. Even in the midst of this trial, even when the death verdict comes across, Sinestro never, for even an instant, gives even a hint that he believes he's done anything wrong. He's not sorry, not even a tiny bit. He's bored with the whole proceeding before it even begins. And he's arrogant to the point of madness. He dismisses their concern for their friends, and laughs at their efforts to come to a majority decision. Even after the death verdict is passed he believes, right up until the very last moment of his life, that they won't actually go through with it.

His arrogance is also his undoing, of course. Sinestro knows that killing him will be the end of the Corps, because he found out that little tidbit of information by skulking around a Korugarian political meeting of some sort back when he was a Green Lantern. He even offers to tell them the secret -- if they'll let him go first. But they don't go for it, and rather than just say it, he tries to bargain until it's too late and he's being blasted dead. Ow.

But look at the trial, too. Sinestro thinks it's a farce, and after reading the issue a few times, I'm actually inclined to agree with him.

It's presided over by the Old-Timer, the only Guardian (okay, ex-Guardian) left since the little blue men departed this universe to do their little blue baby-bop. This is the same fellow who was supposed to whip Guy Gardner into shape after the Crisis, and who would later go insane and form the Mosaic. He seems sane enough here, with the exception of two decisions:

Prosecution: Kilowog
Defense: Katma Tui

...What?

On the surface, it seems like a sound enough decision. He's picked two veteran Lanterns, both of whom are known and trusted by their peers, and who have had multiple run-ins with Sinestro. And Katma is Korugarian, which might perhaps give her some insight into how the accused thinks and what his motivations are.

But the whole catalyst for this trial was the destruction of Kilowog's homeworld (again). John and Katma and Arisia swore to 'Wog that they would seek trial for Sinestro as soon as possible, and they did -- even to the point of putting aside some other, more pressing matters, such as Ch'p's defection and the fallout from the Millenium crossover. I suppose, from a certain perspective, it makes sense for the person most hurt by the defendant to be the one prosecuting, but it seems a bad decision overall. Kilowog was practically mad with grief only a couple of issues ago. And his decision is already made -- he came in the door thirsty for blood. When Skirl expresses disbelief that they're even considering execution, Kilowog's reply is "You got it!"

But that I can forgive more than Katma as Sinestro's defender. Even she protests. "But-- I despise him especially, because he is of my race!" This was written before the Emerald Dawn retcons, but Sinestro's history as a dictator-like ruler of Korugar is established within this very issue, too, so to say that she has issues with him is an understatement. She hates him. Later on she expresses a grumbly, almost childlike sort of reluctance to defend him. Like I said, this is before Emerald Dawn, but looking back on it from a modern perspective, knowing what he now know about Sinestro's first trial, makes this even stranger. Katma Tui fought to overthrow him on Korugar. She testified against him in the trial that stripped him of his ring. She's lost to her own homeworld forever because of the legacy he's left behind. And she's supposed to defend him here?

And when the time comes, she fails him utterly. She has no rebuttal to the case presented against him. Not a word. It could even be argued that she hurts his case by blurting out exactly what she feels: "There is nothing anyone can say to that!" I promise it doesn't do your client any good to let on to the jury that even his defense attorney thinks he's guilty as sin and deserves to die.

The Old-Timer's reasoning behind his choice is that Katma's integrity is legendary. And in any other trial, I'd say she'd make an excellent lawyer. She's smart, she's honest, she can be very business-like when the situation demands it, and her peers respect her.

What's curious, and most relevant to the Blackest Night the Corps is facing now, is what the Old-Timer has to say is response to her protests: "You can place your intelligence before your emotions -- which is what will be required of everyone here!"

D'oh! That's exactly what the Guardians are trying to force the entire Corps to do right now. Proof once again that they don't, nor have they ever, understood how powerful emotions are to mortals. And look how it panned out for them last time!

The vote itself is interesting, too. The Lanterns are instructed to make a decision individually, then beam their vote into the CPB, which will then announce the collective decision (the assumption is that it will go with a majority vote).

So, how did each individual Lantern vote? We don't know! We know that the majority chose death, but what about Hal? What about John and Katma and Arisia?

This is a burning question to me. I think it's safe to assume that Kilowog went with death, as he was practically foaming at the mouth for it. I'm going to guess, from little things she said and did in this issue, that Arisia also voted death, though we can't know for sure. Katma? I'll go with death, though she was obviously really torn up about her inability to defend Sinestro there at the end. It seems that she really wanted to be able to say something for him, but just couldn't think of a single thing. (This is why I find Katma to be such a wonderfully deep character.) John? Hard to say, he could have gone either way.

