Book Information
Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Patrick Gleeson and Randy Mayor
Plot
The pivotal turning point in the War of Light is at it’s highest as the battle to protect the Oa power Battery comes to an end. Now all the Corps faces is a very angry Red Lantern Guy Gardner.
My Thoughts
Peter J. Tomasi has always been up and down with me as far as his writing is concerned. These past few months for the GL Corps however have been extraordinary. With the literally ground breaking ending to last month’s issue, I was worried that Tomasi might not be able to keep up that pace. But as I’m noticing more often than not (especially recently) my prediction proves faulty.
The story brings us into the path of a conflicted Guy Gardner who, in addition to fighting his fellow corpsmen, seems to be in a battle with his rage. It’s as if two people are contained within the same body, which makes for an interesting read. It’s obvious that Guy recognizes his friends and wishes them no harm, while still being compelled by the red ring to kill them all with no real grasp on why. This situation makes me wonder a few things about how a ring chooses a candidate. We’ve seen twice already that not every individual chosen to wear a ring is in complete compliance with the emotion tagged along with the ring. In Blackest Night: Wonder Woman, Diana’s inner monologue showed she was fighting against the power of the black ring. Likewise, Guy Gardner seemingly had no desire to show this amount of rage, especially against his friends. So the question in my mind is, how much of a ring’s power controls the actions of the one wearing it vs. how much of an individuals choices are their own?
Gleeson, while not my favorite, is an impressive artist. But what’s most impressive is the color schemes done by Randy Mayor. With Guy’s rage fighting against his will, and the brilliant and appropriate usage of light, I sat there in awe of the clever way mayor used the green and red constructs. I know it’s not the most difficult thing in the world to place certain constructs with the appropriate light, but it was still fun to see the plan made by Gleeson and Mayor. Ice as a green construct and Guy’s father as a red was pretty climatic way of ending Guy’s Red Lantern faze. This issue is also quite chaotic in its storyline, and the layout fits that chaotic feeling very well.
Even though Tomasi will never be one of my favorite writers, I will miss his unique and chaotic storytelling on this title. It’s never been slow or half-assed with Tomasi. It’s always some over the top, Charlton Heston end of the world type of story. Despite the fact that Tomasi isn’t consistent enough for me to ever consider as one of comics best writers, he definitely took full advantage of this book, giving it everything he had. Tomasi will be missed by me.
Overall
A great book! A lot of action and emotional drama from one of comic’s moodiest characters.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10 stars
Next Issue Coming March 10, 2010
Blackest Night comes to its epic and stunning conclusion in this over-sized issue as the Green Lantern Corps descends on Earth to make their final stand against Nekron and the Black Lanterns!
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