Reilly2040's Blog

The third Lantern book of the reboot, and the second returning title, Green Lantern Corps has none-the-less had things rejigged a bit, with Peter Tomasi and Guy returning to the book, while Kyle has exited to star in the New Guardians title.

While I criticised Green Lantern #1 for not coming across as much of a first issue, to me Green Lantern Corps manages to toe that line well, while also not feeling like its written solely for new readers.

From the off, a (presumably) new threat is established, when a pair of Lanterns (and their prisoner) in a sector house are slaughtered by someone who is largely kept off-panel.  Aside from a distinctive green glove, all we’re really left knowing is that they seem to be impervious to the power of a Green Lantern.

From there, its very much a shift, and one that works well as a reintroduction of the main characters.  We jump back to Earth, where both Guy and John are trying, and struggling to re-establish some kind of normal life outwith the Corps.   It was a nice move, to use their public identities in different ways.  Despite his normal bluster, Guy is actually the more reserved of the two, desperately trying to play down his role as a Green Lantern just so he can land a job interview as a high school coach (a nice nod to how the character started out).  Of course, he’s swarmed by the other candidates all desperate for pictures and hounding him with questions, which provides a neat outlet for Peter Tomasi to quickly establish the basic information any new reader needs about the setup of the Corps.

Eventually, Guy gets his interview, but is forced to concede that as a Green Lantern, he’d be too much of a trouble-magnet to risk being around the school kids.  Its a real gut-punch moment as the principle (who is pretty nice about the whole thing), forces Guy to acknowledge that he just can’t have a normal job and be a public Green Lantern.  John on the other hand, is quick to use his powers in his architecture job, using his ring to display designs of the building.  He’s also the one that flies off the handle a bit more readily.  When the clients complain about his building in safety measures that aren’t in the contract he’s suddenly flying them up into the air and accusing them of bribing for planning permission.  To be honest, I’ll admit that scene played a little weird to me.  John pulled the bribery angle out of nowhere.  That aside though, I did find the differences between the characters a bit interesting.  It played Guy very much against type, but I think in a good way.

Of course, its not long before both Guy and John are summoned back to Oa, and tasked to investigate the murders that opened the issue.  To be honest, at this point the story reminded me a lot of some of the one-shot issues of Emerald Warriors we had, with Guy (and John) putting together their team of kick ass Lanterns to go take out some interstellar threat when normal sector Lanterns just won’t cut it.  Not that that’s really a bad thing in this instance though, as it allows Peter Tomasi to reintroduce some Lanterns that are, of course, familiar to long term readers.  Especially with the cast being changed around again, with the book falling back into Tomasi’s hands.

Out of all the Green Lantern books in the new 52, I have to say this was undoubtledly my favourite of the four in its first issue.  It kept things firmly grounded on its two main characters, and the trick of having them trying to settle on Earth as a way to work in a primer to the GL Corps mythos worked really well.  Peter Tomasi has long been a safe pair of hands (aside from the initial Emerald Warriors storyline not clicking into place – and now seemingly abandoned anyway in the reboot), with his GLC run at times considered the superior book to Geoff Johns’ work on the main title.

That said, the second issue wasn’t quite as successful for me.  The mysterious enemies seem to be another group, trapped on a dead world after being wronged by the Guardians and are now out for revenge.  Something we’ve seen perhaps a bit too often lately, with all the focus Atrocitous has enjoyed.  The idea of them stealing elements from other worlds to restore their own though, was an interesting angle.  Less successful for me though, was the fact that much of the issue was essentially a fight scene, as Guy and John’s group attempt to intercept them at their next target.  For me, the art, and possibly more so the colouring started to let things down a bit, as the issue descended into a sea of green that started to make each panel seem like the last.  Granted, not having that happen, when you’ve got a bunch of Green Lanterns in a fight for their lives is pretty tricky, but in this issue it just lept out at me.

That said, I still feel this is probably the strongest of the four GL books coming out of the new 52.  New Guardians may grab my attention more as things go on, but Peter Tomasi bought a heck of a lot of good will off me, with a perfectly judged first issue.  And I’m really intrigued to see how he continues to handle John and Guy.  For me, Peter Tomasi has long been the GL writer who’s come across as having the best overall handle on the different Earth Lanterns (which is not to say Geoff hasn’t given them all some great moments over the last few years), and seeing how he tackles John and Guy working as a team, a pairing that’s perhaps one of the least explored out of the Earth Lanterns, is something that greatly intrigues me.

So, with our second full week of new #1s under our belt, its interesting to see how things are shaping up. To be honest, I probably felt last week’s books were stronger over all (thanks to the killer combo of Action Comics and Batgirl), but I still mostly enjoyed this week’s offerings that I picked up.

