- Title: Green Lantern #50
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Robert Venditti
- Artists: Billy Tan, Vicente Cifuentes
The long-teased big throwdown between New 52 Hal Jordan and his pre-New 52 Parallax counterpart isn’t exactly as advertised. Anti-climactic may be the best way to describe the encounter. On one hand I enjoyed Parallax’s reaction to Coast City and seeing his family still alive, on the other hand his reaction to seeing Hal as an enemy (even after learning he can’t save Coast City from destruction as it fell in this version of the DCU as well) is where things start to go wrong.
The problem with this version of Parallax as a villain is he’s simply too strong for Hal Jordan, or anyone, to defeat alone. Used correctly the character could be made into an interesting anti-hero but that’s not the case here. Instead Hal taps deep into the power of his gauntlet and somehow comes up with enough power to make Parallax flee in terror.
It appears that there will be consequences to Hal’s actions and that Parallax will continue to hide on the fringes for likely several more issues before we see a rematch. Great, more cock-teasing. Hit-and-Miss.
[DC, $3.99]