Ron
Marz' second installment into the "Sinestro Corps War," what
we see here is a bit of an epilogue coming directly off of
the epic Green Lantern #25.
We know
there was a lot of confusion during Mr. Marz' run on Ion. He
was under the impression it was to be an ongoing (it
wasn't), that Kyle as Ion was at least partially
fueled/created by the Starheart (he wasn't), and that Kyle
would probably be remaining as Ion for at least the
foreseeable future (he didn't). Going back even further, he
had neither any idea that Hal was ever going to be retconned
to having the Parallax parasite when he wrote his material,
or any idea that Kyle would be retconned to having the Ion
symbiote. I could see a guy with thinner skin throwing his
hands up in the air, being a little bit pissed at all of
this seemingly ongoing series of events, but Mr. Marz is a
class act... here he takes again lemons and makes lemonade.
Right off
the bat we see Kyle, after the events of GL #25, receiving
something of a debriefing with the Guardians. Kyle does some
very, very understandable venting at the Guardians for how
they led him along during Ion (and before?). He is informed
that he was "never intended to be the Ion bearer" but rather
"a temporary vessel." And about Jade? We finally get an
answer, even if we have to squint our eyes a little bit to
make it all fit: "The energies she returned to you enabled
you to serve as a temporary host for Ion."
You see?
Ron Marz, cleaning up the other guys' mess. Class
act.
Next we
catch up with Sodam Yat. He's feeling a little bit better
now, and honing his skills on an unnamed planet with other
members of the Green Lantern Corps. Kyle arrives and, at the
Guardians' request, picks up Yat to give him "a few
pointers." In a kind of "Emerald Dawn" fashion, Kyle takes
him up into space to hone their skills. Kyle makes an
elaborate creation, a vast, Victorian-esque cityscape
suspended in a cube-like form... and Yat brings it to life,
with smoke and birds, and water fountains.
Then Alex
Nero returns, arriving on the scene in mid-training. At this
point the issue very much begins to feel like Ion #13, which
is kind of cool. We learn that Nero escaped during the
initial Sinestro Corps assault on Oa and that despite
Sinestro initially using him to impersonate Kyle earlier,
Nero has no affiliation or allegiance to the Sinestro Cops.
Kyle and Yat tag-team the guy but in the end it is Yat whose
light shines brightest... not so much in a sheer display of
power (though blasting Nero in the head with his Daxamite
heat vision was pretty cool) but in a display of outsmarting
or out-ringing him. As wild and crazy as Nero's
ring-creations are that he unleashes on Kyle and Yat... Yat
uses the Power of Ion to take those same creations, leave
them intact, but take control of them, turn them green, and
unleash them right back on Nero. There's also the
implication that Yat took things a step further, right into
Nero's mind, as Kyle says, "You took all that hate and fear
and madness inside him... and you changed it." The fight
over, we see some mutual respect and props given between
Kyle and Yat.
The issue
ends where the first page began, with Hal, John, and Guy
sitting around a non-descript mountainside campfire shooting
the shit, eating marshmallows, and unwinding -- a perfect
place to go after the no-holds barred GL #25. Kyle arrives a
bit late to the gathering at last... and as we pull back, we
see it's not a mountainside at all, but an asteroid
somewhere in space with an oxygen bubble around it. Kyle
mentions his official place in the Green Lantern Corps now
as Honor Guard with Guy Gardner, and the the four men power
up.
I do very
much like the last passages. "Remember when we used to play
cards after hours at Warriors?" John recalls. And most of us
that enjoyed those days of GL Vol. 3 do, and very fondly. We
close on Guy making the comment, "'All for one and one for
all,' huh?" and "That'll work."
That's
it, the Four Musketeers. As the issue concludes, I'm left
with feelings perhaps equally of something grand ending here
just as something else (hopefully equally grand) begins.
The
current word is that Mr. Marz doesn't have anything coming
up on the horizon, either for Kyle or for Green Lantern
(though that can change at any moment). I will say, if this
is to be his final word on the mythos, an endcap to
everything he has brought us so far to Green Lantern... I
will say I'm very pleased with the way this turned out.
Thanks,
Ron.