Batman and Robin relaunched this week with a team I’ve been curious to see for a while.  Part of the fun of the previous series, was the role reversal by having a lighter hearted Batman, and the grim Damian Robin.   So for the first time we have Bruce and Damian operating as Batman and Robin.  I’ve always felt this was a teaming DC had skipped past for the sake of their larger story, and given its interesting father and son dynamic, its something I’ve been curious to see approached for a while now.

First off, I’ve read some complaints online about the characterisation, and I must admit I can see what they were talking about. Peter Tomasi’s Damian definitely felt a bit off. More in line with the character’s early appearances, almost ignoring the maturing we saw during his partnership with Dick. That said, I did like how Tomasi is trying to move Bruce on as a character, and play up the fact that this is a father and son team (Bruce trying to lay down the law to Damian in a way that’s clearly going to encourage rebellion struck me very much as a parenting trap).  The idea that Bruce is trying to move beyond the death of his parents, tying in nicely with him now focusing on his own son, so I really liked what Peter Tomasi was doing there.

One book that was probably the first of my nice surprises this week was Paul Cornell’s Demon Knights.  Despite finding myself a bit lukewarm to last week’s Stormwatch, I really enjoyed this much more fantasy based series.  While featuring some familiar DC characters (notably for me Jason Blood and Etrigan), the setup is for a straight sword and sorcery tale rather than any superheroics.  The way all the Arthurian stuff worked into the story appealed to the side of me that’s long been a fan of that legend, so this was a real win for me as something a bit different in my comics pile.  Definitely onboard for the next issue.

The other surprise this week was the Mr Terrific book.  Having liked the character in the JSA I thought I’d give this a try, and it’s really intrigued me with a bit of mystery surrounding the appearance of his unborn son, and the fantastical nature to Holt’s accomplishments (his lab stored in a pocket dimension, that kind of thing). The thing most likely to generate discussion though, was the appearance of Karen Starr of Starrware. No sign that she’s actually Power Girl (although the dress she wears to a reception seems like a clear nod to the character), but I wonder if they’ll keep it quiet, and then reveal her as being from Earth-2 or something later on, once JSA is established.  All in all, for a book I hadn’t been sure about, I liked the take on the character, and the fact it wasn’t afraid to be a bit outlandish with some of his inventions, almost setting him up as a DCU equivalent to Reed Richards in some ways.

Superboy I found myself a little torn on. On one hand, I found it enjoyable and got into the story it was telling. That said, the character is a complete reboot, with little to tie him to the Conner/Kon-El I was a fan of before, which makes it a little trickier to get into for me.  The fact his origin is kept familiar (minus its Death of Superman trappings), along with the Kryptonian/Human hybrid angle was reassuring though, despite the changes to the voice of the character who comes across much more alien.  I was really happy to see his telekinesis used in the book (and I suspect he’s also telepathic, something new to his powerset).  Conner’s tactile telekinesis was often ignored by later writers, so its nice to see it a key part of Superboy’s powers once again.

I did like the cute knowing wink when they were talking about his human donor.  Assuming of course, Lex Luthor isn’t going to be a red herring with this version of the character (although the clone of Superman and Lex Luthor angle is probably too strong a concept to drop).

I’m definitely intrigued to stick with this for a bit and see where its going.

The one thing though, that’s beginning to irk me about this reboot more generally though, is that I wish DC hadn’t introduced this mysterious woman who’s appearing in all the issues either.  While its a fun thing to have her popping up in all the books, and makes for a game, trying to find her, I wish this was more of a clean slate.  It automatically ties events back to Flashpoint, and is clearly laying the seeds for the next big uber-crossover.  DC has done nothing but Crisis after Crisis for years now.  And after having finally pulled the trigger on the reboot, I’d really have hoped they’d have had the confidence to let all the books bed in without preparing another big crossover already.  As I say, I’d have rather things were left as a clean slate, without risking event fatigue in the middle of possible the biggest thing DC have done since the original Crisis.

War of the Green Lanterns is over.  Err, well.  Sort of.  In the pages of Emerald Warriors at least.

This month’s issue is a bit of an odd beast.  The solicits for Emerald Warriors had clearly marked its last two issues as being to do with the aftermath of War of the Green Lanterns.   Instead that’s not what we’ve got, and I have to wonder if those plans changed in light of the reboot announcement and the imminent end of this book (and Guy moving back to GLC).

So its now post-War of the GLs in Emerald Warriors, but this issue’s story doesn’t spoil things at all, instead giving us a simple one-shot tale, as Guy’s time off is interrupted by what should be a quick save of an ambassador’s ship.  Of course, nothing’s ever easy, especially when the ambassador turns out to be a particularly attractive woman and catches Guy’s eye.

