Review- GREEN LANTERN: SECTOR 2814 VOL. 2

GREEN LANTERN: SECTOR 2814 VOL. 2 (DC, First Printing, 2013; Softcover)

Collects Green Lantern #182, 183, 185-193 (main stories only) (cover dates November, 1984- October, 1985)

Writer: Len Wein (#182, 183, 185, 186), Paul Kupperberg (#187), and Steve Englehart (#188-193)

Artists: Dave Gibbons (Penciler, #182, 183, 185, 186), Bill Willingham (Penciler, #187), and Joe Staton (#188-193) with Inking by Mark Farmer, Mike DeCarlo, Rich Rankin, and Bruce Patterson

1984 and 1985 are “my” golden age of comics. I turned 11 and 12 in those years and many of my fondest comic memories come from that time. I was a Marvelite back then and I wouldn't have been caught dead reading anything from the Distinguished Competition. Everyone, and by everyone I mean my two comic reading friends and I, knew that DC sucked. More fool me. This is every bit as good as anything that Marvel was producing during this time period.

Indeed, Marvel alumni Len Wein and Steve Englehart capably handle this long running story of Hal Jordan quitting the Green Lantern Corps and him wrestling with his new life as a civilian while the new Green Lantern, John Stewart, learns the ropes. Stewart is from Detroit, which is awesome because no Marvel superhero was from Detroit back in 1984-85. I would have loved that as a kid.

Dave Gibbons' brilliant art is replicated as closely as possible by his replacement art team, Joe Staton and Bruce Patterson. Only my brand loyalty of the day kept me away from this comic. In all honesty I could barely afford the comics that I read at that time, so it's probably for the best that I was unwilling to read anything else.

My only gripe is the awful resolution to the Predator nemesis. Seriously? This is hackneyed, stoned '70s-style plot twisting at it's worst. I expected better from Englehart. He picks up and carries on well enough afterward, so I am looking forward to finally reading the third and final volume in this line of trades.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- #184 was omitted because it was a reprint of Issue 59. The back-up stories are collected in a separate line of trades. DC's collected editions department has never made much sense to me.

Linework and Color restoration: The linework is excellent. At first glance it appears that some lines are dropped but a closer inspection against the original comic books reveals that what often appears to be thicker lines is really a gnashing of the plates and that there were thinner lines.

While the original color palette is faithfully maintained across the three issues that I did comparisons with it is the gradient shades used to soften the blends that stick out to my eye. Is it that big of a deal? The color blend is correct, only the method DC used at this time is not authentic to the era. The gradients give an airbrushed appearance to the edge of the blend, whereas when these are recolored “by hand” on a computer you get more authentic looking blends. Your OCD mileage may vary, I just list this (and in all honesty do this blog) to inform fellow fans on the good, the bad, and the ugly of collected editions.

Paper stock: Bright white glossy stock. Not optimal for material with flat coloring but I prefer it to the cheap paper which DC used to pass off on books of vintage material. They have since phased this paper out.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover notes: Laminated cardstock cover.