The boys are back in town! And
I don't just mean Kyle and Guy, whose presence has been
missed for... jeeze... 3 months and 2 issues now, but also
the team of Peter Tomasi, Pat Gleason, and an unaccompanied
Prentis Rollins all back in top form.
This is
one of those cases where you really didn't wholly realize
you missed something until, not so much when it was gone but
rather... when it finally does come back. I really did enjoy
Sterling Gates' two-parter with Boodikka -- I think it was a
solid yarn and great that so much attention was afforded to
a somewhat maligned character. The timing of the two-parter
kind of makes an exclamation mark go off in my mind a tiny
bit, but not too much... when you really think about it,
when/where else could have that two-parter gone?
In any
case, we see the whole gang back in action here. In a
fashion not unlike Tomasi's own GLC #19 we spend a few pages
kind of catching up with each of the various stars of the
GLC book -- Stel (reassembling himself in a pretty cool
manner), Isamot (I have to wonder if Peter gives pause as he
writes him, knowing the origin of his name... for some
reason I smile when I see Isamot here just for that reason),
and Sodam Yat (recharging next to our sun) -- as they're all
whisked away to see the Guardians for a special assignment.
Also, and
quite humorously, we see a very much asleep Guy Gardner
being whisked away... while still snoozing. It cracked me
up. We see him snoozing on the blueprints for "The New
Warriors Bar" (which I wonder if it is still set to be
called "Guy's Place," as Guy liked Hal's moniker for it)
which leads us to think maybe the grand opening is on the
horizon. Probably not soon, but nor should it be... Peter
Tomasi has spent great care and attention to the characters
so far in the 2 issues previous (and if you go back 3 of his
issues, his Sodam Yat issue was pretty much 100% a character
piece, even though it had balls-out action), and I love it,
but it probably is time for a bit of extraplanetary action
before we get back to the character stuff. I'm all about
rounding things out, and it looks like Peter -- so far --
has managed an awesome mix.
We see
Mongul drafting new members of the Sinestro Corps to serve
him -- him specifically, not just the Sinestro Corps
-- and killing those that don't wanna, taking their rings.
He loads up 6 fingers with Sinestro rings, which makes me
wonder... was that "Domination" DC ad that led us to believe
he's going to collect other spectrums of rings just a bit of
misdirection? In the end he's able to subdue both Arisia and
Sodam Yat and subject them to the Black Mercy while he...
apparently is tunneling into the core of the Black Mercy's
planet. We don't have a good idea of what his motives are
yet... we are still just left with the distinct impression
that, oh, no, they will not be good. Can't wait to
see what it is. Previously, I was leaning toward Mongul
somehow being (wittingly or not) responsible for the
creation of the Orange Lanterns, or at least the discovery
of their power... but now I'm not so sure. What I can say is
that I like the honest uncertainty factor, and that Tomasi
is keeping me guessing in a way that isn't just random, but
seems like a cleverly crafted three act arc. We'll see where
this goes next issue, the big conclusion.
Liked
seeing a new, more resolved Kyle here. He seems to be
embracing his role as Honor Guard (though seems to run amok
of Salaak... but it's Salaak), taking a firm, military-esque
role here. A great evolution of the character I hope isn't
soon forgotten.
Truth be
told, I was kind of hoping that next issue's GLC #24's cover
was just a bit of artistic interpretation or what-have-you
in regards to Sodam Yat being incapacitated/beat up...
again. Here we see it's more of a literal cover, and indeed
he's beaten up, subdued, and subjected to the Black Mercy...
and worse, even off-panel. In this one case I'm not so sure
I'm picking at nits in wondering.... OK, Sodam Yat has had
this awesome buildup during the War (and if we really
want to go back, we can go back to 1986 and the Alan Moore
GLC annual). He single-handedly takes out Ranx, then has the
balls to go toe-to-toe with the Anti-Monitor as his Daxamite
powers kick in under our sun, right? I mean, no one expected
him to win or anything, but he had the balls to try. Then
he's given the Ion symbiote, which we're led to believe
increases his power to some unknown degree, right? Then we
see him get his ass handed to him by Superman-Prime... which
was fine... as fast as his climb was, a bit of humbling and
limitation-checking was understandable. When we next see
him, he's training with Kyle in the Ion special, licking his
wounds and seeming a better, stronger man for it.
So now we
finally see him again... and apparently, even with a fresh
charge from a Yellow Sun to fuel his Kryptonian-equivalent
Daxamite biology, a GL ring on his finger, and the Ion
symbiote itself... he still gets cold-clocked by
Mongul (or is it Duel? or both? it doesn't really matter)? And off-panel? Maybe I'm jumping the gun on this,
but I'm itching to really get a good gauge on Sodam Yat
really pushing himself to the limit -- in the War we saw
what he was capable of as a normal GL, then we saw what he
was capable of as a normal GL aided by the light of a Yellow
sun... we still haven't gotten even a glimpse of what he's
capable of as Ion.
If I had
to pick one peeve with the issue, there it is. Well, there
is the minor question of Sodam Yat talking about "We
should hit their manufacturing center" in regard to the
Sinestro Corps Qwardian ringmakers. According to John
Stewart in a GL issue two or three back, they'd already done
that, or at least were in the process of doing so -- though
I'm actually glad if this issue of GLC is actually telling
us the Sinestros are still cranking out rings. If the plug
was pulled on new rings, the Sinestro Corps seem like a
dying breed... and, at least to me, that's bad because I
like to see a future for what seems a very sensible, logical
ongoing counterpart to the GLC, even after the "Blackest
Night" rolls by.
Really
good fun this issue, and great to see everyone (character
and staff) back in action!