Its hard to understate how much I enjoyed this storyline.  The entire Green Lantern franchise has been in event mode ever since the Sinestro Corps War, either building up Blackest Night, or War of the Green Lanterns.   To finally have an issue that shunned larger event-driven antics just to give us 20 pages of Guy doing what he does best was a heck of a lot of fun.  It was a remarkably simple story that turned its nose up at all the recent events to just let Guy really shine.  Utterly brilliant, and a great tonic after all the build up and padding of the last few years.  More like this please DC.

Although, there is still a weirdness to this issue.  Taken on its own its great fun, however when you stop to look at the solicits, its obvious that the delays to Green Lantern are only part of the story.   The original solicitations for the post-War of the GLs issues of Emerald Warriors seemed to make it clear they’d be dealing with the aftermath.  Instead we’ve now got this (admittedly great fun) one-shot story, and it sounds like there’s going to be another next month (which will wrap up this series as its being replaced by The New Guardians in DCNu).  It does make me wonder just how last minute a lot of changes are as a result of this reboot.  It certainly manages to give the impression of being less than well planned out in advance (especially with the various costume tweaks etc we’re still seeing in the reboot solicitations versus preview materials).

That being said, I enjoyed this issue so much, I’m actually pretty happy circumstances obviously changed, and I can’t wait for next month’s issue.  Its just a pity we’re only getting these kinds of stories because everything is wrapping up for the reboot.

Ok, still playing catch up here, but thankfully the last part of War of the Green Lanterns has been pushed back to July giving me a chance. However, despite this, I can’t help but have a problem with the entire GL main line of books skipping a month, especially when we’re only one issue from the end of a major storyline, never mind the fact this is a month that should be huge for GL, with the movie coming out.

Anyway, while the storyline may be skipping a month, there’s no denying big things happened in these final parts, leaving me assuming that the final part will be a typical book of halves for Geoff Johns, probably quickly wrapping up the threat, and then planting the next storylines, similar to what we’ve seen in his last few big events.

Out of the three books, Green Lantern itself is probably the quickest to skip over.  Attacked by the Entity-possessed Guardians, Hal and Guy are quickly captured and then Krona explains his plan is to make the Earthmen the new Guardians as they are more balanced in the emotional spectrum.  It felt pretty much like an exposition issue, in place to purely lay out what Krona’s plan actually is.  Although how this ties up with destroying the good name of the GLC slightly escapes me.  Presumably Krona’s plan would’ve been to appear alongside his new Guardians and “save” the universe from the apparent threat of the old.

The interesting thing about this issue for me was the misdirection with Krona’s gauntlet.  When Guy fires it up to combat the Guardians, he comments on how powerful it is, but its almost immediately taken out of things.   Its interesting as its been previously brought up as significant artifact to almost immediately get taken out of the running as a red herring.  But while the gauntlet may now be out of this storyline, I can’t help but assume Geoff has plans for it down the road.  Likewise I did like how Geoff wrote the yellow ring as affecting Hal’s personality.  We’ve previously had the obvious affect of the red ring on Guy over the last 3 or 4 issues, and similarly the blue ring affecting Kyle was hinted at last month, so it was nice to finally see Hal start to succumb to the effects of the yellow ring.

However, the big event of the month belonged to Green Lantern Corps.  Kyle and John continue on their mission to free Mogo, but it all doesn’t go according to plan.

To be honest, again Bedard’s grasp of the characters lets the issue down.  He’s stuck in this “John Stewart: Marine, Kyle Rayner: Rookie” routine that’s just not the case.  Here John has to tell Kyle about Mogo’s centre (Kyle’s been there before, John hasn’t), John tells Kyle about Mogo’s spare rings (Kyle’s been assigned to Oa way longer than John in the current run), and so on.  Its a dynamic that doesn’t really help either character, making Kyle seem weak, and John overly bossy (I far preferred their more relaxed friendship in volume 3, of which there is no sign in this current series).  It also felt like a fairly clumsy way of handling all the exposition to me, as both characters who should know all this have to explain everything for the audience.  I couldn’t help but feel the same information could’ve been written in a neater way.

However, once they arrive at Mogo’s core, it all goes badly wrong, ending up with John deciding to channel the Black Lantern energy through his Indigo ring, and kill Mogo.   Its a shocking turn of events, as Mogo’s been a massive prescence in the series since it came back, and his death should have mammoth repercussions.  Hopefully, mostly in the interaction of the various characters, as John’s decision seemed hard to justify, and he seemed to easily jump to the most extreme solution to me.  There’s no denying the danger the Parallax-possesed Mogo faced, but Kyle’s blue ring had already successfully cured one Green Lantern.  It should’ve been possible to contain the situation more, allowing Kyle the chance to try again to break the hold on Mogo.   However, whether John was right or wrong,  I just hope this moment is properly questioned within the books going forward as it should be.  Was he being influenced by the black Lantern energy?  Was he right?  How do the other Lanterns react to Mogo’s death?  Was this a sign of the Indigo ring’s influence (in their introduction we saw Indigo-1 kill someone rather than help them)?  These are all massive questions, and I hope the Aftermath issues, and Tomasi’s upcoming GLC relaunch tackle them head on.  I just wish Kyle and John’s mission to Mogo had had a little more time spent on it, as handling this massive turn of events in a single issue made it seem too rushed to me.

