After the events of Blackest Night, they announced a third monthly Green Lantern book (on top of the eponymous title and Green Lantern Corps). To say the least, I was a little apprehensive. I was less apprehensive, however, to learn it would star the Green Lantern Corps' resident shit-kicker, Guy Gardner.
Bear with me for a short history lesson...
Guy has had a rough time in his history as a published character, not all of which I'm privy to. I'm pretty sure the first time I remember Guy being in a story was The Death of Superman arc, and that made a pretty big impression on me.
I'm jumping the gun, though. A lil' history first: Guy was originally supposed to be, well, the guy. He was incapacitated or something when the Green Lantern ring was scanning earth for Abin Sur's replacement. Or was he closer? Knowing comics, either one could be correct. Anyway, if Hal Jordan hadn't been where he was at the time the ring went looking for a being who had the power to overcome great fear, Guy would've gotten the ring. So originally, he was a rival to Hal, and after many years of being a dick about not being the guy, Gardner was made a Green Lantern and subsequently (and famously) punched out by Batman, left powerless when the Corps went tits-up, and stole Sinestro's yellow ring, which is where I came in.
Before Sinestro had his own Corps, he was just one dude with a yellow ring that worked the same as a Green Lantern ring. So Guy steals it and ends up being part of the Justice League when Doomsday rampaged through on his way to 'kill' Superman. At one point, Guy is blinded, and when asked how effective he can be in battle, says something to the effect of "Just point my ring at that thing."
Guy may be an asshole and a cocky prick to his teammates in the League, but that one act of blind determination, to me, was a defining moment. I realized he could be an interesting, kickass character despite the fact that he was more than a bit of a douche.
He went through some ups and downs, gaining alien powers after losing the yellow ring and opening a bar called Warriors (the less said about his time as "Warrior" the better. It was a product of the "extreme" nineties).
So I was happy that when they brought back Hal they returned Guy to the fold as a lantern. He was still a prick, but they made him a more serious character who kicked a lot of ass (even gaining a red ring during Blackest Night which allowed him to kill the Black Lanterns in droves). He pissed off Salaak, the Guardians' go-to lantern, built a new bar on Oa, and became like a brother to Kyle Rayner, his lantern partner. Gardner was the 'dirty job' man in the Corps, being assigned to cases that other lanterns couldn't hack. He left behind his joke character status and became a layered, believable character.
So, the series. Guy ends up on a secretive mission to explore the "Unknown Sectors" of the universe, even getting the Guardians' blessing to do so(suspicious, since the Guardians rarely listen to anyone). He gets help in the form of Kilowog and Arisia, both veteran lanterns. Over the course of the issues I picked up, it becomes clear that someone is draining all the colored lantern corps' power and that Guy made a pact with Atrocitus (the leader of the Red Lanterns) and Ganthet (former Guardian turned Green Lantern) to find out where the drain is coming from.
Guy becomes a sort of a renegade cop character as the story progresses, and his fellow lanterns don't approve. He's still having some side effects from his time as a Red Lantern, barely able to control his rage at points and coughing up napalm blood on a regular basis. He's even stopped by Bleez, one of the Red Lanterns, from having his body purged of the red influence, because he'll allegedly need that power to combat whatever threat is coming.
It turns out Sodam Yat, Daxamite Green Lantern (think Superman with a power ring. The Daxamites are 'cousins' to the Kryptonians) and former host of the Green Will entity, Ion, thought dead when he entered Daxam's sun to turn it yellow and give his people superpowers to ward off an invasion from Mongul Jr., has crashed back to his home planet and has a bit of a cult following him, praising him as Daxam's savior. He might be the source of the power drain, and he's also being mind-controlled by some dude named Zardor.
Zardor's got three eyes and a flaming sword and tends to puke up snakes that eat telepaths' eyes. Pretty cool, no? He's been kidnapping and enslaving telepaths to boost his own power and control rookie Green Lanterns into thinking our merry band are members of the Sinestro Corps.
The heroes find Zardor and get their butts handed to them long enough for Sodam to show up and leave a cliffhanger. This is my problem with monthly comics. They're paced so methodically that month to month it seems like nothing's really going on. That sounds like I didn't care for the series, but that couldn't be farther from the truth; I'm merely lamenting the fact that had I not found these at Carol and John's on the West Side while they were having a back issue sale, I'd be watching the story unfold at a snail's pace. These stories are designed for the collected editions, and here's my other problem: it left me on a cliffhanger with the promise that the seventh issue would lead into their next crossover, War of the Green Lanterns. I know they're trying to have a summer event to tie into the movie's release, but when are the lanterns gonna get a fuckin' break?
So, pacing issues aside, did I enjoy it? Hell yes. Guy has come a very long way from being a joke character to probably my favorite ringslinger at the moment. Peter Tomasi has a great grasp on writing the character, having done so well with him previously in Green Lantern Corps. He writes Kilowog and Arisia's disdain of Guy's methods with weight and seriousness (Kilowog's speech about how the Corps once stood for something and how the universe is a darker place was particularly effective), and even makes Bleez more than a one-dimensional, mono-syllabic character controlled by her rage.
The art is phenomenal. Fernando Pasarin has clean layouts and exaggerates his characters just enough, even keeping some of the more alien characters grounded in a semblance of reality not seen often enough these days in comics. Keep him penciling the series, please.
I probably won't pick up any more of the series until the collections start hitting, but I recommend it. With all things Green coming out of DC and WB's media machine in preparation for the Green Lantern movie this summer, I'm happy to see that they've yet to stretch the GL brand thin. So light 'em up, kids. Much more than Thor and Captain America, I'm looking forward to Green Lantern hitting theatres. I think it's going to take quite a few people by surprise with its scope, vast mythos and science-fictiony goodness.
-Swift
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