Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Green Lantern Corps #20
DC Comics
Tomasi, Gleason, Magno, Rollins & Nguyen
Boy does it stink coming out of the best arc the title has ever seen. Anything they put in these pages will feel slower and have a feeling of lesser importance. We are getting a slow lead towards the Mongul battle. In between the bits of Mongul we get some character pushes from Kyle, Guy and Salaak. In all, it was a good issue. Not particularly great, but pretty good.
We begin with the Guardians observing both the green and yellow rings vaunting towards their new owners. Now, we know that Mogo helps guide the green rings out in space, but who is guiding the yellow ones?
While this is happening Guy is still trying to figure out where to move to and Kyle is flipping through the TV stations aimlessly. They make a ring-to-ring call and chat about meeting up. During this we get a page of Mongul ordering his new yellow ring around.
Kyle, Hal, John and Guy have a group gathering at Guy’s old bar. Among the wreckage Guy and Kyle announce they are moving to the planet Oa. Say what? I didn’t realize Oa had, you know, places to live. Do they have houses with lawns or can you just get condos? Are there associations and superintendents or does the power battery settle all disputes? The catch to them moving to Oa is that Guy plans to open a bar. Come again? Yes, a bar. Apparently being a Green Lantern earns you a salary that you can spend on booze.
Now, I am making fun of all of this because it’s so odd, but to be fair, this is what I would expect to happen to the Hal Jordan character and the John Stewart character as well. The four of them can no longer be ordinary Earthmen. It just doesn’t make sense that Hal Jordan would fight crime in outer space, date aliens, kill his friends, die, get reborn and then want to join the Air Force. It does make sense that Kyle and Guy are bored with Earth and want a new adventure and moving off the planet is the only way to find that new adventure. I actually like this turn of events a lot. They even break out the ‘Warrior’ t-shirts as a good-bye.
Guy even leaves a note for Ice, his estranged girlfriend. I am kind of glad to see that she won’t be involved in this title going forward. I’d rather see Guy’s dog make a comeback than Ice. Guy and Kyle have a heart to heart about Ice after this and Guy lets out some of his feelings.
Mongul gets some more inner dialog and plays way too much with corpses in this issue. He crushes the dead guy’s head where he got his yellow ring until his eyes squeeze out. At the end of the issue he plays with his dead sister and tosses her worm infested head around. It’s fairly grisly and I sense the zombie trend intruding too much into this title.
Once Kyle and Guy get to Oa they have to tell Salaak they are moving in and that they need a liquor license. After some banter and some resistance they convince him to allow it. Kyle moves in and plants his mom’s painting on his wall while Guy takes a nap on his Green Lantern bar stools in his new watering hole. We end with Mongul leaving his dead world seeking revenge.
A light issue when you get past all the messing around with corpses by Mongul. We get some insight into how Salaak has a sense of humor and isn’t all just the Guardian’s watchdog. We get some nice interaction with Kyle and Guy. We even get a little bit of Guardians figuring out some goings on that will develop later on I’m sure. It feels like a filler issue, but it really isn’t. It’s the foundation for the Kyle and Guy team and the beginnings of Mongul cutting loose. It’s a good issue.
What didn’t I like about it? How about the art? How many artists are involved in this issue? I count eight. Two pencillers, one colorist and five inkers. And this showed. Guy and Kyle change shapes as if they are blobs melting in sunlight. Guy’s hair color changed from chestnut brown to fire engine red. It’s so inconsistent that it bugged me the whole issue. It really detracted from the quality of the story. The one Guardian near the end of the issue is missing eyes and looks like a blue Gollum with teeth. I don’t know how rushed this issue was, but I expect more quality when I pay $3 for something, you know?
Issues with the art aside I liked this comic. It wasn’t “great” per se, but I liked it nonetheless. I have a feeling this will be a great follow-up arc to the war.
3.5 out of 5 geek goggles.
 Green Lantern Corps #20 |