But Hal? Earlier in the issue, Sinestro seems certain that Hal would never vote to kill him, but who can really say? Though I'm inclined to think that, in this case, Sinestro was right. Hal was unusually silent throughout this issue, and the few times he did speak, it was to say something that expressed his reluctance to go as far as execution. He even says at one point that he flat-out doesn't want to kill Sinestro -- but then, he was also acknowledging that such a thing might be necessary, so he might have voted for it anyway. But somehow I doubt it.

And while I realize that they were making this a decision for the entire Corps, does it seem a little wrong to anyone else that Kilowog and a handful of others who had already openly expressed their desires before ever even hearing the trial be allowed to vote? I recently had the dubious pleasure of sitting on a jury for a murder trial, and we were questioned up one side and down the other about any pre-existing prejudices, or situations from our past that might make it hard for us to judge based solely on the facts. We weren't even allowed to discuss the case with our fellow jurors until the entire case had been presented, because we weren't supposed to form opinions until after we'd seen and heard everything. I'm not sure that giving a jury spot to someone whose entire race had been obliterated by the defendant was a particularly just idea.

I have to wonder now, too, how much of the execution itself was responsible for Hal's later grim-and-gritty stage that led up to his full-on Parallax possession. A small group of the Green Lanterns themselves carry out the death order with their own rings. (How could they even do that? I thought they couldn't kill with them...) They stand around Sinestro in a circle, raise their rings, and fire all at once.

Can you imagine how that must have felt to an angst-bunny like Hal? He just killed a man with (practically) his bare hands. While staring him right in the eyes. A man who, we now know, was someone he considered a friend and mentor once-upon-a-time. How badly did this weigh on Hal? How often did he think about it later, when he was travelling across America alone? Or when Katma died because she had no way to defend herself from Star Sapphire? Or when Parallax was slowly but surely whittling away at him?

In a way, what happens next with Salakk showing up and the Corps being destroyed is almost anti-climatic and detracts from what should have been emotional fallout rather than tangible, physical fallout. I'm not going to argue that Sinestro didn't deserve to die, because what he did to Bolovax Vik alone was reprehensible, not to mention all the other things he had done.

But that's not really the point to a superhero, is it?

The Secret of Sinestro = Bondage, Drugs, and Assorted Kink?

So the other day I was going on about Green Lantern v.2 #124, and honestly, it's too good not to share with the world (Korugarian sex kinks, people!), so bear with me while I inflict this madness upon you. Behold -- "The Secret of Sinestro!"



Yeah... I think it's pretty obvious that the "secret of Sinestro", according to this cover, isn't exactly much of a secret -- Sinestro wants to tie Hal down and then fondle him inappropriately with yellow tendrils. The women? Pfft, just overcompensation while he tries to make the whole thing look very cool and villainous and totally Not Gay For Hal. (And yes, that's Carol Ferris and Kari Limbo that Sinestro is pulling the pimp-daddy act with.)

For the record, this is my favorite Green Lantern cover ever.

The story itself is a pretty entertaining one. Ollie and Hal are having yet another lover's quarr-- I mean, manly friendship fight -- over the fact that Hal went all lone wolf and wouldn't let Ollie go to Qward with him last issue. ("He and I just need to be apart for a while!" Hal says later. Yeah, that's what he tells his girlfriends when they get too serious, too.) Kari Limbo has just recently left Hal to get back together with the comatose body of Guy Gardner, so Carol Ferris is back in the picture again -- insisting that Hal call her "Miss Ferris" again, though. They're all hanging out with Pieface at the opening of the New Age Museum, a museum dedicated to honoring mankind's achievements in space flight, when Sinestro shows up and takes offense at the very idea of humans honoring their crappy space-traveling achievements. He has a tantrum, sets all the displays on fire, destroys the building, and then zips right back out again while Hal saves the innocent bystanders.

We get a moment of rare Hal intelligence when he observes that it isn't like Sinestro to blow shit up and not hang around to see the results of his handywork, followed immediately by a moment of Hal stupidity when he decides that Sinestro must have finally slipped into insanity. Wait, so... if he's just now insane, what has he been for the past twenty years he's been appearing in your comic before this, Hal? Just a little flustered? And Hal can't figure out why Sinestro hates him so much. I'm a little surprised that it didn't occur to Hal to wonder about it until just now... and the logic behind it is so very Hal-like. "He... doesn't like me? He obviously must be insane!"

Hal decides that, even though Sinestro could be"anywhere in this universe -- or in Qward!" the best place to start his needle-in-a-haystack search is Korugar. Which is actually... a very good guess, but a guess nonetheless. He dials up Katma Tui, who is sympathetic to his cause but is forbidden to do anything to Sinestro because Korugarian law says that she can't harm him if he hasn't harmed Korugar -- and all his recent crimes have been over in 2814, so he's not her problem. She does, however, inform Hal that Sinestro's dad operates a Null Chamber nearby, so it stands to reason that he might be hiding out with dad.

