Comics are Fun: Sinestro Corps War

When I was much younger, I devoured comics. Good or bad, exploitative or inspiring, I read them all. Now that I'm older, and presumably wiser, I still read comics from time to time, but sadly, I don't have the luxury of exploring the brave, bold, exciting, and, at times, dangerous world that contemporary comics represent. While some of the advances in visual art, such as color separation and the use of computers to create incredibly detailed background work have been nothing short of amazing, too many comics fall victim to an over-reliance on technology. The best contemporary comics are those that, while using these technological advances to good effect, tell good stories, period. The visual narrative, as demonstrated by Scott McCloud, can tell stories in ways that other, more traditional modes of storytelling can't. The key to any comic class, therefore, is that it must tell stories that only a comic can.

That being said, I can't quite bring myself to call the Sinestro Corps War a comic classic, but it comes very, very close. It's similar to what Genevieve Koski discovered, much to her delight, about the Indiana Jones trilogy:

The word that people always throw out when they're berating me for not seeing these movies is "fun." They're such fun movies. That's just about as vague an endorsement as you can get, but it's probably the most apt descriptor, and the best frame through which to view the films a quarter-century down the road. Raiders is arguably the best example. Approached as a cinematic touchstone, it's a pretty silly action-adventure movie. A cynic could spend hours ticking off the series of ridiculous logic leaps—how are all these ancient tombs somehow mechanized? Why do the baddies always let Indy's sidekick go free, essentially ensuring his escape? Why can't any of these gun-toting henchmen hit, well, anything? But approached as a whiz-bang send-up of B-movie actioners, well, now you're talking. And that's exactly what Raiders is supposed to be. In a short featurette that's part of the new Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection DVD set, George Lucas explains, "It was always meant to be a B movie.

The Sinestro Corps War features iconic heroes, and a refreshing new wave of heroes tossed right into their baptism of fire. You don't need a PhD in the particular workings of the Green Lantern Corps and the DC Comics multiverse to understand, enjoy, and even be moved by the story. Pick it up. The Sinestro Corps War is, and I mean this in the best possible way, fun.