It was nice to see those issues touched upon in Tomasi’s Emerald Warriors almost immediately, albeit incredibly briefly.  I guess this lays the groundwork for splitting Kyle and John in the reboot, as Kyle is appalled by what John’s done.  However the action quickly moves on, as Mogo’s destruction provides Hal and Guy the perfect opportunity to escape.

I did like how the group meeting up was played out though.  Kyle can obviously barely stand to be around John after what he did, and Guy is furious over it, while Hal is rightly shelving the issue until after the immediate threat is dealt with.  Its a nice quick piece of character work, again with all the Lanterns obviously being affected by their rings (especially Kyle and Guy).   Its unfortunate though that there’s a plot inconsistency that creeps into things, with John claiming to have been in psychic contact with Mogo (which might’ve made more sense), when in fact it was shown as Krona he was talking to in the previous issue.

With everyone distracted by Mogo’s death, the group then quickly turns their attention to getting Parallax out of the battery.  I have to admit, this sequence ended up surprising me.  Despite the fact that it happens in Guy’s book, I was still surprised at Guy turning out to be the pivotal character in breaking through the Lantern.  As Hal and Guy end up wearing two rings each to try and cover the entire emotional spectrum in their efforts, it eventually boils down to Guy, wearing the two rings from each extreme end of the spectrum, while the others try to fend off the recovering Green Lanterns.

As I say, I found this quite a pleasant surprise.  I really expected it to be a team effort, or come down to Hal (especially after Blackest Night).  The fact that Guy was allowed to take centre stage like this was a nice mark of respect to the character, and the fact that he taps into his love of the Corps in order to fully use the sapphire ring I found worked well, given that Guy was the one going on about how he didn’t need a ring back in Rebirth.  A nice sense of the character coming full circle there.

And with Parallax freed, the Corps released from his control, the stage is set for the entire Corps to face off against Krona and his entity-possessed Guardians in the final issue.  However, we’ve still got the big question of the 3 rings tease from the start of this story.  Especially with all four GLs still in play, and looking at the solicitations ahead.  Which leaves me wondering what exactly is going to happen to Hal in this final issue.  He’s the only GL conspicuous by his absence in the solicits (barring the rebooted JLA, which is set several years in the past).   There’s no way I can see him not being a Green Lantern by the end of this story, but I have to wonder if we are going to see him parting from the Corps.  It’ll be very interesting to see what exactly happens once part ten finally comes out.

After two issues I would describe as incredibly enjoyable, but not really packing many surprises, Peter Tomasi gets some very nice stuff to play with. While Kyle and John are still struggling with their rings, Hal and Guy quickly take charge to cover their escape to the lower-levels of Oa.

To an extent it could be argued that this issue covers some similar ground to the previous issue of Green Lantern Corps, with the GLs facing overwhelming odds using unfamiliar rings again a major part of the issue, although for me it worked slightly better here.  Perhaps down to Tomasi’s more seasoned grasp of the characters, but he also starts to play with the ring’s effects on their wearers which is something I’d hoped we’d see, since its previously been made a point that only the Green Rings can really be used without them affecting their wearers at all.  Here, Guy is very much bullish and blunter than normal, chiding John who is still trying to get his ring to work, but more through willpower than compassion.  Meanwhile Kyle is obviously under the blue ring’s influence, as its hope is keeping him clearer-headed than the other Earth Lanterns, and he finds himself trying to be a mediating influence as they argue over the best course of action.

To be honest, the speed that this event is progressing has really surprised me, with us now well over the halfway mark.  I can’t help but feel that there was potentially a longer story that could have been had here with the Earth Lanterns and their new rings, and things could’ve been extended by another month or two.   Its very apparent towards the end, when John announces he’s suddenly figured out the Indigo’s teleportation power.  Not bad for a guy who could barely use the ring a few pages previously.  Geoff previously examined the difficulties in using the rings of the other Corps through his Rage of the Red Lanterns and Agent Orange story arcs, and its something that could easily have been interesting to examine in more detail, and a chance to explore the individual characters of the Earth Lanterns as they sought to understand the different powers of the other Corps.

