Green Lantern Corps 8

Well. It’s official. I’m an old man.

I’m a huge Green Lantern fan, and when I saw the launch of the Green Lantern Corps monthly title, it was a sight-unseen lock on my pull list.

It had a respectable start, but has been getting darker and darker.

Finally, with #7, it just started getting to be too much. With #8, I was convinced. The violence has gotten downright — oh man, I’m gonna say it — gratuitous.

Excuse me. A liver spot just popped up on my forearm.

I mean. Geez! Can we take a look at GLC#8 for a couple seconds?

It starts out with the exploding heads and general corpse-mashing of three aliens. And since they’re evil and non-human-looking, it’s fairly easy to get past.

Why is everyone driving so fast?

Then we get to the R’amey Holl, a beautiful butterfly-like alien who is introduced in #7.

There are sparks between her and Guy Gardner — she lays a serious lip-lock on him about six pages in. She’s drawn to be very sexy — with serious attention paid to her secondary-sex characteristics — and she’s written with a very definite sweetness.

Excuse me. Time for my Geritol.

I should have seen it coming. Sure enough. by the end of the issue, she gets eviscerated by a terrifying alien baddie. But not before one last big push on those sex buttons. Check out the scan to the right… she’s grasped by the alien and the “camera” goes right to her ribs so the main focus is on her breasts — accentuated by a uniform that just happens to accentuate her nipples.

And then… “Spluuutch.”

I remember when this was all farms.

Before you take a quick look at Lightning Lady and cry “hypocrate”, let me say this: I like sex. I think sexy comics are just dandy. I have no problem whatsoever with amping up the sex in this sort of comic — especially if it adds a meaningful layer to the storytelling.

And, of course, I understand that violence is going to be a staple in an action comic. I could do with a little less blood and a great deal less time spent on what look to be medical illustrations of organs and innards, but I’m willing to put up with a little bit of that, too, if it’s in the name of a good story.

Hey you kids! Get off my lawn!

But, I have to say… it makes me really, really uncomfortable to see sex and violence amped up to such high degrees and presented so close to each other. One panel is breasts and the next is guts.

That’s not good storytelling. It’s a cheat.

Why is everyone driving so fast?

Okay. I get it. She’s a butterfly-alien. She’s probably going to come out of a coccoon in #9 and save Gardner. And I’m certain that that kiss was more than a kiss. Gardner may very well be gestating the coccoon himself. I know she’s not really dead. But still… those images are still burned into my head — and I’d just as soon they weren’t.

I think I need a nap.