Outside A Few Moments Of Terrible Melodrama, Green Lantern Sector 2814, Volume 1 Succeeds!

The Good: Good character development, Good overall arc, Moments of plot and artwork
The Bad: Simplistic artwork, Some terrible moments of dialogue
The Basics: The story of the fall of Hal Jordan in a darkening DC Universe begins in Green Lantern Sector 2814, Volume 1 when Hal Jordan returns to Earth and finds trouble there.


Despite my last few years of studying graphic novels, there are actually very few older graphic novels that I have read. In fact, outside of Green Lantern And Green Arrow Volume 1 (reviewed here!), Diana Prince: Wonder Woman Volume 1 (reviewed here!) and The Flash Archives Volume 1 (reviewed here!), I have not read any pre-Crisis DC Universe graphic novels. That has begun to change and while I am reviewing some of the New 52 graphic novels as well, today I am looking back at Green Lantern Sector 2814, Volume 1.

Green Lantern Sector 2814, Volume 1 is the first of a series of volumes that compile the Green Lantern comic books from the early 1980s, before the DC Multiverse was cut down into a single, rebooted universe. Picking up the story after a nebulously-defined year-long adventure in the Green Lantern Universe, Green Lantern Sector 2814, Volume 1 interacts – in very mild ways – with the Trial Of The Flash storyline and laid the seeds for several superheroes that, apparently, never popped. But despite the lack of follow-through on some of the secondary characters in Green Lantern Sector 2814, Volume 1, the only real issue with this graphic novel is in some of the unfortunate dialogue surrounding some of the most ridiculous new villains in the DC Universe – the Wrecking Team.

Hal Jordan appeals to the Guardians Of The Galaxy for his chance to return to Earth. After a year wherein Jordan was forced by the Guardians to patrol all of Sector 2814 outside of Earth, stopping an asteroid storm from devastating one of the other planets in his sector on the way to the meeting, Jordan makes his case that he must be allowed to return to Earth. Reluctantly agreeing to Jordan’s terms, the Guardians allow Hal to return to Earth where he is excited to see Carol Ferris again. Fearing Carol has moved on from him, Hal has to be whacked over the head by Carol before they can reignite their romantic relationship.

But romance quickly takes a back seat to economic pragmatism. Ferris Aircraft is under siege by a villainous Senator who bears a grudge against Carol’s father for the death of his father years prior. The Senator hires a criminal organization to steal the solar engine that Ferris Aircraft is developing. When The Javelin and his team encounter Green Lantern, Hal is unable to prevent the engine from falling into their hands. Jordan squares off against the Shark and when the Guardians recall Hal to save an entire planet, he makes the difficult choice to abandon Ferris Aircraft when it is under siege. With Ferris Aircraft’s entire facility being destroyed by a team of villainous contractors known as the Demolition Team, Hal Jordan must wrestle with the choice as to whether or not it is important to him to remain the Green Lantern of Sector 2814.

Green Lantern Sector 2814, Volume 1 succeeds, when it does, because of the character conflict within it. Hal Jordan actually has to balance being a superhero with being a mundane test pilot. That internal conflict resonates and adds an air of realism to the book that a number of the more science fiction-based super hero comic books often lack. Jordan starts the book as realistically homesick and climaxes in a choice that shakes the Guardians of the Galaxy and their sense of an ordered universe.

The other successful element of Green Lantern Sector 2814, Volume 1 is Green Lantern’s encounter with the Shark. The telepathic villain who absorbs the consciousnesses of his victims appears abruptly and Hal Jordan is unable to defeat him outright at their first encounter. That is a cool fight that transitions from a physical attack into a psychic battle that plays out well as a conflict for Green Lantern.

The artwork is fair, but even generally decent artwork is not enough to sell the Demolition Team as a good adversary. Enemies who fight using hot bolt guns, a steam roller and similar construction equipment are hardly compelling. That Ferris Aircraft has huge government contracts and none of the staff has firearms to defend the facility seems unrealistic.

The balance between the science fiction super hero story and the political storyline where government contracts being pulled threaten a big business in the DC Universe is actually surprisingly well-executed by Len Wein in Green Lantern Sector 2814, Volume 1. As a result, Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris both grow and develop in Green Lantern Sector 2814, Volume 1 and the story is held together despite a chunk of the story featuring seriously defective adversaries.