For me though, the real fun of this issue is when the Earth Lanterns stumble across the Foundry.   Last seen in Green Lantern Corps when Ganthet forged his own ring, Hal is quick to comment about how ancient and largley forgotten the area far below Oa’s surface is.   And its here where Peter Tomasi gets to pick up on a couple of  seemingly-throwaway moments in Geoff’s issues. The first being the discovery of the prototype Green Lantern gauntlet we last saw in the flashback issue being used by Krona.  The fact this has turned up again really took me by surprise, and we see Guy happily equiping it, noting that since it pre-dates the Central Power battery, its the only unaffected ring.  I guess this nicely makes sense, since Guy’s red ring is also the most unpredictable of the rings the Earth Lanterns are using, so this green ring will hopefully help to compensate for it.  It’ll be interesting to see what larger role this gauntlet plays though.  Perhaps it will provide a means for Hal to go solo without the Guardians?

We also discover the Green Lantern who guards the Gauntlet and the Foundry, with an inscription linking it all back to the first Lantern, hinted at by Geoff in a throwaway line some months ago.  Obviously again this first Lantern is something that is going to either play into immediate events, or is a setup for the next story arc, but given the way Geoff is enjoying exploring the history of the Corps (retcon or otherwise), I’m very interested to see where this is going.   Its also nice to see this all being brought up in Emerald Warriors, rather than it all being saved for the main book.

And so the book closes out with Kyle and John off to attempt to free Mogo, while Guy and Hal find themselves under attack by the entity-possessed Guardians as they try to reach the Central Power Battery.   I’ll be honest, in that I thought this was the only weak element of the book.  While they do try to put across a reasonable point for freeing Mogo (since he would up their power levels significantly versus a Corps of brainwashed Lanterns), I can’t help but feel that its just dividing them for dramatic reasons, and technically, Hal’s plan to tackle the problem at the source makes more sense.

This week brings us a bumper week, with the next three parts of the story all hitting at the same time, so I can’t wait to see what happens, especially given my last post discussing how well DC seem to be keeping things under wraps.    This event’s done a great job of keeping the pace up, and its not often I say these storylines could be longer, but I honestly believe War of the Green Lanterns could’ve probably handled another 2 or 3 parts without much bother.

With Green Lantern Corps having handled the Kyle versus John fight, Emerald Warriors serves a very similar function. Only this time its Hal versus Guy.

In many ways this issue of Emerald Warriors echoes the previous Green Lantern Corps incredibly strongly. Hitting a basic bullet point list:

1. Introduce its regular characters to the threat of the possessed Corps.
2. Remove non-Earth GL from play (Ganthet and Kilowog).
3. Two Earth Green Lanterns fight under Parallax before removing their rings.

In that sense Peter Tomasi has a very difficult job to make his issue stand out, although the fact both are so similar seems to suggest DC will assume all Green Lantern fans will pick up the main book, but are allowing for readers only picking up one of the spin off books and so need to re-introduce everything again.

Fortunately Peter Tomasi also has the more interesting fight. While I commented before about the forced nature of the Kyle/John conflict (even under Parallax’s influence), Hal and Guy have a long-standing rivalry that has seen them come to blows several times before (to my mind, most notably in Green Lantern vol 3 #25). While these characters may be friends now it still makes their fight under Parallax’s influence much meatier stuff.

Peter Tomasi also uses it as a nice example to highlight the similarities between the two. While Hal is appalled at Guy making a deal with Atrocitous, Guy is quick to point out that Hal’s been working with all the New Guardians including Atrocitous. Both Green Lanterns have been going behind the Corps back to do what they thought was right.

There’s also a nice feeling of how isolated Hal’s been from the others for the last while. While the secret pact has been the subject of conversation for a few months in the spin-off books, Hal is completely ignorant of it and Guy’s vision. He brings his news of Krona’s involvement to Guy, but all the other main Green Lanterns we’ve been following have known about the threat for months without Hal’s help. Its a moment that makes nice use of Hal’s isolation during the New Guardians, while underlining to me how much I hope we see Hal interacting with the other Green Lanterns more once this storyline wraps up.

I think its definitely a testament to Tomasi’s writing that he took an issue that could’ve been so similar to part 2 and still made it compelling.  Given the long-standing rivalry between Hal and Guy, and how little its been used in the current run, it was nice to see it making the most of the opportunity with Parallax’s influence.  As with last issue, we’re left with our main characters powerless, which sets up the next part (in Green Lantern) to turn to the rings of the other Corps for a solution.  And as with parts 1 and 2, I’m thoroughly enjoying this storyline so far.  I think this opportunity to focus  the franchise on its four main characters has been much-needed overall and I hope it can continue to deliver the great stuff we’ve had in this first third of the story.

My blogging has fallen way behind its normal levels lately, so I thought a quick “catch all” Green Lantern post might be an idea.

