Featured Article Summary #108

Sinestro Corps War is an American DC Comics crossover event in the Green Lantern series, written by Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons with art by Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, and Ethan Van Sciver. It ran as an 11-part story from June to December 2007, with extra one-shot Tales of the Sinestro Corps specials and a Blue Beetle tie-in released at the same time. The plot follows the Green Lanterns of Earth—Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner—along with the rest of the corps as they fight the Sinestro Corps in a galaxy-wide war. The Sinestro Corps is led by Sinestro and uses yellow power rings to try to control the universe through fear. The event was based on themes from an Alan Moore Tales of the Green Lantern Corps story from 1986, and it significantly reshaped the cast, including major changes and deaths. It was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, earning Eisner Award recognition and multiple reprints, and it is the second part of a trilogy that leads into Blackest Night. After Sinestro is defeated, he retreats to Qward in the Antimatter Universe and builds the Sinestro Corps, a fear-based army with yellow power rings. During their attack, they crush the Green Lanterns, free major villains like Superman-Prime and Cyborg Superman, capture Kyle Rayner, and cause a major split and chaos across space and Earth. As the Guardians rewrite their laws and prepare for what the prophecy of the “Blackest Night” predicts, the Green Lanterns ultimately defeat the Sinestro Corps, but the Anti-Monitor’s remains are transformed into a black power battery, setting up the next crisis. “Sinestro Corps War” drew on ideas Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill introduced in their 1986 short story “Tygers,” with writers Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons also pulling elements from other Moore stories and adding new characters and references. Work started in September 2006, and the crossover’s format changed during development before becoming a June one-shot special, followed by alternating Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps issues through November, along with related one-shots. Johns and the team announced it in 2006, mapped out much of the story by early 2007, and described it as a universe-scale event comparable to “Star Wars,” while using playful science-fiction and pop-culture nods in the art and dialogue. The main Sinestro Corps War story was released in 11 parts across Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps comics, with four extra one-shot issues and a tie-in in Blue Beetle #20. Release dates ran from June 2007 through later issues, and some publication details changed due to fan reactions, including altering the content of Green Lantern Corps #19 and delaying the conclusion of Green Lantern #25. Afterward, DC published a Secret Files and Origins issue that expanded each side’s history and listed all Corps members, then collected everything into hardcover volumes. Besides the main “Sinestro Corps War” story, DC published four one-shot “Tales of the Sinestro Corps” comics in September, October, and November 2007 as late additions to the crossover. They were later collected into a hardcover in June 2008, with each issue focusing on Parallax, Cyborg Superman, Superman-Prime (including the backup story “Fear is a Baby’s Cry”), and Ion.