Fanboy moan :
For the first time since the Sinestro Corps War began we had
been stricken with a 3 week wait for the next issue.
Expectations begin to rise as the weeks turn into days, and
then hours...
... and now,
at last, we have Green Lantern #23.
We begin with
an unexpected bit of Hal's brother Jim, his wife Susan, and
heir children Howard and Jane in Coast City. Little Jane
tells her father of her nightmare premonition, asking him,
"Is Uncle Hal going to kill someone?"
With that, we
cut right back into the action. With something of an opening
monologue that is becoming a tradition from Hal Jordan (this
time telling us his thoughts on horror movies and marriage,
which I thought were fairly amusing and provides a rare
glimpse into his mind that is rarely afforded lately), Lyssa
Drak is beginning to be dealt with, things look grim as
Hal's power charge begins to dwindle to below 1%... and then
a freed Guy Gardner and John Stewart join the fray. It's not
entirely clear just how they were freed, but you'll quickly
forget about that as the story continues.
For a page
Hal, John, Guy, and Tomar Tu have a few words about their
journey. Tomar Tu still continues to sort of imply Tomar Re
is his father (he never was, and Tomar Tu was
thoroughly introduced originally as being completely
unrelated, though certainly still looking at the deceased
Tomar Re as a hero), and then John and Guy compare notes on
what Parallax nightmares were inflicted upon their psyche...
... and just
like that, all of a sudden Geoff Johns prepares a banquet
for us and continuity is on the menu. At first we see a
panel with references to it depicting the final events in
"The Cosmic Odyssey" 4 parter from the 80s where a
relatively rookie John is more or less single-handedly
responsible for the destruction of the planet Xanshi and all
of its inhabitants (except for Fatality, often seen in Vol.
3 of GL to tangle with Kyle and John both who actually
appeared this very week in the JLA Wedding Special). Next up
on the menu is Guy referencing his "punch-drunk dad" from
the Guy Gardner series and of course the death of Ice from
Justice League Vol. 2. Finally, as Hal Jordan -- his ring
now powerless -- decides to equip multiple Sinestrian Power
Rings, Guy at last does acknowledge his time wearing
Sinestro's own ring, mentioning how it made him feel while
Hal reminds us what the "G" on Guy's outfit from back then
stood for. It's good stuff, and a nice bone to toss to the
fans from Johns.
A bit on the
Guardians who inform us that "Kyle Rayner is no longer
destined to be Ion." Is that not something of an oxymoron?
Ah well, moving on, the Guardians (save for Ganthet and Sayd)
elaborate on their last-issue mention of a decree to rewrite
the Book of Oa as a means to combat the (originally Alan
Moore-written) Prophecy of the Blackest Night... finally, at
the conclusion of the issue, they come out of their Ivory
Tower and tell their Corps that the first new law (of 10,
the other 9 remain undisclosed) is the allowance of lethal
force by the power rings. A pretty effective set of panels
show us several Lanterns reacting to their rings announcing
this to them. In the end, we're left with a profound sense
of, "Oooh, it's on now!" Or is it, "Oh yes, there
will be blood!"? In any case, very nice.
Back to
Ganthet and Sayd, apparently they're now
excommunicated/banished from the order of the Guardians
because they've allowed themselves to be guided by emotions.
Part of me wants to pound on a table and go, "You see? This
is why having all these Guardians around ends up always
being nonsense... look what happens... every... single...
time? Why were they resurrected? Was Ganthet not enough for
a new Corps?" But the more rational side of me kicks in,
understanding the need to recreate the whole tapestry of the
GL mythos, which must include the little sneaky blue
bastards and their behind-closed-doors ruminations. I'm sure
it's going somewhere, in any case, and it provides for some
nice intrigue along the way.
Onto the
Anti-Fuckin'-Monitor (forgive me, but I still feel if anyone
deserves the expletive it's the Anti-Monitor) and the Lost
Lanterns running face to face into him as he has the Ion
symbiote in what looks like a gigantic operating table (a
yellow scalpel cutting into it). As we begin, Ke'Hann
quickly gets burned/toasted/killed by the Anti-Monitor --
another 90s superhero dead in a Geoff Johns book... he's a
hell of a writer, but damned if he doesn't love him some
dead 90s superheroes; at this point as a reader I'm just
desensitized to it. As Hannu finally engages in a bit of
ringslinging (he's had this thing about not wanting to ever
use his ring) the Lanterns manage to escape with Ion in tow
successfully.
Meanwhile, a
yellow ring-wielding Hal and the rest of the gang take on a
gauntlet of Sinestrians, Manhunters, Kylax, and even
Sinestro. What I particularly liked here, I think, is the
use of Kylax here. What I hoped we would see psychologically
coming out of Kyle as Parallax in the last issue we do, in
fact, see here at last. It's not much, but Kylax actually
shows a glimpse of Parallax actually taking Kyle the man's
personality/buried resentments (the kind of stuff Kyle may
not even consciously realize, but would be buried deep
down... like, say if your best friend asked out a hot chick
before you had a chance to, then years later you're having
dinner with the two of them after their honeymoon) and
integrating them into its own twisted psyche. "I was the
last Green Lantern. I was special. I will be special again!"
Effective, and Kylax at last doesn't seem like an automaton.
Various
superheroics ensue as our heroes escape Qward and the
Anti-Matter Universe with Ion. After receiving the overdue
(very crowd-pleasing) "Your rings can kill now" announcement
from the Guardians Hal, Guy, and John pop out above Earth...
just in time to witness what looks like a horde of
Sinestrians arriving directly in orbit. As we get to
the very end, we see Kylax appearing on the balcony of Jim
Jordan and his family.
Great stuff,
I'd put it just about on par with the original Sinestro
Corps Special in terms of just an awesome thrillride.
There's never a moment in this issue that seems wasted, we
get some nice continuity bones thrown our way, and in terms
of sheer action it does anything but disappoint -- it's also
hard not to love the irony and creativity in arming up Hal
with the Qwardian rings. This would be a difficult issue to
pick apart on any level (even the art -- I neglect to give
props to Ivan, but I can assure you he's in top form here),
so I'll give this one a huge thumbs up from me.
Next up is
Ron Marz' "Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Parallax" one week
from today, which at this moment am not entirely sure if it
chronologically takes place right after this or during the
events of GL #22 (as some preview pages indicate it might).