I guess a big part of my problem at the moment is with Green Lantern.  I previously relied on it for a lot of my comics blogging, but the truth is that in general, I felt that 2010 wasn’t a great year for Green Lantern.  Despite the success of Blackest Night (although that was really more a DCU event rather than a GL one) and the launch of a third monthly series, I’ve honestly believed that most of the Green Lantern titles have been in a holding pattern since.  Emerald Warriors’ first 6 issues have felt incredibly dragged out, and the main Green Lantern title has been stuck in an other Corps/Entities loop for most of the last year, with the only real highlight being the Carol/Predator stuff.  This culminated in the latest issue which, despite the big reveal of Krona the previous issue, completely sidetracked into a Red Lantern story and didn’t feature Hal at all.

I genuinely feel that both those books have been biding time for a few months, waiting on everything lining up for War of the Green Lanterns, and possibly not helped by both writers spearheading Brightest Day.  Its a real disappointment and surprise, given how much I usually love Peter Tomasi’s writing, and I can’t help but worry about Geoff John’s recent “everything has to be epic story arcs” view, that I could easily blame for this current situation.   I kind’ve miss the days when Green Lantern told 3 issue storylines that would eventually build into something bigger, such as Rage of the Red Lanterns leading into Agent Orange, both of which laid groundwork for the war of light.  Both their own storylines, but with elements that carried over without feeling like one long meandering storyline, such as the New Guardians has now become.

To be fair, there have been elements of the stories that I really like.  I mentioned the Zamarron/Predator stuff before for example, its more the overarching structure that feels stretched out, with the constant reveals of entities just feeling repetitive by this point.  Emerald Warriors has had a few nice moments as well, but still feels like its setting up something bigger, rather than just telling its own story, even six issues into it.

Currently the only Green Lantern title I would say I’m still definitely enjoying every month is Green Lantern Corps.  While there’s still questionable aspects to the book (I’m not entirely convinced about Tony Bedard’s grasp of the character’s backstories, meaning they sometimes come across as if he’s quickly checked wikipedia on who they are, although that should improve the longer he’s on the book), the fact that it has stuck to shorter storylines rather than having one protracted storyline I feel has been a real benefit to the book, and I do like the revamped cast Bedard is using  with Hanu and John Stewart.

For me, a lot is currently riding on the pay off for these storylines in War of the Green Lanterns, but as I’ve blogged before, I have my concerns about that storyline as well.  Especially from what we’ve seen of the setup thus far.  Both Ganthet and Guy have revealed details of their secret pact with Atrocitus, but I’m still at a loss as to Guy’s motivation.  He had the vision warning him of future events, and went to Ganthet.  Fair enough, Ganthet’s often been shown to be the most trustworthy of the Guardians.  But I really don’t understand why Guy kept it all so secret.  His lingering Red Lantern infection is known to anyone who was on Mogo at the time (Kyle, Kilowog etc), and for Guy to not warn at least Kyle would seem to fly in the face of their friendship that has been established in GLC.   I worry that these various conflicts are being forced rather than making sense.  Even Guy and Hal aren’t the bitter rivals they once were, although the fact Guy worked with Atrocitus could be enough to put him at odds with Hal, who has been seeing Atrocitus run loose on Earth these last few months.

I’m genuinely hoping that War of the Green Lanterns turns things around, or at least, once its over the new direction in each book pulls me back in again, but as it is, I find it hard to try and talk about most of the Green Lantern books every month, when so little seems to be actually moving forward.   As things stand, I could easily see me dropping down to just buying Green Lantern Corps unless things pick up.  Despite what a big property Green Lantern is to DC Comics at the moment, I can’t help but think there’s many other titles blowing it out of the water, notably the revamped Batman franchise, and Johns’ own relaunched Flash title, due to get a lot of attention over the following months as Flashpoint kicks off.

Things kick into gear a bit this week in Emerald Warriors #3. With Guy, Arisia and Kilowog now off of Oa, we get a lot of action and some revelations on Odym as they face off against Red Lantern Bleez.

We also get to see a little more of Sodam Yat, who awakes on Daxam to find he’s being sheltered by a church that’s sprung up around him, and that he’s also being hunted by his father and the rest of Daxam, who are keen to fling him back into the sun and regain their powers. Charming.

Actually, the development of the church around Sodam will be an interesting one. I’m expecting the Daxam plot to be resolved in the next issue or so once Guy and co arrive, however at least it’ll let us see a more balanced view of Daxam. Until now they’ve all been a nasty bunch of xenophobes who, to be honest, got what they deserved when the Sinestro Corps turned up on their doorstep. Its nice that Peter Tomasi is going to give us a look at some of the general population who are hopefully more moderate than Sodam’s father. Of course, the fact they’ve formed a church around Sodam could just mean they get portrayed as crazy in a different way, with Sodam ending up abandoning the planet in disgust again. But hopefully it’ll be used to add some new depth to the Daxamites.

