Writer
(and longtime artist of GL, going back all the way to the
80s) Dave Gibbons' final issue on the Green Lantern Corps.
We begin
things, the Guardians tell us that they have determined that
they must "reassign" the "Ion power" earlier than
they were prepared to. This is a little confusing, since
whether you believe Kyle first got the Ion symbiote from
Hallalax's afterenergies in the sun during the first Ion run
or from Jade's afterenergies from her death... in any case,
it was never assigned by any Guardians. Just picking at
nits, really.
The
Lanterns form up, different groups assigning themselves to
different parts of Earth where the Sinestro Corps are laying
siege to.
Sodam Yat.
At one point Soranik asks Arisia "Who's the hero?" to which
she responds "Sodam Yat. He's full of himself as the next
rookie. But he's as good as most veterans." Sums things up
there, particularly with Yat single-handedly destroying Ranx
(or did he? perhaps Ranx ejected its brain/CPU out prior to
explosion for all we know). Now it's this line that really
gets me later on... a line when Sodam Yat is plowing
head-strong into battle leading a contingent of GLs behind
him. Boodikka mentions to Graf Toren in annoyance, "This
upstart Sodam Yat assumes that he is our leader" to which he
replies, "He assumes. But notice, Boodikka... we follow."
Indeed, it seems that Yat is every bit the ultimate
Green Lantern the Prophecy of Blackest night portends... and
as he goes head-on with the Anti-Fuckin'-Monitor himself
(who lands in the middle of the Liberty Island harbor next
to NYC). The same calibre of blast that annihilated Ke'hann
shot from the AM's hands hits Sodam Yat directly,
incinerating a Lantern that joins him. He gets up, it
happens again. It seems for certain Yat is down for the
count this time, and Soranik uses her ring to update his
status: it goes from "Vital signs critical and worsening" to
"Genetic strain of Daxamite origin detected" to "No physical
damage detected." His eyes glowing red now like Superman's,
we finally see his true power manifesting itself -- as a
Daxamite, he is literally the same as Superman (save for his
weakness... Daxamites are weak to lead rather than
Kryptonite) under the light of a yellow sun.
Elsewhere, we see a somewhat satisfying conclusion to the
ongoing Kilowog/Arkillo duel. I say somewhat because their
duel has been somewhat disjointed over the past issue or so,
getting bits and pieces here and there rather than the true,
definitive beat-down-drag-out it needs to be in pretty much
one place. Still, the end is handled satisfactory enough...
and for the first time since maybe he was in the guise of
the Dark Lantern, we get to see Kilowog particularly brutal.
To reveal a spoiler, he does spare Arkillo's life, and I'm
happy -- there is great potential in having an Anti-Kilowog
around, at least for now.
Having
been there myself, I loved how -- for a while -- they fought
inside the San Diego Convention Center, home of the San
Diego Comic Con. Nice touch. Also Stel and Green Man in Las
Vegas, admitting they'd like to check out the games... there
would be a fun story in itself.
As we
close to the end of the issue, with the Anti-Monitor nearing
again, all of a sudden the Guardians appear with the Ion
symbiote in tow. "We bring the power of will," a Guardian
states, "A power that when fused with this Lantern's courage
and strength is unstoppable!" just before setting Ion into
Sodam Yat's body. With that, we see Ion reborn as Sodam Yat
(not a bad costume... taking cues primarily from Kyle's Jim
Lee GL costume and Kyle's first Ion costume)... just as
Superboy Prime comes hurtling toward him.
Very
pleased with this. Though things are happening really fast
-- rapidly, bing bing bing one after the other so far in
this War -- with Yat, to really make him "the ultimate Green
Lantern" of prophecy they would have to do a lot more with
him than just come out of a few stories during the Sinestro
War. Putting Ion in him makes sense, in any case -- you have
serious shit going down on Earth, you're holding onto Ion...
you're going to want to put it in the ring-wielder with the
near-invulnerable skin and the proven battle skills. I hope
we'll be seeing plenty of Yat over the years to come and
this isn't just a setup for a pre-scripted fall, but what
can you do?
I really
hate to give the issue such a low star rating, particularly
with this being Dave Gibbons' final outing as a writer. And
I'll be absolutely honest, in his run thus far, I think the
quality of writing, the depth of character(s) explored, and
the attention paid to the various mains... I've got to say
that I've enjoyed Gibbons' run on GLC more than what Geoff
Johns has done so far with the current volume of GL on the
whole. But, sadly, with the inconsistency of art (an unheard
of 4 pencillers and 5 inkers!) from page to page of greatly
varying quality -- and a comic is half art and half writing,
in any equation, is it not? -- I've got to rate this one
pretty low.
But
thanks, Dave. It's been a hell of a run, and I hope we'll
see you again in the world of Green Lantern.