What's a Null Chamber, you might ask? Katma describes it as "something such as your Earthly opium-den -- illegal in the city but permitted here" and when Hal enters it, it's described as "a gloomy place full of strange smells and low murmurs". There are lots of half-naked Korugarians floating in the air, suspended by these weird yellow energy-beams. Sinestro's dad (who looks exactly like Sinestro, only with grey hair, a sexy long purple robe, and a Fu Manchu 'stache that isn't quite as Truly Dapper as his son's) explains the process to him -- the yellow null rays drain their vital force away, which... kills them. But apparently not all the way, because eventually (when their money runs out, I assume), he revives them. And people pay him for this, because "to taste death is the ultimate pleasure to a Korugarian!"

...So. Sinestro's dad peddles the Korugarian equivalent of erotic asphyxiation. This explains a lot.

As soon as Hal starts getting nosey about his son, though, dad snatches him up in yellow beams that, of course, Hal's Green Lantern ring is useless against. But... surprise! Sinestro's dad rips off his own face, to reveal that it was Sinestro himself all along! Dad really is in the room, too, though... floating in the null rays, addicted to the same pleasure he's been selling. (This also explains a lot. No wonder Sinny is messed up in the head. Dad kills himself for pleasure all the time.)

Hal is helpless in the grip of the null rays. He can use his ring, but Sinestro just shrugs off his attacks. And Hal is starting to feel sort of... happy. Apparently slow erotic suicide works on humans, too, because he starts to relax and enjoy himself, seeing the faces of Carol and Kari (and Sinestro watches all this with a little too much pleasure -- maybe watching is his thing?). Maybe Kari's stupid cheating face is what snaps Hal out of it, because he wakes up enough to send a super secret plea for help (in Morse Code) to Katma Tui and then gets Sinestro talking to stall for time. So why does Sinestro hate Hal? Because he can't get at the Guardians, he says, so he beats up on Hal instead. But why blow up stuff on Earth? Because Earth represents Hal, who represents the Guardians, and that's reason enough, apparently. Hal calls him insane, which seriously pisses Sinestro off -- why, he'll kill Hal right now instead of letting him have a nice slow pleasurable death!

Then Katma shows up and blows up the null ray generator, freeing Hal and all the dying junkies. Sinestro, still pissed off, knocks her out, and what follows is actually a lot of fun to watch: Hal proceeds to beat down Sinestro with his bare fists, just like he will do again much later at the end of the Sinestro Corps War. And Sinestro saves himself by...

Throwing a junkie chick at Hal.

Yes, a pretty young female addict stumbles into the fray, and Sinestro literally throws her on top of Hal -- proving that Sinestro, at least, understands what makes Hal tick even if Hal is still confused about what Sinestro is all about. Hal, of course, is distracted long enough for Sinestro to make his weird foldy getaway back to Qward.

Katma is not above pointing out to Hal that he did something stupid, by the way -- he sent his signal to her in Morse Code, forgetting that she wouldn't have the foggiest idea what all those dots and dashes were supposed to mean. And worse, he had just used the ring's real signalling capabilities not ten minutes earlier when he contacted her the first time! Oh Hal. You're dumb and Katma knows it. That's why, when Hal kisses her cheek, she tells him she's not like Earth women and kissing means nothing to her. (Korugarians don't kiss? I wonder what they do? Choke each other? Wait... yes, they probably do, given the evidence we've just seen.)

Obviously there's a lot of things about this issue that I find interesting.

First, Sinestro is established to have a father and a sister at this point, which is very unusual for Silver Age villains. It adds a tiny bit of depth to the character that most baddies back then lacked, even though neither sis nor dad were given names or ever showed up again.

Second, we learn a lot of interesting things about Korugar and its inhabitants here. According to Hal in this issue, Korugar is the only inhabited planet in its solar system, and Whonere is the only city on the whole planet (other sources list Korugar City as the capital, but I've seen Whonere mentioned before as well, and I can't recall if the name of the city has been mentioned in Green Lantern Corps recently so I don't know what's currently canon about this). The terrain surrounding Whonere appears to be desert-like, which... actually fits my personal vision of Korugar, but I can't say if that's a coincidence or because I've been remembering this comic for all these years and just haven't realized it. All the male Korugarians depicted here have the same receding hairline as Sinestro, which is insanely funny -- almost as funny as the fact that they all wear purple for some reason.

What interests me more, though, is the fact that this is a culture that gets pleasure from the experience of death. You'll recall that Recharge established specifically that death rites are very important to Korugarians, too. So I wonder if there aren't some cultural ideas about death that could possibly be significant for Sinestro, Soranik, and/or Katma (who is almost sure to be a Black Lantern) come Blackest Night? Normally I'd say no way, but Geoff Johns is just about the only writer I could imagine who is enough of a detail and continuity nerd to remember this lone issue and bring the subject up again.