It's Not Easy Being... Aw, you know the rest: Graeme gets hard on the Corps from 10/24.

After being one of the summer's more interesting crossovers, GREEN LANTERN CORPS #17 continues the "Sinestro Corps" storyline's slow slide into chaos. Unlike the last issue of Green Lantern, where things happened in such a way as to be far less dramatic than you'd have hoped for, this issue sees very little happen at all. Sure, there's an attempt to have everything feel filled with urgency and drama, but it's all fairly obviously playing for time, and little plot advancement occurring (In fact, beyond the new Ion being revealed, I don't think any plot advancement happens at all). Part of this may be due to the delay in Green Lantern #25 that's just been announced, but I'm wondering how much of this is also down to the storyline being extended past original plans just because it's one of the few things that's popular over at DC these days.

Certainly, what happens in the issue isn't what was solicited, with only one of those promised plot beats happening in the issue itself, instead building up to a big showdown next issue, which was originally solicited as the epilogue to the entire event (and also the debut of new writer Peter Tomasi; I really hope that this subpar issue wasn't Dave Gibbons' last, because it's a sad was to go out, especially missing the final chapter of the storyline). To add to the feeling of last-minute filler, this issue has three guest artists in addition to regular artist Patrick Gleason, who only seems to contribute the cover and the last page of the story... A page that, if you're like me, have already had spoiled for you by the TALES OF THE SINESTRO CORPS: SUPERMAN-PRIME oneshot (which is Okay, but won't do Geoff Johns' reputation for hyperviolence any good; Pete Woods' art is great, though, and I have no idea why he's not on any regular book these days) which you read first, thinking that it wouldn't involve any major plotlines.

Obviously, reading a book which not only feels like playing for time, but also a letdown from previous issues, is going to come across badly. Nonetheless, this is still Okay, mostly because of the momentum that the storyline's already built up. With the next chapter a month away, and the final chapter delayed, here's hoping that everything can be pulled together in such a way as to deliver the payoff that makes it all worthwhile.