For other Green Lantern books, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Green Lantern: Willworld
Green Lantern: Secret Origins
War Of The Green Lanterns

7/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Restoring Wonder Woman Makes For An Unremarkable Book With Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors!

The Good: Wonder Woman is remarkably efficient in the book!
The Bad: Mediocre artwork (comic strip style), Repetitive, No real character development.
The Basics: Eleven men and one woman decide the fate of Wonder Woman rejoining the Justice League after a creative reboot of Wonder Woman from the 1970s.


When there is a creative reboot of a popular character, it can be a tough sell to the loyal fans who made that character into an icon. In the case of DC Comics, periodically, they attempt to reboot sagging franchises in different ways. Green Lanterns get replaced (only to come back, forcing entire reworks of the premise for the book), Flashes return from the Speed Force, and others are simply resurrected directly. In the case of Wonder Woman, a heroine who has spent remarkably little time in the pantheon of the DC storytelling universe dead, long before she was killed off (albeit temporarily to assume a godly position), she was reworked as a superspy in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Almost unrecognizable to the fans and absent from the ongoing stories in the Justice League, that incarnation of Diana Prince, Wonder Woman, led to an eventual reset of the character in more familiar and popular context.

Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors is the story that restores the post-Diana Prince (only) character to Wonder Woman and pretty much writes off the Diana Prince phase as mental tampering from her mother. So undermined, Wonder Woman gives herself a challenge before she feels comfortable rejoining the Justice League of America. The concept is not an inherently bad one (though it is a bit self-punishing), but the execution is problematic. First and foremost, the book has twelve stories that are both repetitive and unremarkable. Wonder Woman gets herself out of the dangerous situations in virtually the same way each and every time, making for a plodding book. Second, there is something troubling about the book having an overt feminist message (which is wonderful!), but having eleven men (to be fair, one is a robot and one is an ethereal spirit) and only one woman (the painfully uncertain Black Canary) make a life-altering career decision for a woman. That seems pretty backwards.

Not making a clean cut with the Diana Prince saga, by day Diana Prince is working at the U.N. for Morgan Tracy. She writes reports for him and monitors crises that pop up around the world. In the process, she is tailed by a member of the Justice League (supposedly unbeknownst to her) and reverts to Wonder Woman to thwart whatever the villain of the moment is. The labors Wonder Woman has to overcome all involve a “villain of the issue.” Wonder Woman goes after Cavalier (a flat-out misogynist), a Peace-making alien machine, a man who wishes to be king of the world (and almost incites nuclear war as a result), the god Mars, Diogenes Diamandopoiulos (a rich man who wants to see and set foot on Paradise Island), the Duke Of Deception, Celestris, Felix Faust, an alternate universe where women are subservient to Mchsm the High Consul of Xro, Chronos The Time Thief, Dr. Cyber (who duplicates Wonder Woman), and Unca Wade (Wade Dazzle) at Dazzleland.

Wonder Woman is usually shot at, relies upon her lasso to get truth out of people, and her invisible plane. Each of the members of the Justice League presents a compelling case for why Wonder Woman should be readmitted into the Justice League and that reason is pretty much “she defeated this villain.” It’s the same with all of them, “This is the story of this incident and, hey, because Wonder Woman was there and took care of the problem, she should be readmitted into the Justice League.” In other words, none of these incidents truly makes Wonder Woman shine from any sense of skill, ability or savvy. She’s just the super hero in New York City when the bad stuff goes down.

Lacking any real intense moments of character, Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors also flops on the art front. Simply colored, Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors looks more like an extended comic strip than a sophisticated graphic novel. While this is a sign of the times (the issues put together for this trade paperback anthology were all from the 1970s), it does not look or feel good in this day in age when graphic novels can be genuinely sophisticated.

Ultimately, Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors is not terrible, it is just subpar and fans are likely to enjoy it much more as a historical document than a thrilling new story.

For other Wonder Woman volumes, please check out my reviews of:
Gods And Mortals by George Perez
Wonder Woman: Challenge Of The Gods by George Perez
Beauty And The Beasts By George Perez
Destiny Calling By George Perez
The Contest By William Messner-Loebs
Wonder Woman: Lifelines By John Byrne
Paradise Lost By Phil Jimenez
Paradise Found By Phil Jimenez
Down To Earth By Greg Rucka
Eyes Of The Gorgon By Greg Rucka
Land Of The Dead By Greg Rucka
Mission's End By Greg Rucka
The Hiketeia

3/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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