REVIEW: ‘Sinestro: Year of the Villain’ #1

Sinestro: Year of the Villain is published by DC Comics, written by Mark Russell, with art by Yildiray Cinar, inks by Julio Ferreira, colors by HI-FI, and letters by Steve Wands. Previously, in Year of the Villain, from free comic book day,  DC’s most wanted bad guy’s had formed a supergroup to end all previously known supergroups and finally enact a plan that couldn’t be stopped.

DC’s big summer event, spanning multiple series, and the aforementioned issues of Sinestro is but another cog in the wheel. The newly evolved Lex Luthor has discovered that a mysterious race of beings has learned of his plan, to tip the cosmic scale towards the hands of doom. In an effort to keep this threat contained, Luthor dispatches Sinestro to remove them from the equation or to die trying.

With his newly acquired powers from the Ultraviolet light, the ex-green lantern corps sets out into the universe to stop this alien race, known as the Paragons from causing permanent damage. Sinestro quickly finds out, however, that his task is considerably bigger than first anticipated. That is not his only problem though, the Paragons are being aided by a race of super-effective beings that provide the attack aliens with powerful abilities that put them on the divine scale.

This was an interesting story and Russell has woven quite the tapestry for this event. The main arc of the plot draws heavily from the world’s current political structure when Sinestro decides to employ some simple, albeit devastating, mental gymnastics. It’s difficult to provide examples here as they venture into spoiler territory. But the spin and the ending were enjoyable.

That being said, Sinestro: Year of the Villain, still feels very vanilla. Nothing about it particularly wowed me. The issue delves into a style of politics that is currently utilized by many administrations across the world. A type of grandstanding, fear-mongering that stokes the crowd up against an invisible threat. However here it also comes across as a tad lazy and unimaginative.

I’m not in any way shape or form calling for politics to be kept out of comics. That’s a ridiculous statement, as politics and comics have been interwoven for decades. The delivery of the story just doesn’t deliver the impact you’d hope from a Sinestro story.

The art and the inking, from Cinar and Ferreira respectively, were very good. The story has a copious amount of actions scenes to engage your visual senses with various races of aliens and planets under constant threat. However, where I was most impressed was with HI-FI and Wands for their coloring and lettering abilities.

Wands, in particular, has a large amount of work on his hands due to the heavy dialogue asked of this issue and it’s served in a very palatable manner that’s easy on the eye and doesn’t bog down the illustrations. Additionally, HI-FI’s colors were extremely well-served thanks to Sinestro’s ultraviolet light-power which is offset in some fascinating ways as the villain enters some alternate spaces of reality.

Overall though, I had high hopes for this issue, but it just felt a little flat.

Sinestro: Year of the Villain is available at comic book stores and where ever comics are sold.