The conflict on Odym provided some good moments as well, as Bleez intercedes in Guy’s attempt to be purged of his Red Lantern infection.  What I loved was Warth’s reaction to the whole thing, standing by the sidelines, suggesting everyone should calm down and talk it out, before finally getting involved, pinning Bleez and using his ring to allow her to speak to the group.

The idea that Guy’s red ring infection may actually be of benefit while in the uncharted territories is an interesting one, but also seems very dangerous.  If Guy does get to the point where he has to rely on the red lantern power, they don’t have any way to undo it.  I was slightly disappointed when Warth didn’t join the group, as I feel the Blue Lanterns have been pretty underused, and having him along incase of issues with Bleez (or even Guy) would’ve seemed like a natural step.

Also interesting is the idea that something is tapping the power of the central battery on Oa, leaving the Green Lanterns slightly depowered.  I’m assuming its our usual mysterious friend who’s been grabbing the entities, and who makes his first appearance in this book as we discover he’s also in cahoots with the series new villain.  Of course, it also puts the Guardians back to being either ignorant of threats, or concealing things from the Lanterns, so I really have to wonder if they’ve learned anything at all by the events of Blackest Night.   The Guardians remain a source of frustration in this franchise, as we don’t ever really see them learning from their mistakes.  Instead they just remain an obstacle to the Green Lanterns.  I’d hoped some of the Blackest Night fallout would see their attitude addressed, but I now have to suspect they’re going to be carrying on as if they didn’t nearly get the universe killed by Necron.  A few scenes focusing on them would be one of my wishlists in terms of things that have been glossed over recently (such as Ganthet’s powers, and the Blue Lantern’s reactions to suddenly having lost both Guardians).

Of course, Guy’s also a hub of conspiracy on his own.  Again we’re teased the fact that whatever pact he’s got with Ganthet and Atrocitus is likely to bring him into conflict with the other GLs (teasing the upcoming War of the Green Lanterns which I should probably jot down a few feelings on), and he’s also keeping secrets from his immediate companions.  Conspiring with Bleez that he may have to kill Sodam Yat, as they suspect he may linked to the energy drain.  I’m sure Arisia’s going to be thrilled about that.   I can’t help but think Peter Tomasi’s working his way through a mine field at the moment.  In the interests of building mystery, the nature of what Guy’s up to is being hidden from us.  But by doing so, we the readers aren’t allowed to understand why he’s suddenly keeping secrets and plotting against his own allies.  Its working out fine for now, as we see Guy’s turmoil over what he’s doing, but there’s also the danger of painting the character into a corner and making him unlikeable if they’re not careful with how this is handled. I think we’re supposed to find out more about the pact in a few months though, so hopefully it won’t ever get to that stage.

Overall though, probably the best issue of Emerald Warriors yet.  For the first time, there’s a sense that things are moving forward, rather than just setting up the characters.  The confrontation on Odym was a great action scene, and there’s plenty of mystery as to what’s actually going on.  I’m looking forward to next issue to seeing how the various plots on Daxam are resolved.

With the last issue establishing Guy’s quest to explore the uncharted sectors, this issue gets the job of moving the other pieces into play, so we get quite a few character moments with our other regulars.

The plot surrounding Sodam Yat is picked up pretty quickly, with Arisia having nightmares about having left him in the Daxam sun.  Of course, we saw last issue that he’s now on Daxam itself, but this does nicely set up the team heading over there to find him in the next issue or so.

Likewise, we get a nice scene with Kilowog as he’s approached by a new rookie Lantern, and ends up being chewed out by Kilowog, who’s still suffering from Blackest Night, and seeing so many of the rookies he’s trained die over the years (and then come back to haunt him).   Its a nice scene giving us a view of where Kilowog is at, and while long time readers will know this is why he stepped down, however as this is a new book, its important to introduce these things for any new readers.

It also nicely sets out how the various characters are wanting to get away from Oa, and how the group would relish the chance to head out on their own to the uncharted sectors.  About the only recent character point not touched upon was Arisia losing confidence in the Guardians for their actions with Sodam, the Alpha Lanterns and the like.

What was very welcome for me, was Guy’s decision to go to Odym first to be cured of his Red Lantern infection.  Its nice to see this addressed so directly and quickly, and we’ve seen so little of the Blue Lanterns that it was nice to check in on their homeworld.  I assume we’ll not get the more detailed questions addressed (who’s running them now Ganthet and Syad have switched Corps?) but its still nice to just see them again.  Bleez’s appearance at the end may have been prompted by the cover image, but it’ll be nice to see what reason will be given for Guy not having the Blue Lanterns just cure them both on the spot (I’m going to guess it’ll be a condition set out by Atrocitus for his part in the secret plan).

