Comic Review – “Green Lantern: Baptism of Fire”

Yet another comic review. I’ll try to get you a
movie review at least before I post another one.
(There are two more written reviews on the hard
drive, waiting so we don’t get another flood.)

General Information

Title: Green Lantern: Baptism of Fire

Credited to: Ron Marz, Darryl Banks, Paul Pelletier,
Romeo Tanghal

Original Publication Date: 1999 reprint of material
first published
from 1995-1996.

ISBN: 1-56389-524-2

Cover Price: $12.95 US, $20.50 Can

Issues: (Post-Crisis) Green Lantern issues 59, 66,
67, 70-75
Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca

Past comic reviews can be found here.

Premise

Kyle Rayner, the newest Green Lantern, locates
various established
heroes while learning how to be one himself.

High Point

His meeting with the Flash.

Low Point

The issues jump around, so there are bits of the
story missing. They
refer to GL #69 a lot.

The Scores

The originality isn’t perfect. There’s a
new justification
for a parade of cameos in a new hero’s title, but it
still feels a bit
like a parade of cameos intended to sell this title
to fans of the
others. I give it 4 out of 6.

The artwork is good. Even though they
switch artists, the
styles are very compatible. I give it 5 out of 6.

The story is good, but the obviously missing
chunks are
irritating. Would it have killed them to collect
everything, even if
it meant multiple volumes? I give it 4 out of 6.



The characterization is odd. We see Kyle’s
confidence in his
ability to become a great Green Lantern, as well as
his insecurity
about his ability to act as one at this stage of his
career. There’s
very little development away from these traits, too.
I give it 4 out
of 6.

The emotional response this produced is
moderate. Just when
I was getting into the story at first, they jump
ahead to another
piece, and then they do it again. I give it 4 out of
6.

The flow was also disrupted by the skipped
issues. In
addition, there were a couple of moments where the
action seemed
tricky to follow. (Seti and Cap, for example, were
originally drawn
pretty far along for Kyle’s construct to have been
useful. Similarly,
in a different battle, Kyle suddenly finds himself
under rubble, with
no clear indication of where that rubble came from.)
I give it 3 out
of 6.

Overall, it’s a decent collection of Kyle’s
early career, but
the way they chose to assemble the pieces might have
hurt the overall
product. I give it 4 out of 6.

In total, Green Lantern: Baptism of Fire
receives 28 out of
42.