Sinestro #20

Sinestro's costume needs fancier cuffs.

Rating: -1 Ranking.

Why is this even a comic book? It's just a first person monologue with lots of yellow ink splattered about.

The Fall
A Very Short Story by Cullen Bunn

Many mistakenly believe that I am without fear. They assume that if I control the emotion, I have conquered and abandoned it. It is a belief I have done little to discredit although nothing could be further from the truth. To instill fear, one must embrace it. One must walk amongst nightmares if one wishes to become a nightmare.

The Pale Bishop and his order have divested themselves of all emotion and, in so doing, they have been made strong. He seeks to burn my fear--my power--from my system to make me an empty servant to their order. And I am frightened. Frightened of losing myself...of feeling everything I've worked to attain slip through my fingers once again.

On Earth, the expanded ranks of the Sinestro Corps struggle to drive our enemies away. The Paling, though, are compelled by faith in emptiness. They will not be so easily turned. My lanterns--new and old--embrace their fear...follow it as surely as any believer follows their convictions, no matter what horrors are revealed to them.

I have felt the power of The Paling before...but not so intensely. My own emotions are amplified and turned against me. I revisit every terrible moment in my life simultaneously: the death of Arin Sur, the destruction of Korugar, my exile from the Green Lanterns. Every moment of weakness opening my mind for even greater horrors to come, mounting terror I know I could cast away if I only submit. Before, my resolve was bolstered by Parallax, the fear entity I had bound to my soul. Now, though, I am connected only to The Pale Bishop himself, a void, an abyss, an emptiness that could swallow me whole...or be explored.

Before I was a lantern, I was an archeologist [sic] and so I dig. I chase the last vestigial remnants of fear until I find something I can use. The Bishop--before he ascended to his position--when he stood among the Guardians of the Universe, when he looked upon the wellsprings of emotional energies and knew fear, I feel it right along with him. Terror that forced him to abandon the Guardians...to flee from their experimentation and to rid himself of all emotiong: of love, of anger, of hope, and of fear. Fear perhaps above all else. Fear that is with him still.

On Earth, my lanterns are unaware of the battle I fight. They are preoccupied with their own struggles. New lanterns conscripted into an effort to repel a global invasion. Veteran lanterns defending those they might have once tried to conquer. I wonder, though, if The Pale Vicars sense their master's moment of weakness. Does his fear flicker within them?

Like myself, The Bishop has fostered misinformation: the belief that he is without fear. But fear is what defines this being. Fear and all the other emotions it encompasses: love, hope, anger, compassion. All shadows of my domain of fear. I ignite these emotions within him and his defenses shatter.

The end!

See? It's all there! It's all fucking there! It's written out in a script that has no real need of the comic book attributes it wears like a feathered boa. Okay, I admit there's a bit more with Soranik and how she takes over as leader of the Sinestro Corps at the end because Sinestro "use up too much power" or something stupid. Get a fucking lantern and stick your ring in it, dum-dum!

There's also a part where all of the new recruit lanterns are being described with a quick phrase and the description of Harley is "crazy but cute." If I were going to just throw my cards down on the table and admit that I was a sexist pig, I'd have gone with "cuckoo but with a nice rack and a totally fuckable ass."