Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Green Lantern Corps #43Green Lantern Corps #43
DC Comics
Tomasi, Gleason & Buchman

Well, it didn’t take long for Kyle to rise from the dead. This issue pretty much picks up right where the last issue left off as much of the issue is spent trying to revive Kyle while fighting off the black rings from making him rise from the dead in a zombie way. The remainder of the issue deals with Guy turning into a red lantern and has some snippets of the Kryb subplot. It’s an okay issue but has some moments of confusion and some where it feels like the issue is stalling. It’s not that this makes a bad issue it just prevents it from being a really great one.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsKyle died at the end of the previous issue. His girlfriend, Natu, is not only a Green Lantern, but is also a doctor. She does everything in her power to bring Kyle back to life. In a twist of irony, the black rings are trying to attach themselves to Kyle to raise him from the dead, but as a zombie. In all of this Guy loses his cool and gives in to rage. This allows a red ring to attach itself to Guy. Guy’s rage sends him into a frenzy destroying a lot in his path.

While this is happening the Star Sapphire, Miri, is trying to help the baby stealing yellow lantern, Kryb, find the children she stole. This proves to be an unholy union and eventually Miri is pulled away to assist the love between Kyle and Natu while Guy’s rage leads him to the yellow lantern. This part of the comic provides a nice little dovetail to the two stories.

The comic wraps up with the resolution to the Kyle story, but leaves open the problem of Guy being a red lantern. The comic also brings in some reinforcements for the Green Lanterns in a big way.

All told, this is a good comic book. It’s fairly fast paced and involves a decent sized cast however it loses something in the details.

It’s not really clear how Guy is able to channel his rage towards specific corps and not turn on his own. I’m guessing it’s because he still wears the green ring in addition to the red one but I am not certain. It’s also not clear how or why Miri and Kryb are on Oa. Frankly, I didn’t make that connection until Guy came busting in on the scene. Why were they able to float around without seeing any of the rest of the war on Oa? One final complaint is that after Kyle detonates the bomb to save the battery this issue really doesn’t pick up where and what the rest of the Green Lantern corps is fighting. It just seems like only a handoff of Lanterns remain, which isn’t right. There must be some natural progressive in the battle after saving the power battery but we don’t see it here.

The artwork works well in this issue. As is the case with this entire event the secret ingredient is the coloring. The comic shifts gears nicely as it takes on different colors in the war. The line details also do an amazing job as there are many pages that have tons and tons of characters and constructs filling all of the panels. It’s a beautiful comic book.

This issue, paired with the previous one, makes for a good one-two punch, but this issue on its own merit leaves too many oddities to raise it above the level of ‘good’. It’s an entertaining and delivers its part in the long line of this series’ overall terrific storytelling.

3 out of 5 Geek Goggles