Sinestro #1 is the Lantern You’ve Been Waiting For

Sinestro #1

Written by Cullen Bunn
Art by Dale Eaglesham
Colors by Jason Wright
Published by DC Comics

It is no secret that the Green Lantern books were a bit of a mangled mess in the early part of the New 52. The most recent creative shuffle has seen some new life breathed into those books, but it will be several months before these creators can scrape the rust off that accumulated prior to their arrival. But this book was a great ground-level entry into the peripheral side of the GL universe.

Cullen Bunn just knows how to write complex super villains. He’s so good at it that he leaves you believing that said character is nothing more than a misunderstood anti-hero, and he weaves that magic here. Thaal Sinestro is a broken man that has lost so much. His diametrically opposed view to the Green Lantern’s version of justice and order spurred him to leave the GL Corps for a second time. His Yellow Lantern Corps now considers him a weakling and a traitor. His species paid the price for his actions with complete annihilation — or so he thought. This book has the perfect hook to bring in green (pun intended) readers and does a good job of catching up of the past few years of events without turning into a massive info dump. The narrative doesn’t try to soften up Sinestro, just because he’s the lead of the book. This is a cold and brutal man that lives by the means justifying the ends.

Dale Eaglesham does what he does best. There are a few scenes that Bunn just allowed Eaglesham to cut loose, and boy, did he ever. This guy understands perfectly striking the right balance between quiet moments (Sinestro’s self-imposed exile) and big splashy ones (the fate of Sinestro’s home world and people). Wright’s color palette, on a few occasions, becomes overwhelming (namely Lyssa Drak and the flashbacks involving the Yellow Lanterns), but I feel confident that in time, they will gel exceedingly well.

I have high hopes for this book. A good start for one of the best villains in the DCU, Sinestro is already on the path to becoming a can’t miss title. Bunn, Venditti, Jensen and company are doing a bang up job, righting a ship that ventured far off-course. — 4 out of 5.