Green Lantern #60

“Fear Factor” by Geoff Johns and artist Doug Mahnke.  The search for the emotional entities continues, and for Green Lantern this is a good news/bad news situation.  The good news, he found the fear entity Parallax; the bad news, it has possessed his best friend Barry Allen a.k.a. The Flash.

Few people know Hal Jordan as well as Barry Allen does, and this is something that Parallax and Geoff Johns take advantage of, and even though their battle is as physical as it can get, it is certainly clear that the real fight is a psychological one.

The mysterious creature collecting the entities also makes its presence known, and not even the combined powers of several ring bearers and two other emotional entities are enough to contain the little creeper.  By the end of the issue, we learn the true identity of this little freak and you are going to love it.

In this issue we can see how much Hal has grown and been able to move on from his possession by Parallax.  Just a few years ago -our time- the fear entity had become the ultimate Green Lantern villain, the one that seemed unbeatable; but Hal Jordan is past that, and he even gets to use a little “Hector Projector” psychology on Parallax itself.

Green Lantern vs. a Parallax possessed Flash

My only critique is with the sequence between Sinestro and Atrocitus; it seemed out of place, and for those who don’t follow Green Lantern Corps, a complete “huh?”.  A caption box with “*See current issues of GLC” would have helped.

The Flash (1st series) 282

I have to confess that Doug Mahnke’s art is not my favorite, at least for such a high profile title; however, I also have to say that his pencils are getting better and better with each issue.  Now, here is an advice for DC:  Please lock Rod Reis in a perpetual contract!  I absolutely loved the colors in this story; they were so vibrant and brought so much life to the art.  When I turned to page two I almost peed my pants; that spread was beautiful and immediately brought memories of my first Flash comic ever, issue 282, which I have conveniently attached to this review for your reference. (That was Zoom, by the way, not Flash)

Overall, “Fear Factor” was an excellent issue. The cover by Gary Frank was amazing (the issue is also available with a variant cover by Frank Quitely as part of the DC 75th anniversary), a "catch me up” summary in the first page, Flash’s guest appearance, lots of action and character development, great art, and a cliffhanger and revelation that omens nothing but danger for the entire DC Universe.  What are you waiting for? Go and get it now!  I said go!