Talking of which, we get another scene of Guy wondering about this mysterious plan he, Ganthet and Atrocitus have, and how the others will react to what he’s going to do.  I must admit, this plot makes me slightly nervous as I really have no idea what they could be planning that Hal, John and Kyle could have massive issues with.  I guess time will tell as this particular plot gets revealed.

The new villain properly gets his debut this issue, and seems suitably horrific.  Its nice to have it cleared up that this is a new character, as last month’s tease left some people wondering if he was Bolphunga.  It’ll be interesting to see how Peter Tomasi develops this character.  He’s done good work in the past with intergalactic warlords in the shape of Mongul, so I expect we’ll see this new character built up as a sizable threat in a similar way.

All in all, its difficult to review this issue too heavily, as we’re still very much in a setup phase that Peter Tomasi is taking his time with, reintroducing the core cast and the new villain.  There’s an argument that you could assume anyone reading the book is already aware of plot and character developments from GL and GLC, but I guess coming off of Blackest Night, it does make sense to assume a new GL book might have some new readers.

With Bleez turning up, next month we’ll hopefully finish off this setup phase, and head off to Daxam to pick up Sodam Yat as well.  I don’t mind setup, but I don’t think I’ll want to see it dragged out too long, so hopefully the GLs will actually get to the unknown sectors in a couple of issues.

Last week’s big new release for me, was undoubtedly the new ongoing Green Lantern monthly: Emerald Warriors.

This is an interesting title.  When first announced, it appeared it was going to be a Guy Gardner monthly, and indeed this first issue does come across a bit like that, with Guy taking centre stage.   However, what actually is happening is more GLC being split into two books, with Peter Tomasi taking Guy and various key members of the cast over to this new book while Tony Bedard continues with the rest of the cast.

Its interesting though, as this book really comes across more as a direct continuation of Tomasi’s GLC run rather than a new book.  Guy is the main focus for this book, but other central characters of Peter Tomasi’s GLC run are to appear.  We’ve already seen Sodam Yat in this first issue, and Kilowog and Arisia are promised (presumably as Guy puts together his new team).  To be honest, out of the two books, arguably GLC comes across as the newer title, with the new team of Kyle, Ganthet and John headlining.  However, Peter Tomasi is undoubtedly the bigger name in DC, and out of the GLs, it makes most sense for Guy to get the new book, so I understand why things worked out this way.

None of which has anything to do with events in this book.  So onto them

Mainly, the book is setup for the direction for this series.  To help differentiate it from the main GLC book, the focus is obviously going to be on the unknown sectors.  Guy’s noticed increasing issues with criminals using the unknown sectors, as they’re outside GLC jurisdiction, so he goes to the Guardians and proposes putting together a team that’ll be proactive about dealing with issues arising from those sectors.

Obviously, this’ll form the basis for this group of characters being separated from the main base on Oa, with characters we know will be focused on, like Kilowog and Arisia being amongst Guy’s recruits.   Presumably Sodam Yat will be joining up as well, since we see him on Daxam, and Tomasi spent some time investing in his and Arisia’s relationship during his run on GLC.

The unknown sectors thing I find slightly odd, as it seems to be at odds with what we know about the corps.  The entire galaxy is supposed to be divided into the 3600 sectors, so how come there are now these “unknown” sectors?  Granted, they offer up interesting story possibilities, placing the GLs in unknown environments, where no one knows or cares who the Green Lanterns are, but I just find it a bit odd these have just suddenly appeared.   I guess in New Earth continuity, the Green Lanterns only patrol a certain percentage of the galaxy (or I’ve misunderstood how things stood in the past).

The other main focus of this issue that gets brought up, is Guy’s deal with Ganthet and Atrocitus.  He’s clearly not happy with Atrocitus being involved, and having a team out in the unknown sectors is a part of their plan, whatever it is.  I guess its going to give Guy his own team who are operating outwith the Guardians influence in some way, which would explain him surrounding himself with experienced Lanterns who are his closest friends on Oa.  I definitely remain interested to see exactly what the nature of this deal turns out to be, and if there’s a reason given why Ganthet would go too Guy rather than Hal or Kyle (who he’s traditionally been closer to).

Finally, there’s the ending in the unknown sectors, where we see a pair of Green Lanterns, bringing in people they’ve caught to “Salaak”.  Except its not Salaak, and wherever they are, its not Oa.  Now, I’m unsure if this is a new enemy who appears to be controlling these Green Lanterns, but it does look a little like Bolphunga.  Again, I’ll be interested to see where this is going, however my only issue is that this “evil GLC” style story is currently going on in GLC with the Alpha Lanterns revolting.  It feels a little too familiar, however hopefully this new (?) enemy will spice things up once the story gets rolling.