Green Lantern #38
"Food Fight" Part 1
Writer: Jeremy Adams
Artist: Xermanico and Szymon Kudranski
Colorist: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Cover Artist: Eddy Barrows
Publisher: DC Comics
Sometimes you read a comic and think to yourself, "I really like the characters, but I have no idea what's going on story-wise."
I find Green Lantern #38 to be that kind of book.
Major Disappointment
Following last issue's battle against a literal Internet Troll, our heroes—Kyle Rayner, Jade, and Odyssey—find themselves face-to-face with Major Force.
The man who murdered Kyle's girlfriend Alexandra DeWitt back when he first became Green Lantern. The man Kyle has tried to kill in the past.
But, we're only going to spend a couple of pages on him here—and most of it is going to explain how he's part of the Justice League villain amnesty program. Then we're going to move on to bigger and better(?) things.
Big Belly Burger is opening more franchises, and the murderous mascots are there (but they're being nice right now). The Condiment King shows up, having been hired to bring Big Belly down. Another weird food-themed group shows up during the fight too, and eventually Kyle gets involved. It's all very strange.
In space, Hal and company are still following his mysterious questline. On the plus side, he finally recharged his ring! Does that mean maybe this subplot is going to finally start going somewhere…?
Fridge Benefits
Since Kyle Rayner took over as the lead, Green Lantern has been a book with an identity crisis. It wants to tell stories of Kyle being back on Earth after a long time. It also wants to spend a significant amount of time with Odyssey, who we still know very little about. Plus it regularly checks in with Hal Jordan and his mysterious quest. Oh, and there needs to be bad guys for Kyle to fight, too.
It's just too much.
The tone is all over the place, too. So many things seem like they're supposed to be serious, but instead they're eye-rolling. For example, I was already over the murderous fast-food mascots and their apparent turf war with other restaurant chains even before this issue actually started the "Food Fight" story arc.
So when Major Force turned up at the end of last issue, I was excited. Here is Kyle's greatest foe—the man who killed Alex and stuffed her in the refrigerator—so surely we're going to see the book get more serious. Maybe Jade and Odyssey will have to stop Kyle from trying to kill the man.
Nope. Instead, he gets smacked around by Kyle for a page or two, then Jade tells him about the Justice League's "villain amnesty" program. So Kyle flies off to be alone. Of course, Odyssey goes after him. Why her and not Jade? Who knows. And that's it for Major Force this issue, as we need to get to the murderous mascots and… let me check my notes… the Condiment King?
In a way, I guess it's fitting that Major Force—the villain who gave us the term "fridging"—is put on ice for the time being. He can hang out in the freezer until the book wants to give us something actually meaty for Kyle to deal with, then we'll pull him back out like leftovers.
It's a rough analogy, I know. Not easy to do a lot with food, refrigerators, and supervillains.
I don't even know what to say about the actual "Food Fight" plot elements. I know the mascots are some of the escaped aliens, but I have no idea what their plan is and why they need to have the biggest fast food franchise of them all. Unless they've got a Soylent Green kind of plan? I have to admit, the Condiment King was pretty funny for a few minutes. But then we add another food faction, and is this story arc over yet?
By the time the story jumped over to Hal Jordan, Jayna, and (ugh) Toby Y2k, I was actually excited to see them. It still doesn't feel like Hal's plot is going anywhere and we're just treading water until the next big event, but he managed to recharge his ring, so that's progress. Although I'm not sure how he was able to recharge his ring from the emotional spectrum river that the space whale was moving through—doesn't he still have the ring that came from the Green instead of the Guardians? Or did he get changed to a "regular" ring somewhere along the way and I missed it?
Looking at the solicitations for future issues, it looks like Kyle and Hal's stories will be converging soon, so maybe things will get a little more consistent then. We can only hope, right?
Kitchen Staff
Jeremy Adams has a good handle on all of our Lanterns—Kyle, Hal, and even Jade—but I'm not sure what's going on with his storytelling. Maybe he's been on Green Lantern for too long and needs a change. Whatever it is, his plotting has been positively head-scratching lately. When we get an interesting, meaty hook, like Major Force, it's immediately pushed aside so that we can get back to more alien weirdness or Odyssey vagueness. I wish we could get solid character work and less eye-rolling stories to go along with them.
We have two artists again this month, with Xermanico and Szymon Kudranski splitting duties. As is often the case with this title, I have a hard time telling for sure where they switch off. I'm pretty sure that Kudranski draws the actual food fight battle segment with the mascots, Condiment King, and F.E.A.S.T. (that's the other weird food group that showed up, which I didn't even care enough about to name earlier). I believe Xermanico draws the rest of the issue. Both artists do good work; we get some solid ring-slinging from Kyle, and the Condiment King's arsenal is pretty funny. The space whale and the emotional spectrum river in Hal's portion is space are pretty cool visuals, too.
Holding the two art styles together is once again colorist Romulo Fajardo Jr. He makes sure that the book has a consistent look, and that things like ring constructs and space rivers stand out. Outside of the power effects and alien elements, there's nothing too flashy here, but it's clean and solid—and sometimes that's enough.
Side of Confusion
Green Lantern #38 is another issue where I find myself of two minds—I enjoy most of the character work, but the actual plots leave something to be desired. This stands out even more this month when the Major Force appearance turns out to be a big nothingburger so that we can get back to the Food Fight plot with murderous mascots and franchise wars. I wish the disparate story elements could blend together as seamlessly as the multiple artists seem to be able to.